TDF 2020, Stage 10 ile d’Oleron – ile de Re 168.5 km
Sam Bennett wins sprint after nervous day on the Tour de France
DENVER, CO – Dear Readers, today we traded out helicopter shots of beautiful chateaus for picturesque and epically situated lighthouses. The Tour de France has come to the coast on the Rest Day, on the harsh Bay of Biscay on the west coast of France near La Rochelle. The hope for the viewers was that the winds would blow and we would feast for hours on another day of crosswinds. This was not the hope of many of the riders in the peloton. Whether the crosswinds would materialize or not, this would be a nervous day in the bunch. Perhaps it is bad etiquette to give a preamble about things I will not be focusing on, dear Readers, but quite frankly this is my report and I am free to write about what I wish, and you are free to read it or not. I had thought to tell the tale of the stage from Richie Porte’s (Trek-Segafredo) point of view, for crosswinds and cobbles and descents are the bane of his racing existence. Or perhaps focus on Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) who had a mechanical or crash at an inopportune time when the potential for crosswind splits was highest, O! how frightening that must have been as he lies 3rd Overall on GC. Though I have not experienced it myself, the point would have been to give a sense of the stress and nerves for a General Classification (GC) rider on a day where if they are out of position they could lose their high placing within minutes despite being on great form. The crosswinds today did not materialize, but that would not have deterred me from trying to get into the head of a nervous GC rider. What did deter me was the winner’s interview.
Now, now, dear Readers, surely the theme of the story I am about to tell could generically be applied to literally every stage winner of the Tour de France. But sometimes we, all of us, viewers, commentators, journalists, team staff, race organizers, and riders themselves, go through the motions of a typical Tour de France stage—especially on a transitional one like this was—and we forget to acknowledge that many of these days are a seminal event in someone’s life. But every once in a while, we are pinched by a moment of real humanity that moves us all so deeply as we realize that the culmination of someone’s career has just transpired. Dear Readers, today it happened in an unlikely place: on the immediate post-race winner’s TV interview. Quite frankly, such things are usually dull affairs like, for example, when it is one or two certain Slovenians who put up a brick wall between their thoughts and emotions and all the viewers get to see is a blank poker face giving short, generic answers to basic questions with no elaboration of any sort. Sorry to pick on Pog and Rog, they are not the only guilty ones, most of the interviews go this way…but not today’s. Today’s interview stopped us all in our tracks as we were about to go back to normal life, it reminded us that even though 99 out of 100 of these interviews will be bland and useless, just 1 out of 100 can make it all worth the effort. But I am going out of order, dear Readers, allow me to rewind just a few minutes.
It was a fast day for the entire stage, because the crosswinds were a constant threat. Despite it all, everything basically stayed together for a final sprint. Sunweb had the superb lead out train again for their man Cees Bol, they controlled the last whole 4 km with 6 or 7 of their teammates. But deep into the final kilometer Bol’s last lead-out man peeled off the front and up came Deceuninck-Quickstep’s final lead-out man, Michael Morkov. It was a straight shot, the pace was already high and no one would be coming past him. Behind Morkov was his sprinter, Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep), the champion of Ireland, how magnificent the Shamrock Jersey looked. But behind Bennett, cool and comfortable in perfect place on his wheel was the Pocket-Rocket, the champion on Stage 3, Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal). How he weaved with such speed in Stage 3 to come back from so far down, why it was like the Millennium Falcon in an asteroid field! If he could overtake Bennett and so many others on that stage, surely Bennett was in trouble today as Ewan sat on his wheel. And yet, Bennett did what he must, surely he could not win if he did not try. Morkov peeled off, Bennett launched his final kick. It was a straight shot, Ewan was in his slipstream, and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) was in Ewan’s. It was a clean sprint, a fair gallop, pure sprinting, the beauty of all athleticism in a microcosm. Bennett was accelerating, Ewan coming out of the slipstream to the left was also accelerating and faster, while Sagan was coming on his right. But neither had enough room or acceleration to come around. Bennett beat Ewan by a quarter of a wheel, and Sagan by a full length. Bennett sat up and gave a little fist pump in the air. Ewan gave him a quick handshake, because he knew Bennett had it. Dear Readers, it almost seemed like a routine affair, very little glamor was involved, it was just fundamental sprinting. And it was just another transition stage smack-dab in the middle of the circus that is the Tour de France. We watched the replays a couple more times, checked the results and fantasy scores, then that’d be a wrap. “What’s the profile for tomorrow, something a little more interesting than today, please? O! well, what’s for dinner tonight? Pasta sounds good.” We were all about to flick off the pictures and move on, but something weird caught our eye, dear Readers.
