Mathieu VAN DER POEL. 10 with honors. We certainly don't discover it today, but once again he shows everyone what it means to be a world-class rider. Difficult start to the Tour, not as he would have wanted. He gets going after a week and reveals himself to the world by delivering two masterful sprints to Philipsen, who loses both of them. Today he takes matters into his own hands and from the first kilometer makes it clear to tout le monde what his intention is. He goes absolutely crazy trying to get the breakaway away, pulls like a man possessed and with the obsession of not making it, he does. It's a race of endurance. He transforms a Tour stage into a classic of the highest rank and doesn't let it slip away: that makes three victories at the Grande Boucle, 61 in his career. Pure dominance at its finest. In this cycling of phenomena, the Tour bids farewell to one of its most formidable interpreters.

Tobias JOHANNESSEN. 8. The 26-year-old Norwegian from Uno-X gets into the right breakaway and almost pulls off the coup. Sure, Van der Poel wins, but finishing behind him is a success. No less important, he gains something in the general classification. He jumps two positions: now he's 11th.

Tom PIDCOCK. 5. He races aggressively, you can see he wants to show something good and he shows it clearly. In the final he has the chance to contest the victory with the Dutchman, but he arrives with his legs crossed.

Alex BAUDIN. 6.5. The 25-year-old from Albertville is racing an absolutely top-level Tour and today he demonstrates once again that he has Tour-winning form.

Filippo GANNA. 8. He controls the chasing group, after spending the first hour trying in every way with Pidcock and Van der Poel to get the breakaway away. In short, he makes himself seen, he makes himself chased and he doesn't make himself desired, because he's always there. A protagonist in a true Tour stage: not everyone can do that.

Mads PEDERSEN. 7. At one point he even caresses the dream of a stage victory, but his team perhaps moves a bit too late. In any case, today he takes home points and puts a bit more distance between himself and the others. Fighting for the green jersey: he's at 268 points, Girmay 223, Merlier 213.

Michael MATTHEWS. 6.5. Look who's back! He stays there with the best and if there's a sprint to be had, in the end he stays with the best.

Tadej POGACAR. 7. Now they attack him continuously, not in the race, but on TV. They even cry scandal, mutiny: but how, why is UAE Emirates pulling like that? Why don't they let the breakaway go? (a truly excellent way indeed of publicizing our sport and making everyone understand that in their time, when our esteemed commentators were racing, races were one continuous agreement: in short, a real blast). If they win again today it's only right that on Tuesday nobody shows up at the start! And on we go like this, with a great sense of sport and sportsmanship that for these people is being put in serious jeopardy. And explain instead, very simply, that the Emirati team maybe just wanted to keep a high pace to make the group accumulate fatigue, to make life hard for Visma and not just them? That the Tour is a race of endurance and fatigue is not news, and that even in insignificant stages you can always try to do something with an eye to... also. And that all the more so when the stages are shorter (like today, reduced from 188 to 155 km) and tomorrow there's the first rest day, perhaps it's not a scandal to keep the pace high to force everyone to keep their legs sharp, also. And to think that certain things shouldn't even need explaining, but they should explain them to all of us.

Egan BERNAL. 6.5. A small step forward, now he's 10th in the general classification. Egan is here!

TOUR. 9. Think of it as you like, but here a different sport is being practiced, here there's the best and you can see it. You saw it today, in how they raced a stage that appeared insignificant for the classification, but which the riders interpreted with an agonism that you rarely see in other Grand Tours. We go to the rest day with these winners: 1st stage: Visma; 2nd stage: Isaac del Toro; 3rd stage: Tadej Pogacar; 4th stage: Mads Pedersen; 5th stage: Olav Kooij; 6th stage: Tadej Pogacar; 7th stage: Tim Merlier; 8th stage: Tim Merlier; 9th stage: Mathieu van der Poel. But what are we talking about?