TDF 2020, Stage 12 Chauvigny – Sarran 218 km
Baby Spartacus comes of age in thrilling hilly finale into Sarran
DENVER, CO – Winston Churchill and the British people in their Darkest Hour. Unbroken’s Louie Zamperini. Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring. The Galaxy Quest crew. It is an ancient theme with countless stories, but we humans all find their resilience so inspiring, dear Readers, that most of us are always happy to hear another one. And it is one of the great beauties of cycling that we are treated to so many such shows of fortitude—sometimes multiple per day—and today was the best of the Tour thus far. After yesterday’s rulings which may have decided the winner of one of the four Jerseys at the Tour—which it must be noted, even Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) disliked the ruling because he wants to earn the Green Points Jersey himself—Peter Sagan and his Bora-Hansgrohe team did not wilt or roll over. They went right to work trying to close the Points deficit to Bennett; dear Readers, as you know I am now openly rooting for Sagan to come back into contention in this Points competition. With the hilly 60 km finale on today’s Stage, containing most notably the Category 3 climb of the Cote de la Croix du Pey followed by the Category 2 climb up the Suc au May, Bora-Hansgrohe swarmed to the front of the peloton to take up pacing duties. With these hills it was another opportunity for Sagan to score many points while Bennett, if dropped, would score none. Unfortunately, the Bora team were in a tricky position: the breakaway of 6 riders was only 2 minutes up the road. Thus when they increased the pace on the hills in order to drop all the other sprinters, they brought the breakaway back too quickly. On the lower slopes of the Croix du Pey most of the sprinters including Bennett were dropped, but the breakaway was brought to within 30 seconds which encouraged new and fresher and stronger riders to attack. It would become difficult for Bora to neutralize the attacks and maintain a peloton containing their leader, Peter Sagan who was on the rivet.
The first riders to move were Marc Soler (Movistar) and—O! dear Readers, surely you know which team will be trying something—2 Sunweb riders: Tiesj Benoot and Soren Kragh Andersen. The persistence and depth of Sunweb this Tour has been remarkable: Cees Bol 3rd in the Stage 1 sprint, Marc Hirschi 2nd on Stage 2 into Nice, again Bol 2nd on Stage 5 with a great lead out, Nicholas Roche in the strong breakaway on Stage 6, again Hirschi with the heartbreaker on Stage 9, the good lead-out train from the whole team on Stage 10. At no point have they given up or doubted. Surely this wonderful team has held their heads high knowing that if they keep putting themselves in such winning positions surely, just statistically, one of them is bound to pay off. Thus Benoot and Andersen began the assault on the last 40 km of the stage, and the other teams followed Sunweb’s lead knowing the quality of their riders to be able to make some escape stick across this rolling terrain.
Many riders tried to bridge across the gap, but dear Readers it is too difficult to even attempt to name them all. Soler went over the top of the climb solo with a few seconds lead, but he soon was caught again by a select group of the said Benoot and Andersen who were joined by Sunweb teammate Marc Hirschi, Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels – Vital Concept). All the teams knew the strength of the Sunweb trio of Benoot, Andersen, and Hirschi, and the alarm bells were sounding. A 20-or-so-man chase group, led by Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quickstep), frantically attempted to bridge the gap, but they made no inroads on the descent. And at the bottom of the Category 2 Suc du May, Benoot emptied the tank for his Sunweb teammates Andersen and Hirschi. Over the 11% gradient section, Soler attacked solo again, but Bora’s Schachmann and Sunweb’s Hirschi attempted to close the gap. Behind, the best riders were pushing on in an elite chasing group a couple dozen seconds ahead of the peloton. Jungels was done having given everything for his Quickstep teammates Dries Devenyns and—you guessed it, dear Readers—Julian Alaphilippe, our Musketeer who had bridged to this chasing group as well. But at the front of the race, Soler was caught by Schachmann and Hirschi. Immediately Marc Hirschi counterattacked…and immediately Marc Soler bowed in his in defeat. Soler knew right then the writing was on the wall, he had no hope of a Stage win when Hirschi made that sort of attack.
Marc Hirschi of Team Sunweb was solo once again at the front of the Tour de France. The Stage 9 loss in the sprint had not been easy for him to swallow, surely it would fuel him for this final 30 km escape. Soler and Schachmann were still chasing with little hope, but it was Julian Alaphlippe the Musketeer in command of the chasing group 35 seconds behind who was Hirschi’s biggest danger now. Hirschi seemed to slow, but he actually maintained the same effort while the gradients became steeper and steeper. There was a flat respite and Hirschi began motoring again, I think it was at this point, dear Readers, most of us believed this was another real-deal Marc Hirschi attack. But he was not at the top of the climb just yet, the road pitched steeply up once more. Surely, we all began to have the same thoughts: “Yes, come on Hirschi, we are rooting for you once again! And now, he is over the top. He has a good descent for a bit of recovery, and he is a fine descender.”