As I said, Bennett gave a minor fist pump at the finish, Ewan offered a handshake or fist bump as they freewheeled past the photographers in an act of good sportsmanship, but beyond that Bennett was not celebrating too much. Sam! O! Sam! Are you not aware that you just became the 100th rider to win a stage of all three Grand Tours? O! Sam, are you not aware that you have just won a stage of the Tour de France for the first time ever? Dear Readers, I concluded he wasn’t. There must have been a couple things going on in his head. He is a sprinter by trade, his life revolves around being in position for crazy-fast finishes. There is hours lead up to them, but on a superb team like Quickstep, his teammates will guide and protect him until the finale. It is in those final kilometers where he really switches “ON,” when he “gets in the zone,” flow they call it. In flow, he is completely focused on the task at hand: he is only trying win a sprint as he has won so many before. He no longer remembers the nervous hours he’s already ridden in the winds. He no longer remembers it is Stage 10 of the 2020 Tour. He no longer remembers it is even the Tour de France, the biggest bike race in the world. It is simply a bike race and he wants to win it. He is completely dialed in, sensing and accounting for everything. He’s acutely aware of his rivals, he knows who is on his wheel, he knows when his lead out man will peel off the front, and he is prepared to spend every ounce of energy he has in the final kick to win where he must hold off the rivals behind benefitting in his slipstream. He crossed the line, and he knew he had won…hence the fist pump and the accepting of Ewan’s congratulations. But then, dear Readers, life started to come flooding back to him. He remembered this wasn’t just any bike race. This was the Tour de France, had he really just won a stage? He doubted. Denial. He doubted, because he admitted in the interview that he was scared that Ewan beat him in the bike throw, that he did not lunge his front wheel out far enough at the line and Ewan’s snuck past his. Had he blown it again, lost to Ewan again like he definitively did on Stage 3? But then the confirmation came, a masked race official came over to him and confirmed the win. Then he started celebrating: high-fives and hugs with his teammates, cheers and shouts of joy; and it was time for the winner’s interview as he had done many times before at other races big and small.
He came to the interview saying he was in shock, because he thought Ewan won with the bike throw, with the little lunge at the end. The interviewer had to assure him, “You’ve won, I’m telling you: you’ve won.” And then we saw it, dear Readers, we were glued to the screen…dinner can wait. Despite the mask covering most of his face, we saw it in his watery eyes. Now the emotions were overwhelming him. Now he wasn’t just acknowledging he had won another stage, he realized he had won a stage of the Tour de France. “You’ve been waiting for this for such a long time,” the interviewer prompted. Looking into his eyes we saw the achievement of a lifetime, a childhood dream fulfilled. He was tearing up. He was thanking everyone involved, he was thanking his whole team, his team-boss Patrick Leferve for the opportunity, everyone it took to get to here: his wife, and everyone around him. His sentences were broken, he couldn’t control his emotions, only an Irishman’s face could go so red.
“You dream of it and you never think it will happen. And. It does, and it did. I don’t know, it took me a while for it to hit me.” Bennett said.
Yes, yes, “You dream of it…” Young Sam Bennett was from the same town as Sean Kelly, King Kelly, the greatest cyclist Ireland’s ever known. Surely, Sam Bennett had a poster of him over his bed. Surely, Sam Bennett watched the replays on TV of his greatest wins. He was not even two years old when Kelly descended the Poggio to win the 1992 Milan-Sanremo on St. Patrick’s Day with clover in his back pocket—his last big win—but surely he had seen the finish a hundred times before he was a teenager. And surely, he had seen the footage of Stephen Roche winning the 1987 Tour as well. Yes, those two inspired a generation to dream. Yes, yes, he said it himself: “You dream of it…” Surely, surely, the young Sam Bennett wished upon a star that someday he would win a stage of the Tour de France. And he took the steps for it to become a reality: the legendary Kelly—from the same town—became his mentor, took him under his wing, guided him, set him up for success at the highest levels of the sport, from amateur to World Tour and Irish Champion. And yet…
“…you never think it will happen.” As he DNFed his first Tour de France. As he hobbled through his second injured and bruised to finish the lanterne rouge, the Red Lantern, the caboose, last place at the Tour de France. As he won multiple Giro stages in 2018, but was not even sent back in 2019 by Bora-Hansgrohe, even though he had won a stage in every race he had partaken that year: relegated to the mountainous Vuelta a Espana as his only Grand Tour of the year. As he did everything right and had all the speed on Stage 3 in this race, but someone was still faster. How many times does he have to keep trying? How many more setbacks will he have to face?
But finally, finally, after thinking it’s never gonna happen: “It does, and it did. I don’t know, it took me a while for it to hit me.” Sam, today your dreams are reality, but you do not need us to tell you that. Instead it deeply moves us to witness you realize it for yourself. We are reminded of our own childhoods, sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching the big games and big races: our heroes hit the home run, hit the buzzer beater, cross the line first; and we dreamt someday we could do that. For one reason or another, that was not the path for the vast majority of us, and yet we see it become a reality for someone like you and it fills us with pure joy. We appreciate and love seeing your hard work pay off and your dreams come true. The ecstasy of victory, watch it again, dear Readers, O! see how the grown man cannot control his emotions…and that is a beautiful sight. Sam, we saw it in your eyes: everything that got you to this point was flashing in those watery circles. Again, dear Readers, I’m sure this sounds cliché, but we certainly do not appreciate this every time. Just one stage ago, on Stage 9, Tadej Pogacar (UAE) took his first Tour stage as well, but these emotions did not flood our hearts then. But here, Sam made us remember why we waste our time with these silly two-minute interviews. And I tell you, dear Readers, just as young Sam was inspired by the footage of Kelly and Roche, and Abdujaparov and Museeuw after them: today, a young child was inspired by Sam. Today a young child in Ireland watched that sprint and that interview and made it their dream to win stage of the Tour de France just like you, Sam.
Congratulations, Sam! We do not need to tell you to savor the victory. But I and the dear Readers will tell you: stay sharp! Do not lose your focus, this is not yet the time to rest on your laurels for you are now back in the Green Jersey! The Stage dream is fulfilled and it was beautiful to see, but now you must refocus on defeating the mighty one, a former teammate, who has worn Green for so long before. To wear such a jersey in Paris, would that be beyond your wildest dreams?
