Pello Bilbao out-covered and outsmarted a 14-rider breakaway to take a small-group sprint and an emotional win in stage 10 of the 2023 Tour de France on a hot, hard day in the Massif Centrale. Bilbao got a double-victory of sorts, as he also jumped from 11th to 5th on the general classification, which remained otherwise unchanged.
- As fitting the 2023 Tour route, stage 10 was relentless, with five categorized climbs and more than 3,000 meters of climbing. In other words, perfect for a breakaway. Attacks went from the opening kilometers and, at one point, a small peloton of 20 riders was clear with both Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogačar, and Simon Yates, but no other top GC contenders. But the prospects of a truly wild day were dashed when things came back together.
- The group that did eventually coalesce was, as expected in the second week of the Tour, ridiculously deep with talent, including Bilbao, former World Champions Michal Kwiatkowski and Julian Alaphilippe, Ben O’Connor, Mattias Skjelmose, and Esteban Chaves. That strength, and Bilbao’s presence in it, meant the pack rode hard to keep the gap from growing. The result was an infernal pace to match the heat on the day: an average speed of 43.1 kph for eventual winner Bilbao. The yellow jersey group at the finish was fewer than 50 riders strong.
- The mix made for some interesting dynamics: Bilbao hunting a stage but also GC prospects; Chaves defending his teammate Neilson Powless’s KOM lead by going off the front and trying – with some success – to soak up points on climbs. At one point, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel even broke clear of the peloton in pursuit before giving up the chase after it became clear they wouldn’t cross the gap – another sign of the high pace on the day.
Brief Results
- Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) 3:52:34
- Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty)
- Ben O’Connor (Ag2r-Citroën)
- Krists Neilands (Israel-Premier Tech)
- Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) all same time
General Classification
- Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) 42:33:13
- Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) @ :17
- Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) @ 2:40
- Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) @ 4:22
- Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) @ 4:34
Brief Analysis
- Bilbao was clearly not content to just ride for GC. When Krists Neilands attacked with 32 km to go, Bilbao wasted little energy and smartly followed the chase, and when Neilands was recaught at the 3 km mark, the Spaniard ably covered moves from O’Connor and Georg Zimmerman before unleashing a textbook-perfect sprint. Neilands was the strongest and most aggressive on the day (he somehow hung on for fourth even after the catch) and won the Most Combative award, but Bilbao gets the plaudits for best racecraft.
- One team that had an unexpected workload was Ineos, which found itself at the front late in the race trying to defend Carlos Rodriguez’s fourth place overall even with Kwiatkowski up front in the break. They were successful – barely, but it’s a notable point that the once-dominant Tour team of the 2010s is now racing to defend lesser GC positions.
- Stage winners get €11,000 (prize money is typically pooled and then divided among riders and staff after the race), but today is going to cost Bilbao. To honor the memory of teammate Gino Mäder, who tragically died in June’s Tour de Suisse, Bilbao is donating €1 for every rider who finishes behind him in the race to the Basoak SOS foundation, which buys deforested land to replant with native species. We don’t have the full tally of his Tour so far, but today alone will have cost him €169 Euros for the stage placing alone.
- Bilbao is – improbably – the first Spanish winner of a Tour stage since 2018, when Omar Fraile won stage 14 to Mende. As it happens, that was exactly 100 Tour stages ago.
- Rumor is that Van Aert is soon to leave the race (his wife is pregnant and her delivery could come at any time). We don’t know if that’s true, but he certainly was riding like someone not concerned with spending energy. If he does depart, that will leave Jumbo-Visma with a significant hole to fill in a tough week of racing.
Additional reading:
- With the finish Sunday of the Giro Donne, Annemiek van Vleuten is one step closer to her quest to win all three major women’s Tours again this year – and one step closer to retirement. Abby Mickey traces the Age of Annemiek.
- When a rider crashes in the Tour, they often get a spare bike swiftly from the team car. But what happens to the dinged-up one? Iain Treloar traces the intricate logistics of how teams deal with crash-damaged equipment.
- Escape Collective contributors Ashley and Jered Gruber have made a labor-of-love project out of unposed portraits of roadside fans. Matt de Neef collected some faves from the Tour, and the resulting gallery is a lovely, intimate look at the rhythms of the race for those who gather to cheer on the road.
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