Muret—Saint-Lary-Soulan (Col du Portet), 178km
Another round of King of the Mountains boxing was denied to us, just as it was yesterday. The situation in that Classification battle is now turning dire and falling under threat of exhausting into mediocrity. That may be the subject of tomorrow’s post, but the fact of the matter is of the six riders in the early breakaway of the day: none were the four main KOM-Hunter protagonists of Sunday’s high mountain Andorra stage. And perhaps the missed opportunity and possible dire straits of the battle for Polka-Dots is the fault of the four Hunters themselves for not battling across the three high peaks this day from the early breakaway. But more on that perhaps tomorrow, today the KOM challengers go unnamed for other heroes battled in their places.
For over two decades, the French Cofidis team has been attending the Tour de France. Their heyday when they were a bigger budget premiere top tier team was around the turn of the century. For the past fifteen years they have been in slow decline, until suddenly two years ago the sponsors seemed to change strategy. No longer did they want to sponsor just a team of bicycle-riding billboards at the Tour de France, they wanted to be winners again once more. Cofidis’ sponsors injected the team’s budget with more money, they signed world class sprinter Elia Viviani away from Quickstep, they picked up the promising Guillaume Martin to ride GC, the team continues to grow. But, but, they have almost a curse of a drought to overcome. Cofidis have not won a stage of the Tour de France for 13 years. Now as they beef up their team, this is quite the monkey they are trying to get off their backs. And that brings us to their man in the breakaway today, Anthony Perez.
The early break of six riders—Cofidis’ Anthony Perez among them—went over the Peyresourde together, the first climb of the day that crested with about 50km left on the stage. They had begun the Peyresourde with over an 8-minute lead, but by the top of it the gap to the peloton of GC favorites was already down to just 5 minutes. They stayed together down the descent, and began the second climb of the day: the Col de Val Louron-Azet. But as the peloton began climbing behind, this breakaway’s gap continued to plummet. Thus it was, Anthony Perez dared strike out for glory on his own. With 35km left on the stage, 5.5km from the top of the climb, Perez dropped what remained of his breakaway rivals. Anthony Perez the Frenchman was on the attack for a solo mountaintop stage win: not just for himself, not just for his Cofidis team, but for all of France. Today is July the 14th, Bastille Day, it is the French equivalent of America’s 4th of July Independence Day. It was the exact opposite of a “chance” that there was a big mountain stage this day: No, no, no, this massive spectacle was entirely planned to entertain the French public on their national holiday. Surely there could be no better way for the Frenchman Anthony Perez to break Cofidis’ winning drought with a summit finish victory on Bastille Day! He rode with ferocity, he rode with great purpose, the enormous roadside crowds and his country willed him on. He rode with steady confidence, it was a calculated and greatly measured effort. Ah! Ah! But AG2R breakaway companion, Dorian Godon, was not finished yet. Down the descent of the Val Louron-Azet, Godon latched back onto Cofidis’ leading Perez.
At the base of the final 15.7km climb, the Col du Portet, upon which the stage finished, Perez and Godon had just under a 4-minute lead to the peloton. But finally, finally, today the entire UAE Team was on a dominant day. As soon as the peloton started climbing the final Portet climb, the gap began tumbling at an even more rapid rate. Anthony Perez knew he could waste no time, with 14km left on the climb and the stage, he attacked Godon again to drop him for good this time. Once more Perez was alone striking out for solo stage glory. But behind, UAE’s Marc Hirschi, and Mikkel Bjerg, and Rui Costa had done some massive turns of controlling the peloton behind for Young Beowulf Crowned King Tadej Pogacar wearing the Yellow Jersey as race leader of the Tour de France. Then finally, having done so much work on the previous climb, UAE’s Davide Formolo pulled over to the side of the road, his job well done too for leader Pogacar. The American Brandon McNulty came to the front to shred the shrinking peloton even further. O! It was proper carnage! Ahead, Anthony Perez looked great, but ever the gap shrunk and shrunk. It was a slow and agonizing reality, but we all knew surely Perez would be caught. For behind, Brandon McNulty was doing such a great ride: finally! UAE was acting like the dominant and imposing GC team of iron might for their leader in Yellow like Sky or US Postal did before them in bygone eras. And when McNulty swung off, to the front came Pogacar’s last lieutenant on the day: Rafal Majka. Ole! Ole! Finally, for the first time this Tour, Majka was Pogacar’s last man! He is the one with the most climbing prowess among Young Beowulf’s domestiques, in 2014 and in 2016 it was this Rafal Majka that won the King of the Mountains Polka-Dot Jersey here at the Tour de France. Yes, yes, Majka was the one who began shelling out Pogacar’s minorest GC rivals and softened up all the rest; and Majka demolished Perez’s gap up front. When Majka swung off with 8.4km remaining on the stage, Perez’s lead was a miniscule 10 seconds…and the Young Beowulf Crowned King went on the attack.
