Introduction Stage 2: A Sport That Would Give Homer Goosebumps
2020 Vuelta a Espana: The Relentless
After arriving in Paris, he could have taken the rest of the shortened season off if he wanted. So that he could clear his head, recalibrate after the devastation atop La Planche des Belles Filles. But he didn’t. Instead he gutted out a ruthless World Championships circuit in Imola one week after his Tour loss where he finished a highly respectable 6th place among the lead group, utterly spent. The Sunday after that, in the grueling Liege-Bastogne-Liege that traverses the hills of Wallonia, he won the elite five-up sprint with his bike throw in front of the swashbuckling Musketeer Julian Alaphilippe (of Deceuninck-Quickstep) who celebrated too early. To win a Monument such as Liege would be the pinnacle of most riders’ careers, but after the 2020 Tour de France this Monument could only feel like a well-earned consolation prize. But this tank’s, this machine’s season did not end at Liege. A fortnight later, he was up for it. He wanted to attend and contend for the year’s final Grand Tour. The one he had won last year: the Vuelta a Espana. As the Vuelta’s defending champion, he pinned the #1 Bibs on his back and started right where he left off winning the first stage of the race in the Basque Country atop the steep Arrate climb, donning the Red leader’s jersey once more. It was the first of his four stage wins at this Vuelta. And yes, this Sunday, he completed the Rebound by sealing the Overall General Classification in Madrid to win his second Vuelta a Espana and second career Grand Tour. Primoz Roglic (of Jumbo-Visma) was beaten at the Tour de France, but he was not defeated.
Was it Rebound or Redemption? Perhaps you shall disagree, but I say Rebound, for full Redemption in my eyes can only be achieved by wearing Yellow in Paris. Nonetheless what a Rebound it was, surely beyond only a mere consolation prize. The racing was fierce, as all the Grand Tours are in this era, but this was truly a relentless Vuelta. And yes, yes, finally we have a suitable nickname for our Rebounder: Roglic the Relentless. Does he ever fatigue? Sure, sure, he has proven he is physically beatable and even vulnerable at times—the legs are not always as fresh as he would like and thus top-steps on a few podiums have slipped away. O! But after this 2020 season he’s proven: he has a mind of titanium, a will of iron, and a heart of gold. Within hours of being dealt the most devastating loss in the past 30 years of cycling by a mentee, friend, and compatriot—a figurative little brother, Primoz Roglic and his Jumbo-Visma team reflected and accepted that a better man had won the 2020 Tour. They rode hard for three weeks around France and put it all out there, including in that final fatal Time Trial, but they were unseated by a better performance (in fact, a performance by Tadej Pogacar (of Team UAE) I claim to be the greatest ride against the clock in the history of the bicycle—see my 2020 Tour Stage 20 reflection). Via such a realization, it seems Roglic has recovered—almost not even skipped a beat. He was bested at the Tour—the biggest prize, but other prizes could still be won and he immediately turned his eyes towards them instead of wallowing in self-pity. Surely, such a resilient mind should be studied, analyzed, and admired; what life lessons this man could teach. A true champion is he: so gracious and accepting in defeat, and back in the saddle to winning ways so soon afterwards. Yes, Relentless, in my eyes.
I say Relentless over Resilient for aesthetic reasons as well. His riding style is distinct in the peloton. First, he is surrounded by an armada of wasp yellow and black Jumbo-Visma jerseys for the majority of the stages. As the roads pitch up navigating never-ending mountain passes or onto severely steep-graded “goat-tracks,” he is always one of the last to look uncomfortable—if he even gets to that point. Then compared to the other extremely lean General Classification riders—the ones who vie in the high mountains for the Pink, Yellow, and Red leaders’ jerseys of the Grand Tours—he seems to have at the very least much more muscular thighs which he harnesses as absolute pistons with a high cadence less only perhaps to Chris Froome (of the Ineos Grenadiers). Combine these observations with an average cyclist height (5’10”), he looks like a compact and efficient cycling unit almost always in control with the power of a mainline steam engine. Thus despite the extremely small time gaps on GC throughout this race and despite seeing him lose time on a couple of the highest summit finishes which twice even cost him the race lead, from his Stage 1 win he seemed firmly in the driver’s seat of this Vuelta from wire to wire. If you doubt me, simply look up the finishes of the stages he won: two wins atop proper mountains, a powerful sprint win on a tricky and steep 1-kilometer finishing climb, and a narrow stage victory in the time trial that has always been his bread-and-butter; all of them were exercises in domination.
Though Roglic seemed to have a firm grip throughout, Richard Carapaz (of the Ineos Grenadiers) and Hugh Carthy (of EF Pro Cycling) pushed him the entire race and proved very worthy adversaries—ready to twist the knife if Roglic ever had an off day. Carthy’s stage win on the mighty Angliru—unquestionably one of the two or three hardest climbs in cycling—was an epic and put all the others on the ropes. For Carthy to finish off the Vuelta with a 3rd place on GC is head-and-shoulders above any of his former results and was earned by attacking on all the biggest opportunities to dislodge other GC favorites. For years we had hoped to see this Carthy character from Lancashire mix it up with the best, and now Primoz Roglic can tell us that this is a reality…though Hugh was not his biggest rival this Vuelta. Twice, for two short stints, Richard Carapaz took the Red Jersey off the back of Roglic. Never was he out of striking distance. He made us all hold our breaths when on the penultimate stage, a summit finish atop La Covatilla, he halved Roglic’s tenuous 45 second lead Overall. He attacked and had a 20-second gap in an instant with still 5 kilometers to go; the attack was so ferocious that every mind replayed the scenes of La Planche des Belles Filles and wondered if Roglic would suffer two heartbreaking Grand Tour losses in the same season—“O! Good Heavens no!” we thought. And the answer was no. This was where Roglic proved the Relentless once again: riding his own tempo, spinning his high cadence smoothly and in control, maintaining the 20 second gap. He seemed relatively comfortable given the stakes, the chaos of the race, and the harsh November weather, and he limited his losses to perfection. Yes, every Bonus Second Roglic earned throughout the race proved essential to hold such a small lead over the strong climbing Ecuadorian, Richard Carapaz—the man who beat Roglic at the Giro last year.
Ah! Primoz Roglic, could anyone else make a 23-second Grand Tour victory look so never in doubt? Here at this Vuelta, Roglic highlighted the Relentlessness he has had his whole career. When he was an unknown in the 2016 Giro, when he was in his ascendancy in the years leading up to this Tour. After his incremental rise to the pinnacle of the sport was stopped one step from the top, he was not thrown into a freefall or shot down into a downward spiral of paralyzing defeat. No, he was still Relentless, he continued his disciplined practices and processes that made him a champion in the first place. And now they have earned him his first Monument and a second Grand Tour late in the season, the greatest Rebound possible after such a Tour blow. Primoz Roglic, to see such a Rebound makes us so supremely happy for you; it is true, from now on all your victories make our day—yes, welcome to that exclusive Club. We look forward to seeing your exploits in 2021 and beyond. You are a tenacious and yet gracious competitor of the highest class. Though you can occasionally be bested physically, your mind is uncrackable. From the chilly winter weather of February warm-up races to the Autumn sunsets of the last Italian Classics, you are always prepared for battle. You are a captain. You are a rock. You are resilient. You are Roglic the Relentless.
2020 Giro d’Italia Review: THE UNPREDICTABLE CORONA GIRO COMES TO A CLOSE
This was the Giro di Ripartenza (“the Giro of Restart”) after the Coronavirus pandemic that hit Italy so particularly hard in its most early days last Spring. Yes, after such dark days this Giro had only a little less anticipation than the Giro of Rebirth in 1946 when Italy emerged from the darkness of the Second World War.
This was the Giro of attrition as well, O surely it was. Superman Lopez (Astana) crashed out of the race in the opening Palermo Time Trial. Ineos team leader Geraint Thomas abandoned the race on Stage 3 with a fractured pelvis, but not before riding to the top of Mt. Etna only 10 minutes behind the leaders. We saw Simon Yates himself and three of his Mitchelton-Scott teammates tested positive for COVID-19 forcing the whole team to withdraw from the race around the first Rest Day. Steven Kruijswijk and his Jumbo-Visma team withdrew for similar reasons. In such an October slot, the rains were ferocious and treacherous as well, surely there were more days with coats on than not. With positive tests and the Winter storms coming early in the Alps and Dolomites, it was questioned if the race would actually make it all the way to Milan. And things came to a boil on Stage 19 when the riders refused to ride the full massive 258 km flat stage in the sopping wet and rain.
This was the Giro where the elders showed their age. Where have you gone, Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe)? Surely this race was yours for the taking, but instead of handing you a jersey or a trophy or a bottle of champagne you force us to give you walking canes made of beech or chestnut or ash. And our beloved Shark of Messina, Vincenzo Nibali (Trek-Segafredo), we shed a tear for you most of all, here in your twilight. Surely, the cows have now come home for dinner, surely your sunset is near; you can no longer play these young men’s games even on your home roads. Italian compatriot Diego Ulissi (UAE) proved he is not yet a diminished force with his two stage wins, even more so Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) with his four fabulous sprint victories. On the General Classification (GC) Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) fought bravely. Alex Dowsett (Israel Start-Up Nation), Jan Tratnik (Bahrain-McLaren), and Josef Cerny (CCC) each took brilliant stage wins, but they were all outdone by the mighty Rockstar Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) who took one of his most legendary victories when he held off the charging GC favorites on Stage 10, “the Stage of Walls.” But beyond the successes mentioned above, this was a young man’s race and many elder statesmen now see the writing on the wall if they have not already just been retired.
This was the Giro where youngsters earned their stripes and made their names. Jonathan Caicedo and Ruben Guerreiro in their eye-sore limited-edition EF-Palace jerseys each took stages. Ben O’Connor’s stage win helped his NTT team’s fight for survival and scramble to find new sponsorship before the team goes under at the end of the season. Jhonatan Narvaez’s stage win will almost be forgotten amidst all the success of the Ineos Grenadiers team despite former Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas’ early abandonment. You have heard of the movie Top Gun, but after this Giro surely you have now heard of “Top Ganna.” Filippo Ganna wore the maglia rosa, the Pink Jersey, and won four stages for his Ineos team in his debut Grand Tour: he manhandled all three time trials while wearing his World Champion’s Rainbow Jersey, and unexpectedly took a thrilling mountain stage victory as well. Then there was the Portuguese rider of Deceuninck-Quickstep, Joao Almeda who donned the Pink Jersey for over a fortnight in what was also his debut Grand Tour. He was not a rookie, but a warrior: he fought up Mt. Etna, survived the Stage of Walls, hung on to a slender lead up Piancavallo. But like teammate Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) in the 2019 Tour, in Hector-ian fashion he was vanquished and it took place on the mighty Stelvio, Italy’s most hallowed climb. All of these riders have not even turned 26 years-old, and I have yet to mention the two sub-26ers that went one-two on the GC.
This was the Giro where Australian Jai Hindley (Sunweb) and Londoner Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers) went into the final day 15.7 km time trial on the same time, after 3,345.2 km only tenths of a second separated the top two riders on General Classification…two riders whose odds of winning the Giro at the start in Palermo must have been well in the triple digits. On the Stelvio and Sestriere stages, Geoghegan Hart’s Ineos teammate Rohan Dennis ravaged all of the competition for Tao besides Jai Hindley. I know, I know, Dennis set the Hour Record in 2015, but I dare claim his super-domestiquing on these stages was his real “Finest Hour.” For Sunweb and Hindley, it was a tough call on the Stelvio and again on the triple ascents of Sestriere to let team leader Kelderman fend for himself, but no alternative was better. Surely Hindley needed to sit on the furious pace of the Ineos duo, Rohan Dennis and Tao Geoghegan Hart, or Sunweb would lose the Giro right there. With Kelderman—the nominal team leader—behind struggling to rejoin, Hindley would also enjoy an accuse to do none of the pacing duties with Geoghegan Hart. But at the end of both stages, when Dennis and Kelderman were basically out of the picture, in the final days of the Giro, Jai Hindley and Tao Geoghegan Hart proved even matches in the mountains and the final day time trial would have to decide the race between them. And in this final time trial Tao Geoghegan Hart decisively beat Jai Hindley by 39 seconds…to win the Giro d’Italia by 39 seconds. Surely, it will feel like a devastating lose for the young Hindley because who knows if such an opportunity at Grand Tour victory will ever come around for him again. But hopefully he will chin up quickly and realize he has accomplished quite a feat. He has catapulted himself into the top echelons of the sport and all that he has accomplished in this Giro is a great triumph in itself.
This was the Giro with the surprise winner of Tao Geoghegan Hart. Before this race, he was known only as one in a plethora of mighty Ineos climbing domestiques. Though the selection was played very close to the chest and this cannot be confirmed, Tao was probably the “first rider out” on Ineos’ Tour de France line-up one month before the start of this Giro. Can you imagine if Tao had been selected for the Tour? He surely would not have rode this Giro afterwards, thus he never would have won. What must have felt like a set back (that is not being selected for the Tour) was truly the greatest blessing in disguise Tao could ask for. The Tao Geoghegan Hart that won the Giro d’Italia today in Milan is not the same Tao Geoghegan Hart that started the Giro d’Italia in Palermo three weeks ago. Three weeks ago, he was Tao Geoghegan Hart whose best results were a couple of stage wins in the minor Tour of the Alps race. He had shown flashes of brilliance elsewhere though: it was off the back of his excellent work that Geraint Thomas dominated the 2018 Dauphine in his run-up to his 2018 Tour de France victory, and in last year’s Vuelta he was knocking on the door of a stage win that never materialized. It seemed an achievement and fulfillment of a long-time goal when he finally won his first Grand Tour stage at the Piancavallo summit one week ago, anything else achieved in the final week would simply be a bonus. And in classic Giro fashion, the last week was a mighty monster. All of the competition, save Hindley, wilted and Tao took full advantage. Surely we will remember this as the Corona Giro where the headliners were decimated by crashes and illness or simply proved their age, but that was out of Tao’s control and he made the most possible of this rare chance; with both his legs Tao rode to a victory he quite frankly was not on trajectory to ever achieve in his career. Now he is a Grand Tour winner, he has won the General Classification of the second most prestigious race in cycling, the Giro d’Italia—what an elite club he has just joined. Within his own Ineos team—one of the greatest teams in the history of the sport—his name shall now be grouped with Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Geraint Thomas, and Egan Bernal as a winner of a Grand Tour. Tao from what I gather is a student of the sport, he will know what illustrious company he is now numbered in. With this victory, Tao has potentially created new leadership opportunities for himself, but in an all-star team like Ineos Grenadiers this golden solo leadership opportunity at a Grand Tour—let alone being in a Grand Tour winning position—might not ever come up again which is what makes this victory so sweet. It was a pleasant surprise for us cycling viewers, but it is probably still literally unbelievable for Tao himself. Yes, Tao, your long-dismissed wildest childhood dream—that you never in a million years thought realistic—has all of a sudden actually come true, you have won the Giro d’Italia. Congratulations.
