TDF 2020, Stage 16 La Tour-du-Pin – Villard-de-Lans 164 km
Kamna beats Carapaz in breakaway for stage honors. No real shake up in GC standings.
DENVER, CO – With the second Rest Day completed the 107th Tour de France enters the final phase. Now the riders dare to dream, the thought creeps into their minds: “Perhaps I will complete this Tour de France.” Yes, we come to the business end of the race, dear Readers, we can feel it winding down. Bit by bit, one by one, contenders have been eliminated from contention in many of the classifications. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and our Musketeer Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) were found out long ago, before the first Rest Day. But over the second week, we saw Romain Bardet (AG2R) abandon the race entirely due to a crash and concussion. Cofidis’ Guillaume Martin—Socrates they call him—dropped out of his Top 10 placing last week, while Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsaic) only held onto 9th Place himself after a bad day on Stage 15 which was overshadowed by another contender’s even worse day. Of course, the biggest name that was crossed off the list of contenders on Stage 15 was the young Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), the defending champion of the race, whom we shall return to later because more must be said. Meanwhile, the Green Points Jersey competition has been whittled down to 2 or 3 possible winners: Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep), Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), and possibly Matteo Trentin (CCC). The White Jersey, we must assume will not be relinquished by Tadej Pogacar (UAE), barring catastrophe. And Movistar are well in command of the “all important and sought after” Teams Classification. Yes, this is traditionally how the Tour is to work, it is a three-week race for a reason: put the contenders through the meat-grinder and let the greatest among them clearly rise to the top. Henri Desgrange, the father of the Tour de France, said his ideal Tour would be so grueling only one man would make it to Paris. The Tour has never been that selective, but it has always been grueling. This Tour has been an odyssey, as the Tour always is. The riders have endured much: they have been soaked to the bone with rain, they cannot remember all of their crashes, they have consumed more calories than a grizzly bear preparing for hibernation, they had many days where every muscle in their body pleaded to stay in bed as they woke up each morning, they have pushed their physical and psychological limits and dug deeper than ever before—and many have no results to show for it. And now, today, they wake up and believe they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, we need not keep it hushed up any longer; I have even dare mentioned it a few times on Saturday and Sunday in regard to our sprinters. The riders envision it in their minds: the Champs-Elysees, the final lap of honor in Paris, the Promised Land. O! To see that Arc de Triomphe will make all their suffering worth it, what an accomplishment that will be for every single one of them to arrive on cycling’s most hallowed boulevard after such an ordeal.
Yes, now they enter the final stretch, but they still have so very far to go. Three proper mountain stages—the second two are particularly brutal, an unpredictable hilly-rolling stage, a penultimate stage Time Trial—a Race of Truth it will be, all before they enjoy the procession and coronation on the Champs-Elysees. And all is still to play for! Sagan has not given up yet on his quest for an 8th Green Jersey; and Matteo Trentin has come into better focus taking maximum Intermediate Sprint Points today while Sagan and Bennett have scored none. Dear Readers, we have not yet talked at all of the King of the Mountains competition and its Polka Dot Jersey, but I tell you: the race is open and soon there shall be headlines. Some riders, such as sprinter Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) hope just to survive the time cuts on these mountain stages that have been raced so hard in order that he might win victory on the crown-jewel of sprints: the aforementioned Champs-Elysees. Meanwhile many teams still hunt stage honors: Bora—despite their riders’ legs of iron—still have a big goose egg on that scoreboard, and now it is Open Season for the Ineos Grenadiers who are set loose off the leash with no leader to care for. And then there is the race we all care about most: for Yellow. Many of us are confident that we shall see our first Slovenian winner of the Tour de France, but who shall it be? Primoz Roglic, champion of Slovenia and captain of the mighty Jumbo-Visma team who have ascended to the top of the sport, or Tadej Pogacar, Roglic’s “little brother” who must not be underestimated and whose limits are still unknown. Yes, they are the Alphas, but so many—Rigoberto Uran (EF), Superman Lopez (Astana), Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren)—are still within or around two minutes back of the Slovenians; just one or two brilliant efforts and they could find themselves wearing Yellow on the Champs-Elysees.
