News Round-up: Tour de France Queen stage delivers blockbuster action in the Alps

| Felix Gall conquers Tour de France Queen stage as Tadej Pogačar cracks

On a day that promised big GC shake-ups, stage 17 certainly delivered as Felix Gall (AG2R Citroën) took a stage victory that pushed him up the overall standings, whilst behind Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) added more than five minutes to his yellow jersey lead.

The big moment of the day came early on the final climb when Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) dropped out of the yellow jersey group with more than 15km still to race, eventually losing 5:45 to Vingegaard by the time he finally arrived at the finish.

Dropping Pogačar was not sufficient for Vingegaard, who attacked the rest of his GC rivals on the climb to go past the remnants of the day’s breakaway, and finish fourth on the stage.

He couldn’t catch all of the breakaway riders, though, and it was Gall who took the win ahead of fellow escapees Simon Yates (Jayco AlUla) and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious).

© Velo Collection (David Ramos) / Getty Images

Felix Gall claimed his first Grand Tour stage win.

“This whole year has been incredible, and now to do so well in the Tour de France, to win the Queen stage, it’s incredible,” Gall said at the finish, now sitting at eighth overall. “I just want to say thank you to the team. They have given me so much.

“It’s not easy to do a three-week stage race, and I have the role of the leader now after a few days, so we slowly focused on that and I was stressing myself a lot about that also. It’s not easy, but the last few days I have been more and more comfortable. I was just afraid that I would be caught in the last kilometres or the last descent.“

Gall attacked 6km from the summit of the final Col de la Loze climb, cresting the top alone, with 20 seconds to defend from Yates on the 6km descent towards the finish.

Despite the small gap, the Austrian rider descended skillfully and held on on the final ramp to take victory, his first in a Grand Tour and with enough of a time gap to move up to eighth on GC. Yates finished second, with Bilbao in third whilst Vingegaard overtook the rest of the breakaway riders to finish fourth. Yates also benefited on the GC, moving up to fifth.

| Tadej Pogačar: “I’m gone, I’m dead”

With only one mountain test remaining and a mighty 7:35 buffer, Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) now appears to have secured another Tour de France title barring any disaster.

The final week didn’t start so comfortably. Two days ago Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) was only 11 seconds behind, ready to mount an assault on the lead.

His hopes were dealt a hammer blow on stage 16, the only time trial of the race, where he shipped over 1:38 to Vingegaard.

Despite the major setback, the Slovenian was adamant after the stage that the final nail hadn’t been hammered into his coffin, vowing to come out swinging on today’s epic over the Col de la Loze.

“It’s definitely not over,” Pogačar said.

Any hopes of a fight back quickly unravelled on the final climb today when Pogačar’s voice uttered four haunting words across the UAE Team Emirates in-race radio, shared across the live coverage: “I’m gone, I’m dead.”

© Velo Collection (Michael Steele) / Getty Images

A dejected Tadej Pogačar crosses the line over five minutes behind Jonas Vingegaard.

Those words from Pogačar effectively signalled the end of his Tour de France challenge as he dropped back from the yellow jersey group, eventually losing nearly six minutes to Vingegaard.

The Dane is now in a prime position to reclaim his title and join Pogačar on two Tour de France victories.

| Grace Brown and Michael Matthews headline Australia squad for World Championships

Australia has announced its squad for the road events at the upcoming World Championships, with Grace Brown and Michael Matthews once again headlining.

The duo will line up for their respective road races where Matthews will be hoping to emulate or better the third-place finish he achieved on home roads in Wollongong last season. Brown will also take on the time trial alongside Georgie Howe having finished runner-up in the event in 2022.

Two-time former world champion Rohan Dennis leads the men’s time trial team for one final time before he retires at the end of the season. The 33-year-old took back-to-back victories in 2018 and 2019 before failing to add a third title in 2020, the last time he competed at the event. He’ll be joined by current Australian time trial champion Jay Vine.

Now only weeks away, the Glasgow event will bring all of the cycling events together into one big World Championships for the first time.

Medals will be won and World Champions crowned across a range of disciplines including road, cross-country, cross-country marathon, downhill, observed trials, track cycling, para-cycling, Freestyle BMX and BMX racing.

Including the road teams, Australia will take 121 athletes to Glasgow in total.

Women’s Elite Road Race: Grace Brown, Brodie Chapman, Lauretta Hanson, Alexandra Manly, Ruby Roseman-Gannon, Sarah Roy and Amanda Spratt.

Women’s Elite Individual Time Trial: Grace Brown and Georgie Howe.

