"They would chase down my attacks which I didn't quite understand" - Felix Gall criticial of Vingegaard and Pogacar

There were a lot of beaten down riders at the top of the Col de la Loze but also a few happy faces. One such was that of Felix Gall, the last rider to win when the Tour de France crossed the 2302-meter high summit, but he also had quite a lot of mixed feelings after being chased down by Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar themselves.

The Austrian rider has been on the up throughout the past week of the Tour, climbing up the standings after a first week where he lost significant time in the mountains and had a few tricky days in the hills. On stage 18 he began the day with an all-in mindset, joining the breakaway and creating an ideal situation for himself.

"First of all, I wasn't feeling super good these last few days, but just overall I really felt... I was a bit scared if I felt today as I had felt yesterday for example it would've ended differently but I found my legs again. It was a super nice position for a while to be in the breakaway, it was super nice it was perfect," he said in an interview for Eurosport.

The team played their cards perfectly, as an incredibly strong Bruno Armirail helped solidify the breakaway and take the gap into the 3-minute mark almost by himself. The French rider did an amazing job for Gall who then had the likes of Primoz Roglic and Matteo Jorgenson help him up the Col de la Madeleine to make it to the top of the ascent as fast as possible. In the final kilometers they were caught by Vingegaard and Pogacar, after the Dane's attack, and the situation improved even further as Jorgenson paced to keep the group ahead.

But on the flat section, around 15 kilometers long, after the descent, all the effort went down the drain. Three riders went up the road including stage winner Ben O'Connor, but once the Austrian tried to do the same, he would find either Jonas Vingegaard or Primoz Roglic in his wheel. As a result, also Tadej Pogacar. Gall was visibly frustrated. "But then, it happened so quick, all of a sudden there was a new situation and they would chase down my attacks which I didn't quite understand so it was a bit frustrating that we got caught again".

For some riders it would've been a mental blow and a bad sign ahead of a 26-kilometer long climb, but the 27-year old showed extraordinary legs by being the fourth strongest up the final ascent, and crossing the line in fifth. "At this point, of course it was a hard race for everyone, but I felt like I used a lot of bullets already, but in the end I still did a good climb and I'm happy I gave it my all".

He managed to overtake Kévin Vauquelin the overall classification, perhaps not the best possible outcome for his day, but still a positive one - whilst a Top5 spot grows possible if one of the riders ahead of him cracks in La Plagne, where by the logic, Gall should appear even stronger then his direct rivals. "That's super nice, it's a good day," he concluded.