Cort Nielsen beat Nick Schultz in a photo finish after a sprint to the line on the airstrip in Megeve before the exhausted riders fell to the floor on another hot day in the Alps. The race had been neutralized with 36 of the 148km from Morzine remaining when environmental protesters blocked the road and the stoppage appeared to work in the break’s favor as an already significant gap widened further. Lennard Kamna came close to taking the yellow jersey off Tadej Pogacar’s shoulders as the peloton’s advantage hung around nine minutes deep on the final climb, but had to settle for second overall as Pogacar stayed with 11. seconds. The Pogacar team were sorely missed after George Bennett was one of two riders to withdraw from the race after testing positive for Covid-19 before the start, while another teammate Rafal Majka also tested positive but was allowed to continue as was judged. not be contagious. Cort Nielsen’s win capped a strange day for EF Education-EasyPost, who had seen their bus get stuck at the start of the stage, blocking access for several other teams before being freed by a tractor. Yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar awaits the restart of the match after the protests. Photo: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters His team-mate Alberto Bettiol was on the attack when the road was blocked by environmental protests and had the lead heading into the climb, a long but gentle pull suited to strong riders, but after a larger group rallied it was the Dane who had the legs to to win in the sprint. “It’s unbelievable,” Cort Nielsen said. “I can’t believe what just happened. I was on the limit for so long on this climb but luckily I had Bettiol who was very strong up front and that meant I could sit back and save some energy. “I lost the group a couple of times in the last kilometers, but suddenly everything came back together and I was able to take it in the sprint. It’s huge. For my type of rider it doesn’t get any bigger than that.” Jeremy Whittle’s full report will follow shortly.
