It was a busy week of racing, but alas with no major storylines to link up a well-crafted narrative…not to say anything else previously written has been well-crafted. I was tempted to just skip, take the week off and focus my efforts on Tour preparation and other exciting events happening in my life. Ah! Ah! But on Wednesday occurred too fun an event not to cover. Thus let us do a rundown of the past week and half, if for no other reason just to have this cycling season documented.
The Tour de Suisse
The opening time trial clashed with the last day of the Criterium du Dauphine and thus held my attention not at all. Congrats to the Swiss time-trialists going well on home soil. And that’s all I have to say about that.
Alpecin-Fenix’s Mathieu Van Der Poel’s two stage wins the next two days were exhilarating displays! On the first he head-scratching-ly attacked in the final descending and flat kilometers instead of waiting for the sprint in which he was heavily favored. Ah! Ah! But this is why I call him the Madman, for such attacks bolt us upright and dazzle us perhaps greatest amongst a Great Generation of Theatric Racers. And on Stage 3, his sprint outright blew everyone’s doors’ off, even Julian Alaphilippe the Musketeer (Deceuninck-Quickstep) was handedly dusted. From winning Cyclocross Worlds, to winning Spring Classics, to podiuming Mountain Bike World Cups, and now hopping right back in to take dynamic road stages against other top men pinging on good form for the Tour: Mathieu Van Der Poel is the greatest Renaissance Man in cycling at the moment. (An Author’s Note: Still I would say his archrival Wout Van Aert holds the metaphorical “Belt”/Title of THE Swiss Army-Knife of the peloton).
EF’s Stefan Bisseger had a fun, thrilling, and well-earned stage win on Stage 4. Well done on home soil. Well done on in the wet and rain. Well executed sprint at the end. Ah! Ah! Stefan you are on your way to do even greater things!
Though many mountains had already been ridden, the first proper brutes revealed themselves on Stage 5 where Ineos’ Richard Carapaz won a thrilling stage and took the race lead. The mountainous Stage 6 went to a breakaway with UAE’s Rui Costa relegated for cutting off Andreas Korn (Lotto Soudal) in the final sprint at the mountain’s top. Thus Korn continues to built his name in the mountains of World Tour stage races, while Rui Costa showed off flying form, but without a great result.
The 23.2km Stage 7 Time Trial was interesting as it started at the base of Oberalp pass, had the riders climb all the way up the mountain, and then do the full descent down into the town of Andermatt. It was great to see Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma) return to racing and finish in the top five on the day. Bahrain’s Swissman Gino Mader impressed on home soil, ah! ah! yet another young climber’s career coming along nicely. Julian Alaphilippe was impressive in finishing second exclusively on a road bike for the entire route. In the Top 5, Carapaz as the race leader held his own extremely well in a discipline that is often the bane of South Americans. But one South American, EF’s Rigoberto Uran the Colombian—aging and eldest of their great stars—rolled back the clock to take a dominate 40 second victory over Alaphilippe and even more time on the other GC rivals.
And Stage 8 finishing over the famous San Gotthardpass with its elegantly laid cobblestones was a good show. Michael Woods (Israel Start-Up Nation) showed he is still on flying form ahead of the Tour de France, but Gino Mader showed off his descending skills into the finish to draw even with the attacking Woods and finish it off in the sprint. Behind, Uran made an attempt to overhaul Carapaz, but Richard Carapaz was too strong.
In the end, despite intriguing stage to stage stories: alas! it was the GC narrative that was lacking for this Tour de Suisse. Perhaps Alaphilippe could have shook things up on the final day, but he left the race early to be present for the birth of his first child—one thousand congratulations, Julian! Uran did was he could on the final day, but there not many fireworks. Yes, yes, Carapaz had the GC firmly in grip as soon as he took it, and even in the time trial he handled himself well. Thus, he wins the second major Tour preparation race for the Ineos Grenadiers—to match teammate Richie Porte’s Dauphine. Yes, Ineos look formidable for this Tour: Carapaz, Porte, Geraint Thomas, Tao Geoghegan Hart, and maybe even Pavel Sivakov shall enter this Tour on prime form: how shall they all get along if they have personal ambitions? Potentially a tricky question, but Ineos has already played such situations masterfully in the past. And it seems after these preparation races, Ineos is better off than their challenging superpower team, Jumbo-Visma. Jumbo’s captain, Primoz Roglic, skipped any final tune-up race before the Tour: it can be taken for granted Roglic shall be on good form, but what about his support crew? At the Dauphine and this Suisse race, none looked outstanding, flying, or riding with diamonds in their legs.
