It was Ardennes week – with a LouLou-lovin’ Fleche Wallonne on Wednesday and a first Monument for Pogs. We also have Spot the Difference with the Yates Brothers, cocky kids doing stuff in races, a Wanty Wunderkind, and Marcel Kittel living his best life
If you want just the facts, ma’am, Stage 15 of this year’s Tour de France was won by Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), and the maillot jaune still rests on the shoulders of Julian Alaphilippe. But if you want to know what really happened, we will work backwards from the time the riders came over the finish line on the Prat d’Albis in the pouring rain. The GC standings held just 15sec between the second and fourth rider, and the entire sport’s camera crews were filming the yellow jersey crying and vomiting over the barriers, after yet another gruelling, unpredictable and unbelievably exciting stage.
Stage 12 of the Tour de France saw the GC favourites take the day off, allowing Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) to take the stage win in the peloton’s first day in the Pyrenees. Julian Alaphilippe holds yellow for another day, but the main excitement of the day revolved around the strange case of a “missing” Bahrain rider.