Schmid grieves after lost millimeter sprint, Wright hit his absolute limit: "Van der Poel passed me at 3 times the speed"

The disappointment was written all over Schmid’s face. “I thought stage ten was already tough,” he told Eurosport. “I set some records on my Garmin that day, but today was even harder. A day after the rest day, with a stage like this, there are many guys like me who want to get in the breakaway. The upcoming stages will either be super tough or end in a sprint. This was a great opportunity, and everyone had time to recover. So it was full gas all day.”

He had been in the breakaway since kilometer zero and had to fend off the charging Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert in the finale. But together with his four companions, they managed the near impossible. “We worked really well together. We all had our highs and lows, but usually there’s a middle section in a race where you can catch your breath. That didn’t happen today. That made it especially hard.”

The Swiss national champion might have been the strongest climber of the day. “The race began with phase one, getting into the break,” he explained on his team’s social media. “Once we were in, the finale basically started right away. There was a chasing group with five strong riders, and we knew it was best not to let them catch us. So we kept pushing. On the penultimate climb, I heard they were closing in. That’s when I thought: it’s time to go, otherwise Van der Poel and Van Aert are going to make it really hard for us.”

On that climb, he broke away from the rest of the front group. “I got away with Abrahamsen, he was really strong today, right from the start.” The two of them rode into Toulouse, and after holding off Van der Poel in the background, they sprinted for the stage win. But it almost became a three-man sprint. “It was incredibly loud, so I couldn’t hear anything through the radio. But I heard the gap stayed at around 10 seconds.”

Wright finished seventh and was far less disappointed than his Swiss breakaway companion. The Brit from Bahrain Victorious found some joy in light of his unfortunate Tour history. “After last year, when I had to abandon on stage 11, I saw today’s stage and thought: I’m going for it. It was a beautiful stage, but in the end, I just didn’t have it.” He ended up losing 53 seconds to the winner.

The finale was incredibly tense, especially with Van der Poel, Van Aert, and others closing in from behind. “I knew they were coming, but those last 100 meters on the penultimate climb… I felt okay, I just had to stay on the wheel. I knew Schmid was strong, but on that last stretch, I didn’t have it anymore. I couldn’t help Quinn Simmons, and that final climb was brutal.”

On the Côte de Pech David, the brutally steep final climb of the day, Wright hit the wall. That’s where he was overtaken by the big names from the second group. “Van der Poel passed me going three times my speed,” he laughed. “With the headwind in the finale, I thought maybe I could come back, but it’s a shame. I had great legs, but hey, it’s the Tour, right?”

Having to bridge to the lead group midway through the stage surely took a toll on his legs. Wright, along with Mathieu Burgeaudeau, had to put in a massive effort. “We fist-bumped when we made it: we pulled it off! But after a battle like that, you’re already at your limit. I wanted to race it like a one-day classic and I definitely did. Hopefully, I won’t suffer too much after this.”