Change—Laval, 27km ITT
There was that rarified Grand Tour—or more particularly Tour or Giro—air to this Time Trial. Quite frankly in one week stage races it is an anomaly for a Time Trial Stage to actually hold my attention, let alone keep me at the edge of my seat. When the Time Trial is the first day of a stage race there is rarely a coherent flow to the starting order. Not all the General Classification (GC) contenders are grouped together, nor the Time Trial specialists, and interspersed are loads of riders who are just trying to take the TT as easy as possible to better serve the team in days to come. A TT midweek of a weeklong stage race usually just comes off as a business day hassle, especially if a proper mountain stage has not been tackled to establish a legitimate GC pecking-order: I will not watch to be entertained, but to be an amateur cycling scout trying to glean insights into riders’ form. Finally, a final day TT of a weeklong stage race can be excited if the Overall GC win is still up for grabs, but even often then the magnitude and gravitas of the TT is not emphasized. That all changes at every TT at the Giro and Tour…and perhaps the Vuelta if the right circumstances are met. When the Giro and Tour routes are announced, one of the immediate questions all ask is how much TT-kilometers there are this year. They see how many Time Trials there are, and where they are placed on the route. Is there a Prologue or Opening Stage TT? Is there a dramatic Final Stage or Penultimate Stage TT? Is there a TT in the third week? How much elevation change is in the course? Very quickly, at the Giro and Tour, the race strategy is built around the Time Trial stages. The good time-trialists and their staffs begin to calculate how much of a lead they can build in a first week Time Trial, and then how much time they can afford to lose in the mountains before a final Time Trial in the third week where they can make up the losses to purer climbers. Those who cannot produce a good Time Trial are doing the opposite: how much do we expect to lose in the an early TT? In a final TT? How much time must we find in the mountains to counterbalance this?
In this very symmetrical and traditional 108th Tour de France, there are two Time Trial Stages. The first here today on Stage 5, and one of similar length all the way at the end of the Tour on the Penultimate Stage 20. Besides the occasionally 15km or less opening stage Time Trial, for the past decades it seems Tour Race Director Christian Prudhomme has shied away from first week individual time trials. Perhaps this was from the nightmares they caused in the Indurain and Armstrong eras. In those days, amidst or after a full week of flat sprinters’ stages, a proper long and flat time trial would be tackled before any serious mountain ranges were traversed. The idea being: this would establish an early GC pecking order, this would give the GC-climbers impetus to attack in the mountains immediately to open up the race. It is intriguing thinking, but it proved too optimistic. Year after year, Miguel Indurain in his era, and Lance Armstrong in the era after would thoroughly dominate this first week time trial to build up a multi-minute lead on their top GC competition before the first mountain ranges were even crossed. Then in the mountains, the idea of seeing the GC-climbers attack would fail to launch as Indurain and Armstrong with their strong teams would keep everything reasonably in check that no GC contender could actually put a serious dent into their lead. Yes, this led to uncompelling GC campaigns for much of the Indurain and Armstrong eras: the most interesting Tours were at the beginning and end of these eras when dominance was being established or power was shifting. So how would this Tour fare with the first reintroduction of a proper first week Time Trial for more than a decade?
As stated there was that heightened sense of intensity and purpose to this TT all day, no business-end procedural feel, but a crucial day of examination. In the European Champion’s Skinsuit, the Swiss Stefan Kung (Groupama-FDJ) set an early best mark of 32:19 for the 27km rolling Time Trial that was Stage 5 of the 2021 Tour de France. With many specialized time-trialists already finished for the day, this seemed it would be the time for any top GC rider and The Swiss Army Knife of the peloton, Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), to beat. The course was by no means pan flat, and it was fairly technical with a handful of tricky corners to navigate. Luckily there were only a few crashes today, but the bigger intrigue was how the riders who have already crashed heavily would fare today.
It was Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) who kicked off affairs for the true-blue Overall Tour contenders. For of course with his time loss from the Stage 3 crash, he was the GC contender most already behind the eight-ball. How would the injuries affect him? We all saw on social media how bandaged up his entire left side was. Was he riding to take back time on his rivals, or just to hold his own and limit his losses? Roglic came out of the gates swinging. He proved his Relentless nickname once more. Up, down, all around. He scorched through the first half of the course and it did not seem he had any sort of injuries. Roglic’s progress slowed in the second half, but given the injuries he came in a highly respectable 25 seconds down on Kung to set the GC riders’ benchmark.
Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) who had suffered from a dislocated shoulder on Stage 3 could not best Roglic’s performance, he came in over 30 seconds behind the Jumbo leader. His Grenadier teammate Richard Carapaz the Ecuadorian climber fared even worse: a full minute behind Primoz Roglic. Richie Porte proved best of the Grenadiers, but still even he was bested by Roglic by 10 seconds. Beyond the Ineos Grenadiers, Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-Nippo) would probably walk away from the day with an average performance, ten seconds ahead of Geraint Thomas. Total Energie’s Pierre Latour would probably consider this a good outing for himself, finishing in that Thomas/Uran pack. Roglic’s teammate Steven Kruijswijk the Human Coat-hanger cannot be happy with his performance, nor could Bora’s Wilco Kelderman, nor either of Movistar’s GC riders Enric Mas or Superman Lopez. Of course there were remarkable time trial performances from lesser domestiques, but it seemed many of the GC riders were coming up flat. Roglic had held his own or took back time on them, and all that remained was to see how well the other mighty Slovenian would go, and who would keep or take the Yellow Jersey between Mathieu Van Der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix), his archrival Wout Van Aert, and Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep)—three of the top showmen of the sport.
Julian Alaphilippe put in an average or slightly below average performance. Perhaps there was some control and measurement to the performance, but there was absolutely no Zip, and little panache compared to the 2019 Pau Time Trial he unexpectedly dominated. Alaphilippe would finish around Rigoberto Uran 1:11 down on the winner of the stage. Julian was second on GC to begin the day, and with this performance he is still in a good GC position. Was he tired from the wild opening days? Winning on Stage 1, defending Yellow on Stage 2, surviving crashes on Stage 3, and supporting Quickstep teammate Cav on Stage 4? Or was he riding controlled to not over exert himself so that he can mount a real long-play GC campaign. For him to carry the weight of Yellow for the entire Tour as he attempted in 2019 would prove another massive weight and fanfare exercise. Perhaps if he really wants to take a shot at winning this Tour Overall, he must maintain a high place and yet also bide his time for a deeper run into the race. We shall continue to keep tabs on Julian Alaphilippe’s mysterious or day-to-day GC campaign, but today he was overshadowed by others.
Ah! Ah! How I hoped to write about the showdown for Yellow between the Renaissance Madman and The Swiss Army Knife of the peloton. O! For surely such titles and monikers need some more fleshed-out distinction for the casual listener—yes, both imply massive versatility and range, but what’s the intricate differences between them? How sweet it would have been to chronicle another definitive chapter in their career long rivalry-saga: the day Wout Van Aert took the Yellow Jersey off the shoulders of Mathieu Van Der Poel in the time trial discipline which Wout has proved himself a master in recent years. To see these archrivals each take Yellow for the first time in the same Tour surely would be a thrilling sight. But this did not happen today at least. Wout rode well, but there was no winning air, no larger-than-life quality today; he seems to be missing that extra something special so far this Tour. He finished a respectable 4th place on the day, only 11 seconds behind Stefan Kung who has been a top time trial rival all season. But, but, in an act that allowed him to solidly maintain the upper-hand in the already decade-long rivalry: Mathieu Van Der Poel the Renaissance Madman with the Yellow Jersey on his back put in the Time Trial ride of his life. Van Der Poel was the last off for the day. His mechanics and his team staff had worked large amounts of overtime to get the finest equipment in the world shipped in and prepared overnight on his TT bike so that he could give his best defense of the Yellow Jersey. Van Der Poel rode his heart out, with the strength of two men as is so often the case for many who wear the Yellow Jersey. In my opinion, Mathieu Van Der Poel is the greatest bike handler of all endurance-cycling disciplines, finally it was time to show those skills for the first time on a time trial bike. Of course, Van Der Poel has ridden time trials in the past, but never has he been in such a weighty position as this. As I was saying at the beginning, always they have been a throw-away business day for him to go through the motions, this was his first TT examination. He gave it everything, he railed the corners, took time when the road pitched down, accelerated and gobbled up the rises. The fact that the cyclocrosser Wout Van Aert is good at high intensity time trials often of similar duration to a Cross race: in reality should never have been a surprise to anyone. Thus today, as Wout Van Aert apparently said in a finish line quote: this was the first TT Van Der Poel has ever had to do full gas…it was no surprise Van Der Poel also put in a studly performance as well. Yes, yes, Wout Van Aert looked standard or slightly above average, he looked controlled but spent from an evenly measured effort. But Van Der Poel looked the like ferocious Madman he is riding against the wind for his life; boxing and smashing his way up every hill, with as much intensity and urgency as one could possibly have. And despite these contrasting styles today: Mathieu Van Der Poel still finished within 1 second of Wout Van Aert. Ah! Ah! They really do feed off each other, their fates really are inseparably intertwined; and I have said it before, and I will say it again: I do believe they are both better off for it. Now with all of that said, part of the reason Van Der Poel rode with such apparent urgency and intensity today was that another really was on his way to stripping the Yellow Jersey off his back.