This was the Giro in all its classic glory. It was not pulled off “without a hitch,” surely there were hiccups and ugly moments along the way, but it was a classic Giro nonetheless. There were great stage finish sprints on both flat roads and steep ramps, there were uncomfortably long days in the saddle, there was bad weather, there were epic climbs, there was a harrowingly difficult final week, there were worthy winners, and there was Pink in every corner of Italy. It will not be forgotten this was the Corona Giro, but it will be as much remembered that this was a Giro where many of the great stars for the next decade made their name. The decade is only in its infancy, but this might go down as the strangest Grand Tour of the 2020s. Yes, this 2020 Giro will stand out when we look back on the records and history books in the decades and centuries to come. It will not be remembered as the most thrilling, nor the sexiest, nor the Giro we cherish most; but it will be a Giro we never forget, it will be a Giro that shall simultaneously make us scratch our heads and fondly smile—even chuckle—while reflecting on the unexpected and yet pleasantly heartwarming fairytales that transpired these past three weeks.
2020 RVV: The Duel We Longed For
The fingers are rusty, but the keys shall strike themselves after watching such a clash of titans today.
We saw last Sunday in Gent-Wevelgem there was beef between them…perhaps not expensive Kobe Beef, but surely some sort of beef. Gent-Wevelgem was the only preview we had before the Flandrien equivalent of the Superbowl. Mathieu Van der Poel (MVDP, Alpecin-Fenix) and Wout Van Aert (WVA, Jumbo-Visma) were the strongest men in the race. No matter which way they rode up the Kemmelberg they were the strongest, they were the top men in arguably the most prestigious Flandrien Classic besides the obvious ultimate that took place today: the Ronde Van Vlaanderen (Tour of Flanders). Did they go 1-2 in Wevelgem? No. For the final flat 40 km run-in, both chased every attack down for they were prepared to leave it to the sprint—as they should have—but in the last 3 km both became cagey. Mathieu sat on Wout’s wheel expecting or wanting him to cover the last attacks. Wout did not oblige. That was it. Trentin (CCC), Bettiol (EF), Senechal (Deceunick-Quickstep), Kung (Groupama-FDJ), Degenkolb (Lotto-Soudal), Lampaert (Deceunick-Quickstep), and race champion Mads Pederson (Trek-Segafredo) all took off in 1’s, 2’s, and 3’s to sprint out the win while Wout and Mathieu relegated themselves to 8th and 9th. Yes, it was an anti-climactic result to see them let their minor rivals go up the road to duke out the win, ah! but it was a necessary result in any great rivalry: they would rather sacrifice their own chances than let the rival win. Remember, remember the 1948 Road World Championships when Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali—on the same Italian national team—only marked each other instead of racing for the win, both were so out of it they stepped off their bikes and dropped out of the race, the Italian cycling federation was so upset they served them both with a three month suspension. From what I gather, at the finish line Wout said something to the effect of “At the end, Mathieu sat on my wheel instead of chasing down the attacks. I have already won a lot of big races this year, Mathieu should have been the one working for the sprint.” Ah! But here at the Ronde Van Vlaanderen, on the biggest stage with the trickier finale and the events of the past Sunday fresh in everyone’s minds, the same bluffing mistakes would not be made.
Like all the COVID races this Ronde was a slightly strange edition not least because of the lack of fans—was I watching the Tuesday Stage 1 of the minor Three Days of De Panne or the mighty Ronde Van Vlaanderen, the revered Tour of Flanders that gets better ratings than the Superbowl? At no race, not even up Alpe d’Huez, are the fans so “quintelly” essential—how I missed seeing the iconic yellow and black Lion of Flanders flag flying 3,000 times along the route, how I missed seeing shots of every bar packed to the gills, how I missed seeing every climb vibrating with the applause of the roadside crowd exhorting the great champions and their local heroes. And yet there was a welcome addition to the Ronde amidst the pandemic. Yes, the newly crowned World Champion Julian Alaphilippe the Musketeer (today of Elegant-Quickstep) was making his Flanders debut. It was an original 2020 appointment for him before the Coronavirus outbreak, but would it simply be a testing-of-the-waters before a full 2021 Flandrien Classics campaign? No. No it surely would not. Say what you want about Julian Alaphilippe the Musketeer this season—and later I shall say things myself—but he is a man who comes to the start-line ready to win, no matter the terrain. O! How he looked going up the famous “bergs.” He was a natural. The way he rode the gutter on the treacherous cobbled climbs amidst the pack of 100+ riders, it seemed he could hop right back into cyclocross and mix it up with best, dare I say even with Mathieu and Wout themselves.
There were no fans, but the racing was fierce. The gravity of the race and the quality of the field shown through with or without the hype of the rabid Flemish crowds—surely, all the racers knew: this was one of the five Monuments, this was the Tour of Flanders—ah! to win it would be a childhood dream come true. It was a clash of swords, a skirmish with consequences, a pure chase and race into the bottom of every cobbled berg—how valuable teammates are in such scenarios. And upon such cobbled climbs the speeds did not slow as the gradients rose. No, no, the day’s breakaway lead only quickly evaporated 30-45 seconds up each short and yet O so steep climb. Everything was coming to a fine boil in the final 70 km. The peloton was shrinking, many riders were “on the rivet,” and the pretenders were launching their bids for glory to no avail. Winding down those narrow country lanes into the mighty Koppenberg all was still relatively controlled, but the dominating Belgian “home-team” of Elegant-Quickstep was prepared to make some selections and at the head of affairs would be one of the top riders in the world: the Musketeer, Julian Alaphilippe in his beautiful Rainbow Jersey of World Champion. A few cobbled bergs came in quick succession after that, and with 40 km to go the peloton hit the Steenbeekdries with the headliners coming to the fore. And yet again it was the debutant Alaphilippe who was trying to make the selection. Who could match him? Only the Dutch Champion with his red, white, and blue jersey and audacious white shorts: Mathieu Van der Poel. The two had a gap and they looked strong and, judging by the results of the past few weeks, ALL knew they would be a strong pair riding to the finish. One man, one man alone could possibly bridge to them. Yes, yes, it had to be—perhaps, it was meant to be—it was the mighty Wout Van Aert, the Aertist he has been called, wearing his wasp yellow Jumbo-Visma jersey. At the foot of the Taaienberg Wout latched on, and at that moment all us viewers knew: the final selection had been made, the rest were all pretenders. The three top riders in the world at this moment were in an elite group off the front with 38 km to go, one of them would surely soon be winning the Tour of Flanders, the iconic Ronde Van Vlaanderen.
The three stormed up the Taaineberg—living legend Tom Boonen’s bread-and-butter climb. Their rotations were equal and in perfect timely fashion—communication was not needed, all three knew the task at hand. With their cooperation their lead grew, no peloton would be reeling them back today. Ah! But with 35 km to go, a grievous error occurred. In the blink of an eye, Alaphilippe the Musketeer was sprawled out on the ground, his bike not even in sight. He donned Yellow again early in the Tour and earned the right to don the Rainbows for a full year as well—and the obvious must be stated: he looks extremely fetching in both—but beyond that can one question if his head has been too high in the clouds? Has he been on Cloud 9 or Cloud 99 since his Worlds win? Sure, sure, he won his Tour Stage and did his stint in Yellow, and the rest of his season was all focused on the World Championships in Imola where he crushed his opposition…but Imola already fades from our minds, even the Musketeer is only as good as his last race. His Liege-Bastogne-Liege performance was both sensational and appalling as he jolted around among the rotating elite group in the final kilometers, cutting off Hurricane Hirschi (Sumweb) in the finishing sprint only to “post-up” and celebrate too early while Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) nipped him at the line in a bike throw—denying Alaphilippe a Monument tailor-made for him and that he would have earn had he not been such a spaz in the final K. Less than a handful of days later at Brabantse Pijl, Alaphilippe AGAIN sat up and almost celebrated too early, he only won because MVDP timed his final sprint completely wrong. Alaphilippe, our Musketeer, you are a showman, but what were you thinking celebrating so early in those situations? And thus we come to the moment today, when he seemed dialed in—in control—an alpha in what was thought to be other lions’ den. Speaking into his radio, Alaphilippe had another lapse in concentration and his shoulder banged into a race motorcycle holding his line and slowing. Alaphilippe’s shoulder hit the bike and the impact sent him toppling over the handlebars and sprawling out of the road with race-ending injuries. Alaphilippe who seemed the man of the match in his debut had taken himself out of the competition. So ended the Musketeer’s season; MVDP and WVA gave a look back to see where he was, but then rode on without skipping a beat.
Alas! Alaphilippe with his Rainbow bands would be sorely missed, but it was his own fault, and the race must go on, and now it was the duel we were all craving. It was Nadal vs Federer, Anquetil vs Poulidor, England vs France, Moser vs Saronni, Coke vs Pepsi, Obree vs Boardman, Coe vs Ovett, or—I say with a whisper, for surely it is still premature and the biggest of deals—perhaps even Coppi vs Bartali. Realistically this duel was most reminiscent of Cancellara vs Boonen—the undisputed Classics champions of the previous generation who are both all-time cycling greats—but it is little remembered that on the biggest stages, in the cobbled Monuments, Spartacus Fabian Cancellara and Tornado Tom Boonen only had one genuine head-to-head match that ended with Cancellara’s “Boonen-buster” attack on the hallowed Muur de Geraardsbergen. But here we were now with baby-faced Wout and Mathieu already dominantly riding away from all the competition. O! For years in the winters we have daydreamed about such a moment after one of their classic cyclocross duels. We would think, “My, my, these two have been battling since before they were teens. Someday, someday, perhaps we shall see them battle on the steep cobbled bergs of Flanders, battling across the slick stones of a wet Roubaix—a big ask, but something we cycling fans long for nonetheless.” Over a decade since the rivalry started on the cyclocross grass and mud, the daydream has become reality. In my estimation, this is surprisingly their first head-to-head matchup in almost two years, the first proper since the 2019 Cyclocross World Championships in Denmark. Much has changed since then, most notably Wout Van Aert’s massive new list of road palmares, not least because of his devastating sprinting abilities shown at Sanremo, the Dauphine, and twice in the Tour. If the Oude Kwaremont or the Paterberg did not decide the race between the pair of them, it would come down to a sprint, and MVDP’s was no longer clearly superior to Wout’s. Either way, with 30 km to go, all fans of cycling were already winners watching the showdown between these two.
Though Wout and Mathieu, are already long-historic rivals, both were working in perfect unison to distance the rest of the field. Their advantage kept growing over the chasing peloton, imagine Professor X and Magneto or Gandalf and Saruman forging for a while the perfect partnership before resuming hostilities later. Surely most behind quickly resigned to fighting for the last podium spot, the win was now assuredly out of reach with these two strongest and fastest riders well ahead. At one point they were descending on a wide road connecting two small villages, both sat on the top tube, laser-focused, conserving all the energy they could. They descended like stones, they even looked made of stone as they tranquilly held such a precarious positions while the wind whipped into their faces and the kilometers rolled away beneath their wheels—without the crowds it was quiet and beautiful…a calm in the storm before the famous Oude Kwaremont. Up the Oude Kwaremont they went, what a climb it is. Even the people who prefer the Muur finale cannot deny the Kwaremont’s beauty, and they must acknowledge afterwards the superiority of the following Paterberg versus the Muur’s wimpy Bosberg final “test.” But with such equally matched rivals, the 2.2 km Kwaremont climb was not decisive enough to finally break open the duel. Van der Poel paced them all the way up holding a steady tempo, if he accelerated at all it did not come across on the broadcast because Van Aert matched him pedal-stroke for pedal-stroke with a relaxed poker-face—in such moments is when the “Uno: Draw 4” Wild Card Alaphilippe is sorely missed. But they came to the steep Paterberg, the final test before the 13 km run-in to the finish. The 400 m climb may be short, but it packs a wicked punch with an average gradient of 12.5% and a max of 20%, and of course it too is cobbled. O! The farmer who laid the Paterberg bricks because he wished to see the Ronde pass by his house…may he never pay for a beer anywhere in Flanders. But alas! here too, our competitors were evenly matched. Wout tried to make a winning move, but Mathieu was so glued to his wheel Elmer and all his glue-sticks would have been impressed if he had seen it. They went over the top, they still had over a minute-lead on the field, surely now we would get the sprint between them.
