Britain’s Adam Yates held on to his yellow jersey at the Tour de France on Friday strong crosswinds caught out a number of his rivals. The infamous vent d’Autan – the wind which blows through the southwest region of France and which is known locally as the “vent qui rend fou,” the wind that drives one crazy – caused major splits on the run-in to Lavaur. There were flashbacks of last year’s stage to nearby Albi, when France’s Thibaut Pinot lost 1min40sec to his rivals in the crosswinds. This time Pinot [Groupama-FDJ] stayed safe. But Tadej Pogacar [UAE Team Emirates], Mikel Landa [Bahrain-McLaren], Richie Porte [Trek-Segafredo] and Richard Carapaz [Ineos Grenadiers] were not so lucky, losing 80 seconds in the splits. A frantic day, which saw Peter Sagan’s Bora-Hansgrohe team putting the hammer down right from the start in Millau in an ultimately successful attempt to wrest the green jersey back from Irishman Sam Bennett [Deceuninck-QuickStep], was timely given the criticism the Tour faced on Wednesday and Thursday stages, when the racing was relatively sedate. Wout van Aert [Jumbo-Visma] eventually won a reduced bunch sprint, underlining his status as the dominant rider in the peloton right now. The Belgian, who also won Wednesday’s stage to Privas, is being used primarily as a domestique at this race, working for Jumbo's leaders Primoz Roglic and Tom Dumoulin. But when he is not pulling them along or collecting water bottles for team mates he looks unbeatable. Van Aert preferred to focus on others after his win. “Today I think especially we have to mention Sepp Kuss and George Bennett, they are 60kgs or less and [in the run-in] they were pulling at 60kph,” he noted. It is true that Jumbo-Visma look incredibly strong across the board right now. Their dominance has shades of Team Sky at their peak, with everyone just waiting for them to rip the race to pieces and put Roglic in yellow. The Slovenian lies three seconds behind Yates as the race heads to the Pyrenees on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s stage, from Cazeres to Loudenvieille, looks particularly brutish, with three enormous climbs including the Hors Categorie Port de Bales. If Jumbo decide to ride, we will very quickly find out what Yates’s legs are really like. “The next two days should be pretty tough,” Yates agreed, adding that it had not been the most relaxing prelude. “I think everyone today was expecting an easy day but Bora obviously had other ideas.”
