Strong Groves beats two Dutch riders, spectacle disrupted by crash

The daily selfie at the start of the stage was taken by Thymen Arensman, after the Dutchman from INEOS Grenadiers won the last mountain stage on Friday. There were no major climbs in the penultimate stage, but there was enough elevation gain to make it another tough race. It was predicted to be a stage for breakaway riders. And so, many riders were focused from the start.

Kasper Asgreen (EF Education-EasyPost) was the first rider to attack on the day. The Dane managed to stay solo for a good fifteen kilometers until the peloton caught him. That was on the first climb of the day, the Col de la Croix de la Serra (12.2 km at 4.1%). At that point, the peloton was already incomplete, as the sprinters, for example, had already been dropped. Arnaud De Lie (Lotto) in particular struggled early on and was the first rider to drop out.

The climb, as well as the descent that followed, caused a chaotic phase. The peloton was torn apart, and, for example, Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) were suddenly no longer with the other contenders. UAE and Visma | Lease a Bike had also lost some of their domestiques. Everywhere you looked, groups and individuals were riding, looking to catch up with the pack.

It was a scene of chaos as we quickly approached the top of the Côte de Valfin. At the top of the climb, the road continued to climb for a while, which meant that the race did not settle down. A trio with Tim Wellens (UAE Emirates-XRG) rode away, but many riders wanted to make the move.

They succeeded, as a group of ten riders managed to close the gap. Among them was Jordan Jegat, number 11 in the GC for TotalEnergies. His presence prompted Ben O'Connor, number 10 in the GC, four minutes behind, to let his team ride at the front of the peloton. Nevertheless, the group of thirteen riders seemed to have made their break.

Wellens was joined by Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike), Pascal Eenkhoorn (Soudal Quick-Step), Harry Sweeny (EF Education-EasyPost), Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Groves, Matteo Trentin (Tudor), Ewen Costiou (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Iván Romeo (Movistar), Simone Velasco (XDS Astana), Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies), Van den Broek, and Jake Stewart (Israel-Premier Tech). It wasn't completely quiet behind them, but not many teams were interested in closing the gap.

After a crash involving Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), we also saw Clément Champoussin (XDS Astana) go down. Despite the sun finally coming through, the road surface was still wet, of course. At that point, the peloton finally allowed the breakaway to go, meaning that the leading group was now really gone. Phew, what another exciting opening phase!

It wasn't completely peaceful in the peloton, as O'Connor let the fallen Schmid ride at the front of the pack. The gap to the breakaway remained around two and a half minutes, which caused some disagreement in the breakaway. Jegat had no intention of letting himself be dropped, much to the displeasure of the other breakaway riders.

In the end, it was the Frenchman himself who broke away on the steep Côte de Thésy. The climbing sections also caused a new series of accelerations in the peloton, with Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) among those attacking. The gap to the leading group was still just under three minutes, making it a challenging task to close that gap.

Jegat reached the top together with Sweeny, giving the pair a 25-second lead over the rest of the breakaway. More than two minutes behind, Van Aert had joined the chase, along with Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek) and Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), among others. The GC contenders were keeping their heads down, but a lot of riders from the peloton who had missed the breakaway were now looking to shake things up.

A group of chasers formed, but they were still about two and a half minutes behind the leaders. Van Aert was among them, along with Skujins, Woods, Michael Storer (Tudor), and Dylan Teuns (Cofidis), among others. Sweeny then dropped back on the flat Jegat, allowing the Frenchman to rejoin the eleven early breakaway riders quickly.

It seemed an impossible task for the Australian, but the EF Education-EasyPost rider held on for a long time. The peloton's attempt to catch up with the breakaway seemed to have failed definitively, as the gap was more than three minutes with 45 kilometers to go. The peloton was already losing more time, so Schmid retook the lead. O'Connor's tenth place now seemed to be in serious jeopardy.

The sun was now replaced by heavy rain once again, and the wind also made for some miserable conditions. Nevertheless, Sweeny gradually extended his lead to almost a minute with 35 kilometers to go. The chasing pack quickly realized that they had to close the gap. The accelerations in that group, where cooperation had not been very smooth all day, started early, causing the group of twelve to split.

Van den Broek, Eenkhoorn, Grégoire, Groves, and Stewart had managed to get rid of the other seven chasers. The five closed in on Sweeny with every passing second. On the final climb, it was all over for the Australian, who was caught by a total of nine chasers. These were the riders from the original breakaway, except for Wellens, Jorgenson, and Costiou, who had missed the move.

Groves accelerated on that climb, causing Trentin to be the first rider to drop back. Romeo tried to leave the fast men behind shortly afterwards. Six riders made it to the top: Romeo, Grégoire, Groves, Van den Broek, Velasco, and Stewart. Eenkhoorn and Jegat dove into the descent shortly behind them.

Unfortunately, things went wrong on that descent... Romeo, who was leading the group, missed the corner and crashed hard. Grégoire also hit the ground hard, while Velasco had to swerve and lost ground as a result. The crash left Groves, Van den Broek, and Stewart in front, with Eenkhoorn hot on their heels.

With just over 16 kilometers to go, it became clear that Groves would not wait for the sprint. The Australian took off, while Stewart looked at Van den Broek and refused to lead the chase. Groves quickly built up a nice lead.

Behind the Australian, the chasing groups mostly came together: Eenkhoorn, Jegat, and Velasco joined Van den Broek and Stewart. Jorgenson, Wellens, Trentin, Sweeny, and the crash victim, Grégoire, also managed to rejoin that group a little later, but Van den Broek had accelerated. Stewart was again the one who could keep up, although he had to let the Dutchman go a little later.

Groves, however, was gone. The Australian, who had been very impressive all day, had a lead of just under a minute as he entered the final flat kilometers. Behind him, it was Van den Broek against a combined group of chasers, battling for second place.

Groves impressively secured the victory, with Van den Broek finishing a strong second. Eenkhoorn finished third behind them.