The ride of the day came from the stage winner, by process of elimination by now you must know of whom I speak: the defending Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE). He was on course around the same time as Wout Van Aert. Van Aert actually started after him which is perhaps why Wout’s TT seemed a relevantly subdued and quiet affair: by the time Wout set an impressive time at the Intermediate Time Checks comparable to Stefan Kung, Tadej Pogacar had already just ridden through and blown them all out of the water. At the beginning of the day, Mathieu Van Der Poel had a 39-second GC lead on Pogacar, by the end of this time trial Van Der Poel’s gap was cut down to just 8 seconds…and Van Der Poel had put in a Top Five ride on the day. Yes, yes, for the second time Tadej Pogacar has absolutely smashed a Tour de France TT, he beat second place Stefan Kung by 19 seconds to finish in a time of 32:00. And with this performance Tadej Pogacar has confirmed he is the man to beat this Tour de France.
His ride today was not really much of a surprise, because no one shall ever forget his La Planche TT from last year. The head scratcher is that his Time Trial performances in the Spring Stage races have not been in that La Planche stratosphere. Perhaps he has just raised the level of his game for this Grand Tour? Thinking the best defense was offense today? Either way, with such a performance he cemented that rarified Grand Tour TT air, he showed off that infamous compatriot-slaying form from last year. Van Der Poel may still hold Yellow by 8 seconds, but now Tadej Pogacar is at the top of the pecking order: 28 seconds on Van Aert, 40 seconds on Alaphilippe, 1:20 on Pierre Latour, 1:21 on Rigoberto Uran, 1:36 on Richard Carapaz, 1:40 on his Slovenian “older” brother Primoz Roglic, 1:46 on Geraint Thomas, and any other wannabe GC rider is already over 2 minutes back. Yes, for the past week leading up to this race Tadej Pogacar has had that Young Beowulfian spirit about him. His heroic rise was well documented and seen over the course of last year’s Tour de France where he went from talented boy star to the proven champion. He has entered this Tour with the expectation to build up his legacy or even establish his dynasty. And now today he has finally entered that frontier of being the undisputed marked man: every single target is on him. He has the commanding lead, this year he shall not ride on the Jumbo coattails. As was expected before the race began, he and his UAE team now take on the full weight of the defense. It is up to the Grenadier Armada perhaps in conjunction with the Jumbo-Visma Wasps to slay this marked-man Tadej Pogacar. Does Pogacar have the strength and tactical prowess to defend his advantage all the way to Paris now—as Indurain and Armstrong did of old? Is he really a class above the rest, like he showed in this TT? Or will some sort of coordinated GC effort against him from all his rivals prove too much for the still young Pogacar and his yet unproven UAE team? Yes, yes, in a way the Tour de France has now really just begun: for the next fortnight Pogacar and the UAE team shall be put to rigorous test after rigorous test. Perhaps the rivals shall not be able to coordinate a proper challenge, and like many of the Indurain and Armstrong Tours the red-hot favorite has already won the Tour before it really got going. But should his rivals play their cards right and throw everything at him, Tadej Pogacar really will need that Young Beowulfian strength to begin establishing his dynasty.
Cycling Odysseys 