Gallery
The Points Are Up the Road TdF26-128
As this five-some climbed the Cote de Monteynard they were chasing a group of six that had twenty-one seconds on them. Not a situation that either Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quick Step) nor Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) were happy with. Both men were hoping to take over the lead in the King of the Mountains competition. Yes, Paret-Peintre is wearing the jersey, but it is "on loan" from the race leader, Tadej Pogacar. The Soudal-Quick Step rider has already gone first over the first climb of the day, out sprinting Carapaz for the maximum KOM points. The other three were happy to ride behind the aggressors. Mauro Schmid (Jayco-Alula), Raul Garcia Pierna (Movistar) and Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) were happy to let the other two pull them up to the leading breakaway. Both Vacek and Pierna had teammates up the road, so there were going to, nor were they expected to, work to chase down the leaders. I should note that they did join up before the summit with Paret-Peintre getting the maximum KOM points ahead of Carapaz, again.