Yes, yes, beyond even Jumbo that was what made the Dauphine and Suisse GC campaigns feel relatively subdued: so many headliners were not in attendance. Roglic has opted to just continue controlled training forgoing any dress rehearsal racing. His UAE superstar Slovenian compatriot snubbed both the Dauphine and Suisse to ride his homeland’s tour as preparation. And because of the mountainous and lumpy courses of both World Tour prep races, most of the headline sprinters for the Tour went to the Baloise Belgium Tour for their final tune-up.
What transpired at the Baloise Belgium Tour is a good next topic to give musings on.
Baloise Belgium Tour
In the opening two stages, Remco Evenepeol (Deceuninck-Quickstep) rebounded and buried his disappointing Giro and Grand Tour debut. On Stage 1, he broke away with some lesser know riders to put time into any sort of GC rivals in attendance, though he only finished second in the sprint that day. But on Stage 2, he won the Time Trial to take a commanding GC lead that would not be assailed. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) took a fine pair of wins on Stage 3 and 4. And though they were fine shows, stating his sprinting dominance, Ewan and Remco and the rest of the Belgium Tour were upstaged by the news of the winner on the final Stage 5.
Quickstep’s premier sprinter Sam Bennett, who shall be leading their Tour de France squad, skipped this final prep-race that he was scheduled to ride; some sort of nagging knee problem forced him out of the action. Ah! But on the final sprint on Stage 5, there was the Deceuninck-Quickstep train in perfect position in the closing kilometers. After a last roundabout, the final kilometer was about dead straight and still Quickstep were their teeing it up for their sprinter. Who had filled the role of Quickstep sprinter at this Belgium Tour in Bennett’s absence? Yes, yes, we loved to see it: the greatest sprinter of all time Mark Cavendish the Manx Missile.
Earlier in the season he finally took his first victory in three years at the Tour of Turkey…and then he won three more Turkish stages for good measure. The wins were great, and Cav looked legitimately good despite no top tier competition. Ah! But here in Belgium was a really proving ground for old veteran Cavendish to really test his legs against most of the best sprinters in the world. It is no secret Quickstep have the best lead-out train in the world, especially when Michael Morkov is in attendance like he was this week in Belgium. Yes, yes, straight as an arrow, it was indeed a drag race down that final straight. Quickstep still had three men for the final kilometer on the left hand size of the road, but surging on the far right was the train of Alpecin-Fenix in service of Tim Merlier—a recent Grand Tour stage winner! Alpecin’s speed and gusto made it seem like they had it, even once both Merlier and Cavendish launched their own sprints. Cavendish looked good, but surely Merlier was drawing ahead—others like Ewan and Jumbo’s Dylan Groenewegen were in the hunt further behind—yes, yes, clearly Merlier must have taken the lead. Ah! Ah! But it was a drag race. Cav did not give up. Both had to gut it out with every fiber of their body to the very end of the line. But as they crossed, Cavendish knew he had it, and so did Merlier.
Cavendish was rightfully celebrating big time. The quartet of Turkey stage wins clearly gave him back his mojo, ah! but this Belgium Tour one was greater: for this was against topflight competition. O! O! It was just a dead straight road, there was little strategy Cavendish needed to do besides sit on his lead-out’s wheel. But he did it and then unleashed a pure sprint that showed he is still capable of mixing it up with the best men in the world. Ah! Full disclosure, I first regularly started watching the Tour in Mark Cavendish’s heyday: when he would take 4, 5, even 6 stage wins each Tour for HTC-Highroad some dozen to 15 years ago. To see, to see those days of yore rolled back by my original favorite rider warmed my heart immensely. Too long have I dreaded writing his retirement eulogy. Now, I am in a position to encourage Quickstep to hold onto him for a few more years, and potentially even bring him to this Tour de France alongside Bennett just to have an untamed and other X-factor option to play throughout the race if need be. Mark Cavendish, the Manx Missile, the Fastest Man on Two Wheels, ah! ah! How happy I am to see you win big once again.
Tour of Slovenia
I have no beautifully written transition into this one. I have little to even expound, muse, or comment on this race. The Slovenian crowds were great and rowdy: as they should be, for they have not one, but two stars at the top of the sport. One of them was in attendance, for he could not go even another year in his career without winning his beloved national tour. Tadej Pogacar and his whole UAE Emirates Team absolutely dominated this Slovenian Tour. Pogacar did not have any top tier GC competition, but it is safe to say based on the whole season his trajectory for a Tour title defense-tilt is going well. And the way his whole team manhandled this peloton and entire race was encouraging to see. Yes, yes, I dare say Tadej Pogacar shall have a far better squad of support at this coming Tour de France. Yes, yes, the Grenadiers and the Jumbo Wasps could have quite a bit of trouble with this UAE squad built around the man that might be the Grand Tour star of the generation.
