12/07/2022

Tour de France: Magnus Cort Nielsen wins breakaway sprint in Megève as Tour de France peloton suffers protest blocking

The tenth stage of the Tour de France was marked by a protest on the road which blocked the peloton in it's final phase, a marking event in the race's modern history as the race was neutralized. Magnus Cort Nielsen was part of the day's breakaway

Before the start some cases came up on UAE Team Emirates leading to a difficult situation for the team. However, despite this, INEOS and Jumbo-Visma failed to put the leader's team under pressure early in the day. It took a long time, but 25 riders went up the road, with a wide variety of riders in the head of the race.

Tour de France peloton blocked by climate-change activists

The group stayed relatively united until the flat section before the final climb, where Alberto Bettiol attacked solo. The race was soon interrupted, by a climate change-related protest which saw the peloton stopped on it's tracks for around 10 minutes with 33 kilometers to go. Although dramatic, the race managed to go on shortly after with the situation remaining the same.

Bettiol entered the final ascent with a small gap over the rest of the breakaway, which quickly started seeing attacks off the front. The peloton entered the climb nine minutes after, with UAE clearly intent on giving the yellow jersey to Lennard Kämna who had an 8:43 minutes disadvantage at the start of the race. Bettiol was caught with 9 kilometers to go by Georg Zimmermann, as remnants of the breakaway kept an aggressive posture with several attacks.

Luis Léon Sanchez attacked with just over five kilometers to go, having Fred Wright cover all attacks from behind, in what became a dangerous move. Nick Schultz and Matteo Jorgenson attacked soon after in the steepest section of the class and bridged across to the Spaniard, with Dylan van Baarle joining afterwards.

The group was caught in the final straight. Sanchez was the first rider to launch the sprint, with Nick Schultz and Magnus Cort Nielsen then sprinting it out to the line. The EF Education-EasyPost rider took a very narrow photo-finish win, as Schultz and Sanchez wrapped up the podium. The peloton arrived 8:54 minutes after with Pogacar himself leading the pack, keeping the yellow jersey with only 11 seconds over Kämna.