On the run-in both were pedaling a higher cadence in an easier gear—trying to keep the legs fresh for this ultimate and inevitable sprint. If they could not break away on the steep cobbled bergs, what was even the point of trying on the flat? Yes, both were completely resolved, it would come down to the sprint, both confident in their abilities. With now just under a minute lead, they rode under the Flamme Rouge, the Red Flame, the Red Kite signifying one kilometer remaining. Commentator Ned Boulting humorously pointed out: despite all the experience and skill of these two phenoms, the one facet they are missing is any track prowess. Yes, yes, here in the pouring rain after all the brutality the Ronde could throw at them, on the straight-shot flat final kilometer, the race would be decided for-all-intents-and-purposes by a two-up track sprint. Van der Poel found himself in the unenviable front position while Wout sat in his draft, saving just a bit more energy for this final sprint. The pace slowed, MVDP gently weaved across the road and looked over his shoulder every 3 seconds. Ah! What a final “miniature” duel to decide the victor of this major duel. MVDP rode on the right-hand barrier to make sure Wout could only come around him from one side. They slowed even more, so slow even Wout had to take a quick look over the shoulder to make sure they still had time over the charging peloton. They did still have time, but their minute lead was evaporating at an alarming rate—in such scenarios one must be poised and cool as a cucumber, waiting for the perfect moment launch their final sprint. 500 m and the two still slowly rolled on. Past 300 m the peloton was swarming down like a pack of birds with the tailwind, but they were still over 100 m behind the two titans’ legendary duel. Van der Poel looking over his shoulder at Wout. Past the 250 m sign, Van der Poel still looking back. Past the 200 m sign, Van der Poel still looking back. But in an instant, from the front, Mathieu Van der Poel launched his race winning sprint. It was explosive, but Wout was ready for it and immediately in the slipstream. Both were heaving their bikes, it was a powerful sprint. With 100 m to go, Van Aert drew even with Van der Poel. But then Van der Poel seemed to pull ahead once again. And yet Van Aert still drew even once more. And then it was the tight bike throw over the line. It was close, neither cheered, a photo would surely be needed. And in Belgian fashion, the photo appeared quickly: by less than a third of wheel Mathieu Van der Poel won the 2020 Ronde Van Vlaanderen.
Flanders is a race Matheiu’s father Adri Van der Poel won back in 1986; Mathieu is the first rider to ever win a Monument their father had won. It was an excellent cap to his road season; in fact it was a win Mathieu almost “needed.” Despite the loss, Wout Van Aert is still the Rider of the Year for 2020. If Wout had beat Van der Poel in this sprint it would have swung the rivalry lopsidedly into Van Aert’s favor—but now the season ends in a dispute: surely Wout did more on the road, but in the ultimate head-to-head MVDP won. And thus their career rivalry is now about back to an even balance: on the road and in cyclocross, MVDP certainly has a hefty plethora of wins—including more head-to-head wins—compared to WVA’s lesser plethora, but what Wout lacks in quantity he makes up for in quality. Alas! There is no Paris-Roubaix next week to tilt the seesaw in one final direction or another for this road season, but before we are even ready they shall resume the rivalry on muddy cyclocross courses…and immediately after that we shall see them resume battle in these Flandrien Classics at their proper Spring-time slot. O! Unlike Cancellara and Boonen of old, in only their mid-20s, so evenly matched, surely Wout and Mathieu shall have more Monumental duels like the one we were treated to today. People think it is a shame for the one that such a rival exists in the same era, perhaps in some cases—surely in Felice Gimondi’s. But in a balanced rivalry like Cancellara-Boonen or Coppi-Bartali surely this is not the case. Surely Coppi became greater as he strove to match Bartali and surely MVDP is fueled by WVA’s success, he could not allow himself to lag so far behind his archrival for this season’s road palmares. When the two are both retired in a decade or so, perhaps we shall look back and say they could have both won more—it is fabled by the men themselves that if Francesco Moser and Giuseppe Saronni actually allied they’d have won four World Championships each—but it is undeniable Mathieu and Wout feed off each other’s success and thus both rise to new heights. They are linked, and not only are they both better for it, so is the sport of cycling.
ALL GREAT THINGS MUST COME TO AN END
TDF 2020, Stage 21 Mantes-la-Jolie – Paris 122 km
Tadej Pogacar has won the 107th Tour de France. Sam Bennett wins on the Champs-Elysees and retains the Green Jersey.
DENVER, CO – The Tour de France is over, the great labors are accomplished. The heroes have made it home. Just as Odysseus made it home to Ithaca, the Tour de France has reached Paris for the 107th time. After the three-week odyssey surely all these riders will have a story or two to tell.
Yes, some day these riders will be grandpas and perhaps on a winter evening their grandchildren will come over to their home after shoveling snow all morning and sledding all afternoon. They’ll be toasting up with cups of hot chocolate and marshmallows and sitting on comfy cushions and couches near the fire while some of the grown-ups prepare a hardy chili dinner. But the former rider will have been sitting in a chair near the fire with a reading lamp overhead studying stories of great fame from bygone eras telling of heroes and armies who overcame tremendous odds, fought historic battles, or slew giants—yes, some of these stories are about legendary cyclists and their comrades. But he will put down his books to entertain the kiddies. The grandchildren will prompt their grand-dad, “Papa, before supper is ready, tell us a story from your cycling days long ago!”
At this point, perhaps some of the riders will choose to look back on events from this 2020 Tour de France. Maybe Alexander Kristoff (UAE) will talk about the day Thor helped him win in Nice. Surely, Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) the Musketeer will honor is late father and tell of his exhilarating antics to win Stage 2 in Nice—the one dedicated to his fallen sire. I would guess Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) would speak of his summiting Mont Aigoual. Surely, one of the Bora-Hansgrohe Band of Brothers shall speak of the stage they put all the sprinters to the sword in the crosswinds under the generalship of Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe). I would suspect Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) would speak more highly of his teamwork for star-crossed leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) than of his two sprint wins. Surely, Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) will still be turning red in the face recounting his emotions from his first Tour stage win. Marc Hirschi (Sunweb) may pair his heartbreak on Stage 9 with his redemption win on Stage 12. Dani Martinez (EF) surely will tell of the time he out rode the two Boras on the Puy Mary. Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) will mention his stage wins, but shall probably remember more gutting it out behind even the grupetto on those brutal mountain stages. Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) will talk of the two times he seized his opportunity with both hands to counterattack at the perfect moment for two Stage victories. Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) will tell of the breakaway that finally went his way. If Superman Lopez (Astana) does not have a memorized play-by-play spiel of the Col de la Loze win I shall be very upset, but at the same time Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) will probably fondly remember that day as well when he proved to be one of the best climbers in the world outright. And surely, Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) will remember Stage 18 with supreme joy, but he will tell the story wrong when he says Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and his team “gifted” him the win: it was completely well-earned. Ah! But all of them, all of them as they begin to tell their story they shall say, “I tell you a tale from the 2020 Tour. Yes, kiddies, that was the Tour of Slovenian Fratricide. Pogacar’s (UAE) first Tour win, when he slew his older brother with that greatest ride against the clock that stunned us all.”
This Tour has given not only many of the riders, but we ourselves stories to tell. That was my purpose in producing these reports: to capture my thoughts at the time and describe my feelings for others to share in my joy and—so often this Tour—in my astonishment. As I am still in my prime years of life, I can say my memory is solid and far reaching, but without these reports surely many of these thoughts and emotions would quickly fade. I am glad I have the play-by-play of the events up the Col de la Loze when Superman put on his cape, I am happy I have written something that attempts to honor Sam Bennett’s joy at his first stage win, and as history reshapes the story with more details and perhaps changing accounts I am glad I have put down in writing in real time my thoughts on Pogacar’s Immortal TT.
Ah! But as I mentioned at the beginning, dear Readers, we have reached Paris. The coronation procession and the “Sprinter’s World Championships” on the Champs-Elysees always throw up a couple final stories. And before that, there are always more details from the penultimate-day press conferences with the winner-elect and other very important people who give their thoughts on this year’s edition of the Tour that is now informally complete. Eddy Merckx, the Cannibal and greatest cyclist of all time and winner of five Tours de France among other things, candidly sounded off that Jumbo-Visma rode stupidly and that he could see Pogacar coming up from behind for days and weeks at this point. Merckx damningly added this Tour will go down in history because of Pogacar’s ride, but also because Jumbo-Visma thought they had already won. Reflecting on such remarks perhaps Roglic and the team were too overly focused on how his form was and not enough on the competitors, but besides the Peyresourde on Stage 8 where Roglic maybe “let”/didn’t chase down Pogacar who had lost 1:20 in the crosswinds the day before, where else was Jumbo supposed to put time into him? I can’t even think of a moment when Roglic forsook an opportunity to twist the knife on “his little brother” because hypothetically he would have been happy to have Pog finish on the podium. I’m not sure there were any opportunities to ease-off on him even if they wanted. The heartbreaker for Jumbo, I believe, was that Pogacar significantly improved everything but especially his time-trialing during lockdown, and there was no way to perceive his time-trialing improvements because the only time trial came on the penultimate day.
Also from the interviews last night for which I have heard clips and snippets, it seems I have guessed rightly. Yesterday, Tadej Pogacar was riding to win the Tour de France, but that was obvious and clear as soon as he railed the first turn of yesterday’s course. He was a man on a mission. He was going for the win, but it still doesn’t sound like he thought he would win. He had recklessly thrown caution to the wind riding without a bike computer to give him any data about his watts, heart-rate, probably even time or distance to go. He set out on a madman’s pace and eventually the time checks started coming back in his favor which psychologically fueled him to hold the effort to the finish. But in the press conferences he did sound as stunned as everyone else that he actually came back to win: “In the morning I was just happy to be in second place, and yeah it was a goal to defend that. Then I had a really good day and it turned out I’m in yellow now. I’m super-happy.” At points, to add to the myth and drama of the event, Pogacar’s own astonishment hearkened back to some sort of “chosen-one” language where the hero is too humble to recognize their full powers entrusted to them perhaps for some larger fate to be determined in the future. “I’m just a kid from Slovenia. I have two sisters, one brother – I don’t know what to say. I like to have fun, I like to enjoy life, the little things. So this press conference is too big for me. I don’t know what to say about me actually.”
And thus there he was on the ride onto the Champs-Elysees to formally complete his victory. Tadej Pogacar of the UAE Emirates Team is the champion of the 2020 Tour de France, he wore the Yellow Jersey with matching Yellow shorts and full Yellow Colnago bike. He has joined a most elite club of riders that have won their debut Tour. He had won the King of the Mountains Polka Dot Jersey and Best Young Rider White Jersey as well, but alas only one jersey could fit on his torso. He rode with his UAE team, and quite frankly it was a little strange to see. Dear Readers, say what you want on the boring dominance of Sky/Ineos in years past, but I always appreciated watching them celebrate together on the final day as I watched them battle and win together on all the rest of the days. I’m sure Pogacar’s teammates and coaching staff played greater parts behind the scenes—from the car, on the bus, at the dinner table—but since we did not see their support on the road this year it was a little weird to see them with him now.
Yes, you all know which team I would have loved to see celebrating a Tour victory on this run-in to Paris this year. But alas! Jumbo-Visma has not won, and they were particularly hidden on the ride to the Champs-Elysees…except their leader. Full credit to Primoz Roglic: he congratulated Pogacar right away with a hug yesterday, he totally acknowledged his “little brother” deserved and earned the win, he graciously did many interviews when could have just curled under a blanket. He kept his perspective when asked if this was the end of a dream, he answered “Of course, but it was a dream just to be here in the first place.” He also added that he is still really proud of what he and the team accomplished. He chatted with riders in the peloton. He even posed for pictures on the bike with “his little brother” in the Yellow Jersey that he was wearing just yesterday. Roglic has had such a devastating defeat, but he has accepted it with the highest possible amount of class. He is a great sportsman, he is a great man, I wish him the highest possible success.
The empty Champs-Elysees itself was strange and it was not just because there were no fans. Perhaps I am mistaken, but the fauna seemed different because surely it is now a different season and no longer high summer in Paris. The shadows of the buildings were severely incorrect. The sidewalks were a sorry barren sight. I missed the Norwegian corner with their large flags across from the golden Joan of Arc statue that greets the riders as they come out of the underpass. The adrenaline inducing cheers along the straight stretch where the Red Flame is situated were not there at all to build up the hype. But! Thankfully we still saw the sight of the Egyptian Obelisk, the Arc de Triomphe looked better than ever, and none of this effected the riders’ performance. For the sprinters this was still the grand-daddy sprint of them all. The Champs-Elysees cobbles were rough as usual and so was the deceptive rise up, and the down side was extremely fast and treacherous too. At the Tour’s final Intermediate Sprint, shockingly Peter Sagan did not fight for Points thus right then Sam Bennett had mathematically locked up the Green Jersey and he only now had to finish the race. Sagan had said this morning in an interview that he would not go for the Intermediate and instead hinted he’d be all in for the final sprint for stage honors. O! The admission startled some of us that any point Sagan would concede the fight for the jersey he has always worn in Paris. He said he had already forgone attempts at stage wins in order to fight for the Green Jersey, but that had not worked out. So today he would try for the win on the greatest sprint finish in cycling.
And so for the 7th time, the peloton rolled through the Champs-Elysees finish line to take the bell lap—only a little over 6 km were left in the 2020 Tour de France. They rode up the rise to the Arc de Triomphe. Sailed around that greatest roundabout on earth. Flew down the fast cobbled side toward the Place de la Concorde—and by this point the lead-out trains were really gearing up, on such a fast sprint like this they were all important. They swung right and back left onto the side of the River Seine, back onto pavement were it was easier to move to the front of the peloton. They took the hard left to the underpass near the Lourve. When they came out, they made the hard left between the Joan of Arc statue and what is usually Norwegian corner. By this point the lead out trains were there because now they were crossing under the Red Flame signifying 1 km to go. Sunweb looked good, Trek looked good, and yes, Quickstep looked good—Sagan and Elia Viviani (Cofidis) were lurking on Bennett’s wheel. With 700 meters to go they cut diagonally left and Michael Morkov (Deceunink-Quickstep) was proving why he is the best lead out man in the world. He surged to the front and was the first to take the final right turn with 500 m to go onto the finishing straight. Behind him was Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) leading out the current Champion of the World Mads Pederson (Trek-Segafredo) wearing the Rainbow Jersey for the last time—for next week a new World Champion shall be crowned. Sam Bennett in the Green Points Jersey, on a green bike, slotted in behind Pederson—letting Trek have the lead, because he knew it was a headwind on the final straight. Behind Bennett was the mighty one, Peter Sagan, who he has thoroughly defeated by a large margin not solely because of the relegation. Morkov pulled off the front, job done. Stuyven following also did his final acceleration. And when Stuyven pulled off, Mads Pederson the Champion of the World launched his bid for glory, but Sam Bennett in Green was on him and launching in the same moment. Sagan was staying in Bennett’s wheel as well. Sam Bennett, Champion of Ireland wearing the Green Jersey on the Champs-Elysees came around the World Champion and held off the charging Peter Sagan to win the Final Stage, his 2nd Stage, of the Tour de France.
