Greig Leach

I can't tell you how many times I have watched the hearts of break away riders broken within sight of the finish line. The usual occurance is the peloton makes the catch in the last couple of hundred meters. As Mathieu Burgaudeau (TotalEnergies) neared the line pushing as hard as he possibly could it looked like he was standing still compared to the peloton behind. It was a full on full speed sprint behind being lead by Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo). On the Dane's wheel was the Maillot Vert of Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) with Biniam Girmay (Intermache-WantyGobert-Materiaux) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis). It is such a treat to see that daring escapee actually manage to keep just far enough of the front to win the stage. To give you an idea just how close it was, the stats for the day showed Burgaudeau finishing at the same time as the sprinters behind him.