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Patrick Fletcher

The Tour de France organisers wanted 'suspense to the end' but the Tourmalet stage design backfired dramatically – and they should have seen it coming

Tadej Pogačar descends a mountain during the Tour de France.

In pitching this Tour de France, "suspense until the end" was a repeated refrain from the race director, Christian Prudhomme, who insisted: "Until the last mountain stage, anything is possible."

One week in, we have a gap of nearly three minutes between first and second place, and a yellow jersey that will remain on the shoulders of Tadej Pogačar for the next two weeks unless something utterly extraordinary happens.

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