This time he knew. This time he knew it was real and he knew where he was. He, Sam Bennett—the first Irishman to wear and win the Green Jersey since his mentor Sean Kelly did of old—had won on the Champs-Elysees. He was cheering and screaming with delight, when he came to a stop he lifted up his green bike over his head with both hands to continue cheering. Everyone was passing and congratulating him, including Sagan who was not in Green in Paris for the first time. He came to the TV interview again and he had more heartwarming things to say just like last time. Last time, he was so out of sorts he couldn’t even describe the sprint besides to say he was worried he had lost, today he could tell you every detail of the last lap—my description you just read was based off his words. He said he NEVER thought he would win on the Champs-Elysees or while wearing the Green Jersey. But now he has won on the Champs-Elysees in Green, on what he says is his dream team. He said crossing that line made all the suffering through the mountains worth it—I’ll note here, dear Readers, this was literally the exact reason for the creation of the Points competition. Yes, it was a fairy-tale ending for the Irishman, and it was great seeing him display that for all to see. Ah! Bennett’s a great interview, perhaps we shall derive a nickname for him based off these moving heartwarming scenes he produces. O! The way he opens up and speaks from the heart, surely, surely, this will be a story the grandchildren will ask him to recount again and again.
Unlike Bennett’s interview, the rest of the podium ceremonies were rather dull affairs this year, unfortunate but not unexpected. It mostly involved Pogacar doing laps and wardrobe changes for he won White, the Polka Dots, and of course Yellow. But Sam Bennett in Green went up there. And finally for once, the Super Combative award for the entire Tour was awarded to the correct person: Baby Spartacus Marc Hirschi (Sunweb), he was the revelation of the Tour and he surely lit up the race most with the rest of his Sunweb team. And though 2020 has thrown the world into complete chaos and at times it seems up is down and down is up, there are still some things we can rely on happening in this world: the Movistar team has won the Team Classification for this 2020 Tour de France. Yes, this is a running joke, because it seems they are the only team that target this competition, sometimes seemingly at the expense of their leaders’ General Classification positions. Soft-spoken Pog stood on the podium, but didn’t say much for a winner’s speech—it was certainly not like Geraint Thomas’ (Ineos Grenadiers) goofy mic drop speech in 2018. Ah! But beside Pog stood Rog holding his young child. On the other side of him stood Richie Porte who was anxious to get home and meet his baby daughter his wife had given birth to while he was at this Tour.
I do not think baby-face 21 year-old Pogacar has a child yet—based on the quote of his siblings, perhaps the proper question is how recently has he moved out of his parents’ home? Ah! Young Egan last year. Young Tadej this year. Who’s next? Perhaps the even younger Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quickstep) will win next year. Surely cycling is entering a new generation and era, perhaps in a decade we will look back and say this Slovenian Fratricide Tour, when young Tadej bested his elder Primoz with his Immortal TT, was the official start date of the new era.
And with that, we have come to the end, dear Readers. That is a wrap. We have been blessed with a beautiful Tour despite the almost ominously shocking ending. It has absolutely turned out to be a great last-minute decision to cover this Tour de France. We have seen much. We have come a long way since Nice. We have experienced biblical weather of many sorts in the midst of the worst plague in living memory. We have journeyed in the footsteps of historic warriors. We have summited mountains where former titans once clashed. We have explored desolate landscapes and pioneered new routes that someday shall be legendary themselves. We saw sprinters perform feats of raw athleticism that dropped our jaws. We saw cyclists transform into shooting stars and meteors on harrowing descents. We saw ironmen and musketeers seek out the hard way on the front day in and day out to warn the locals of the Tour’s approach like Paul Revere did of old. We saw tractors and lieutenants and even army knives ride in the vanguard of the peloton for hours on end striking fear into the hearts of those behind. We saw superheroes and mighty falcons fly up mountains. We saw mortals lose skin, break bones, ride to the finish in tattered rags and still go on; wounded warriors who refused to quit were they. We saw ambushes catch comrades out while tactical masters recovered their losses or created winning moves. We saw once mighty ones face writings on walls. We saw vanquished foes reveal hearts of gold. We saw diamonds in the rough revealed and champions sculpted. We saw heroes and comrades complete steps on their career-long journeys. We saw servants sacrifice all for their masters. We saw many nations united under singular banners. We saw unlikely alliances forged. We saw boxers battle for titles up steep slopes. We saw historic changings of guard. We saw generational conflicts. And most epically of all, we saw brothers duel. O! Dear Readers, I know letters and words cannot do justice to what the eye has seen, but please at least say you now understand that you have not just watched a “bike race where men tights with shaved legs see who can get from Point A to Point B fastest.” We have seen an epic. It was a grand struggle with thousands of mirco-struggles within it. The Tour de France is not just a sporting event to sell more newspapers, to advertise tourism and brand names, or even to satisfy our love of athleticism—in the grand scheme of things, the beautiful bicycles themselves are only a prop in the larger story. Why! The Tour de France is the Iliad and the Odyssey combined: it is a titanic journey that transforms its travelers into new men as they tackle hurdle after hurdle and at the same time engage in contests of arms as momentous as the ones that took place on the beaches of Troy many millennia ago. Every bike race is a romantic epic in its own sometimes little, sometimes large way; but The Epic is The Tour.
We reference cycling history and eras based on who won the Tour that year—like the Romans did of old with their yearly-elected Consuls. We count down the days, weeks, and months to the Tour which is something that—despite our deep love—we do not at all do for the Giro or the Vuelta. When the Giro and the Vuelta finish we move on with our lives quickly, but it is not so with the Tour. Every year—this year for the first time not in July—for three weeks our lifestyle changes. For three weeks, we know there is another installment of The Epic going on in the land of the Franks, and we want to be as plugged-in to the drama as possible. Before DVR and replay-able livestreams, our days would be completely structured around The Epic, but even to just watch the replays changes our routines and schedules. With articles, daily previews, YouTube videos, podcasts, Twitter feeds, betting sites, there is a hyper-heightened sense of drama to this race above all the others. And it is because it is The Epic. Of all the races on the calendar, it is the one that functions in the largest superlatives possible. It is the race that will move us most, with or without all the ingredients of a good race, because it is the one that matters most. Dear Readers, this year we had all the ingredients too. We cheered, we laughed, we gasped, we slept, we jumped, we were frustrated, we were let down, we were on the edge of our seats, we were saddened, we were heartbroken, we were impressed, we were stunned beyond belief, we were deeply moved. Again, other races make us feel such things, but it is a significantly heightened when these emotions come during The Epic, The Tour.
It was a mythical duel between two seemingly average joes from a tiny, often forgotten, European country. The two Slovenians, Tadej Pogacar and Primoz Roglic, are not the same people now in Paris that started this Tour in Nice and—most certainly—their relationship is permanently altered. They seemed friendly compatriots who loved to race bikes, but they—and the others—rose to the task to do feats of great heroism. But unique to this edition, in the process they seemed to transform into brothers though born in different decades. And when the relationship was finally sealed for all to see, and the older brother was about to make the family and whole country proud as he would be the first to win the great race before the talented young one would surely out do him in the years to come: the younger brother unexpectedly, like one chosen by fate for a great destiny, unleashed the most powerful performance that no one could comprehend and accidently vanquished his older brother who he so looked up to and loved. This installment of The Epic was shaping up to be another variation of the typical story we so cherish. Where a hero rises to the top thanks to his hard work and determination to strive for excellence, his teammates’ selfless hard work, and his clever use of tactics and innovations. This year we seemed to be getting that main story with a brand new cast for the first time in years, and then there was a side plot of a brotherly relationship with another rival. But in a strange twist at the end, the brotherly relationship took over the plot and turned brotherly-love into fratricide.
We are still comprehending the reality of the final dark twist. So we have not yet even begun to understand the story’s meaning—what truths it is supposed to reveal and teach us. Thus picking up the pieces of normal life will be more difficult than ever this time around. Yes, every year our thoughts fly home from their three-week adventure in France, and it takes us a few days for the dust to settle and for us to remember where we physically have been the whole time. Surely that is the finest tribute we can pay to a story. It has so engrossed and moved us, we cannot simply snap back into normal life. The Tour is not always the most exciting race—more “not than often,” actually. The Tour is not the race we consider our most dearly beloved. But to state the cliché: The Tour is The Tour, and we understand it is the ultimate. We mourn its winding down, and only accept its end with heavy hearts. At its completion we compare this edition to its predecessors, not all are equal, but ultimately they are all satisfying. And when that is done, we start to look forward to next year’s installment. With the Arrivee in Paris, we produce our final thoughts that quickly wander straight into next year’s Grand Depart. But for the purposes of these daily stage reports, my final thought here on the Arrivee in Paris is the same as my first thought at the start of the first report from our Grand Depart in Nice:
Vive le Tour.
THE GREATEST RACE OF TRUTH
TDF 2020, Stage 20 Lure – La Planche des Belles Filles ITT 36 km
THE GREATEST TIME-TRIAL RIDE IN THE HISTORY OF THE BICYCLE WAS PRODUCED TODAY as major GC shifts take place on the La Planche des Belles Filles penultimate day Time Trial
DENVER, CO – The dramatic “Race of Truth” has never more so lived up to its name. Put to shame are Monsieur Chrono Jacques Anquetil’s Grand Prix des Nations wins compared to the ride we saw today. The Cannibal Eddy Merckx’s Hour Record set in Meixco City in 1972 cannot hold a candle to the ride I shall soon describe. For all his dominance even Big Mig Miguel Indurain did not have a signature ride of such weight like this one had today. The Hour Record performances of Monsieur Prologue Chris Boardman and the Flying Scotsman Graeme Obree which were akin to the space race have now been blown out of the water. And even, even the most legendary Time Trial performance of them all by Greg Lemond in 1989 has finally been bested. It is for such Herculean performances that shake the foundations of the world like the one we saw today that we watch this sport day in and day out, because we simply never know when we shall be dazzled and stunned by a performance we shall remember for literally the entire next century. Truly, in the future cycling history books that shall cover this new generation, all of them shall give today’s performance the place of honor. Here in the two thousand and twentieth year of our Lord, in the midst of the restoration of the world after the Coronavirus pandemic, the greatest time trial, chrono, pursuit, effort against the clock in the history of the bicycle has taken place.
Richie Porte! The Tasmanian Richie Porte of Trek-Segafredo has ridden himself onto the podium of the Tour de France for the first time in his career at the ripe old age of 35. It was probably the crowning achievement of his career. It was the Time Trial of his life…and his ride was an afterthought, completely eclipsed by this greatest Time Trial not only of the century, but of all time.
O! La Planche des Belles Filles, how I love thee. Yes, dear Readers, the climb where this Individual Time Trial finished has a special place in my heart. In 2012, still during the years when the only bike race I knew about was the Tour, I saw Chris Froome (Ineos Grenadiers) for the first time pacing Bradley Wiggins for the entire climb. When it seemed his domestique duties were done for the day, he then still outsprinted Cadel Evans up the final 20% ramp. He was the first to come over the horizon as the insane gradients flattened out in the final meters to take his first Tour stage victory. In that moment, I pointed to the TV and said that man would win the 2013 Tour de France, and he did. Stage 10 of the 2014 Tour de France finished at the top of La Planche des Belles Filles and it was a day I shall never forget, for it was the day I officially fell in love with cycling. There is not room to tell that romantic love story here, because today’s events are so much more historic and thrilling. And yet, if not for that stage in 2014 perhaps today I would have skipped out on watching what everyone thought would be a business-end Time Trial, more of a formality check-up test rather than the ultimate Race of Truth. Yes, La Planche des Belles Filles was the scene of another legendary performance today—by far its greatest yet. As in the past though, it was the riders themselves who created the drama today.
How does one go about producing the greatest individual effort of all time against the clock? What was he thinking when he woke up this morning? What was his warm-up procedure—sorry, procedures? Was there an early morning effort to warm-up the legs for the whole day? Was there a course recon? What was the feeding schedule for the day? Surely, he nailed the final hour-or-so preparation routine before he descended the Time Trial Starting Ramp. And none of those questions matter compared to psyching oneself up for the biggest performance in their career. Quite frankly, I highly doubt he even knew he had such a performance in him, he did not know what he was about to do, and that made it all the better.
The day got off to a slow start actually, it really was the business-end of the Tour for many of the early riders. The most notable early ride was not due not to his performance, but to the ovations he received. Why it woke up the stage! Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) came down the start ramp to the wildest applauses on the day. These roads are where Thibaut grew up, 9 km into the TT he rode through his home village of Melisey where his father Regis is mayor. His friends and family were out on the roadside, I do not say probably, dear Readers, because I am convinced the whole town was out in force. Pinot’s former schoolteachers were there with the local baker who would give him free croissants as a child. The barber who would give him the same haircut as all the other boys in his youth was cheering for him. There was the now-retired priest who baptized him thirty years ago, there was his childhood crush, there was the boy who milks the goats on his farm while Thibaut is away at the races. Yes, Thibaut Pinot owns a goat farm. And yes, every villager was there to see the darling of their village ride through in the biggest bike race in the world. Ah! How beautiful would it have been if Pinot were in Yellow as he rode up that last 20% ramp of La Planche des Belles Filles where the fans had painted “Pinot, Pinot, Pinot,…” for literally 200 meters of the road. But ultimately, it was good Pinot was not in contention today, because it would have been a shame to see the unstoppable one break his heart on his home roads. Pinot rode well, but he did not trouble the top times already set nor the top men still to come.
