The puzzling breakaway
But they didn’t. They kept going and eventually had a lead of up to 5:30 over the pack, which didn’t seem to care that it was van der Poel in front, a rider who loves long solo breakaways and has one of the biggest engines on the planet. As it turned out the reason they didn’t slow down, as the two explained on TNT Sports afterwards, is that they weren’t interested in the points – “I’m not going for the green jersey,” van der Poel said – but because Rickaert had said before the stage, as a joke, how much he would love being on a Tour de France podium.
The problem for the duo is that the stage from Chinon to Châteauroux was 174.1 km long, not 173.4 km. The 31-year-old Rickaert, who had done most of the work in front, finally tired with about 6 km left to ride, and van der Poel was caught by the peloton just 700 m from the finish line. But the pair had accomplished their mission because after the stage, Rickaert was called to the podium to receive his award for being the most combative rider of the day.
“I think I’ll go home tomorrow; my Tour is done,” Rickaert joked after the stage. “I always wanted to be on the Tour podium, so I made a joke of it that we’d go with two [riders] from the start. But it seems [van der Poel] was serious, so we just continued, and I was slowly dying. We tried, and too bad that we didn’t succeed.”
Van der Poel explained that the plan had been to help Rickaert win the combativity award. “I discussed with Jonas that we wanted to go for it today,” he said. “His dream is to be on the Tour de France podium, so I was happy to help him get combativity… That was one of his dreams. In the end, we came really close [to winning the stage], but I think we were both just on the limit. It was a very hard day.”
Merlier nips Milan again
The two also made it a hard day for their pursuers. Because most of the teams interested in the sprint had used up most of their lead-out riders on the long pursuit, the bunch sprint was something of a mess. But no one was hurt, and the outcome was decided between the two best sprinters in the race, Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) and Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek).
In what was a replay of the stage 3 sprint, Milan took off first and was caught by the hard-charging Merlier. Lotto’s Arnaud de Lie finished fast for a close third. As a result, Milan still leads the race for the Škoda Green Jersey with 227 points, with race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates–XRG) sitting second, at 156, and last year’s green jersey winner Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Wanty) in third with 151, one point ahead of Merlier, who is the only sprinter to have won two stages. Van der Poel is in fifth at 128 points and seems truly not to be interested in winning the Škoda Green Jersey.
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But the 24-year-old Milan, who is riding in his first Tour de France and has twice won the Giro d’Italia points classification, is definitely looking for Grand Tour glory here. Caught out of position because of crosswinds on stage 1 and beaten by Merlier on stage 3, he won his maiden Tour the France victory on Saturday’s stage 8, when Merlier was not in position to sprint.
“It’s pretty strange,” he said after the victory. “The third stage and the first one didn’t go as we planned it, but we were really close to it. We learned from the mistakes today. We were really waiting for this stage and looking forward. It was difficult, I have to say, to have a proper lead-out in the final.”
The Škoda Green Jersey contenders are still standing
As for winning the Škoda Green Jersey, he said, “I also still have a few chances and I will try to take as many points and as many good results as I can in the next stages. We can then see in Paris how it will go. I will do my best to bring this jersey as far as I can, as it is a real goal for me and a goal for my team. I will take it stage by stage and will enjoy it while I have it.”
There are now three realistic contenders for the Škoda Green Jersey: Milan, Pogačar and Merlier. Pogačar isn’t really interested in that colour of jersey – he wants yellow and nothing but yellow – but he may win it by default simply by winning stages, especially those that resemble Classics one-day races, with lots of short, steep climbs, which reward the winner with the maximum 50 points, the same number of points as given to winners of flat stages.
Despite the number of points he has amassed, Girmay seems to be some way from the form that enabled him to win the green jersey last year and has finished no better than sixth in bunch sprints since his second place in stage 1. He will have to find his form quickly to have a chance to defend his title. As for Merlier, he trails Milan by 77 points. If he beats his rival in four more sprints, he will win the Škoda Green Jersey, since the second-place finisher on a flat stage receives 30 points, 20 fewer than the winner. It’s highly unlikely, but doable.