Tour de France 2023: Pello Bilbao takes sensational win on Stage 10 to move into top five on GC

The yellow and white jerseys in an early breakaway; a misfiring French hope battling off the back; a stellar move with a former double world champion in the mix; old friends Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel joining forces in a vain pursuit; a plucky escapee almost going the distance; and an eventual winner riding in the memory of a fallen team-mate… Stage 10 of the Tour de France had a bit of everything – and then some.

“Glorious,” said Carlton Kirby. “Sensational,” matched Rob Hatch. But the superlatives were not enough when Basque climber Pello Bilbao (Bahrain Victorious) pulled off the most clinical of finishes to take his first ever Tour stage win while commemorating the late Gino Mader.

Before the Tour started, Bilbao announced that he would donate one euro to a reforestation charity – a cause close to his late team-mate Mader’s heart – for every person who finishes behind him in a stage. The Spaniard also clarified that he could double his donations in the event of a stage win – and throw the final GC into the mix, too.

On Tuesday’s rolling Stage 10 through the Massif Central, Bilbao fulfilled his destiny of paying two euro for everyone in the peloton except himself with a textbook win from a solid 14-man breakaway that animated the race over five leg-sapping climbs and in sweltering temperatures well over 30 degrees. He also surged up to fifth place in the overall standings as his donations rose to €1,307 and counting.

The win was far from guaranteed, though, as Latvia’s Krists Neilands came very close to giving his Israel-Premier Tech a second win on the bounce following Michael Woods’ victory on the Puy de Dome on Sunday.

But once the lone leader was pegged back with just 3km remaining, Bilbao proved the strongest in a six-up sprint to take a maiden stage win on the Tour ahead of Germany’s Georg Zimmermann (Intermarche-Circus-Wanty) and Australia’s Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Citroen).

Neilands – who struck out alone on the final climb with 32km remaining – had to settle for fourth place ahead of Colombian champion Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) and Spaniard Antonio Pedrero (Movistar).

Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep) finished on the back of a chase group that also included Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) and Warren Barguil (Arkea-Samsic) around 30 seconds in arrears, with the peloton crossing the line almost three minutes down.

Bilbao’s emotional win and time gains saw the 33-year-old shoot up six places from eleventh to fifth in the standings, 4’34” down on the race summit occupied by Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).

The defending champion retained his 17-second lead over Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) on a day that saw both the yellow and white jerseys infiltrate an early move that had distanced many of the other riders in the top 10 – including Australia’s Jai Hindley (Bora-hansgrohe), who recovered to protect his third place on GC at 2’40”.

“I went for the right moment when everyone was on the limit,” Bilbao said while analysing the 16th win of his career. “At one point the time gap started to go down and Neilands put in an impressive attack. I think he was the strongest but he expended a lot of energy going into hard winds on the front.

“In the back group we collaborated in the right way and in the last five kilometres I knew I was the fastest. I took responsibility and I closed the gap when O’Connor attacked. With cold blood I let Zimmermann make his attack first – and I then went on his wheel and went full for the last few hundred metres. I crossed the line and put out all the emotion from inside and remembered the reason for this victory – a special one, for Gino.”

With the death of Swiss climber Mader – following a high-speed fall in the Tour de Suisse in June – still fresh in the collective memory of the peloton, Bilbao’s victory was a popular one in France, and came after what was arguably the most competitive and fiercely fought stages in the race so far.

Anyone tuning into Tuesday’s Stage 10 after the opening 70km – with Jumbo-Visma controlling the peloton and 14 riders with a three-minute gap further up the road – would not only have erroneously believed the race to have been rather routine but would have missed out on the most explosive two hours of racing on the 110th edition of the Tour so far.

With the first of five categorised climbs kicking off from the very beginning – and a total of well over 3,000 vertical metres in total – the battle to get in the breakaway meant fireworks from the moment the flag went down.

The incessant attacking on the front blew the peloton apart early and gave no gifts to birthday boy Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny). Along with fellow sprinter Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal-QuickStep), Ewan settled in for an extended fight to avoid the time-cut, the duo eventually coming home in the final group on the road over 34 minutes down – enough to fight another day.

That man Neilands was involved in many of the early moves as the pendulum swung and tidal waves of riders went clear and came back like the sea – a sea that couldn’t be further away from this lush, hilly region in the centre of France.

Amid rumours of a potential departure to be at his wife’s bedside ahead of the birth of their second child, Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) found himself on the front of the race – but then off the back just minutes later. The Belgian was part of a large group jettisoned by the pack when alarm bells sounded as Vingegaard and Pogacar ghosted clear over the summit of the first climb.

Both yellow and white jerseys had team-mates Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) and Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) on the right side of the split – but after some diplomacy with the remaining escapees, they agreed to drop back.

Also caught out in the second peloton were French duo Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) – despite Bardet, like Van Aert, being very much on the offensive earlier in the stage.

The tactical retreat by Vingegaard and Pogacar played into the hands of Gaudu and his Groupama team-mates, who were able to drag the second peloton back into contention after the second climb – in time to let Belgium’s Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) dart clear to pick up the final remaining point for fifteenth place in the intermediate sprint to strengthen his grip the green jersey.

If the race then settled into a pattern for a while, then it was soon enlivened once the initial breakaway and a chase group joined forces ahead of the fourth climb to form a strong 14-man move that looked certain to go the distance.

Chaves attacked on the fourth climb but was soon pegged back before Nielants put in the first of his two forays off the front with 55km remaining. With the gap around three minutes, Van Aert followed a counter-attack from his cyclocross rival Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) on the long descent to the foot of the final climb – the two quickly opening up a gap of 45 seconds on the peloton.

On the final climb, the break started to fracture under the tempo-setting of Neilands’ Australian team-mate Nick Schultz. The Latvian then dropped the hammer with 32km remaining to crest the summit with 40 seconds over his pursuers – a five-man group being driven by Bilbao.

Van der Poel and then Van Aert were both reabsorbed by the pack after their failed attempt at reviving their fortunes, while Neilands’ lead slowly came down on the long descent towards the finish in Issoire.

Without a win since before the pandemic, 28-year-old Neilands was always going to be at a disadvantage once the road flattened out – especially with the chase group under pressure from the Alaphilippe chasing group behind.

In the end, it was heartbreak for Neilands who was forced into rethinking his tactics when swept up just 3km from the finish. O’Connor went long but Zimmermann closed the gap with Bilbao on his wheel. The experienced Basque rider then waited until his German adversary launched the sprint before making his decisive kick to the line. Gino Mader would have been proud.

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