British hopes crumble in the Alps

Alpine proving ground sees British GC hopes go backwards, reports Vern Pitt

- Vern Pitt

Time moves fast at the Tour de France. It took less than four hours for any British hopes of a podium – no one realistically thinks they can overhaul Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard at the top of the GC standings – to go up in flames in the heat of the French summer.

Simon Yates (Jayco-AlUla) had started stage 14 at 2-13 off the podium. Although he had previously lost over a minute due a crash he was riding a solid race and was in touching distance of the podium. “I’m just going to keep doing my best,” he said, refusing to give up hope. “Jai [Hindley, then third] is maybe two minutes in front of me; that’s a big gap to close and we’ve been relatively equal, other than his stage win.

“It’s not like one of us is going to take big chunks out of each other, but it’s hard to move with the way the two strongest teams are riding. There’s not much room for taking advantage of a situation but we’ll see what we can do.”

He added: “When I’ve been good in a Grand Tour I’ve been attacking from afar or taking advantage of a situation and it’s not really the same anymore. That can change with a few hard days back-to- back and a if few of the domestiques are in trouble.”

But by the end of the day he’d tumbled to 3-49 off the final podium spot, then occupied by Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) after getting distanced when someone in front of him dropped the wheel on the penultimate descent.