In his Beglian Time Trial Champion skinsuit, Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) was the first mighty one to threaten the best time already set. He was down 38 seconds at the first time split 14.5 km into the course, but by the bottom of La Planche des Belles Filles he had drawn even. Wout opted to switch to his road bike at the bottom of the climb in order to eat up the meters of steep gradients as he has all Tour in the service of his Yellow Jersey-wearing team leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma). He crossed the finish line with a bike throw 38 seconds quicker than the best time thus far. It was a strong performance, but behind the final contenders were already on the road and something major was brewing.
Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) rolled down the ramp in the Polka Dot Jersey, knowing the plan to sandbag the flat and steamroll up the finishing climb in order to set the best time uphill and retain his King of the Mountains lead. Soon after Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma), former Time Trial World Champion, was off down the ramp—ready to stretch his legs and put in a stage winning performance. Rigoberto Uran (EF) went off with Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) a minute after him, surely it would be a Race of Truth between these two, because Rigo began the day only 10 seconds behind Yates on GC. The same would be true for Enric Mas (Movistar) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) who were the next two to start, only 50 seconds separated them on GC. After Landa was fourth place Richie Porte who was only 22 seconds ahead of Landa on GC and 1:39 behind Superman Lopez of Astana. It would surely be a Race of Truth for Superman Lopez to keep his GC Podium position, O! too often the Time Trial is the Achilles’ Heel for so many Colombians! And it was only the Slovenians left to start after that.
Would it be a Slovenian-bowl? A rematch of the Slovenian Time Trial Nationals that took place in June while the world was just in the beginnings of releasing from the lockdowns? It was surprising to see the headlines that Tadej Pogacar (UAE) had beaten Primoz Roglic by 8 seconds in that time trial, because in 2019 Roglic had beaten him handedly in the two Time Trials they both competed in. We all remember Roglic burst onto the scene at the 2016 Giro as a time-trialist, he’s been world-class in the discipline ever since while also orchestrating a perfect five-year trajectory to win the Tour de France. Only this Race of Truth, this final Time Trial Test was left for him to pass. After this test he would be the champion of the Tour de France off the back of the tremendous teamwork his Jumbo-Visma team had put together over the past years but specifically 19 stages to finally slay the Sky/Ineos giant. As he warmed-up on his time-trial bike connected to the turbo-trainer, a staff member and teammate Tony Martin (Jumbo-Visma) helped pin his bib number on his back in the most aero position possible. Tony Martin the Panzerwagen, four times Champion of the World in the Time-Trial discipline, what an ally for Primoz Roglic to have in his team. Martin’s World Champion days are long beyond the veteran now, but after already completing the course and showering, he was still helping prepare his team leader for the discipline he’s been so successful at in the past. And meanwhile, the other Slovenian? Alone on the trainer with headphones on and cotton balls up his nose containing some sort of oil to better open up his air passageways. How would young Pogacar in his White Jersey fair against the clock in this Race of Truth? Surely, he would retain his White Jersey, but would he take back the Polka Dots also? That could prove to be a tall order. And how would he fair on GC? Superman was not far behind, but his time-trialing record is poor, it was more of a question if he could give his “older brother” a race today who started 57 seconds ahead of him on GC. Well, a minute after Superman began, down the starting ramp went “little brother” Pog, and a minute after him went “big brother” Rog; all had begun the Race of Truth.
By the time Roglic had started, time checks for the Top 10 on GC at the first intermediate split were starting to come through. Dumoulin was only 12 seconds behind the leading time, he was on a good day. Uran was 1:08 behind the lead time, and Yates was 1:10 behind, so those two competitors were running even with each other. Mas was 1:10 down—average, Landa was 1:30 down—bad, and then Porte was only 47 seconds down—he was on a good day! Porte’s day got better when we heard Superman must have gotten his cape caught in the phonebooth, because he was already 41 seconds behind Richie Porte himself! O! That was big news: Superman was wilting, and Richie Porte was throwing down a ride worthy of the podium. And then less than a minute later, we saw that Tadej Pogacar was flying like a Peregrine Falcon today. At this first time check, only 14.5 km into the 36 km route, Primoz Roglic, originally of time trial fame, had already ceded 13 seconds to “his little brother” Tadej Pogacar.
With still 17.5 km to go to the finish Tadej Pogacar in the White Jersey had passed Superman Lopez who had started one full minute ahead of him, but it was of little interest. Yes, all the other storylines fell away after that first time check, because “little brother” Pog was challenging “big brother” Rog for “the inheritance” now. After his Grand Colombier stage win before the Second Rest Day, an interviewer asked Pogacar if he would try to win the Tour de France and Pogacar’s response was simply “That’s the plan.” He probably answered that with genuine confidence and intent, but did he actually think he could contend with “big brother” Rog this Tour? What about after his time losses to Superman and Rog on the Col de la Loze? Or on the last mountain stage where Roglic seemed to have him on the ropes on the gravel roads after the summit of the last Beyond Category climb? But this was 21 year-old Tadej Pogacar who found himself only 57 seconds down on the Yellow Jersey going into this final test of his first Tour de France, it was a no-brainer he would go for it, yet it was still a surprise to see how much ground he was already making up. Yes, the “little brother” was all in to win, how would the elder respond?
What information do these Directeur Sportifs provide to the rider’s radio from the car behind? Some riders hate to hear the time-checks of their competitors and only want to ride their own race, but today it seemed like “big brother” Rog wanted to hear how he was doing over “little brother” Pog. After that first time check, Roglic—who was by no means having a bad day—did not look nearly as smooth or comfortable on his bike; yes, surely he was being updated on the young one’s progress. But he had a 57 second buffer on his “little brother” to begin the day, he would just need to raise his pace higher and maintain this gap—but that is easier said than done. By the time Roglic hit 16 km to go, Pogacar had already taken 20 seconds out of him, Roglic’s buffer on Yellow was down to 39 seconds. By the time Roglic hit 13 km to go, his buffer on holding Yellow was down to just 31 seconds. Could Roglic recover the time with a great climb, or were we reliving 1989?
Since 1975, the Tour de France has finished on the Champs-Elysees in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. In all of those years since, the last stage has been a flat road stage with the gentlemen’s agreement to not even race until they started laps of the finishing circuit where the race would heat up one last time so the sprinters and the Tour could have one final, massive curtain call. In all of those years except one. In 1989 the organizers decided to forget the coronation ceremony and ultimate sprint, and instead run a final Individual Time Trial from Versailles to the Champs-Elysees. American Greg Lemond—who had surprisingly resurrected his career after being shot while hunting—had battled Frenchman Laurent Fignon for Yellow all Tour, they had passed the maillot jaune off to each other multiple times over the course of the race, but finally everyone thought Lemond’s 50-second deficit to Fignon going into the final 24 km time trial would be a bridge too far for Lemond and the Tour was done and dusted. Everyone except Lemond and maybe his inner-circle. Too many books, documentaries, and interviews have been made to cover how Lemond rode the greatest time trial in history—until today—to beat Fignon by 58 seconds and win the 1989 Tour de France by just 8 seconds. With all the lead changes throughout and the surprise twist in the finale, according to many it is the greatest Tour of all time. I do not think many will say the 2020 Tour de France shall top the 1989 Tour, but only halfway through the Slovenians’ rides today I thought this 2020 Race of Truth was already in contention with that final Champs-Elysees Race of Truth in 1989 no matter which Slovenian would come out on top.
Up the road Roglic’s Jumbo teammate Tom Dumoulin came across the line 10 seconds ahead of other Jumbo teammate Wout Van Aert with a time of 57:16 to set the new best of the day. Down the road the young Pogacar was sailing and taking risks on every corner while older brother Roglic fought to staunch the bleeding, but with 7 km still to ride Roglic’s grasp on Yellow was only 24 seconds. Both must have been getting time checks, because the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. At the bottom of the climb both opted to swap onto road bikes, and O! it was no surprise when Pog’s was better. But this was it, Roglic’s last hope was that he could keep pace with his “little brother” on the climb and maintain his now only 20 second grip on the Yellow Jersey. Never have I said it with a heavier heart: Alas! He could not. With over 4 km still to climb Pog had already put 57 seconds into his “older brother” Rog this time trial, and they were at that point virtually tied for the Yellow Jersey. With 3 km to go, the “little brother” Pog was up 22 seconds on his “big brother,” Roglic was spinning a high cadence and clearly not putting out the power that Pogacar was laying down. With 2 km to go, you could see it in Roglic’s body language that he understood he had lost. O! But dear Readers, Pogacar was not just beating Roglic, he was barnstorming to the win. Some in the press said Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) rode with diamonds in his legs in last year’s Tour as he bravely rode out of his depth to defend Yellow until he blew up on the penultimate mountain stage, to what shall the press compare Pogacar’s legs this year? Yes, the rich get richer, Pogacar would not relent, he rode all the way to the line. Tom Dumoulin, and Richie Porte who about tied him, bested Wout Van Aert’s time by 10 seconds, Tadej Pogacar beat their times by 1:20 with a time of 55:55. It was so stunning no one could even cheer, it was too much to process. Not a soul woke up this morning expecting to see such a stunning performance; as I said before, we can only say it was the greatest individual effort against the clock in the history of the bicycle.
No one expected Pogacar to take Yellow today, or even to take time out of Roglic. If you read and listen to Lemond in the interviews about 1989, that Champs-Elysees time trial was his third or fourth time trial against Fignon in the past couple of months alone. Based off those performances Lemond not only knew there was a real chance he could beat Fignon, Lemond really did think he would before rolling down the starting ramp. Today, at best, everyone left the door open to the possibility that Pogacar could win—because they know the famous story of 1989—but no one actually thought he would do it. In days and months and years and decades to come, Pogacar will be asked if he thought on the morning of this most famous day he would win, and my guess is that this morning he would have said “No.” For 19 stages, Roglic had appeared to be bulletproof to all and surely everyone thought he would finish off the job in his ace discipline. This is what impresses me more than Lemond’s victory, Pogacar himself was probably almost as surprised as the rest of us by how well he did today. But the deficit itself is not the only reason this was the greatest effort against the clock.
This victory was more stunning than 1989, because not only was it more unexpected, it was more intimate. Ah! Five years ago, Primoz Roglic was a nobody-cyclist from Slovenia, but at that time Tadej Pogacar was a nobody teenager probably just learning how to drive. In that five years Primoz Roglic has done the most remarkable systemic build-up to a Tour de France victory anyone has ever seen. Surely already, three years ago young Tadej must have been looking at the elder Primoz as a hero and trailblazer. By last year at the latest, all were aware of Pogacar’s meteoric rise, Roglic most of all. O! We’ve seen it this Tour dear Readers, they have a relationship and it does have a brotherly dynamic. Remember Stage 9 where Pogacar almost collided and crashed them both, but Roglic immediately said sorry and checked how he was; and we’ve seen them chatting before and after the races like buddies. They both have the utmost respect for each other, neither really even underestimates the other. Seeing them, surely I have gotten a sense of an older brother-little brother relationship, Pog surely saw Rog as a trailblazer. If not for Rog, the scouts and agents may not have heard of Pog for years more—if ever. And everything Pog has experienced, Rog has already been through and he could offer advice like a mentor to the young Pog. Until today. The older brother was one final test away from completely his ascendance to the pinnacle of the sport, but all of a sudden his mentee, his younger brother has beat him to the top. But it does not just feel like the little brother has beat the older brother to something that they will both eventually accomplish: not many people win a Tour de France, and every Tour Roglic shall try to win after this, his now superior, now more accomplished “little brother” will be standing in his way. And though he loves his “older brother,” he will not gift him such a win. For me, this vanquishing of the elder does not feel like a Slovenian version of the Coppi-Bartali 1949 Giro d’Italia where Fausto Coppi definitively eclipsed the aging Gino Bartali, because alas! Roglic had not finished establishing himself as Bartali clearly had. It feels like a much more ancient and murkier myth when brother slayed brother. It feels like a reversal of the Romulus and Remus story, when a dispute broke out between the two brothers about where to found the city, it was the older Romulus who slew the younger Remus despite all their adventures together. Romulus is immortalized in the name of their city, if Remus had vanquished him the city would have been known as Rem and not Rome. Yes, though he surely had no malicious intent, it felt like “little brother” Pogacar committed fratricide today which is what made his performance all the more stunning. Even a Frenchman can recognize the perfect happy fairy tale the 1989 Tour was for Greg Lemond who came back to win from within an inch of death. But here, the talented younger brother with his meteoric rise has savagely denied his trailblazing older brother to complete the final step in his steady progression from zero to hero. It is another story that you cannot make up, it is another script Hollywood would reject. Not just one, but two nobodies of a tiny country with barely any results to speak of rise to the top of a sport so quickly, and then in an edgy turn at the end the elder who did everything right and even befriend this junior is unexpectedly slayed by him when the junior produces the greatest performance in the history of the sport. Yes, yes, dear Readers, that is too hard to believe. How tough it must be to be Primoz Roglic, because tomorrow he has to wake up and realize it was not all just a nightmare.