Pogacar is on the cusp of another grueling Grand Tour, we shall return to him in less than a fortnight when he lines up in Brest. But how is another Grand Tour star of his generation making out, after already accomplishing much this season?
A Papal Visit
And thus my procrastinating has paid off, because I now get to conclude with musings on the Grenadier and out-rider of chainsaws Egan Bernal’s Wednesday day-out wearing fine street clothes. To not speak of his cycling at all makes me feel as though I am describing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, nevertheless fearlessly we press on for Egan Bernal said that the event that transpired this day was more important to him than his Giro or Tour wins. Egan is still fresh off his Giro d’Italia victory, and fresh off a Corona quarantine that he most certainly picked up from the immediate celebrations. Ah! Ah! Perhaps he hoped to contract Corona so that he was not overwhelming bombarded. Either way, after some 10 days of peace and quiet before heading to a homecoming victory parade in native Colombia, unbeknownst to anyone Bernal had a personal Papal audience scheduled!
For anyone with a decent grasp of history, it comes as no surprise to find out the Colombian Egan Bernal is a Catholic, for historically that is the default religious bet for any Colombian citizen. What must it be like for a Catholic to find out they have a personal meeting with the Pope on the horizon? What must it be like going to weekly Mass all your life, seeing the priests who were ordained by the most local bishops who were in turn ordained by the bishops before them, and they in turn, back generations, were ordained by bishops of the Old World who trace their ordination-ancestry all the way back to the Twelve Apostles, who were ordained at the Last Supper by our Lord Himself? And it is this Bishop in Rome, the Pope who is operating from the same Chair of Authority as St. Peter did, the Rock upon which Christ built His Universal Church. In this digital age, pictures of the Popes: St. Pope John Paul the Great in Egan’s youngest youth, Pope Benedict XVI for most of his adolescence, and this Pope Francis for most of his formative teenage years where he not only became a world class cyclist, but an independent young man; pictures of these holy men must have been seen in many churches and hung from all sorts of walls all over Egan’s native Colombia. What does the Pope symbolize for Colombians? Is he ultimately just another high-ranking politician to criticize and judge, like Americans do to their President of the United States? Is he a quasi-king subversively subjecting international legions of Catholics to his rule? I think for many Catholics, and for all the saints the president or king comparisons fall far short. To be sure: many, like my beloved Dante Alighieri, have been rightfully harsh critics of individual Popes of the past when the man deserved it. Not even half of all popes are canonized saints, after all, and even saints cannot fully shed Original Sin in this life. Ah! But what astute Catholics know not to do, and what most Catholics and many Catholic converts almost genetically have the intuition not to do: is criticize the Papacy, the actual office of the Pope, itself. A subtle difference to be sure. Perhaps, an anecdote from one Iranian-American’s conversion story may shed some touching light for anyone who cannot conceptualize the purpose of the Papacy. I read to you now from Sohrab Ahmari’s autobiographical conversion story, From Fire by Water, one of the great turning points in his lifelong search for Truth and even Authority was encapsulated in the moment he saw a simple picture of Pope Benedict hanging in the back of a New York City church:
“But before stepping out into the street, I went up to the little portrait of Pope Benedict XVI that hung nearby. The German pontiff was waving warmly in the picture, presumably at an adoring crowd in Saint Peter’s Square. The image sent me into another rapture of tears. Once more, I was choking back sobs and struggling to catch my breath…
‘That’s the pope, you see,’ the friar said…
‘I’m not that ignorant, old man!’ I said to myself. But all I could muster in response was a yes followed by another incoherent, teary mumble.
The friar was undeterred: ‘That’s not God, son. You see, that man’s the pope. But he’s not God.’
