TDF 2020, Stage 13 Chatel-Guyon – Pas de Peyrol (Le Puy Mary) 191.5 km
Steep Puy Mary sees intense breakaway duel for stage honors, and catches out some GC favorites behind.
DENVER, CO – The Tour de France has entered the Massif Central. This an area suited for ambushes. No dear Readers, I speak not of highwaymen or bandits like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. A cycling ambush, where a GC hopeful gets up the road in a break that the race leader’s team has trouble bringing back. Like the finale of yesterday’s stage, all the roads are up and down, there are no flat valleys for a team or group to make a well-oiled cohesive chase back to even a semi-strong group up the road. Were Alberto Contador, el Pistolero, not retired he’d have been licking his lips seeing the profile of such a stage as this. Here was what was on the agenda for the peloton today: Category 1 climb, Category 3 climb, Category 2 climb, Intermediate Sprint, Category 3 climb, another Category 3 climb, Category 2 climb, no decent—just a few kilometers of “flat,” and finally the summit finish at the top of the Category 1 Puy Mary climb. Despite no GC ambushes, the entire stage was relentless. It was full gas from the start, by the top of the first climb Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) in the Green Jersey was already on the limit. The landscape for the first part of the stage was dominated by the most famous cycling mountain in the area: the now legally inaccessible Puy de Dome. The Puy de Dome climb is where the picture of Jacques Antiquetil and Raymond Poulidor rubbing shoulders was taken, look it up dear Readers—Google: “Anquetil Poulidor puy de dome”—it is one of cycling’s immortal photographs that deserve a whole piece of its own. And another famous incident, yes dear Readers, this was the climb where a maillot jaune wearing Eddy Merckx, the Cannibal, the Greatest of All-Time, was fighting to win his record 6th Tour de France, but was punched by a roadside fan and the incident hampered his climbing and potentially was what costed him the Tour victory. But the end of this stage would finish not on the Puy de Dome, but another “puy,” the Puy Mary. After such a long day, the first few kilometers would be bearable, but the final 2.5 km which average a grueling 12% gradient would string out the field. When asked about the stage, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) said there would be time differences today. Now apparently, dear Readers, all these “puys,” with their steep sides carved out by glacial rivers, are extinct volcanoes of old. So when asked about the stage it was fitting that Tadej Pogacar (UAE) said there would be fireworks. And the race leader, Primoz Roglic’s (Jumbo-Visma) thoughts on the stage, dear Readers? Silence.
As stated, the beginning was a furious pace, ‘twould be a brutal stage for the sprinters and their companions in the grupetto—the men off the back trying to make the time cut while the GC leaders and domestiques duke it out up front on the mountains above. But things began to settle down for a while as a breakaway went up the road. The break of 16 riders was strong with many big names making the split. But since none were GC threats, the peloton let their lead grow to be as wide as 10 minutes. With 28 km to go Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) bridged up to the American Neilson Powless (EF) to take a 25 second lead on the rest of the breakaway. This allowed Powless’ EF teammates Hugh Carthy and Dani Martinez behind in the breakaway to not help with the chasing effort, same with Schachmann’s Bora teammate Lennard Kamna. With 18 km to go, Powless and Schachmann had a 53 second lead over the chasers, but then the young American cracked leaving Schachmann to power on alone. As soon as Powless their teammate had cracked, behind Carthy and Martinez came to the front of the group to help chase down the powerful Schachmann. At the front with them were Movistar’s Marc Soler—yes, the one who was vanquished yesterday with Schachmann by Marc Hirschi (Sunweb)—and Quickstep’s Alaphilippe the Musketeer. With the raising of the pace, this large group of chasers became more elite by the meter. Finally, it was whittled down to EF’s Martinez, Bora’s Kamna—doing no work at all with his teammate up the road, Movistar’s Soler, and the Musketeer. But alas! Alaphilippe cracked and soon after so did Soler. With 13 km to go EF’s Dani Martinez would have to chase down Bora’s Max Schachmann while Schachmann’s Bora teammate Lennard Kamna sat on his wheel for the entire ride up. If Martinez was up to the task, what a finale this would be!
