Wout van Aert, a true handyman in the peloton. At ease in the mountains, the Belgian from the Jumbo-Visma also knows how to set his sights on the flat, as evidenced by this perfectly mastered time trial between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadour in the Lot. The Swiss army knife of the Jumbo Visma won his third stage victory in this Tour de France 2022 in less than 48 minutes and 19 seconds ahead of the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard. Tadej Pogacar completes the podium.
The Italian Filippo Ganna, comfortable in this exercise and long time leader of the event could only see the striking power of Van Aert and failed in 5th place. “It was a very special course, very technical with small bumps but long downhill parts so it was my plan to keep a little until the last intermediate and then twice three minutes at full speed. It was hard but it was the right plan to do it like that, ”confided the winner of the day at the microphone of France Télévisions.
Vingegaard flies towards the title
The best Frenchman, Benjamin Thomas, ranks in 24th position just ahead of Romain Bardet, 25th and David Gaudu, 26th. The latter two respectively occupy 5th and 4th places in the general classification. For his part, the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard held off his teammate and even had a lead of several seconds in the first kilometers of the race. A brisk start which he paid off somewhat at the end of the stage. He even almost made a mistake a few cables from the finish.
Not enough to weaken his precious sesame that he preserves by finishing eight seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar. He even offered himself the luxury of slowing down in the last kilometers to offer victory to his teammate van Aert. From now on, only a cataclysm seems to be able to deprive the Dane of a first coronation on the Champs-Élysées on Sunday.