El Pas de la Casa—Saint-Gaudens, 169km
With a Category2, a Category1, another Category2, and a tricky Category4 in the finale, we thought or hoped it would be the pen-penultimate round of the battle for Polka-Dots today. But as the breakaway was forming, Jumbo’s Wout Van Aert was monitoring affairs, but did not roll the dice. The other KOM Hunters—Bahrain’s Wout Poels, ISN’s Mike Woods, and Arkea’s Nairo Quintana—were no where to be seen today to monitor the break. If one had made the break, surely he would have mopped up many KOM Points for this was a day the break was nailed on to stay away to the finish. But should one of the four KOM Hunters have escaped, at what cost would this have come for the final two rounds tomorrow and Thursday where more weighty and higher ranking mountains loom? We shall not find out, because the KOM Hunters called a truce. There would be no race for the Polka-Dots today…but there would be for Green.
Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quickstep) currently wears the Green Jersey, four stage wins on flat stages really helps straggle the hold of it. Pure sprinting opposition has been decimated this Tour, and even Monsieur Green Jersey Peter Sagan the Rockstar (Bora-Hansgrohe) has gone home to have surgery on his knee from his Stage 3 crash. Thus Cav’s two biggest challengers for Green have become Bahrain’s Sonny Colbrelli and BikeExchange’s Michael Matthews (who won Green in 2017); neither by any means pure sprinters. They are in a similar mold to Sagan where they are deadly if there is any sort of kick to the finish, or if it is a reduced bunch sprint. They do not have the pure speed, but they can get over some climbs that the pure sprinters like Cav could not pray to crest with a peloton. A la the Rockstar Peter Sagan, their hope for Green has been maxing out Green Jersey Points available at the Intermediate Sprints, and then finishing as respectably high as possible on all the sprint days. But when the most Green Jersey Points are available on the completely flat finishes, and the Manx Missile has dominatingly won four of the six of those thus far, and kept decently competitive at the other Intermediate Sprints…it has begun a tall order for anyone to strip Green off of Cav’s shoulders. At the beginning of today’s stage: Cav had 279 Points, Matthews 207, and Colbrelli 159. For much of the second week, many of us thought Cav’s biggest rival for Green has not been Colbrelli, Matthews, or even himself, but the dreaded time-cut on mountain stages. The time-cut is based on a percentage of the stage winner’s time, the exact margin is not known until the winner crosses the line, but riders and their Directors have been doing back-of-the-napkin calculations and estimations for the entire night before. Should a rider finish beyond the time-cut, he is booted out of the Tour de France. In the Alps and on Sunday’s stage into Andorra, the time-cut was a great hurdle for Cav to overcome. But thanks to a true Quickstep Wolfpack shepherding him on, Cav has been within the time limit thus far. With the profile of this stage already stated, needless to say: Cav was not in the breakaway, in fact he was once again trying to stay within the peloton in the most economical fashion he could contrive. But! But! Cav’s top rider rivals, Colbrelli and Matthews, did make it into this breakaway in a last-ditch effort to put a dent in Cav’s Green Jersey Points lead.
It was another rainy day, but besides bike-handling the weather did not affect the riders too much today. The main breakaway of day containing 12 riders was still forming up and over the entire Category2 Col de Port climb. At the Intermediate Sprint, three riders were out front to take the 20-17-and-15 Green Jersey Points available to the first three riders across. But in the rest of the breakaway forming behind, Michael Matthews and Sonny Colbrelli squared off for the first time this stage. Both know they cannot really hope to assail Cavendish’s lead, but on they still fought. In 2017, Matthews found himself in a similar battle for Green. Peter Sagan had been controversially disqualified that Tour, and the pure sprinter Marcel Kittel had won 5 stages by Stage 19 of that Tour. Kittel wore Green, but Matthews kept working for every Green Jersey Point he could find: he won 2 stages himself and it was a close battle that might not have been decided until the Champs-Elysees. But all of a sudden, in the course of a few minutes, Kittel in Green suffered some sort of foot injury and he pulled the plug on that Tour de France right there on Stage 19…and Michael Matthews inherited the Green Jersey right there that day without having to beat Kittel tooth-and-nail the hard way. So it was Matthews and Colbrelli battled on today: should anything happen to Cav, whoever is in second shall inherit Green. In that Intermediate Sprint, Matthews beat Colbrelli. Matthews added 13 more Points to his Green Jersey Points total, and Colbrelli added a further 11…Cavendish would score nothing. After this point, or even before it, Colbrelli and Matthews looked at the lay of the land, and sized up their breakaway competitors. Both then naturally shifted focus to the next major goal for the day that would earn them the next maximum amount of Green Points available: the stage win.