Ah! But dear Readers, the descending we saw from Hirschi on Stage 9 was only a B+ compared to the work he handed in today. In following coverage of Stage 9, it became apparent that it is a safe assumption that a Swissman always makes for a fine descender: for many come out of the womb with downhill skis on their feet. And like Sean Kelly to Sam Bennett, it was confirmed Spartacus Fabian Cancellara has had a hand in Hirschi’s rise…enough to consider Marc Hirschi to be a Baby Spartacus. Cresting the top of the climb, Baby Spartacus emulated his mentor’s renown bike-handling skills; he became a daredevil conserving every bit of speed he could. The corners were sharp, but Baby Spartacus nimbly skidded through a couple of them as he kept the bike upright while his brakes locked up. Unphased, Baby Spartacus plummeted downwards. O! He looked marvelous in the aero-tuck, sitting on the top tube; surely there is a new candidate for best descender in the peloton! I tell you dear Readers, flying down this descent he looked like a spacecraft re-entering the atmosphere.
At the bottom of the descent with 18 km to go Hirschi had a 35 second gap on Schachmann and Soler, a 55 second gap on Alaphilippe and his chasing group, and a 1:53 gap on the peloton containing all the GC favorites. But the run-in was not simple, the entire thing was still left-and-right, up-and-down, not a stretch of straight road, not a meter of flat. Behind, the chasing group was not cohesive and the Musketeer was forced to attack to close down the gap, but always someone from the group latched onto Alaphilippe like an anchor weighing down his progress. Our Musketeer tried three of these attacks, but to no avail, they only ended with the chasing group swallowing up Schachmann and Soler. The road would rise up and Hirschi would sustain the high tempo, never letting up for even a single pedal stroke. The road would sink down and again Hirschi would drop into the aero-tuck zipping down at the speed of sound. He was dialed in, on an all-out assault for the stage win. With 5 km to go, Baby Spartacus Hirschi still had a 39 second gap on the chasers while Alaphilippe still kept attacking them because they lacked cohesion. At this point, dear Readers, it became clear that Marc Hirschi, Baby Spartacus, could not be stopped this day, and he would not be denied the victory he had already almost tasted twice before.
What must it be like, Marc, to be on the wrong end of two thrilling finales in the span of eight days? On Stage 2, you rode with the famous Musketeer Julian Alaphilippe, but you were vanquished in the sprint. On Stage 9, you impressed us all: you were the daring man measuring a great effort for 90 km solo, only to be engulfed in the race for Yellow, and vanquished by two certain Slovenians. How did it feel on the Rest Day, Marc? Did you think you had blown your chances at this Tour? Not many riders even get two chances for the win like you had. Did you think that was it, your shots were fired, your reserves spent? This is the first Grand Tour you have ever done, your first three-week odyssey. On that first Rest Day, did you feel like an explorer on the edge of the wild about to enter unknown territory? Having never done a race longer than 10 days, did you wonder if you could keep the same form, or if you would have to enter survival mode just to make it to Paris? Were you scared you would miss opportunities to perform on such stages as this that are on paper suited to you? Perhaps, perhaps these thoughts did pop into your head on Sunday night and on Monday’s Rest Day. But it seems, I deduce with the help of your team, these doubts were shooed away. “Never give up! Never surrender.” Did you and the Sunweb team watch Galaxy Quest on the rest day and laugh from the depths of your bellies, or has the phrase been engrained in your team’s ethos? Quite frankly, Marc, you and your team came into this Tour with one of the quietest line-ups on paper, nobody expected you all to make as big of a splash as you have. But, surely, you and your teammates and your staff have been keeping morale high and not seen the missed opportunities as wasted, but as building blocks and signs that you have all been on the right track. Your power numbers have been good, the group has been gelling well. For twelve stages you guys have continued to try your luck, fired your arrows, and finally it has converted into a win today. It has been a lesson in persistence for all us viewers, and once again we are all happy to see you rise to the top—not a viewer was rooting against you today, Marc. When you started grinning with 300 meters to go, so did we. It was wonderful to see you sit up and celebrate across the line, because we had all seen it was a win earned and deserved. Congratulations, Marc Hirschi, thus far Baby Spartacus has been the revelation of this Tour.
Cycling Odysseys 