Yes, yes, it has been his strategy all Tour. The instant all his UAE teammates were spent, Tadej Pogacar immediately attacked like a cannonball being fired. We sat straight-back and up in our seats, O! O! surely we were about to strap in for a Young Pog 8km mountain time trial! But no! His biggest GC rivals left had enough strength and energy to stay on Pog’s wheel! Perez was caught and passed as if he were standing still like some sort of anonymous lapped rider. Cofidis’ drought would continue, this stage would belong to the GC men. But who would take it? Pogacar relented from his blistering attack, for the others were matching it. Pogacar swung over to the side for someone else to come through…purely so that he could get into position to launch another ferocious attack within 10 seconds since letting up. Again all his GC pretender rivals had to scramble out of their saddles themselves to not let the Young Beowulf Crowned King get away to dominate the stage. Only three could stay with him: best looked Jumbo’s Jonas Vingegaard sitting third overall and wearing the White Jersey on loan from Pogacar himself, then came Colombia’s Mick Jagger Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-Nippo) fighting to defend his second place, and at the rear of the quartet was the Ecuadorian Grenadier Richard Carapaz the Jaguar of Tulcan; all the rest were already out of sight. On, on, Pogacar in Yellow rode on the front, Vingegaard trying to stay glued to his wheel. And then Uran popped! Cracked! Dropped out of contention for the stage win. The other three maintained the high tempo and were sailing away.
When Young Beowulf Pogacar was aware Uran had dropped with 7.4km to go, Pog flicked his elbow to Vingegaard to come through and share the pace-making. Pogacar and Vingegaard both knew it would be in Vingegaard’s interest to ride with Pog now. For if he could distance Uran, Vingegaard could move up to second place on GC. Ah! What a result 2nd on GC at the Tour would be for Jonas Vingegaard. If the Danish Vingegaard is not the revelation of this Tour, then he is now the revelation of the season. Few knew his name before the UAE Tour way back in February, but it was after his summit finish win there that he gained prominence. He rode extremely well as a makeshift two-pronged attack for Roglic’s GC victory over Pogacar in the Tour of the Basque Country. He was named the substitute in Jumbo’s Tour line-up for mighty Tom Dumoulin who was taking a sabbatical from cycling. In the absence of Roglic who exited this Tour after Stage 8 when he was plagued with injuries, Jonas Vingegaard took up the Jumbo GC mantle…and now he was going toe-to-toe with the Young Beowulf Crowned King Tadej Pogacar. Yes, I knew he wanted to distance Uran, I knew he would be happy with second on GC, but I was surprised with how much swaggering confidence Jonas Vingegaard shared pacing duties with Tadej Pogacar. Ah! The way Vingegaard rode this stage, my O! my, he did not at all treat Pogacar like his physical superior. Pogacar told him to come through, and Jonas Vingegaard undauntedly did. Meanwhile, it was Richard Carapaz the Jaguar of Tulcan that sat behind seeming to hang on by a fingernail.