Roglic had stripped the vizor off his helmet at some point on the stage. As he was coming up the steep gradients in the final kilometers it was haunting to see him. His helmet was tilted, somehow his hair seemed unkempt, his face was completely pale, but it was his eyes that showed the most emotion. He was a deer in the headlights, they were O! so big; he was wide-eyed with shock. He looked as if he had just survived an enemy bombing in World War II. He was shellshocked. He was in disbelief. He was broken. As the two Slovenians were still approaching the line, a finish line camera captured Wout Van Aert and Tom Dumoulin standing at the finish line waiting to congratulate their team leader on winning the Tour de France, but soon they also knew the writing was on the wall in the very final kilometers. Their faces seemed to be made of stone watching the same images on a big screen that we were seeing too at home, they were crestfallen. How were they going to console their leader, and even themselves? Had they worked day in and day out for 19 days for Roglic’s “little brother” to beat them all at the very last possible moment? The race is over, they do not even get another opportunity as a team to crack him. How could this be real? O! Has the ecstasy of victory and the agony of defeat ever been on more display than today? Day after day, race after race, year after year, Jumbo-Visma had been assembling and grooming the talent to compete with the greatest cycling teams in the world. They did that, they made the mighty Ineos Grenadiers go out with a whimper before the Second Rest Day of this Tour. How many times have we praised Tom Dumoulin, Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), and The Swiss Army Knife Wout Van Aert as they destroyed almost all of Primoz Roglic’s enemies? And then today, Roglic did not even do anything wrong, he finished 1:56 down. On his best day—which he potentially could have had if he was not getting the morale-killing time checks that Pogacar was stealing the race from him—he would have finished around Dumoulin, 1:20 back, potentially a dozen or so second ahead at most. If Roglic had done that, he still would have lost the Tour to Pogacar. Roglic crossed the line and just sat down on the ground in disbelief for a long while. Wout tried to say something to him, but Roglic couldn’t even acknowledge him. This is an agony that has not even sunk in yet.
This was the last strange thing of the day and then I wrap up, dear Readers. It is heartbreaking for Roglic and the whole Jumbo-Visma team, but without question they should be proud of their efforts. They really did do all they could, but the better man won and it took one of the greatest performances in the history of all sport to unseat their team leader off of the back of a total team effort. If Roglic had to let victory slip through his fingers, which seems he was fated to do, could he have asked for a better group of guys to do it with? I know! I know that seems extremely corny and cliché, but truly for these past 19 stages this Jumbo team has been on an epic journey, an odyssey that would impress Odysseus. Surely, a more special bond is forming between them, in a sport chock-full of team camaraderie. But more importantly, look at Jumbo-Visma in comparison to UAE Team Emirates. Who is Tadej Pogacar going to celebrate with? Can you name any of his teammates? I look out for that stuff, watching the efforts of the selfless teammates is what moves me and gives me the most pleasure watching the sport. I saw David de la Cruz (UAE) stick with Pogacar and do one big turn for him one time on the Col de la Loze stage. Other than that, I saw Fabio Aru (UAE) abandon with sort of medical issue on Stage 11 or 12; and I saw Alexander Kristoff (UAE) win Stage 1 in the wet in Nice, but that was a lifetime ago. Are we about meet four or five random dudes drinking champagne on the way to the Champs-Elysees who supposedly helped Pogacar win the Tour de France? Seriously, I figured when Pogacar would finally win the Tour in a year or two, one of the main people that would celebrate with him would be his “big brother” and mentor Primoz Roglic—even in a year or two if it was Roglic he’d have had to beat, Roglic could better accept the defeat as a former Tour winner himself. When Roglic finally stood up, he made a point to quickly congratulate Pogacar before he started a ton of winner’s interviews. In Roglic’s own interview, he said he did all he could today, but the result is what it is. He said, “I am disappointed, I will cry, I did already, but it was how it was. I want it to be a little different, but I cannot change it…It’s true I did not have the best day, Tadej was in a different world for me and he definitely deserves his win so really congrats to him.” Surely, Roglic is not mad at “his little brother” Pogacar for beating him, he is disappointed the Tour slipped through his fingers. I don’t know where the “older brother” goes from here, besides come back next year and try again. The competition will be fiercer, he will be another year older, and he will have to rebound from a devastating defeat. At the moment, the only consolations I see for Roglic are that it will be the shortest gap between Tours in the history of the event, he should have the support of a strong team even in defeat, and it took the greatest time trial in history to defeat him.
Tadej Pogacar can retire tomorrow evening and we shall still speak of this ride with hallowed words. As we grow old and tell younger generations about the performances that have deeply moved us, this one will be high on the list. With the perfect kinslaying element mixed with the stunning unexpectedness, it may even make us shiver or give us the creeps or goosebumps decades later. It is only an afterthought to confirm that Pogacar handedly took back the Polka Dot Jersey as well, Carapaz was nowhere to be seen on the results, truly I have not even seen his split for the climb. Ah! More news and inside stories will come out about this day, books and documentaries shall be produced about it, but all of us shall be slow to forget the stunned emotions we felt when we saw Tadej Pogacar, the “little brother,” heartbreakingly slay his “big brother” and mentor Primoz Roglic in the greatest time-trialing performance of all time to win the Tour de France. There are not enough superlatives in the language to describe Pogacar and it is just still too hard to believe what happened. And at the same time, the performance broke our hearts as we saw the agony of defeat on the faces of Primoz Roglic and his Jumbo-Visma team.
THE TOUR IS WINDING DOWN AS IT TRADITIONALLY SHOULD
TDF 2020, Stage 19 Bourg-en-Bresse – Champagnole 166.5 km
Sprinters attack, but Andersen escapes in a counterattack to take a 2nd stage.
DENVER, CO – The stage was one for the sprinters today, the Tour came out of the mountains and headed north towards Paris. It was a relatively dull day with only Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quickstep) in the break, and he was brought back after the Intermediate Sprint—Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) notably finished ahead of Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) again. But with 35 km to go, the peloton was all back together and riders tried fresh new escape attacks from the peloton. It was then that we saw a group of all the major sprinters and top classics men in the Tour remarkably make the winning move, except for Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) and Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma). With such a strong and loaded group, it was a done deal that this would go to the line, powerful names like Peter Sagan, Sam Bennett, Matteo Trentin and Greg Van Avermaet (CCC), Oliver Naesan (AG2R), Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott), Luke Rowe (Ineos) were there with many others. Lotto Soudal rode for a few kilometers for Ewan, but quickly gave up hope. Trentin and Sagan both had an interest in riding away from Sam Bennett in order to claw back some Green Jersey points. On a small unclassified climb, Trentin launched a large attack and Sagan responded, but Bennett rode right in his wheel to mark every move his top competitor would do. Trentin’s attack was massive and put many people into the red to bridge the gap, but when Trentin sat up knowing he had no gap it was Soren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb)—yes, the rider who won in Lyon—who counterattacked the group. When no one went with him or quickly responded to chase him down, that was it: stage over. You see, when you give an inch to a cyclist like Andersen, he will take a mile. Once again it was Sagan himself who had just brought back and neutralized the last attack and thus it was the fault of many others to not attempt to cover or even ride with Andersen. For the last 15 km, Andersen built up a minute advantage over the completely un-cohesive group of strong chasing sprinters. Andersen took a second stage win, congratulations to the young man and chapeau to Sunweb’s third brilliant stage win—all very well earned. Behind Sagan, Trentin, and Bennett all rode together with Bennett marking everything and at the line he came across first to take more Points than his biggest rivals. Thus now Bennett is on 319 Points, while Sagan is only at 264, and Trentin at 250; Bennett has all but sewn up the Green Jersey competition.
Ah! The Tour surely feels like it is heading for Paris now after such a transitional stage. Yes, the Olympian and Titanic clashes are behind us now, after 19 stages of racing a hierarchy has been established and who will be the winner of the 107th Tour de France is fairly evident. There is a final test tomorrow, but Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) has done quite a bit of the heavy lifting already to ensure his Tour victory. Some novice fans shall ask, well what is the point now, why continue to watch? O! Dear Readers, this is one of the unappreciated beauties of the Tour—in many recent editions, not even appreciated by Christian Prudhomme, the Tour’s Race Director who plans the broad strokes of the route each year. Despite this Tour’s unorthodox opening on the Cote d’Azur in Nice where the race entered into proper mountains on only the second stage, now its finish is winding down and hearkens back to Tours in bygone eras. Think about the geography of France, dear Readers: Paris is in the north, where France is flat. Naturally, if this were to be a real loop or lap of France, inevitably the race must come out of the mountains and travel the flats to make it home. Yet in recent decades, the Tour has not bothered to attempt to make its way to Paris, instead Prudhomme has opted for an epic penultimate day followed by a train or plane ride to Paris that evening or next morning for the final Sunday coronation procession on the Champs-Elysees. I must admit, I was eager and would still never refuse to see the epic Alpe d’Huez decide the Tour on the penultimate day like in 2015, but the more I reflect on the essence of the Tour de France I do not think I find such a sensational stage appropriate for a final test.
Dear Readers, I am starting to love the conventionality and predictability of the Tour de France. Again it goes back to France’s geography, the mountains are in the south and if the race is to finish in Paris as it always shall, then it is appropriate that it at least attempt to make its way north as it is this year. Leave the epic and exciting penultimate mountainous Queen stages that turn the GC on its head to the Giro d’Italia and Veulta a Espana where mountain passes abound near the typical finishing cities of Milan and Madrid. It is part of the Tour’s glory and prestige that it should be a constraining-ly regal and even predictable affair. Perhaps it is because we did not get it this year, but I am starting to fall in love once again or more than ever before with a traditional Tour de France route: a flat-ish first week with many sprints and some sort of time-trial, then the race opens up in the first big mountain range (Pyrenees or Alps depending on the route) followed by an overarching transition to the other big mountain range (the other of the Alps or Pyrenees) and then the race should have some sort of falling action as it definitively makes its way and looks towards Paris. Sprinkle in the lumpy hilly stages, the breakaway stages, the Massif Central, the Vosges and Jura mountains, the cobbles of Roubaix however the Race Director sees fit each year—even end with a penultimate mountain stage so long as the race is heading in the direction of Paris. Is this an audacious move on my part, me an American telling the French how to organize their own race? Do not misunderstand me, dear Readers, from stage to stage this has been a very great Tour, but I claim that is despite its unorthodoxy and not because of it. This year the stages were all well-crafted and designed better than ever to make for an exciting route, but at the beginning they overtly did not come in the correct order. I love the idea that the Tour should be a slow build up to a big climax followed by a slow winding down process where the overall picture becomes clear; on either side of the grand climax I hope there would be many exciting stages while at the same time the Tour keeps a clear sense of an overall extremely thorough grinding and sifting process throughout the race. The beginning of this Tour did not correctly have the slow build, but with yesterday’s lower-key mountain stage and today’s archetypal transition stage this Tour is nailing the falling action: keeping the racing spicy while fitting the beautiful conventional narrative. Now, of course, I would be happy if the Tour always came down to the wire—to the penultimate day—but it should always be after whittling down most the competitors throughout the entire race. A fabulous Queen Stage should never come on the penultimate day of the Tour, but somewhere about two-thirds of the way through—as it was this year either on the Grand Colombier stage or on the Col de la Loze on Stage 17. Yes, this is the regality of the Tour, the champion should slowly rise to the top or slowly be sculpted like Michelangelo’s Pieta. Never should the Tour winner pop out from behind the Wizard’s Curtain on the penultimate stage such as happens at the Giro or the Vuelta. Such events are wild and beloved and forever cherished, but they do not belong at the end of the Tour de France. In an ideal Tour, like in 1989, the favorites should be whittled down over the course of the race to one, two, perhaps three at most until the penultimate stage. And on the penultimate stage—making its way to Paris where hills or mountains are not always available—there must be one final test. If the race is near the Massif Central or Vosges or Jura mountains, then by all means take advantage; but if it is crossing the meadows and fields to Paris then have the final test be against the clock. This year we shall be treated to an ingenious combination of both.
Tomorrow’s penultimate stage will be a time trial that finishes at the top of the Category 1 climb La Planche des Belles Filles. Ah! Yes, tomorrow’s stage shall surely live up to that mythical and dramatic name for the Tour’s traditional final test against the clock: The Race of Truth. Primoz Roglic is one of the finest time-trialists in the world and also a very fine climber, it will be shocking if he cedes over a minute or any time at all to Tadej Pogacar (UAE) who has only ever beaten him once in a Time Trial. Now that said, that Time Trial win was from their most recent duel at the Slovenian Nationals back in June, so perhaps we should not underestimate Pogacar of pulling off anything—all sorts of mechanical issues can happen as well. It will also be interesting to see how many of the riders will play the route. There are about 30 km of relative flat first, followed by the 5.9 km climb that averages an 8.5% gradient. The mountain itself shall be discussed more in depth tomorrow, but it gets very steep in the final kilometer. Perhaps steep enough at the top and for its entirety that many of the riders shall wish to do a bike swap at the base of La Planche des Belles Filles —from their aero time-trial bikes to their familiar road bikes that are lighter and much easier for climbing. But the Yellow Jersey is not the only thing to be decided tomorrow, is our beloved hero Superman Lopez’s (Astana) podium position safe? He leads Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) by over 90 seconds, but Superman’s record in TTs is spotty at best. He has shipped minutes in Giro and Veulta TTs when he absolutely should not have. Additionally and interestingly, this TT will decide the King of the Mountains this year. A time-split will be taken at the bottom of the climb and the five fastest times strictly up the climb itself will be awarded the 10, 8, 6, 4, and 2 KOM Points. Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) leads Tadej Pogacar by 2 points in that the KOM competition, with Roglic 7 points behind Carapaz—unless I have read the scoring wrong and there are double points available for this “summit finish” climb, these three riders are the only ones mathematically still in contention for the Polka Dot Jersey. Surely, the advantage shall go to Carapaz who cares nothing about his total TT time. Surely, he will sandbag for the first 30 km of flat and then absolutely rip it up the climb to try and set the best time. While behind, Pogacar and Roglic surely will have to ride the entire TT full gas and probably not have enough juice left to blitz it up the final climb for a great time in pursuit of KOM Points—but who knows what will happen, 19 days of racing are in all the rider’s legs. Dear Readers, the ingredients are here for the makings of a good time trial—for the key to a good TT is the overall race implications weighing down on it or else Time Trials can quickly become boring affairs. The Yellow Jersey is likely clinched barring catastrophe or epic collapse, as well as second place and the White Jersey which are both held by Pogacar. Green is all but sewn up as well. But the podium is not locked up nor the ordering of the rest of the Top 10, and though Carapaz must be favored for Polka Dots that contest is not straightforwardly laid out. Yes, perhaps not for all, but for some or even many, it shall be a fitting final test for this Tour de France. Ah! Yes, tomorrow…is the Race of Truth.