Men’s Elite Road Race: Simon Clarke, Luke Durbridge, Caleb Ewan, Kaden Groves, Michael Matthews, Robert Stannard, Luke Plapp and Harry Sweeny.

Men’s Elite Individual Time Trial: Rohan Dennis and Jay Vine.

| Kristen Faulkner to miss World Championships after developing a blood clot

Kristen Faulkner (Jayco AlUla) has provided a further update after her training ride crash in May, confirming that she’s since developed a blood clot which will keep her out of action until the middle of September.

The American was originally ruled out of the Giro d’Italia Donne and Tour de France Femmes after being hit by a vehicle and fracturing her knee while training on May 28. That lay off has now been extended due to further help complications meaning that she will also miss the World Championships in Glasgow having originally been announced in the US squad for the time trial.

If all goes to plan, Faulkner is hoping to return to racing at the Tour de Romandie Féminin on September 15.

“After my accident in May, I developed a blood clot in my lung from all the swelling,” the American said in an Instagram post. “It will take 3 months to heal, during which time I cannot ride outside. Unfortunately, this means that I will also miss the World Championship and my first race will be Romandie on September 15-17.

“I am disappointed to miss such important races this season when I started out the year in the best shape of my life. However, my long-term health is my #1 priority, and my doctors recommend I take this time to fully recover so that I can come back 100% for the end of this season and next year.”

© Velo Collection (Luc Claessen) / Getty Images

Kristen Faulkner last raced at La Vuelta Femenina.

| Charlotte Kool ‘dreaming’ of yellow jersey in opening stage of Tour de France Femmes

With an incredible set of results already on her 2023 palmarès, Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich) heads into the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as one of the marquee sprinters aiming for a stage win and potential yellow jersey on stage 1.

The Dutch sprinter has enjoyed a meteoric rise this year, with a win tally that’s already into double figures, and the opening stage is set for another standout performance.

“I’ve been dreaming about the yellow jersey and stage 1 all winter,” the 24-year-old told GCN in a pre-race interview on Wednesday.

“When I was making my efforts in the winter this was on my mind. I can’t say for sure that stage 1 will be a bunch sprint, because the hill at the end isn’t easy at all, and with so many riders at their top form, it won’t be easy. But we’ll go all-in for a sprint and then see what that brings.”

© Velo Collection (Stephen Pond) / Getty Images

Charlotte Kool has already taken 11 wins in 2023.

With a climb inside the final 20km, stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes is far from a nailed-on day for the sprinters. Given Kool’s form and her team’s consistent backing, the Dutchwoman will be one of the big favourite’s should it end in a bunch sprint.

There will be extra incentive for the sprinters to survive the final climb with the first yellow jersey up for grabs. Who will claim it? Watch stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes live or on-demand on GCN+.

| Alexis Renard abandons Tour de France after time trial crash

Stage 16 of the Tour de France proved to be a brutal day, claiming many victims, and not all of those were at the hands of eventual winner Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma). Before the pre-stage favourites had even warmed up, three of the early starters all hit the deck on the opening corner.

Alexis Renard (Cofidis) and dsm-firmenich duo John Degenkolb and Nils Eekhoff were the unfortunate victims, all slipping out on a painted section of the road. While dsm’s riders appeared to come away from their crashes unscathed, Renard suffered a fractured elbow, forcing him to abandon the race.

“Unfortunately, Alexis Renard won't ride tomorrow,” Cofidis confirmed after the stage on Twitter. “Following his fall at the start of the stage, our Breton rider suffered a fractured right elbow.”

© Velo Collection (Michael Steele) / Getty Images

Alexis Renard became the latest rider to abandon the Tour de France after crashing on stage 16.

Even without the injury, Renard’s participation in the race was unknown after he finished the stage last, 10:46 behind winner Vingegaard and one second outside of the time cut.

After the crashes, the organisers appeared to move the barriers further into the road to seal off the spot where the riders had slipped out.

| Pascal Ackermann set to join Israel-Premier Tech

Pascal Ackermann is on the verge of joining Israel-Premier Tech for the 2024 season, according to WielerFlits.

The German sprinter is out of contract with UAE Team Emirates at the end of the season, and while riders can’t officially join new teams until the August transfer window opens, it’s believed that he’s signed an agreement that will be announced in the coming weeks.

It would bring to an end his two-year stint with the team having first joined from Bora-Hansgrohe at the beginning of 2022. During that time Ackermann has struggled to pick up wins, only topping the podium on four occasions. That’s compared to 36 victories in the four seasons before he joined the team.