Cycling: Pogacar marvels at tour record pace during pee break
Cycling superstar Tadej Pogacar noticed the fastest Tour stage ever while taking a pee break. “When we stopped to go to the toilet, it was crazy to come back,” said the four-time Tour champion. “Oh, today we will actually reach the finish quickly,” the exceptional Slovenian athlete thought to himself.
The “Procyclingstats” portal determined an average speed of 50.91 kilometers per hour. Until now, the record, apart from prologues and time trials, was the fourth stage in 1999, which Mario Cipollini won ahead of Erik Zabel. At that time the value was 50.36.
Pogacar: Proud to be there
“It’s great to be part of the fastest Tour stage ever,” said Pogacar. The reason for this was that the breakaway group had a good chance of thwarting the mass sprint. “Today, for example, there was a strong breakaway group. That’s why the pace has to be high,” explained Pogacar.
The Norwegian Søren Wærenskjold took advantage of the sprinters’ fourth chance at this year’s Tour of France and triumphed in the mass sprint on the eleventh stage. He celebrated his first stage victory after the 161.3 kilometers between Vichy and Nevers in the middle of France.
Fuss about Philipsen placement
The Dutchman Olav Kooij achieved second place. There was a stir surrounding the top Belgian sprinter Jasper Philipsen, who was again unsuccessful. The 28-year-old was initially demoted after his third place. A short time later, the jury reversed its decision – and upheld an objection from his team. Philipsen, who has had a weak tour so far, returned to third place in the daily ranking. The best German was Pascal Ackermann in tenth place, Max Kanter from Cottbus was 18th.
“It was a quick stage, it was actually as expected,” said Ackermann from the Palatinate on ARD. The last ten kilometers were “the slowest of the whole day”.
Carpenter with a fall
Georg Zimmermann was involved in a crash about 30 kilometers from the finish. Television images showed the 28-year-old from Augsburg lying on the ground and being medically examined by the racing doctors. After that, the former German champion was at least able to get up again – and later reached the goal.
About 30 kilometers earlier, some fans may have briefly looked at the screen in shock when Zimmermann fell. Last year he had to give up the Tour of France before the tenth stage due to a fall.
The incident occurred at a spot where team staff give food bags to racers. In addition to Zimmermann, a few other professionals were also involved. It was not immediately clear how the incident happened.
As expected, nothing changed in the overall standings. Tadej Pogacar, who wore the yellow jersey for the 60th time, remains at the top of the rankings. His Danish rival Jonas Vingegaard is 3:36 minutes behind. Remco Evenepoel, teammate of sixth-placed Florian Lipowitz, is almost four minutes behind Pogacar.
Enormous pace
On the flat section, the professionals set a decent pace, averaging around 53 kilometers per hour. There was already a foretaste in the intermediate sprint around 130 kilometers from the finish. Philipsen won ahead of Kanter and former world champion Mads Pedersen, who wears the green jersey of the best in points.
Philipsen was unsuccessful in the first three days of sprints on the Tour. His best result: fourth place. The 28-year-old recently appeared contrite and did not meet the high expectations placed on him. «When you can’t win, doubts always arise. Can I still do it? Where has my speed gone? These doubts remain,” Philipsen was quoted as saying by the Belgian portal Sporza.
There were encouraging words from the team: “The whole team is behind him and we believe that Jasper can win if everything goes well,” his teammate and most important supporter Mathieu van der Poel was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Max Kanter drew strength from the rest day. “We were able to recover a little,” reported the Cottbus resident at Eurosport. After the hard climbing in the Central Massif, however, it was noticed that some professionals needed to let their legs wake up again. “For me, the main focus was on saving as much energy as possible,” he said.
Sprinter back on Thursday
In the twelfth stage on Thursday, the focus will once again be on the sprinters. The section starts on the Magny-Cours racetrack near Nevers, where Formula 1 record world champion Michael Schumacher triumphed a total of eight times. Then it goes 179.1 kilometers east to Chalon-sur-Saône.
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