Overall leader Primoz Roglic finished in Van Aert’s slipstream in fourth place in the final Alps stage, with more than five thousand altitude metres, and retained his yellow jersey.

In the stage from Méribel to La Roche-sur-Foron, with six climbs along the way, Team Jumbo-Visma once again controlled the stage with an iron hand.

On the partly unpaved Montée du Plateau des Glières, Mikel Landa, Enric Mas and Tadej Pogacar attacked several times. However, the yellow and black formation never got into trouble due to the work of Wout van Aert, Tom Dumoulin and Sepp Kuss. Roglic showed to be very strong on the gravel section and in the descent and even put the pressure on his main rivals himself.

“This was another fantastic team performance”, Roglic complimented his team. “All day we rode where we had to be and we were in constant control. It was very difficult with the sequence of climbs and the number of altitude metres. We did that well and we were still well represented in the end. We are one day closer to Paris, but we are still not there yet. We keep focusing on ourselves and we have to be ready if something unexpected happens in tomorrow’s stage. I feel good and I am very confident for tomorrow and Saturday’s time trial.”

Tom Dumoulin in particular was very impressed by Wout van Aert. “Wout is really incredible. He single-handedly made sure that Landa couldn’t take much of a lead and that the rest couldn’t attack earlier. Many of the GC guys even had a hard time following him. Then, when Pogacar attacked, Sepp stayed with Primoz to support him. Wout and I couldn’t go with them, but we managed to come back in the final. I then did a leadout for Wout. I think it could have been possible for Primoz to sprint for the time bonuses, but it was a lot safer if Wout would take them in front of Pogacar. This was another great team effort. I feel better every day and I am already looking forward to the time trial. I haven’t done a time trial in a long time, but I am very motivated to show myself.”

Van Aert is riding a very strong Tour de France with his two stage victories and the massive amount of work in support of Roglic. “I was completely cooked. It was such a tough stage. When they attacked on the final climb, I had to give in because the pace was too high. They had told me that I had to keep going because I still had to sprint to take the bonus seconds away from the competition. Together with Tom that worked out. So in the end I did not suffer for nothing. It was a great day for us. Having the four of us in the front makes it also a lot easier to counter attacks.”