After a fast, chaotic start, Magnus Cort and Rigoberto Urán did everything right to make it up the road in the winning break, but after crossing four alpine passes in the summer heat, they hit the first ramps of the 2,304-meter Col de la Loze and ran out of legs. Magnus and Rigo could not follow when the attacks went.

Neilson Powless also had a hard day out on the Tour’s Queen Stage. His efforts in the King of the Mountains jersey during the first two weeks caught up with him and he wasn’t able to go with the best when they accelerated up the Col des Saisies. So, he gritted his teeth and pushed on with empty legs over the Cormet de Roseland and Côte de Longefoy and then suffered into the clouds on the Col de la Loze. The cheers from all of the fans he has made during this Tour filled his heart.

Tomorrow, we will race again. Although the course is flat, it will be a challenge for the sprinters’ teams to keep breakaways in check after such a difficult journey through the Alps. Their legs are tired too. That means that anything can happen. And we will seize every chance we get.

Read our team’s thoughts from after today’s stage.

That was probably the hardest day on the bike I’ve had this Tour. About halfway up that first climb, I fell to pieces. I just didn’t have much left

Luckily, about half the peloton had a hard day, so we had a nice big group. The grupetto must have been 80 riders. We we all just worked together to get to the finish line.

It was as hard as you could expect or imagine. As is often the case in a grand tour, there was a really big breakaway with a lot of other top, top key riders, near the top ten. We had a lot of strong riders in there, and in the end ,it was just a too hard day for for me and Rigo. Personally, I was feeling okay, and I actually had good legs. The level is just extremely high and in that breakaway there were no chances for me on a stage like today.