Jasper Philipsen wins a lackluster stage 10 of the Tour de France 2024

What a soporific spectacle the Tour de France 2024 offered us again today in an absolutely flat stage where not even an attempt to break away and a pace worse than the worst expected schedule from the organization indicates that, for the majority of cyclists, it was a second day of rest after yesterday's stage.

Tour de France 2024: a mix of good and bad

If we look back at what we have seen so far in the Tour de France 2024, after the two lively initial stages, the early mountain we enjoyed in the Galibier and the beautiful stage through the dirt roads of Troyes, the rest of the stages have shone due to the absolute lack of combativeness. Not even the modest teams have bothered to try to lead a breakaway in the stage to gain visibility in the stages destined for the fast men.

The question is whether the Tour de France, as great as it is, the most important race in the world without a doubt, a test that transcends this sport, can continue to allow shameful spectacles like the one we witnessed today with a total and absolute lack of competitiveness that made watching the stage a real challenge to keep our eyes open in these days when the summer heat is already intense and the post-lunch slump encourages us to enjoy a glorious nap.

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Obviously, in a three-week race, it is impossible for all stages to be fiercely contested, but there is a long way from that to a total and absolute lack of ambition and competitiveness. It is curious that we have to deal with stages like this when just a few days ago, during the time trial, the Frenchman Julien Bernard, passing through his hometown with all his fans cheering on the roadside, in his last Tour de France, was fined 200 Swiss Francs for "inappropriate behavior" when he stopped in the middle of the time trial to give a kiss to his wife. What do we do with the entire peloton after today's stage? Isn't it inappropriate and detrimental to the image of this sport not to compete? Undoubtedly, the UCI and the organizers should reflect on this.

Regarding today's stage, stage 10 that connected Orléans and Sain Amand Montrond through a completely flat route of 187 kilometers, which, except for some small accelerations to find a good position in the route's direction changes, offered absolutely nothing in terms of sports.

A story of the stage that is limited to the last 7 kilometers where the peloton woke up looking for the positioning of the fast men, with a lot of speed in these kilometers due to the freshness of the legs with which they faced them. Alpecin-Deceuninck entered perfectly organized in the last kilometer with Mathieu van der Poel, this time, as a luxury lead-out man who served the stage victory on a silver platter to Jasper Philipsen, who won with total clarity.

Stage 10 Classification

1. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4h20'06''
2. Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) +00''
3. Pascal Ackermann (Israel-PremierTech) +00''
4. Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) +00''
5. Fernando Gaviria (Movistar Team) +00''
6. Sam Bennett (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +00''
7. John Degenkolb (DSM-firmenich-PostNL) +00''
8. Pohil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorious) +00''
9. Dylan Groenewegen (Jayco-AlUla) +00''
10. Axel Zingle (Cofidis) +00''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 40h02'48''
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +33''
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1'15''
4. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1'36''
5. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +2'16''
6. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +2'17''
7. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +2'31''
8. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) +3'35''
9. Derek Gee (Israel-PremierTech) +4'02''
10. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) +4'03''