The second rest day is over. The first 112km to Chateau Neuf du Pape is rolling and there is the green jersey sprint points, but not too long after the peloton will get to Bedouin and climb the Le Geant du Provence
Off my memory somer heroic on the Giant were from Eros Poli, the Italian who himself was a giant from the Italian 100km TTT Olympic team from Barcelona. He got to the base on a solo break with something like 20min lead, held off the climbers and plunged down to the stage finish at Carpentras on the other side for the win.
There was Wout Van Aert in 2021 and here is a recount of what happened when Jonas distanced to Pogacar
From the wikipedia page here is the grade on each km
Yes, it could have and should have been enough. Healy (top ten) has pulled more km’s than any other GC rider. Formidable rider and never ever expects his contenders to pull for him. I’m bummed after today. He was so close. Of course PP had better legs and I hope he takes a moment to check in with Healy and thank him. Why didnt Pogacar go for the stage win?
Anyone have today’s times up Ventoux for Ben Healy and Tadej. This may answer your question as Ben was 5.5 min up at 15.9km to go if I recall correctly. If Tadej needed a sub 46 min climb to close that gap, maybe it was not even possible.
at that point the video is minus 2:20.46 and at the summit Healy is at minus 1:31.51. That would put his ride at 51 min or so, meaning Tadej would be around 4.5 min slower or in the 46.xx range. I may have incorrectly placed the scroll bar in these calculation, but seems like Tadej would have to go 45xx to win
Here are the results from the 2004 Bedouin to Ventoux TT in the Dauphine. I know because I did the climb a month later and my target was 50% slower than Iban Mayo’s time which is over 21.6km
With TP and JV together, both had to ride at 95% so as to respond to possible (probable) attacks from the other. That plus a headwind meant that they were both capable of faster times under different circumstances/conditions. Neither of them looked thrashed at the finish the way they have on other mountain finishes this tour (when they have basically been TTing against each other over the last kilometers).
Replaying it, I don’t think there is any way Tadej was at risk of losing the TdF. By not working with Jonas he kind of gifted the stage to the breakaway. A few times it looked like Jonas wanted Tadej to pull to bring back the break, but there was no partaking. Even with the headwind, it seems that Tadej beat Iban Mayo’s 55.51 on the old TT course (I believe this is different from the Strava segment) with a 55.49 and Jonas tied Iban Mayo. Mayo raced solo, but fresh in a TT. These guys had a full gas 50kph run in to Bedouin from Montpellier. They also had a headwind. Also in 2004, the entire tarmac from Bedouin to the summit was just freshly repaved (maybe better Crr). I don’t know the state of the tarmac 21 years later (it did not look bad).
I think if these guys worked together they would have brought back those final 45 seconds or so and taken the stage finish and maybe moved that old course record below 55 min or the leg from the 15.9km mark to sub 45.
Also interesting Tadej beat’s Iban Mayo’s 55.51. When Mayo was banned he raced for the team run by Mauro Gianetti (Saunier Duval). Guess which team Gianetti is CEO of now!!!
meanwhile UCI is bent out of joint because Johann B made a media appearance on Belgian media at one of the TdF Stages!!!