A DECISIVE MOUNTAIN STAGE MAKES US SMILE
TDF 2020, Stage 18 Meribel – La Roche-sur-Foron 175 km
Ineos go 1-2 on the stage. Carapaz into Polka Dots while GC battle ends in a draw behind.
DENVER, CO – Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I begin today by presenting my case for the King of the Mountains competition. It wounds me, it is a stab in the heart to hear some dedicated Tour viewers question the existence of the beloved Polka Dot Jersey—the most famous critic being a controversial Texan who at one point seemed to have won 7 Yellow Jerseys. Do these critics not remember the first days they were exposed to the Tour de France so long ago? In the very first Tour we ever watched, we quickly recognized and learned the Yellow and Green Jerseys in the first few days, but it is once we came to the mountains for the first time that the most exotic and eccentric jersey revealed itself. Someone was wearing a white jersey with red Polka Dots, we—everyone one of us—turned to the most experienced fan in the room and asked why the rider was wearing such a zany jersey, and then the person told us: “That, young one, is the Polka Dot Jersey awarded to the King of the Mountains.” The King of the Mountains, what a title, what an award, what an achievement; we all thought at least for a time: “Who would want to wear Yellow when you could be in the beloved Polka Dots, and be the King of the Mountains?” Historically, some riders have thought just that: such legends as Federico Bahamontes, the Eagle of Toledo, and Lucien Van Impe each won six Polka Dot Jerseys and only one Yellow. But the critics will say too often they see some “scrub” rider get into the Polka Dots in the first week and then they are one of the first 50 riders shelled out the back on the first proper mountain stage. Yes, in the first week when the Tour is typically still in the flat north of France before reaching the first proper mountain range, where the big points are available, the Polka Dot Jersey really is just a glorified breakaway competition. O! But on that first proper mountain stage those Polka Dot hopefuls come out to play. And then each year, one establishes himself, going in every mountainous breakaway to be the first over all the high mountain passes. Below and behind the GC riders would be gearing up for battle, but ahead leading those mountain stages would be the Polka Dot Jersey climbing and sprinting for the King of the Mountains points, or riding away solo to an electric summit finish win in the most fitting of Jerseys to the cheers of the crowd: “Ole! Ole! How beautiful is his climbing! Yes, yes, the King of the Mountains is he!” In recent years it has been won by top climbers or out-of-contention GC riders entering the breakaways as their best hope of stage victory, and then by the third week they aggressively seek out every giant of the Pyrenees or Alps to take maximum points and lock-up the Polka Dots. The points distribution can seem strange and sometimes a top climber does not take over the jersey until the end of the final mountain range, but since 2013 look at the names of the prestigious winners: Nairo Quintana (now on Arkea-Samsaic), Rafal Majka (now on Bora-Hansgrohe), Chris Froome (Ineos Grenadiers), Makja again, Warren Barguil (now on Arkea-Samsaic), Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep), and Romain Bardet (AG2R). Is the King of the Mountains always the best climber in the race? No, but they are close, and surely all the dedicated viewers can acknowledge the title is rightfully theirs; all, besides perhaps the maillot jaune, must pay tolls to use this King’s roads which go to the high passes or the most beautiful vantages in all of France. My final piece of evidence, men and women of the jury, is today’s stage.
Yesterday evening, young Tadej Pogacar (UAE), lying 2nd Overall on GC, had taken over the Polka Dots thanks to his inadvertent high tally of points from the first two weeks of high placings over crucial summits combined with his deliberate high placings on yesterday’s two massive “Beyond Category” climbs where the most points are available. The final “Beyond Category” summit of the Loze awarded double points and thus he, Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma), and Superman Lopez (Astana) had all shot into the top three on the competition. But today would be the final stage in the mountains and there would still be fireworks as the profile showed the riders would summit: first a mighty Category 1 climb, then a small Category 3 climb that must not be underestimated, next a long Category 2 climb, then another Category 1 climb, and finally they would finish with a Beyond Category climb and a descent into the finish; some will say stage profiles such as these look like sharks’ teeth, sharp jagged lines up and down, up and down. With so many scoring opportunities today, an aspiring climber would need to be in the break to take maximum points on these summits. Who were the biggest KOM threats that entered the breakaway today? For the third day in a row Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) got himself into the breakaway as well as the revelation of the Tour, Baby Spartacus, Marc Hirschi (Sunweb). With Pogacar on 66 KOM Points, Roglic on 63, and Superman at 51, Carapaz and Hirschi had their work cut out for them starting down at 32 and 31 KOM Points, respectively.
The breakaway at one point contained over 30 riders, but by the top of the first Category 1 climb the group was down to 18 men and only Carapaz and Hirschi were in the hunt of the King of the Mountains Points. At the top Carapaz sprinted for the line, but Hirschi was too quick for him and took the maximum 10 KOM Points while Carapaz only took 8 for 2nd; with such a large breakaway no points would be available for Pog and Rog back in the peloton until the breakaway was caught, thus their lead would continue to dwindle throughout the day. On the descent of this climb, Hirschi and Carapaz broke away with Carapaz’s teammate Michal Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), and Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren). Kwiato set a good pace up the short Category 3 climb to keep the other chasers away, but Hirschi still licked Carapaz in the sprint: 2 more KOM Points for Hirschi brought his total to 43, while 1 more point brought Carapaz’s total to 41. Another descent and a long climb to the summit of the next Category 2 climb was paced mostly by Kwiato and Carapaz. It sounds routine, dear Readers, but this was not an easy task setting the tempo on the front for hours on end: by their efforts they held a 40-second gap over a group of a dozen or so chasers and already 5:00 on the peloton in order to give themselves a chance to stay away all day for max points and a stage victory. At the top of this Category 2 climb, Carapaz tried some trickery to get the better of Hirschi this time, with 500 meters to the summit a large roundabout was at the intersection in one of the cute little ski villages. As the group went to the right side of it, Carapaz attacked across the left side to get a jump on Hirschi, but Hirschi was still strong enough to hawk him down. Hirschi caught him and rolled him in the sprint for a third time, another 5 KOM Points for Hirschi and only 3 for Carapaz (their totals were now: Hirschi at 48, Carapaz at 44).
It was clear for Carapaz to take the Polka Dots today he would have to gap Hirschi, because he could not beat him in a sprint: that would mean attacking on the earlier slopes of the next climb to drop Hirschi or use other cleverer means. Over the top, Carapaz immediately started pushing the descent and created a small gap when Kwiato, his teammate, dropped back. Hirschi, that Swiss descending daredevil, came out to play; surely, he would hawk Carapaz down in a matter of minutes. Ah! But Hirschi flew too close to the sun, his daring descending caught up with him. As he was closing in on Carapaz on a left-curving bend, Hirschi came in too hot and tried to rail the corner too hard, the front wheel slid out from under him and he thudded to the ground on his left shoulder and left thigh. To his credit Baby Spartacus Hirschi, the strong man, was quickly up on the bike within seconds and descending again while trying to bang his bent brake lever back into its proper place, what hardy sportsmen cyclists are. Hirschi lost only 30 seconds in the incident, but that was all Carapaz and Kwiato needed. Staying upright is part of cycling, and thus Ineos used the situation to their advantage. They held and expanded the gap, swapping turns to build up a minute lead on Hirschi by the top of the next Category 1 climb, the gap on the chasers was irrelevant for none were coming back this day, and their gap to the peloton was now 8 minutes. Carapaz took the maximum 10 KOM Points available bringing his total to 54, while a minute later Hirschi took only 4. On the next descent Hirschi was more cautious—as we all naturally are after a crash—and his deficit continued to grow, his hopes of Polka Dots were crushed with Carapaz and companions ahead gobbling up too many points. Finally, Carapaz and Kwiato continued to push up the final Beyond Category climb and having dropped their breakaway companions Carapaz took the full 20 KOM Points available to move into the virtual lead of the King of the Mountains competition. Richard Carapaz, winner of the 2019 Giro d’Italia, was a last-minute call-up to be super domestique here at the Tour for Egan Bernal. With Bernal’s collapse, Carapaz found freedom and seized his chance immediately: three days in a row in the breakaway—steel legs he must have! His results: on the cusp of a stage win and being draped in the Polka Dot Jersey as King of the Mountains of the Tour de France, not bad, not bad at all. But all of this was provisional, behind a final last GC mountain shootout would potentially spoil Carapaz’s breakaway exploits.
Jumbo-Visma had an uneasy, but relatively controlled day on the front of the peloton: this was the last mountain stage, the final spot for Roglic their leader to be ambushed. But the final Beyond Category climb surely would be fertile ground for GC men to begin in their last attacks before Saturday’s decisive Time Trial up La Planche des Belles Filles to decide the General Classification of the 107th Tour de France. Who set off the fireworks? Mikel Landa and his Bahrain-McLaren team, unrewarded heroes of yesterday’s stage. On the lower slopes teammate Wout Poels paced him out of the Jumbo-controlled peloton. O! Landa looked good today, the climb was hard and steep but there he was on the 12% gradients, hands in the drops like Marco Pantani il Pirata of old, churning a massive gear using his powerful tree-trunk-like thighs. On such steep grades, it seemed every powerful revolution increased his gap by another second. Right and left he was passing the floundering and wilted chasers who had started the day in the same break as the leading Ineos duo; they looked to be going backwards as Landa flew by them. Behind, his attack put Rigoberto Uran (EF) and Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) in jeopardy, spit out the back, potentially losing their Top 10 places on GC. It was not Roglic or Pogacar who chased Landa down, as always happens in the final of a Grand Tour, it was the riders placed just ahead of him on GC: thus young Enric Mas of Movistar came to the front to lead the pursuit. It took the whole length of the climb, but by the top the GC favorites recaptured Landa. Over the top he went, together with young Pogacar, mighty Roglic with his loyal Sepp Kuss, Superman Lopez was there of course, and Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo) as well. Now dear Readers, there was an unexpected crucial situation: these GC men flew up the climb so quick that most of the breakaway chasers had been caught and the Ineos duo’s lead had been cut to 3 minutes. The question was how many guys crossed the top of the Beyond Category climb already? Because Pogacar had certainly made sure to cross the line first for his group. Carapaz had taken 20 KOM Points already to put himself at 74 Points total. In what position was Pogacar across? If Pogacar was 5th across, he would earn 8 points and be tied with Carapaz on 74 KOM Points. Over the top, before a long descent into the finish, the GC men battled across a dusty gravel road. The battle was epic and chaotic, Richie Porte punctured and needed a bike change. Roglic seemed to string out the bunch with Pogacar dangling at the back. But the section ended and the GC favorites eventually all grouped back up and finished together. We received confirmation that Pogacar was only 6th over the top of the climb and thus only earned 6 points putting him at 72 KOM Points. Carapaz would move into Polka Dots tonight, but at the moment Carapaz was thinking of other things.
At the front of the race, there were the Ineos duo of Richard Carapaz and Michal Kwiatkowski, the last survivors of the breakaway. The final was mostly a fast descent to the finish. With a gap of 3 minutes to the GC riders behind, they knew they would comfortably win this, but did they know who would win? What would you do in a situation such as this? Perhaps you say Kwiato should take it, because Carapaz is going into the Polka Dot Jersey. Not so fast, though this is the last mountain stage of the Tour, Saturday’s Time Trial still has a massive Category 1 climb in it worth large amounts of KOM Points, Carapaz has not yet sealed the KOM competition for this Tour—a few days in Polka Dots is not as valuable as a Tour stage win. And both guys have worked hard and done equal share of the work all day. And yet, Michal Kwiatkowski has been a part of this team for 5 years now. This Pole is a talented rider who has gotten many great results in one-day classics, but in the Grand Tours he has few results to show for himself, never even the winner of a Tour stage. This is due to the fact that he has been such an incredible sacrificial workhorse and integral essential piece of all of Sky/Ineos’ Tour victories over these years. I remember Kwiato’s most impressive domestique performance was at the 2017 Tour where Chris Froome won his 4th Yellow Jersey by a very narrow margin. Kwiato was about as versatile and impressive as Wout Van Aert has been this Tour, but without ever letting himself off the leash for even a second. Every minute of every flat stage he was by Froome’s side, guiding him safely through the peloton. At every feed-zone—easy places for crashes as the riders awkwardly grab bags of food at high speeds—he would skillfully grab two bags, one for himself but also Froome’s so that his leader would not be in danger of mixing up in a crash—truly, one time he even grabbed three bags literally together at once, look up video for yourself because I cannot describe with words how it takes such extreme bike-handling skills to do such things! On one stage, Froome had a puncture, and instantly Kwiato was off his bike and swapping his front wheel out for Froome’s—I swear, the best mechanic in the world could not have done a quicker change. Dear Readers, I remember that performance well, because Kwiato’s loyalty that Tour rose to Samwise Gamgee levels: Kwiato could have simply paced Froome to Mordor and fought off legions of orcs while Froome rode up the Beyond Category Mt. Doom climb to destroy the Ring. Yes, he was The Swiss Army Knife of the peloton before Van Aert came along, now he is one of the elder statesmen on the cusp of winning a Tour stage with only a teammate standing in his way.