But before the two could duel in a breakaway group sprint, these hybrid sprinters would need to hang onto their breakaway companions—hold the break together, not let anyone escape to spoil the sprint. A much easier said than done job. Over the up-and-down course of the Category1 Col de la Core climb and descent, three riders from this 12-man breakaway escaped from even this elite group of competitors: Fabien Doubey (Total Energies), Jan Bakelants (Intermarche), and Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe). But with 50km remaining on the stage, the three only had a 30-second lead on the rest of the breakaway chasers. It was well known, Matthews and Colbrelli were the favorites in a sprint should it come down to that, thus the other chasers put most of the onus on them to catch the trio out front. Luckily, Matthews and Colbrelli each had one teammate in this group that could help them chase down the trio in the valley before the last big climb of the day, the Category2 Col de Portet-d’Aspet. But the leading trio maintained the 30-second gap into the base of the climb…and one man took his shot at glory. The Champion of Austria, Patrick Konrad decided to make the most of his rare shot at personal glory on the Tour de France, just as his Bora teammate Nils Politt did last week as well after team leader Sagan pulled out of the race. Konrad has finished in the top ten on GC in multiple Grand Tours, he is a capable climber; but outside of two Austrian National Championships, never before had Konrad won a professional road race. Yes, yes, the 29-year-old went on a mission to make the most of his rare chance: to take his first win outside of Austria at the biggest race in the world. Konrad was phenomenal riding up that climb, he was yet another underdog story that always come up in the Grand Tours. O! O! It was great to see, but after his attack this stage was by no means a done deal.
Of the 9 chasers in the Matthews and Colbrelli group, the climber of most renown was Groupama’s David Gaudu—the strong climber that lost his GC top ten because he was vomiting midride as he scaled Mont Ventoux. All eyes were on Gaudu to bridge the gap to the flying Konrad up front. And on that climb, Gaudu did launch his bid for glory. His attack strung out and shattered the breakaway group; only one man could follow him. If you watched the Stage 9 Rain Jacket Worlds, perhaps you saw him sneak in to take the remarkable 3rd place on the stage, perhaps you saw his phenomenal Dauphine form, or perhaps you saw his sensational Italian National Championship Road Race. Yes, yes, the only man that could hang onto Gaudu’s wheel was the hybrid sprinter Sonny Colbrelli, the Champion of Italy. Gaudu and Colbrelli would catch the two fading chasers Konrad had dropped. David Gaudu, with the sprinter Sonny Colbrelli, got within 20 seconds of Konrad over the top of the Col de Portet-d’Aspet.
The descent was wet and historically treacherous. Infamously and sorrowfully, this where Fabio Casartelli crashed and lost his life in the 1995 Tour de France; in 2018 this is where Philippe Gilbert (now of Lotto-Soudal) crashed over the side barrier into a ravine, but he heroically got back up and finished off the stage. Yes, yes, for better or worse, especially in the wet, whoever could pull off the most risks was going to be in the lead for this final run-in to the line. And in pole position, having the ride of his life: Patrick Konrad, the Champion of Austria, took all the risks and pulled off the fastest descent. His lead on Gaudu and Colbrelli eeked back out to 40 seconds. At the bottom of the climb, Konrad had a 45-second gap on Gaudu and Colbrelli, and a 1:05 gap on the other chasers—including Matthews—who had regrouped together on the descent of the climb.
In the chase Gaudu and Colbrelli began working together, but as is often the case they were in a strategic equalizer. Konrad alone up front completely emptied the tank in a time-trial effort to get himself to the line solo…Gaudu and Colbrelli had to save something so that once they caught Konrad they still had energy to attack or sprint at the very end of the race. Additionally, behind a group of 7-or-8 were now rotating like clockwork to reel them back in. Alas! Alas! For the versatile Sonny Colbrelli who is too often a nearly man in this sport. He has been chasing a Tour stage for so many years, he has so often been on impressively great form, but there are always one or two stronger than he…so often the bridesmaid, rarely the bride. With 13km left to go, the seven chasers that included Matthews brought Colbrelli and Gaudu back into their fold with Konrad still solo 1:00 ahead. This situation actually helped Patrick Knorad up front. Once Colbrelli and Gaudu were caught, they opted to sit in and not help with the pace-making for they had both just been doing a harder effort ahead together that had proven fruitless. It was understandable and natural for Colbrelli and Gaudu to sit on and save their energy for an ending sprint if this group could catch Konrad before the line, but the rotating group did not like the idea of these two freeloading on their work—even if they were just caught or not. Thus the cohesion of the chasers failed all together. Patrick Konrad up front was free to fly. The final Category4 climb did not bother Konrad. Patrick Konrad would maintain his minute gap until the last kilometer where he joyously rode in to celebrate the greatest victory of his career thus far. Another bit player, stock character turned hero for the day on the Tour de France.
But behind, the sprint for second was still of consequence, for Green Jersey Points were up for grabs. Surely, Colbrelli and Matthews were kicking themselves that one man got away to dash their hopes of a stage win which were and still are much more realistic than actually defeating Cav for Green. But like true professionals, they did what they could and gave it everything. It was a fierce sprint between the two, but this time it was Sonny Colbrelli that bested Michael Matthews—a reverse of their Intermediate Sprint. Once more, far back in a grupetto on the day, Mark Cavendish in Green was one of the last riders to come in, and he would score no Points. Thus the standings for Green are now: Cavendish 279, Matthews 242, and Colbrelli 195. Cavendish’s gap is still large with two stage win opportunities still available to him, and a few Intermediate Sprints in reach before the climbing of the next two days really begin. Yes, yes, it will be a tall order for Colbrelli and Matthews to topple Cav who not only has confidence on his side, but almost fairytale destiny to win his 2nd Green Jersey 10 years after his first. But the two hybrid sprinters did what they could today, and with similar unbowed efforts they shall honor the race as they fight Cavendish all the way to Paris…which now finally begins to loom.
Cycling Odysseys 