Dani Martinez, the Colombian and recent surprise winner of the Criterium du Dauphine—the final preparation race for the Tour, was now outnumbered in a fight for stage honors with two Germans of the Bora-Hansgrohe team. The German up the road, Max Schachmann was the winner of Paris-Nice, the last race before lockdown, O! he was on flying form for that one! Meanwhile the one Martinez towed behind, Lennard Kamna, was a stage winner at the aforementioned Dauphine. Success at the Dauphine implies flying form so perhaps Martinez, with Kamna on his wheel, was up for this bridge to Schachmann. Schachmann had already been engaged in a hard-fought battle the day before only to be broken by Hirschi, and his lead up to the Tour did not contain Dauphine success but an unfortunate collar-bone injury when a local illegally driving on a race course knocked him over with their car. And yet Schachmann looked strong now! But Martinez, who had crashed on Stage 2—ruining his GC prospects, looked up to the task of catching him. Why! Martinez looked so undaunted at the challenge that lay before him, it was remarkable. Dear Readers, in case this is not clear: the number one rule of racing is to not chase down your teammates up the road, do not lower his chances by bringing more rivals up to him; sit-in on people willing to drag you up, and it is acceptable to bridge over to one up the road solo, but you must not drag any others with you. Therefore it was not even a question that Kamna would sit in and let Martinez do all the work. Now on steep climbs like these, sitting-on isn’t particularly easy, but ‘tis still easier than riding on the front.
Unphased by any of this, Martinez gobbled up Schachmann’s 53 second lead across the rest of the stage. It took him until 1700 meters to go and by then they were on the steepest gradients of the climb, but he caught him. Now, dear Readers, you think this should be an easy win for this Colombian Martinez: why, all those Colombians are all so small and skinny, so light and their limbs are twigs, they’re perfect specimens for these steep goat-track mountain climbs. A common misconception, dear Readers, a common misconception. The Colombians are unsurprisingly from Colombia where they train on not these extremely steep but relatively short climbs. Colombia is a country in the high Andes, a mountain range that only the Himalayas can dwarf. Why, these Colombians train and race on climbs that are 40, 50, 60 km long and reach altitudes over 3000 meters high; the most revered of these climbs is Alto de Letras—80 km long, with an elevation gain of more than 4000 meters when all is accounted for. Does it make sense now, dear Readers, when in the 1980’s the first great Colombian cyclist, Lucho Herrera—what a pioneer he was—said all the climbs in France were too short for the Colombians to excel? My dear Readers, the Colombians, due to their training grounds, are made to be diesel engines who can climb for hours and hours, perhaps days and days. Well despite these historical facts, our man Martinez was still up for this today. Surely he knew that once he caught Schachmann, the relatively “fresh” Kamna, who had been sitting in conserving as much energy as possible, would put in a searing attack to drop him completely; this is what happened, dear Readers. Kamna dug deep and launched the big attack, but Martinez was onto it. Schachmann looked done, but actually caught back on only for Martinez to ratchet up the pace too high again. Again Kamna attacked and Martinez covered. Then Martinez tried his luck, but Kamna responded and caught back on. This dear Readers, was a boxing match on wheels—between the featherweights, of course. Into the last 400 meters, both with their hands on the drops, both ready for some final sprint. And then Kamna went with his strongest attack yet! Martinez was barely able to jump into his slipstream, but he made it. He made it and had the strength to counter and come around him to take the sprint victory! O! How the Colombians would be so happy as they always are when one of their own takes a victory. But down the slopes, the Colombian fans had many GC contenders to worry about! Today, dear Readers, we were treated to two races for the price of one.
As Martinez was crossing the line in victory, behind the fireworks were finally exploding. Dear Readers, while the cameras were focusing on the men vying for stage honors some events behind must be pieced together and inferred. By this time, the favorites were all on their own, all domestiques long shelled and cooked except for notably Colombian Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) working for Egan Bernal and American Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) working for Primoz Roglic wearing the maillot jaune. As Martinez launched his sprint, below Tadej Pogacar launched a decisive attack. What was not clear until after Martinez crossed the line is that Sepp Kuss must have done a last Herculean turn for Roglic, because on the replay it was clear that Carapaz was pacing Bernal’s White Jersey a couple of dozen meters behind the peloton when Pog attacked. The only man who was a match for Pog was Rog, the Slovenian pair would once again be the men of the match. All the other GC rivals behind were in trouble: Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Mclaren), and Superman Lopez (Astana) chased 30-50 meters behind but the gap seemed a chasm on the steep grades; and behind them Bernal was scrambling to catch up with Rigoberto Uran (EF), and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsaic) was still even further behind them. Pog and Rog, both traded turns as they twisted the screws on the others. Surely, in that moment it was in the interest of both to press on the attack and even drop the other if possible, but dear Readers an idea of a soft brotherly rivalry is developing in my eyes: Rog the elder trying to remain top dog as long as possible before the younger Pog reaches maturity and comes to his full powers. On they sailed away from their GC rivals, Rog doing the majority of the work with his high cadence and metronomic rhythm, why, the younger Pog could barely latch on for the ride! And behind? Porte seemed to make some inroads, but it was not enough. And all the Colombians behind were truly in a hurt-locker.