Of course, I knew that the pope wasn’t God! But then why had this picture brought tears to my eyes? It wasn’t so much who Benedict was—I had yet to read any of his writings—as what he stood for. For a twenty-three-year-old groping his way through the mess of modern life, and the mess he had made of his own life, Pope Benedict XVI stood for the principle of continuous, even absolute, authority—the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, in other words, which the pope embodied, and which shone through his portrait. I longed for stable authority as well as redemption.” (Ahmari, From Fire by Water, pg 147. Emphasis added)
I record all this to give some context to the standout statements Egan Bernal made about the visit, and surely Egan saw many such a portrait as this of Benedict as well a decade ago. Bernal is quoted as saying “This is more important than winning the Giro and the Tour.” He also said he was more nervous and stressed about this Papal meeting than he has ever been while riding to win a Grand Tour. Egan, Egan, really? The most stressed and nervous you have ever been was to meet an old man grand-daddy-looking figure who dresses in white everyday: this Papa Francesco, this Pope Francis who is the Bishop of Rome, the Pontifex Maximus, the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, the Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, the Vicar of Jesus Christ. O! O! Yes, yes, it seems you too, Egan, understand the gravitas of the Papacy and all that it symbolically and theologically represents.
But Egan’s nervousness did not just end there. Given the rabid popularity of cycling in Colombia, Egan Bernal is their Crown Jewel athlete. He is the first Colombian to win the Tour de France! Thus he is treated like a combination of Michael Jordan and Neil Armstrong in that South American cycling hot-zone. So when Egan Bernal went to meet the Pope, it was not just his young 24-year-old self greeting the head of the Catholic Church: he was an ambassador to the Holy See on behalf of all Colombian cyclists, on behalf of all Colombian cycling fans—which means on behalf of all of Colombia. What is Egan supposed to say on behalf of this great nation whose weight is so heavily on his shoulders? How is he supposed to introduce himself to this leader of leaders who he and his people have always held in reverence? Egan presented His Holiness with a Maglia Rosa from this Giro and a custom designed Pinarello bicycle showing off Francis’ native Argentinian Colors and the Papal Coat of Arms on the top tube; he said, “A gift from me and from all Colombians who at this time need his blessing,” for social unrest grips the country as it emerges from the COVID pandemic. Not bad Egan, not bad, I doubt I could do better.
“I had some words prepared, but I was very nervous,” said Egan. “Although once we started to speak it became easier.” Yes, yes, that is the dynamic to it all, the weight of the Papal Authority and international prestige is certainly there, but paradoxically His Holiness is at the same time still just Papa Frankie…an additional grandpa or fatherly figure for all Catholics of the world. Pope Francis was reported to have asked how many “muchos tintos”—that is Colombian coffees—Egan had needed to drink before climbing so quickly. Beyond that we do not know much about what was conversed between one South American to another, but from previous visits of others associated with professional cycling Francis has made the following favorable remarks on the sport:
“If we consider road cycling, we can see how the whole team works together during the races: the support riders, the sprinters, the climbers. They often have to sacrifice themselves for the leader, and when a teammate experiences difficulty it is the other teammates who show support and accompaniment. In life too, it is necessary to cultivate a spirit of selflessness, generosity, and community in order to help those who have fallen behind and who need help to achieve a certain goal.”
Ah! Ah! Music to my ears! What wisdom from such a noble leader! Yes, yes, such statements like this from His Holiness Pope Francis distill in poignant brevity my—and I suspect your—love for sport and especially cycling. Yes, while simultaneously being a paternal patriarch, a loving grandpa, also he is a contemporary theologian recognizing Christ and His Goodness in even seeming mundane or random exercises of physical exertion. I suspect Egan sensed this all too and more so than I the far-off commentator, I suspect too such a conversation shall further fuel his ambitious still-young career, as if the hero of Colombia needed anymore motivation. When it was all completed, Egan was quoted saying: “I was very surprised by his presence. It’s like the greatest encounter with God so far and therefore a unique experience.”
So why spend so much time on this subject? Well one answer is because Egan said it was a very important event to him, more important than winning the Giro or the Tour—such a statement could take some explaining, I have tried. Hopefully what has been presented here begins to scratch the surface how such a meeting could possibly be greater than winning the Giro or the Tour. I tried to stress the weight and humanity paradoxically both present in the Pope that Egan was so awestruck by and who he gives allegiant reverence to, for the Pope is the head of his Church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ. A second answer should be all too obvious by now: this was a self-indulgent exercise for me to muse and praise what I find to be a wonderful event; and was not this whole show developed to self-indulgently fulfill a creative itch? Such Papal Visits by cyclists come up from time to time and they always make my day without my fully knowing why. But after writing this piece, I think I am a little closer to the answer. I think this event made my day, because it supplied a harmonious feeling in my heart, for in the meeting of Egan Bernal and Pope Francis I symbolically saw two Good influences so dominant in my life warmly embracing each other.
Cycling Odysseys 