Carcassonne was bookmarked as by the sprinters as a possibility for them to perform their art but in the absence of Caleb Ewan, Sam Bennett, Peter Sagan, Arnaud Démare, Elia Viviani and Pascal Ackermann, there aren’t so many teams eager to work all day for a bunch gallop anymore. Wout van Aert and Nils Politt have proven the attackers from far out to be right in the past two stages so they must have inspired others like Oscar Fraile who also made the break on stage 12 but was called back via the ear piece by team captain Alexey Lutsenko. Heading to Carcassonne, the Spanish national champion will hear the call of the country. He’s one many riders who remember Magnus Cort Nielsen winning there from a breakaway in 2018. Not need to be a climber like van Aert to overcome the difficulties: the pic St-Loup, also famous for its vineyards, is the only hill of the day.
