I'll tidy up stage 13... I'm so excited;; sorry

202km section. The longest section in this year's Tour. The Tour has been shortening the sections for various reasons such as safety and control. In the 1970s and 80s, there were many sections over 300km, and some even exceeded 400 km.
Up to about 150km, there are rolling hills with slight ascents and descents. From 150km, a 5% 5km uphill section appears, followed by a 9km climb with an average gradient of about 7%. After overcoming these climbs, it's downhill to the finish line.
There's no day without drama in the Tour. That's why all of France and Europe have been paying attention for over 20 days.
ASO, the Tour operator, also announced today that it's a BA stage. As far as I know, for a stage to be classified as a BA stage, two conditions must be met. First, it must be too difficult for sprinters, and second, there shouldn't be much for GC contenders (overall classification leaders) to gain.It means that even if they climb hard and arrive at the top, there's not much time for other GC contenders to catch up. Of course, there are exceptions. The exception is named Tadej Pogacar ^^

It was expected that a large BA of over 20 people would leave, and they tried very hard to break after the rollout. The average speed for the first 60km was 54kmh. It's crazy. Even on rolling terrain, not flat ground. To succeed in braking at this pace, you have to shoot about 70km. It's sprint speed. It's crazy.
In the midst of everyone rushing forward, what's going on? What the heck? Nils Politt of the UAE team appears in the front?? Everyone was like "What the heck? What the heck?". “Is UAE trying to control this stage? Are they going to take this stage??" At that time, the riders were turning their heads left and right, unable to grasp the situation, and I've never seen so many people buffering before. The unexpected appearance of Nils Politt made everyone say "What the heck? What the heck?". Then Nils Politt started fishing out the riders who were breaking away like he was fishing with a rod. As they encountered a slight uphill, Nils Politt began to struggle, and we realized that Politt had come forward with his teammates Wellens and McNulty to put them in the lead group. We all figured it out later, but for a considerable amount of time, it seemed like UAE intended to take the stage, and they started running even faster.

The race starts at a murderous pace from the very beginning. There's no peloton formation and no BA (Breakaway), with the entire group stretching over 2km like a snake, TTing (Time Trialing). However, this insane speed couldn't be maintained forever. So, riders bunched up both in front and behind, forming roughly a 37-rider BA, followed by a 21-rider group, and then the GC (General Classification) group.

Continuing the drama from yesterday's Pedersen (Green Jersey) incident. After sprinting like crazy and finding a spot, where are Philipsen (Green 3rd place) and Girmay (Green 2nd place)? Huh? They're in the BA!!! Pedersen screams over the radio, and it's broadcast for everyone to hear. Hilarious. I choked on my watermelon. When Pedersen screamed, Lidl-Trek director instructed them to support Pedersen so he could join the BA. But who would do that? Yesterday, Philipsen repeatedly attacked Girmay with all his bullets, and Simonz, Bache, and the GC contenders Skelmose and Derek were already deployed. Pedersen sprinted like crazy and reached the second group, but the BA was too fast, widening the gap. With no support from teammates... he's going insane ㅋㅋ. Fortunately, as the BA slowed down, it merged with the second group, forming a large BA group and the GC group behind them. This is the situation about halfway through the race.
At around the 140km mark, the Green Point Sprint results were: Philipsen in first place with 25 points, Pedersen in second with 20 points, and Girmay in third with 18 points.
After the uphill section, the time gap between the BA and GC group widened to over 8 minutes. UAE had no impact. They rode aimlessly like nomads. They didn't even do their usual pacing. Pogacar wasn't even visible on the screen. However, Pidcock was in the BA, and he... could threaten the GC. Pogacar didn't need to worry, but the fate of Bizma and Red Bull was different. But with a time difference of over 8 minutes... what could Campagnolo do? There were no other assets to use. Pidcock had climbed from the virtual GC (assuming the race is over at this moment) and reached second place by overtaking Jonas. Still, Bizma didn't try to reduce the time gap... he just kept staring at Pogacar's rear wheel.
Pidcock is a puncher, but not the type who drops everyone with explosive attacks. Moreover, his move to Q36.5, a ProTeam (not a WorldTour team), from Ineos meant he lacked team depth to support him. He tried to drop riders with a few attacks on the Balcon de Dalsas (the highest climb today) but even fairies struggle on this uphill. With limited support, his attacks drained him, and Jayco-AlUla riders (Schmid, Flak, Matthews) stuck close behind him during the climb. Pidcock is considered a downhill genius, but today's descent wasn't very technical; it was a relatively wide highway in the countryside. He couldn't shine there either. In the end, Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) sprinted past Harold Tejada and broke away to win first place. Tejada came second, and Pidcock finished third.

There was some GC rearrangement because of this. Pidcock moved up from 10th to 4th in the GC and is within 10 seconds of 3rd place Remco. The appearance of Politt also had an effect, and everyone rushed down like crazy, even though it was a 2400-meter uphill section, with an average speed of 49.99? Last year's Tour was the fastest in history, but this year's Tour is producing numbers that make last year pale in comparison.
Visma.... Visma is in a total crisis. Jorgensen has a fall injury + pain. Amirail is injured, Campanaerts isn't the same as last year, and Sepkus seems to have disappeared. Piganzoli is alone... Jonas… had a very dark face at Tourmalet and looked like he was struggling too much...
I hope they stay motivated and race boldly. They are one in 8 billion. Giving up is alien.