Tadej, along with his teammates from the UAE Team Emirates – XRG, successfully completed the first mountain test of the 112th Tour de France. In the 10th stage, where the riders had to conquer 165.3 kilometers and 4,450 meters of elevation in the Central Massif, their main goal was to defend against attacks from the Visma Lease a Bike team.
Tadej’s team had to manage with a reduced lineup, as João Almeida withdrew yesterday due to injuries sustained in a crash during the 7th stage, and today Pavel Sivakov was still feeling the effects of illness. All the other cyclists did an excellent job.
The breakaway of the day included 28 riders, among them Ben Healy (EF Education Easy Post), who was trailing Tadej in the yellow jersey by 3:55 before the stage. The breakaway group also included Simon Yates (Visma Lease a Bike), who claimed his third stage victory on the Tour on Bastille Day, his first since 2019. Healy was fast enough to take the overall lead by 29 seconds ahead of Tadej, becoming the fourth Irishman in the yellow jersey, the first since 1987 when Stephen Roche won the Tour de France.
Tadej rode with the group of favorites to the three-kilometer final climb to Le Mont-Dore, where he first responded to attacks from his rivals and then launched his own. Only Jonas Vingegaard (Visma Lease a Bike) followed him, and they finished in 9th and 10th place.
»It’s not easy to give up the yellow jersey, but we lost João yesterday, and Pavel is still recovering from illness. Today, the goal was to prevent Visma from attacking us, to fend off those attacks. We did an excellent job. This was the first, the second will follow tomorrow. A day of rest is coming, and it’s also good that I don’t have the yellow jersey,« Tadej said at the finish to TV Slovenija.
He also explained why he attacked on the final climb. »They were a bit annoying with all the attacks, so I decided to make a slightly better attack myself. Then I joined Lenny Martinez’s wheel, who was in the breakaway all day, and followed him to the finish. It means much more to him than to me,« Tadej added.
Before the well-deserved first rest day in Toulouse, he is in 2nd place in the overall standings, 29 seconds behind Healy, 1:00 ahead of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick Step), and 1:17 ahead of Vingegaard. Does he have any special wishes for the rest day? »To be honest, I don’t want to talk to journalists,« Tadej said.
The Tour will continue on Wednesday with a flat 11th stage, and in Thursday’s 12th stage, the peloton will already face the Pyrenees.