None looked worse than Egan Bernal. No dear Readers, it was not because of his crappy haircut—the untidy buzzing of the sides and back was a “recovery” of his own mistake while attempting to cut his own hair on the Rest Day. Bernal looked the worst, dear Readers, because this was the first time we ever saw him appear so vulnerable. “This is Egan Bernal, winner of the 2019 Tour de France,” we thought. “He wears the #1 on his back, he is in the White Jersey of Best Young Rider, but surely that will be on Pogacar’s shoulders tonight at this rate! Why is he in so much difficulty? Has he gotten his nutrition wrong today, is he bonking? He is the leader of the mighty Ineos Grenadiers, the masters of the Tour for a decade, but in such a crazy year is this team of teams not fully prepared and up to top-snuff?” Yes, yes, Egan Bernal was in trouble and it was strange to see. The defending champion, the first of that great cycling nation to win the most prestigious race of them all, the youngest Tour winner of the Post-War Era, did not have the strength of the Slovenians on these steep slopes. I told you dear Readers, these gradients are not the Colombians’ natural habitats, but that does not mean Bernal could give up nor did he want to. He fought on, though it was plain for all to see he was having a bad day. Perhaps like Samson when his hair is cut he loses his strength? He almost reached Superman and Landa and Porte…but no, more accelerations and he was struggling behind again. “What a world of pain he must be in today,” we said. Yes, yes, the physical pain is excruciating, but psychologically is it quite a blow to see your rivals looking strong, so far ahead, already out of sight!
At the finish line Rog was sprinting for more seconds and Pog could barely hold his wheel and then the countdown started for all the GC rivals behind. Porte and Landa finished only 13 seconds down, a great recovery; with Superman only a further 6 seconds back. And then the clock continued to click, second by second. We could see him, but still it felt like a lifetime for him to get to the line. An agonizing 38 seconds behind Rog and Pog, Egan Bernal—the defending champion—“limped” over the line with Rigoberto Uran. His tank was empty, he was physically spent and psychologically drained, this was quite a blow to his Yellow Jersey defense. And now he is out of the White Jersey too, that did in fact transfer to the shoulders of Pogacar who has moved up to second overall on GC. Dear Readers, the GC looks very interesting now: Roglic in Yellow, Pogacar 44 seconds behind and now in White, Bernal in third at 59 seconds down, Uran 1:10 back, Quintana at 1:12, and Superman at 1:31. Do you see it? It goes: Slovenian, Slovenian, Colombian, Colombian, Colombian, Colombian; never have we seen such a thing on the Tour de France, never have we seen or would have expected these countries to dominate in such a way just a few years ago! But where does this leave one of the Colombians of this tale, the one that is the defending Tour champion? His team worked hard for him today, surely the plan had been for Egan to create gaps in front of the Slovenians. But there are higher mountains to come in the Alps, high passes most like to the Colombian climbs that we shall find anywhere in France. But he shall have to attack hard, as he did last year on Stage 19 where surely he would have won the stage and taken minutes on every GC rival if the stage had not been stopped for landslides and storms up ahead. Last year, in the third week Bernal’s Tour winning move was stymied and we were robbed of an epic end to the greatest Tour in a generation. But now, now, we are in a position that if Bernal is to come back and win this Tour, why, he will need to out do the performance he was in the process of unleashing last year. Can he do it this year? Currently it seems a very big ask. The first thing on the agenda will be to drop both Pog and Rog, a very tall order for both have looked bulletproof in the mountains thus far. But the third week of this Tour is tough, surely the riders will be going to dark places physically. And truly these steep goat-tracks are both the Slovenians’ bread-and-butter, but the high passes of the Alps to come are surely Egan’s.
Cycling Odysseys 