For the last 10 km, they were flying down the descent and yet fully conversing with each other and on the radio to the team car behind. What were they deciding? Would the team declare who would win? Would they tell them to work together until the last K and then sprint it out and the best man would win? Though an Ineos rider was clearly about to win the stage, the pressure was building as they approached to see what they would decide to do. And then, under the Red Flame with 1 Kilometer to go, they patted each other on the back—wrapping one arm around each other as best they could in a hug while riding a bike. Was that the final gesture before the teammates became enemies? No. They slowed up, then sat up. Dear Readers, it was the ultimate power move in cycling. These teammates would not now become enemies, they would enjoy and celebrate to the line together. Who crossed first didn’t matter, they had already won and they would cross together. They soaked it in for the final stretch, sitting up and clapping hands. Kwiato, always a character, blew kisses to the fans, and his gigantic smile was incredibly contagious, it warmed our hearts. Arms wrapped together, the bikes slowly crossed the line in almost a photo finish, but Kwiato had it. Just five days ago on Sunday Ineos was defeated and seemingly in shambles and at rock bottom, but from the ashes of Egan’s collapse the workhorses and bit players took their rare chances at Tour glory. This year they will not celebrate with another Yellow Jersey in Paris, but surely this was one of the sweetest victories in the team’s history. Ah! To see these loyal men who so often go unnamed…Why! It is the greatest pleasure I take from the sport to see them finally get their day of glory, a fairy-tale ending or reward for all their countless days of selfless work. It brings a smile to my face that does not fade for the rest of the day, I go to bed content and happy after witnessing such beautiful things, such just rewards, such fitting endings.
SUPERMAN PUTS ON HIS CAPE AT THE TOUR DE FRANCE
TDF 2020, Stage 17 Grenoble – Meribel-Col de la Loze 170 km
Superman wins up the new long and steep Col de la Loze. Roglic, 2nd, gains time on rest of GC favorites.
DENVER, CO – Another post that shall easily write itself! My fingers shall click the keys with such delight and emphasis after watching the best stage of this 2020 Tour! The profile of the stage is simple to explain, but O! was it difficult for the riders to ride!
After about 80 kilometers of relatively flat valley roads to start the stage the peloton would first scale the mighty Col de la Madeleine, its 25th appearance on the Tour de France. Hors categorie (“Beyond Category”) it is ranked, the highest ranking a climb can be given. A long brutal climb it always is at 17 km long and 6% average gradient, surely it is the perfect leg-softener before the finale. And historically with the likes of Polka Dot legends Lucien Van Impe and Richard Virenque having been the first to crest the top three times each in eras long ago, it was the perfect place to finally kick off the Polka Dot Jersey competition properly. Since Stage 2, Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R) has been wearing the Polka Dots without much competition, but with the points available today it was time for a climber of the highest quality to emerge who is worthy to reign as the King of the Mountains (KOM). The first over the top, in the breakaway, was Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) sprinting ahead of our Musketeer Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) to take maximum points. Thus Carapaz took the maximum 20 KOM Points, Alaphilippe 15, their two breakaway companions in 3rd and 4th took 12 and 10 respectively. Then from the peloton the White Jersey of Best Young Rider, Tadej Pogacar (UAE), made sure to grab the next 8 Points available for 5th over the top. Yes, both Pogacar and Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) inadvertently began the day only a few KOM Points off the lead in the competition, with those 8 points Pogacar took the virtual lead in the King of the Mountains competition. If there were not better stories to tell on the stage, I would plead my case to the dear Reader-jury to silence those who rip on the beautiful Polka Dot Jersey—how can such haters existence? Tomorrow perhaps. Yet we move on now to the stage’s finale, stage honors and more KOM points were available at the top of the stage’s mighty summit finish.
After a long descent, it was time for the final Beyond Category summit finish up the Col de la Loze, a new climb to the Tour and surely one destined to be accounted among the legends in the coming decades. O! Dear Readers, it has everything we fans dream of for a summit finish deep into the Tour de France. First it is very long at 21 km, second it comes with a respectable 7.8% average gradient. Ah! But here are the key features, the final few highest kilometers are not even a proper road, but a 4-meter-wide bike path over the pass to connect one town to another, and dear Readers….those final kilometers are very steep. Yes, yes, I tell you long stretches averaging 14-16% gradients, even 18% to 24% in some spots! And with the breakaway less than 3 minutes up the road, surely the GC favorites would duke out the stage win. Yes, I don’t think Henri Desgrange, the father of the Tour, could have dreamt of a better finishing climb for today’s stage; in fact this would be the highest point the 2020 Tour would reach and thus a special Henri Desgrange prize would be awarded to the stage winner in addition to 40 KOM Points.
And the riders, O! how they set it up perfectly! The little talked of Bahrain-McLaren team took command of the race on the lowest slopes of the Madeleine and my, my how dominant they were! Bahrain rode for their team captain Mikel Landa who was in 7th Place on the GC to start the day, 2:13 behind Roglic. Their sprinter Sonny Colbrelli (Bahrain-McLaren) pulled a mini-Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) doing such a strong turn on the Madeleine, shedding so many riders behind who’s day would be done. Ah! Bahrain-McLaren, they came to the bottom of the Loze with still 5 riders left in a group of 40 or 50 total. Up the road Carapaz was dropping our Musketeer and other breakaway companions, but Bahrain was closing down his gap in metronomic fashion. Let me proclaim their names for their fame deserves to be increased, the Bahrain-McLaren workers who shredded the peloton: Slovenian Matej Mohoric, Dutchman Wout Poels, Basque Pello Bilbao, Italian Damiano Caruso, all turned themselves inside out for Basque leader Mikel Landa on this day. With their bright orange uniforms they seemed like a construction crew, but that is inaccurate: this day they were a demolition crew. Yes, all day on these two climbs they took their drills and sledgehammers to all the riders in the peloton. On the earliest slopes of the Loze, the peloton was already down to just 33 men and 5 of them were the Bahrain destroyers on the front. Of course, the team of the Tour, Jumbo-Visma, still had equal numbers up there, but who could have expected to see such efforts from anonymous Bahrain-McLaren today? They whittled the peloton done to 20 riders, cracking Jumbo’s Robert Gesink and George Bennett—extremely respectable climbers! They hawked down Carapaz to a mere dozen-second lead. They cracked the mighty Wout Van Aert with 7 km still to ride. And then they hit this hyped-up bike path…and it lived up to the hype.
With the last Bahrain, Damiano Caruso, still on the front for Mikel Landa, the only individuals left with them were Tom Dumoulin and Sepp Kuss (both Jumbo-Visma) working for team leader and Yellow Jersey wearer Primoz Roglic. Astana’s Superman Lopez was there, EF’s Rigoberto Uran, Trek’s Richie Porte, Movistar’s Enric Mas and Alejandro Valverde, and White Jersey Pogacar had domestique David de la Cruz (UAE) for support. Of the 12 riders left, 9 of the them were Top 9 on General Classification, these are the finales we dream of for a summit finish at the Tour de France. Meanwhile Carapaz was still ahead hitting the first 14-15% gradients, O! it was already taking a mighty effort; why, with such small gears he looked like a mountain biker spinning up the rocky steep trails. And then de la Cruz came to the front for one last effort to break some of the leaders for his man in White, Tadej Pogacar. Instantly, Caruso was finished, and old Valverde with him. Dumoulin cracked next. And soon yes, despite all his mates’ work, Mikel Landa cracked also. Blame him not, dear readers! Bahrain grabbed the bull by the horns today, not allowing themselves to be pushed around by the mighty stinging-wasps of Jumbo-Visma in their yellow and black jerseys: better to try and fail than not try at all. Today, for the first time, Bahrain has won many hearts. But the carnage did not end there! Uran was done and Yates cracked with him. And with his teammate de la Cruz’s turn done, Pogacar went to the front of that most elite group. “But what was this?” we thought. “It’s a bird! It’s a plane!”
Yes, dear Readers, it was Superman! It is only his first Tour de France, but surely, this was a long time coming, O! how I have waited years for this moment when Superman would finally don his cape in France on an epic mountain such as this one! With 3.6 km remaining, Superman Lopez was flying off the front, and with that Enric Mas was finished and Richie Porte was scrambling to latch onto a wheel. Carapaz’s lead up front was only 10 seconds now as Superman chased him down—quote me not on this, but I may be heard these two are good friends: fishing partners—with Pogacar, Roglic, and Jumbo teammate Sepp Kuss all on his wheel. With 3.2 km to go, Roglic had his fabulous lieutenant ride on the front of the group to control the pace; O! dear international Readers, I cannot describe how great it feels to finally have an American counted among the most mighty ones again. Sepp Kuss, the American from the mountains of Colorado, kept the pace high and caught Richard Carapaz with 3 km to go…and then Kuss did something seemingly very strange. There was a crest and then a dip in the road, and Kuss rode on with Lopez on his wheel opening a gap to his leader Roglic riding with Pogacar. Every alarm bell had been sounding at this point already, every commentator was already raising their voice and gasping for air while trying to convey every detail, but this heightened everyone’s heart rates. Drama and confusion were reigning as Kuss and Superman rode up the road while the Carnage Cam caught a seemingly struggling Roglic and Pogacar neck-and-neck floundering behind on the steep grassy windswept slopes with the dark clouds and the jagged peaks towering above; O! the image of the Tour thus far! The gap was never more than 10 or 12 seconds to Rog and Pog, but with such extreme gradients, things were extremely tense. “Why isn’t Sepp waiting for Roglic?” we all screamed at the screen, “Surely, he must wait, Roglic is in trouble, his whole Tour is on the line!” What the right answer was may not matter, but I think Jumbo here botched a clever ploy: Roglic was supposed to bridge to Kuss and Superman without Pogacar. But Superman and Kuss were going too well, thus Kuss eased off a little and Superman rode on alone. Then Roglic bridged to Kuss, and Pogacar could not match his compatriot’s acceleration across the gap—finally a crack in the armor of young Pog!
But Superman was already taking advantage of the situation, flying as fast as he could. O! Finally, finally he looked again like the Superman that won our hearts for the first time with those two Vuelta stages in 2017. Aye! Both came on great summits, long climbs such as this in southern Spain. O! How he flew away up the slopes from the likes of Chris Froome (then Team Sky) and Alberto Contador, el Pistolero; what mighty days were those! And yet since those days, in the Grand Tours he has been too anonymous for my taste: riding to high places and fine podiums, but without the electricity of those two Vuelta stages when he had enough voltage to light up all of Paris, the City of Light. But finally, in his first appearance in the largest race, at the perfect time, Superman of old was flying once more. To see such performances as this is why we love the sport, why we come back for more, it was so great to see Superman put on such a show, to fly away from the competition.
And yet, I dare pause here; a break in the hottest parts of the action may be daring on my part, dear Readers, but let us see if it proves warranted. Surely, you are thinking, as all of us originally did, that Miguel Angel Lopez received the nickname Superman for the way he flies up the mountains away from the competition as I have been describing here. Surely it is applicable to such situations, but that is not the source of the nickname: the real story is much more outlandish and unbelievable to where I was thankful the commentators retold it today on the broadcast. It needs reconfirmation, for it is one of the cycling details that is too far-fetched for a movie script, it is too astounding to be real and yet it is. Many years ago, when young Lopez was still growing up in Colombia, he was riding home on his mountain bike when he stopped at a gas station. After coming out of the station, he found a few thugs attempting to steal his bike, but the 5’ 3” (1.64 m), 130 lb (59 kg) climber fought them off. But in the fight the thugs drew knives and stabbed him in the leg twice. Despite all that, he saved the bike, recovered from the wounds, and became a professional cyclist. Since that day, he’s been known as Superman and it is the greatest nickname in cycling since Vincenzo Nibali’s Shark of Messina. Dear Readers, now you know why I absolutely love this nickname and strictly stick to it. What a story, stranger than fiction, truly you can’t make this stuff up.
And on Superman flew today. The sky was getting darker, the gradients were so severe the riders all seemed to be pedaling into a 50 km/h (30 mph) headwind. Superman had a 5 second gap on Kuss and Roglic and they were distancing Pogacar even more. But finally, Kuss’ tank was empty: a mighty job accomplished! Roglic would have to ride the last 1.6 km alone in hot pursuit of Superman. The gap was 8 seconds, and behind Rog had Pog on the limit at a similar time gap. Roglic’s gear seemed so large as he churned out such powerful revolutions, one by massive one. Meanwhile Superman’s cadence was higher, he seemed to be going at a better clip and looked better in every way. While compared to both, Pogacar looked to be in a world of hurt. At 800 meters to go the gaps basically stabilized, but it was still an agonizing ordeal to get to the top, every meter still rising, every meter still stinging. Superman had 10 seconds on Roglic, he was riding himself into 3rd Place on GC today with all the other contenders blown out the back by his own Kryptoian attacks. Though Roglic was chasing, it was shaping up to be a good day for his GC campaign as he would take time on all his biggest rivals, including Pogacar, besides the only dozen or so seconds he would lose to Superman who he had over a 90 second gap on at the beginning of the day. Behind, Pogacar was digging the deepest we have yet seen him go, but he was defending 2nd Overall and riding himself into the Polka Dot Jersey as King of the Mountains leader. In those final hundreds of meters Pog seemed even to be closing the gap on Roglic, only to have it go out again on the final sting: a steep ramp of 16%. Pog would end up losing 15 seconds to the Yellow jersey. Roglic’s gap to Superman would be the same 15 seconds, but in both cases Bonus Seconds would also be factored in for minor differences. But up at the head of the race, Superman was riding to his greatest victory.
O! such stages as these are the ones we shall remember, the ones we shall see of highlights in years to come when we hearken back to Tours of old: the day Superman flew away from the Slovenians. Surely, the Colombians shall celebrate it most of all, as they always do; upon finishing this piece I shall try to find their commentator’s surely rowdy and unwieldly sensational call of it—truly they are always something to behold, barely coherent and yet more passion has yet to be transmitted across the worldwide web. Up Superman Lopez came to the line, he could not ease up, he had to ride it out for every second on GC. Upon his front wheel crossing the line, he managed to sit up and with a scream of joy he did a celebratory upper-cut fist pump—probably as he did to one of the bike thieves years ago. The road was still steep, he had no momentum and he was almost already at a standstill. He quickly made the sign of the cross, put one foot down, and softly keeled over his handlebars breathing heavily after the exhausting effort. It was his greatest day of cycling.
Cycling Odysseys 