It was an unexpectedly tumultuous day for Tour de France race leader Jonas Vingegaard. He lost co-leader-turned-deputy leader Primos Roglic to a crash before the stage, lost superdomestique Steven Kruijswijk to a crash during the stage, and crashed himself.
Geraint Thomas, co-leader of Jumbo-Visma's rival Ineos Grenadiers, sympathized with the Dutch team's plight after the stage, but said a weakened Jumbo-Visma would make the final week of the Tour and the mountain battles in the Pyrenees more interesting
"It's true that the Tour is a very interesting race.
"Certainly losing two guys is not good for them," Thomas told reporters after a warm-down outside the Ineos Grenadiers bus. Like Roglic ...... Even though we were struggling, we had a pretty good run yesterday."
"And unfortunately, the crash in Kruijswijk. I am not sure what happened. But next week will be a bit more interesting. But I don't want to think about that right now. I want to enjoy the rest day tomorrow."
Except for the crash of 13th-placed Kruijswijk, the stage was not expected to cause any turbulence on GC. However, the result of a 4.5-hour day in the saddle could have a major impact on the race after the rest day.
For the Ineos Grenadiers, there was no such drama, and Thomas commented that the stage was largely as expected, with himself, fifth-placed Adam Yates, and ninth-placed Tom Pidcock all staying out of trouble.
However, the team moved to the front in a section near the last 10 km. Thomas explained that they had expected crosswinds there, but that the gusts were not as strong when they actually entered that section.
"It was better than I expected," Thomas said. I was kind of 50-50 on whether it was going to be a sprint or a breakaway. I was 50/50 on whether it was going to be a sprint or a breakaway. And then the crazy final race was waiting for us.
"On the last climb, I was going to go a little bit crazy to try to pull away from the sprinters. But I managed to stay calm. There was plenty of ice and water, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow.
"We knew there was going to be a crosswind with 8km to go. But this morning it looked stronger than today. But it looked stronger this morning than it did today. So I knew it wouldn't be strong enough to split, but I still wanted to be in the right place and stay out of trouble.
Asked to sum up the race after 15 days and with several important stages coming up next week, Thomas responded in his usual matter-of-fact manner.
"We are in a good position. You know the two guys leading are tough, but it's good to be in front of the other guys."
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