Greig Leach

I fully expected it to be a real show down on the final climb up the Col de la Loze with the Yellow Jersey in the balance. I doubt I was alone in that expectation. All day Jumbo-Visma had been riding on the front of the peloton to my surprise. I thought they should make UAE Team Emirates work in hopes of tiring them out. Apparently it didn't matter. As the group containing both the Maillot Blance and the Maillot Jaune got to where we all expected the attacks to start we were treated to the sight of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) just losing the tail of the group. It was so much of a surprise to me I thought he might be bluffing in order to get Jonas Vingegaard to go deep in an effort to distance him. But when it was obvious when he couldn't hold the wheel of his teammate Marc Soler then I knew he was actually in trouble. Soler had already been dropped from the lead group so he was not the fastest guy on the climb either. Later, we heard on the team radio Tadej telling his teammates to go ahead and fight for the stage win and to solidify there places on the general classification. "I am dead, I'm done," is what he told them.