The first rest day of the 2023 Tour de France arrives and there are many riders and teams already marked by the opening nine stages. Billed as the hardest start to a TdF for many years, the race has certainly been difficult. However, in terms of tactics, it’s not been as spectacular as we could have expected.
Only one early breakaway has succeeded, which is quite a rare occurrence given the desperation that’s beginning to show for some squads who don’t have a general classification interest and whose sprinter hasn’t met expectations.
I can’t imagine the Belgian media are going easy on Soudal-QuickStep or Lotto-Dstny in their reporting and if it wasn’t for Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) then the stick Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) will be getting for not a winning a stage yet would be even bigger.
The latter could point out he’s Belgium’s leading rider on GC in 25th position, however, I imagine that would only add to the woes and the brutal headlines that Patrick Lefevere will be seeing.