With these thoughts in mind, the riders entered Stage 16, a day for the climbers, but perhaps not decisive enough for the GC Contenders. The fight for the breakaway was fierce in the opening kilometers. With the hard-but-not-hard-enough climbs, today would be a perfect day for the peloton to ease up and let the breakaway gain 10 or even 20 minutes to fight for stage honors while the GC men saved their powder for the next two pivotal stages. Yes, this is what happened. A breakaway of some 23 riders went up the road developing a 10 to 12-minute lead over the peloton. Those talented Ineos Grenadiers had three strong riders in the move, but they were matched by those tactical masters, Team Sunweb, who got three in the break as well. Our Musketeer, Julian Alaphilippe made the group and was looking spritely and motivated, bouncing around. Bora-Hansgrohe had men in the ranks looking to finally break the stage win seal. And there were others as well, too many to name today, dear Readers. Over the early climbs veteran Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels—Vital Concept) made a splash drawing even with Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R) overall for the King of the Mountains competition as he was the first to crest two Category 2 climbs in a row that came in the middle of the stage. But the finale was fought out on the big brute of the day, a Category 1 climb called the Montee de Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte. It was here that Ineos’ Richard Carapaz put in a blistering series of attacks. First he denotated the breakaway with only Alaphilippe, Sebastian Riechenbach (Groupama-FDJ), and Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) able to stay on his wheel. With another attack, he dropped Reichenbach and our Musketeer—O! Julian, surely now it is in your best interest to focus on Paris and the Champs-Elysees, use the remaining kilometers as training for your later season objectives in Imola where the Rainbows shall be awarded, the Ardennes, and maybe even the cobbles of Flanders. Yes, alas! Alaphilippe was popped like a pastry from a toaster, but one was still on the wheel of Carapaz, and surely this rider was not thinking of Paris yet. Lennard Kamna, the agonizing runner-up in the sprint to Dani Martinez (EF) and the workhorse for Vercingetorix-Sagan into Lyon, had not yet fired all the arrows from his quiver. As the summit of the climb drew near, Kamna fired his shot and came around Carapaz. And Richard Carapaz—the 2019 Giro d’Italia champion, Ecuador’s greatest sportsman now part of the dominant Ineos Grenadiers—had no answer. Perhaps, Carapaz was not as calloused-over in these ferocious and cutthroat breakaway affairs where unbridled Herculean attacks are unleashed in bids for stage glory—he was grown too accustomed, perhaps, to the order and metronomic control at the front of the peloton. Kamna went over the top of the climb alone. But the last 20 km was not a massive descent to the finish, it was rolling terrain at the same altitude and a leg-breaking final 2.2 km Category 3 climb to finish the stage at Villard-de-Lans. A Tour breakaway expert by now, Kamna relished finally being away solo. He put 90 seconds into Carapaz and more into everyone else to finally take victory and give the Bora-Hansgrohe sponsors a celebratory victory photograph. Well done, Lennard Kamna, now you too—so accomplished, a stage victory in your first Tour—may start dreaming of Paris.
Behind, the GC favorites rode the final Category 3 climb hard as Pogacar pushed the pace, but there were no differences in time, they all finished together. One now was absent from their ranks, the man with Bib #1 on his back: Egan Bernal. To append this piece, I want to highlight the strangest sight of the day. Halfway through the stage we saw Egan Bernal, the reigning Tour de France champion for still a few days more, dropping back to the team car to grab water bottles for his teammates. It was a sight to behold, and it was a sight of a humble young man still doing his part for the team. There is a good chance this was the first race he has ever been a “watercarrier” for not just the Sky/Ineos team, but his previous teams as well where he was always a top rider, always a “star.” His bid for a second Yellow Jersey is over this year, but his race goes on. Perhaps he will ride it out anonymously, perhaps he will purposely lose more time to attain freedom to hop in a breakaway—today, he fell back into the grupetto, another place he has not often been seen. We still do not know the cause of his downfall and collapse on Sunday, it seems Ineos may not yet know either. He knew his back was affecting him, but that was not the full explanation of the “empty” feeling he had. He even admitted that all the way back in Nice, he knew it would be difficult to defend his title. He said he did not so much feel pressure wearing Bib #1—the honor accorded to the most recent Tour champion—but that he had a strong desire “to respect the race.” He said he gave this Tour everything he had, he did all he could, he fought “full gas” until the final, but others were stronger. He says he will try again, but he also reflected on his win last year when he was the first Colombian to ever win the Tour de France. He is proud of that and knows it is something no one can ever takeaway from him, even if he never wins the Tour again. As he dropped through the cars to the grupetto out the back, he seemed in good spirits, and why shouldn’t he be? He has fought bravely, he has respected and honored the great race. He will not wear Yellow again in Paris this year, but that does not mean Egan cannot enjoy being a cyclist in the grupetto or a breakaway of the Tour de France. And he, like the rest of the peloton, can dream of finally reaching Paris and the Champs-Elysees.
Cycling Odysseys 