The Austrian won his first Tour de France victory on Wednesday, when Jonas Vingegaard took advantage of his rival’s failure to consolidate his yellow jersey between Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc and Courchevel.
He will have resisted until the end, even the thunderous return of the yellow jersey. Flying alone over the Col de la Loze, Austrian Felix Gall (AG2R-Citroën) won his first Tour de France victory alone on Wednesday July 19 ahead of Simon Yates (Jayco Alula) and Pello Bilbao ( Bahrain Victorious). A memorable success on the queen stage of this edition, between Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc and Courchevel. Behind him, Jonas Vingegaard took off in the general classification of the Tour de France after the failure of Tadej Pogacar, who fell at the start of the stage, the first of the favorites to drop fifteen kilometers from the finish.
Felix Gall, best of a big breakaway of leaders
Pointed several minutes from the yellow jersey, the members of the top 10 had more ideas at the start of the 17th stage which had more than 5,000 meters of altitude difference. Party in the breakaway with in particular Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious), Simon Yates (Jayco Alula) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), Felix Gall had chosen his stage. Passed not far from victory in Laruns, during the 5th stage, the Austrian drove his AG2R-Citroën team to maintain the small lead granted by the Jumbo-Visma at the foot of the last ascent (2’45 “).
While in front, Julian Alaphilippe, once again on the attack, then Thibaut Pinot and Guillaume Martin were released in the Col de la Loze, Felix Gall decided to fly off alone, supported by the crowd of great days. With this first victory on the Tour, the AG2R-Citroën rider now climbs to 8th place in the general classification, behind Simon Yates who joins the top 5 with his second place in Courchevel. Surviving the breakaway, Frenchman David Gaudu finished in fifth place and remained in the top 10 overall.
The royal road for Vingegaard
Behind, the last crumbs of suspense have flown away. While Jonas Vingegaard was only ten seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar on Tuesday morning, the duel ended for good on Wednesday. After a first crushing blow in the time trial between Passy and Combloux, the Slovenian became human again on Wednesday on the slopes of the Col de la Loze.
First favorite to drop in the highest peak of this edition, the latter, who fell at the start of the stage, had a hard time to finish the stage, towed by his teammate Marc Soler. His teammate, Adam Yates, was not asked to get up and fought at the front of the race to keep and even consolidate his 3rd place. At the Courchevel altiport, Pogacar arrived with a disbursement of almost six minutes on the yellow jersey. The double winner of the Tour (2020 and 2021) is now relegated to 7’35” in the general classification and gives up all hope of a yellow jersey in Paris.
In front, the yellow jersey did not ask any questions, recovering in turn the breakaways to finish 4th at 1’52 “from the winner of the day, even if he was slowed down by the fall of a motorcycle in the middle of the crowd, forcing him to dismount.Four days before the finish at the Champs-Elysées, there is no longer any suspense.Barring an accident, Jonas Vingegaard should be at the top of the podium in Paris for the second consecutive year.