GC Favorites lose time as Cross Winds and Team Ineos Wreak Havoc

Pinot, Fuglsang, Bennett, Landa, Porte, Nibali and Uran all lose time as they miss the front group

A fairly sedate stage 10 saw a breakaway of 6 riders go away which built up a maximum lead of just 3 minutes as the chasing peloton didn't want them to go away, looking for another bunch sprint.

However, with 40 kms to go, strong crosswinds saw Team Ineos put the hammer down and split the peloton and swallow up the breakaway. Classic s specialist Luke Rowe and Kwiatoski put in huge turns that increased their lead.

Behind the GC favorites domestiques deperately tried to close the gap, Lusenko put in a massive turn and closed the deficit from 40 down to 16 seconds with 20 kms to go.

But the favorites themselves ran out of teammates and were forced to chase themselves and the gap went back up and up. Pinot, Fuglsang, Porte and Uran all having to work to limit their loses.

Behind them Landa was being paced to limit his loses and behind them Bennett was well over two minutes down.

Up front in the final sprint Wout Van Aert outgunned Elia Viviani and Caleb Ewan on the line.

Pinot, Fuglsang, Porte and Uran crossed the line 1m 40secs down. Landa 2 minutes down and Benentt even more.

With that Team Ineos propelled Geraint Thomas, Egan Bernal and Steven Kruijswijk into second, third and fourth overall.

Enric Mas, Adam Yates, Nairo Quintana and aniel Martin all in the top 10, Pinot dropping to tenth place.

Julian Alaphilippe is still in Yellow as we move into the rest day and onto the second week in the Pyrenees.

Wout Van Aert said to the press afterwards "I can’t believe it, beating all those fast guys in the sprint. Ah... Sorry, I can’t believe it.It’s above anything else. I felt it in the last 10 days, how big this race is. Winning in my first attempt...wow."

"It became quite nervous in the finale. I managed to stay in front and kept our leader Stevie in position. Unfortunately, Dylan was not in the first group and I was allowed to go for the sprint. From the last one, I learned I had to go early, so I went 250m from the line. It was close with Viviani, but one centimetre is enough."

Defending champion Geraint Thomas said to the media ""I couldn’t think of anything better. It was a really good day in the end. We had a little go earlier on but the wind wasn’t really high enough. EF had a little go, then QuickStep, and we were always attentive and ready for anything. It was a really good day in the end.

"From our point of view, we had everyone bar two guys, so we all just committed. There were plenty of guys turning. Behind, you could tell they went full to close it, especially on the climb, and because they didn’t do it then, the elastic then snapped and we went and got a big gap.

"It’s especially good on a day like today when you never expect it. I think it was just a positioning error from them and they lose a minute and a half. That’s how it goes."

VIDEO: 2019 Tour de France Stage 10 Highlights

2019 Tour de France Stage 10 Top 10

1 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Team Jumbo-Visma 4:49:39
2 Elia Viviani (Ita) Deceuninck-QuickStep
3 Caleb Ewan (Aus) Lotto Soudal
4 Michael Matthews (Aus) Team Sunweb
5 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
6 Jasper Philipsen (Bel) UAE Team Emirates
7 Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-Merida
8 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott
9 Oliver Naesen (Bel) AG2R La Mondiale
10 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) CCC Team

2019 Tour de France GC after stage 10

1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Deceuninck-QuickStep 43:27:15
2 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Ineos 0:01:12
3 Egan Bernal (Col) Team Ineos 0:01:16
4 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Team Jumbo-Visma 0:01:27
5 Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:01:45
6 Enric Mas (Spa) Deceuninck-QuickStep 0:01:46
7 Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott 0:01:47
8 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 0:02:04
9 Daniel Martin (Irl) UAE Team Emirates 0:02:09
10 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ 0:02:33