Greig Leach

I had thought I would entitle this painting, "The Cream Always Rises to the Top" But thought better of it. So, as the peloton hit the Col de Val Louron-Azet only the truly strong men were able to stick with the brutal pace being set by the American, Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates). At this point he was followed by his team captain, Tadej Pogacar in the Maillot Blanc. Closely watching the Slovenian was the Maillot Juane of Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) with his American teammate Sepp Kuss. Vingegaard spent the whole climb waiting for Pogacar to attack, he never did. On his wheel was the man sitting third overall, Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers) and then came the Colombian Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic). Quintana had started the day in fourth. So the top four, two with teammates were all there. They had dropped Simon Geschke (Cofidis) who had already done what he needed to do to hold onto the Maillot a Pois for at least one more day. He tried to hold onto the wheels, but just didn't have the legs to join this freight train.