On, on, they climbed at the ferocious pace. For the entire last 7km it did not seem the Col du Portet ever dipped below 10% gradients. Pogacar in Yellow, with the classic tuffs of hair sticking up through the helmet did much of the work, but Jonas Vingegaard certainly did his fair share—even though most of the time Pogacar tried to attack him when he took over the front. Still third in the group, Carapaz did nothing, hanging on as best he could. Perhaps Pogacar kept attacking to drop the dead weight Carapaz specifically, and if he could get rid of Vingegaard too all the better. But still Carapaz hung on, and still Pogacar and occasionally even Vingegaard would attack. Ole! Ole! It was beautiful to see! Every time Pogacar would attack, Vingegaard would chase him down and Carapaz would hang in there to follow. Truly, truly, I praise them with the highest compliment I, Patrick Santino, can give. Their ascent up this Col du Portet reminded me of my days of most yore: to the memories I have of Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador duking it out round for round on the third week Pyrenean climbs of the 2010 Tour. If you listen to my first Introduction episode you will understand why I hold those days in such mythically high regard. I only remember bits and pieces of them, I mostly only saw highlights, but or thus: those battles culminating in Chaingate are my archetypal golden standard of going toe-to-toe on a mountain climb. Ah! Too often Froome and Sky were too dominate, so often they would dwindle down the competition and Froome would drop them all in one go. Surely, we thought we would see the same from mighty Young Beowulf Tadej Pogacar today, but we did not. Vingegaard, young Jonas Vingegaard the Dane who is beyond salvaging this Tour for Jumbo-Visma, matched this generational rider of riders.
It was a feast for any sporting fan to watch these two do battle, but as the kilometers closed down the stage would have come to an end, the summit would have to be reached, and someone would have to take victory. And with 1.3km to go…Richard Carapaz the Jaguar of Tulcan launched his bid for glory! After an entire lengthy climb, Carapaz dropped the struggling façade; he had been bluffing the entire time. Headlines would later say Pogacar and Vingegaard were both aware—hence their constant attacks, I assume. Yes, yes, there he went, the Jaguar Richard Carapaz, in my opinion more in pursuit of the stage win than any GC time. Pogacar and Vingegaard had been giving him a free ride, carrying him past Uran in the GC standings onto a Tour podium position, but I am not too sure I blame Carapaz for playing this cagey bluffing game. How else was Richard Carapaz supposed to beat Tadej Pogacar? I am simply much more impressed with Vingegaard daring to ride toe-to-toe with Beowulf Pogacar than I am disappointed in Carapaz using cowardly tactics. Carapaz rode away like his Jugaur nickname stampeding across a green jungle floor hunting down smaller prey that could not escape his speed, but supreme Young Beowulf Tadej Pogacar was on him; Vingegaard, it seemed, was finally fading and cracking after such a noble ride. With 1km to go, the three passed through a short tunnel. Carapaz led Pogacar into it, and he led him out; they must have had a 5-second gap to Vingegaard in White. The Jaguar Carapaz did not let up all the way until 400m to go. Still Pogacar, in control, sat on his wheel, but Carapaz afforded himself a look back: to his chagrin there was Jonas Vingegaard in White still clawing his way back, successfully closing the gap. What a ride this Vingegaard was pulling off! Still, still Carapaz led them on into the last 200m even when Vingegaard had latched back on. O! O! How the legs must have been screaming on those relentless 12% grades, here on the final ramp after 178km of hard racing. In the final 100m Pogacar let it rip for one last time, and finally, finally after about 100 attacks in the last 8km alone: Pogacar found a gap. Carapaz could not hold his wheel. Vingegaard came around carapaz on the final curve but he did not have a shot at Pogacar. Young Beowulf Crowned King Tadej Pogacar posted up at the line almost rending his Yellow Jersey garment in celebration after such a hard-fought victory. Vingegaard came in 3 seconds later, Carapaz a second after him. It was quite a show today, it was all we could hope for out of a proper summit finish. O! But we are in luck. Of course, anything can happen at the Tour, but with the Tourmalet and another Beyond Category summit finish on tap tomorrow for Stage 18: the most likely outcome is a repeat carbon-copy battle of today.
Cycling Odysseys 