Strong team effort on Stage 10 as Lidl-Trek make GC and Green Jersey Gains
The stage after a rest day always presents some questions, but Lidl-Trek answered well with both Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose moving up the general classification. Up and down all day, stage 10 was a difficult one to predict. Whilst many riders saw the breakaway as a route to Bastille Day glory, the stage eventually went to Tadej Pogačar after UAE spent the day controlling the escapees. After a strong collective effort, the Lidl-Trek climbing duo finished 5th and 6th on the stage, which moves Juan into the white jersey and 4th overall, and Skjelly up to 8th overall.
Meanwhile, in the points competition, Mads Pedersen is on a mission to collect every green jersey point available, especially in the intermediate sprints where his hardiness is often rewarded. Lidl-Trek used the lumpy opening terrain to their advantage, putting pressure on the pure sprinters and positioning Pedersen ahead of the intermediate sprint at the 25 kilometre mark. The Dane managed to take the maximum 25 points, extending his lead in the hotly-contested competition ahead of two expected sprint stages.
Juan Ayuso 🎤
I'm quite happy how the day went. It was a super hard day. UAE did an amazing job, I mean, all of the team was on an exceptional day & worked really hard. So it was a really tough day but, I'm happy that me and Skjelly could be in the final together gaining some time over some rivals and arriving in the podium group.
I think Tadej, for now, is on a different level and he's basically doing a different race than us, but, the group that's going to play out the podium, we're arrived practically all together and, yeah, it's nice to be back in this jersey.
I think every day you have to give the best you have, because we're seeing that there's five or six riders that are aiming for two spots on the podium so, it's going to be a really, really hard battle to be there in Paris. We just have to focus day by day on ourselves and me and Skjelly did a really good ride today and, I think, we're both happy with that.
Mads Pedersen 🎤
The Team did amazing towards the first intermediate sprint and we were able to score maximum points. Of course, it would have been nice to get rid of the other guys competing for green but in the end, we got the best out of it, so it was good day.
We now go into two days with 70 points on the finish line. It counts a lot and we will see. I would still say that the top five in the competition can still be my main rivals. Let's see how the next two days will go and then we go more into my terrain again and I hope it will be good again.
