The great Circus of July arrive in town on Saturday, for 3 weeks.
It starts in Catalunya, Spain and reaches France by the road. Strangely, while many days are spent in the area, Pyrenees as a mountain are almost avoided.
There are only 2 rest days this year, so the first week is relatively long: 8 days.
Again, there are no long stages this year: only 1 barely goes over 200 km. And the total course is probably the second shortest in history (just a few miles longer than last year's edition...)
Another heatwave is expected over France in July, starting at the same time as the race. It may not be as bad as the heatwave of June, but it is still going to be significantly hotter than normal for days if not weeks.
Regulations
You've got the usual Yellow, Green, Red Polka Dots, and White jerseys. Mountain and Points final classifications bring UCI points for the first 3 riders (only).
On top of the Agressive rider daily and final prizes, there is now a smaller weekly and final 'best teammate' prize. Both are jury-based prizes.
Each stage brings almost the same UCI points as a 1.Pro race (!)
The scale for Green jersey points has been tweaked to favour even more the pure sprinters... There seems to be only 1 Intermediate Sprint per stage.
The scale for small GPM points remains as ridiculous as before: only 1 point for 1 rider on 4^th^ category climbs, and 2 and points for the first 2 riders on 3^rd^ category climbs...
There are no other secondary or tertiary classification to animate stage or give smaller teams an achievable goal.
Riders
The cream of the mutant crust will be present, probably for the only time this year.
Stages
Stage 1, Saturday 1, Team Time Trial
20 km, D+ 220 m
A very short TTT in the streets of Barcelona, with some climbing near and at the end (your usual Montjuic). Together with the new rules, it means that it is designed to bring the leaders to the front as soon as day 1.
Stage 2, Sunday 5
169 km, D+ 2000 m
A stage for punchers, again finishing in Barcelona's Montjuic, pretty much like the final stage of the Tour of Catalunya even though the circuit is a little bit different
Stage 3, Monday 6
196 km, D+ 3900 m
Arrival in a ski resort in French Catalunya. Is this a mountain stage or a puncher stage? Or simply a very good day for breakaways?
Stage 4, Tuesday 7
182 km, D+ 2900 m
After a uselessly long bus transfer, this stage meanders in the Cathar Country, the Pyrenean piedmont, and may offer opportunities for breakaways, as well as sprinters if there isn't too much action.
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Stage 5, Wednesday 8
158 km, D+ 1600 m
A stage which looks very much like the first 2 stages of the Route d'Occitanie a couple of weeks ago. Despite some use of the hills of Gers, they will probably insufficient or too separated to get rid of the sprinters on their favourite finish city (Pau). There is almost no reward for breakaways, with only 1 GPM... I don't suppose riding by my high-school (in a distant past) will be a motivating reward.
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Stage 4, Tuesday 7
It was indeed for an all-terrain sprinter, inside a breakaway.
It was a masterclass by Lidl-Trek. The breakaway took a relatively long (but not as much as yesterday) time to form, but then it was very large – a bit over 30 riders –, and included M. Pedersen🇩🇰, Q. Simmons🇺🇸 and Vatsek🇨🇿. Vatsek🇨🇿 could have had his own chance when he quietly left with Tratnik (🇸🇮 Bora) but then his team made it clear that today was only for Pedersen🇩🇰 (and it was rather far from the line).
Movistar did all they could with Castrillo🇪🇸 and R. Garcia P.🇪🇸 attacking countless times until the last mile, but they never could get more than a few yards gaps versus the Lidl-Trek riders.
Grégoire (🇫🇷 FDJ) was in the breakaway, but he has no recovery, is cooked and the opposition is much stronger than Joris Delbove on the National Championship. He was dropped rather early and finished last of the 2^nd^ group... A complete failure.
Pedersen🇩🇰 outclassed all other riders in the first group, and his American teammate even managed to take the 2^nd^ place. This is a 390 UCI points day for the team... (As for teams who need points, Movistar scored an honest 145 points, despite all their earlier efforts; but Groupama scored 0, and Cofidis who had riders at the front for a much longer time than the other French team doesn't get anything either in the end.)
Good old Matthews (🇦🇺 Jayco) won the sprint of the 2^nd^ group, but it was only for the 11^th^ place. The two pure sprinters – Girmay (🇪🇷 NSN) and Philipsen (🇧🇪 Alpecin) – had given up when the longest climb had started, just after the I.S.).
In the peloton, nobody rode against the breakaway. Most teams were in, and Visma and UAE let it go.
Pedersen🇩🇰 also gets the Green jersey.
Baudin keeps the Mountain jersey, as Molenaar (🇳🇱 Caja Rural) was in the breakaway, but failed to score on the last climb.
Perfect stage by Lil Trek, I was very impressed and happy for Pedersen of course. His first victory of the season too.