At the Tour de France, transfer stages between mountain ranges aren’t always terribly exciting. You often get long, flat stages designed for the sprinters, with little in the way of drama when it comes to the GC battle or the breakaways. But at this year’s Tour de France, stages 7 through 10 delivered plenty of tension and excitement. Part of that was down to the way the stages were designed and part of it was due to the aggressive racing on display.
With the first rest day upon us and the Pyrenees looming in the distance, it’s time to take a look back at stages 7 through 10 of the 2019 Tour de France. The photos you see below come from Jered and Ashley Gruber, from Kristof Ramon, and from the Cor Vos photo agency.
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- The breakaway on stage 7 comprised Stephane Rossetto (left) and Yoann Offredo. Unlike some other breakaways in the days to come, this move was doomed.
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- Tejay Van Garderen touched down on stage 7, breaking his thumb and forcing him from the race.
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- It all came back together for a bunch sprint …
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- … with Dylan Groenewegen pipping Caleb Ewan on the line.
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- Guilio Ciccone remained in yellow.
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- On a very lumpy stage 8, four strong riders got up the road: Niki Terpstra, Alessandro De Marchi, Thomas De Gendt and Ben King.
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- Geraint Thomas took a tumble when Michael Woods crashed in front of him. Thankfully the defending champion had plenty of teammates around and he was quickly on his way.
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- De Gendt and De Marchi were strongest in the lead group and managed to get clear. De Gendt would attack on his own a little later …
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- … and managed to hold off a chase from the peloton to take a remarkable stage win.
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- Julian Alaphilippe (left) had forced a break from the bunch on a late climb, with only Thibaut Pinot able to follow. Pinot took second on the stage but Alaphilippe gained enough time on Ciccone to move back into yellow.
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- Marcel Kittel’s racing career might be on hiatus, but he’s still at the Tour in 2019, this time as a guest on German TV.
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- Stage 8 was a hard day, as demonstrated by Jasper Stuyven.
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- Stage 9 wasn’t as lumpy as the previous day but it still had a few designated climbs. Big crowds turned out on Bastille Day, the French national day.
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- Tiesj Benoot and Daryl Impey were in the day’s breakaway and proved strongest in that group.
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- The pair came to the finish together where Impey won the sprint.
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- Alexis Vuillermoz didn’t have a great day. De Marchi fared worse and was taken to hospital with facial injuries.
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- Daryl Impey celebrates his stage win with sports director Matt Wilson.
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- Rigoberto Uran gets a massage at the end of stage 9.
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- Stage 10 was supposed to be a straightforward sprint stage. It turned out to be a little more decisive than that.
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- Strong crosswinds whipped up in the final 50km of the race …
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- … and the race was split into groups under the pressure of EF Education First, Deceuninck-QuickStep and Ineos. Several big names lost time, including Richie Porte, Rigo Uran, Mikel Landa, Thibaut Pinot and Jakob Fuglsang. The lead group contained several sprinters though …
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- … including Wout van Aert who beat the likes of Elia Viviani (right – check out his expression), Peter Sagan, Caleb Ewan and Michael Matthews.
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- Wout van Aert won a stage at his debut Tour de France this week.
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- Alaphilippe leads the Tour going into the first rest day. The Ineos duo of Thomas (+1:12) and Egan Bernal (+1:16) are perfectly placed just behind and look poised to take yellow in hte Pyrenees. After all the talk of it being the most open Tour in years, could Ineos be riding to yet another victory?
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