THE RIDERS BEGIN TO DREAM OF PARIS

TDF 2020, Stage 16 La Tour-du-Pin – Villard-de-Lans 164 km

Kamna beats Carapaz in breakaway for stage honors. No real shake up in GC standings.

DENVER, CO – With the second Rest Day completed the 107th Tour de France enters the final phase. Now the riders dare to dream, the thought creeps into their minds: “Perhaps I will complete this Tour de France.” Yes, we come to the business end of the race, dear Readers, we can feel it winding down. Bit by bit, one by one, contenders have been eliminated from contention in many of the classifications. Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and our Musketeer Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) were found out long ago, before the first Rest Day. But over the second week, we saw Romain Bardet (AG2R) abandon the race entirely due to a crash and concussion. Cofidis’ Guillaume Martin—Socrates they call him—dropped out of his Top 10 placing last week, while Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsaic) only held onto 9th Place himself after a bad day on Stage 15 which was overshadowed by another contender’s even worse day. Of course, the biggest name that was crossed off the list of contenders on Stage 15 was the young Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), the defending champion of the race, whom we shall return to later because more must be said. Meanwhile, the Green Points Jersey competition has been whittled down to 2 or 3 possible winners: Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep), Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), and possibly Matteo Trentin (CCC). The White Jersey, we must assume will not be relinquished by Tadej Pogacar (UAE), barring catastrophe. And Movistar are well in command of the “all important and sought after” Teams Classification. Yes, this is traditionally how the Tour is to work, it is a three-week race for a reason: put the contenders through the meat-grinder and let the greatest among them clearly rise to the top. Henri Desgrange, the father of the Tour de France, said his ideal Tour would be so grueling only one man would make it to Paris. The Tour has never been that selective, but it has always been grueling. This Tour has been an odyssey, as the Tour always is. The riders have endured much: they have been soaked to the bone with rain, they cannot remember all of their crashes, they have consumed more calories than a grizzly bear preparing for hibernation, they had many days where every muscle in their body pleaded to stay in bed as they woke up each morning, they have pushed their physical and psychological limits and dug deeper than ever before—and many have no results to show for it. And now, today, they wake up and believe they can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, we need not keep it hushed up any longer; I have even dare mentioned it a few times on Saturday and Sunday in regard to our sprinters. The riders envision it in their minds: the Champs-Elysees, the final lap of honor in Paris, the Promised Land. O! To see that Arc de Triomphe will make all their suffering worth it, what an accomplishment that will be for every single one of them to arrive on cycling’s most hallowed boulevard after such an ordeal.

Yes, now they enter the final stretch, but they still have so very far to go. Three proper mountain stages—the second two are particularly brutal, an unpredictable hilly-rolling stage, a penultimate stage Time Trial—a Race of Truth it will be, all before they enjoy the procession and coronation on the Champs-Elysees. And all is still to play for! Sagan has not given up yet on his quest for an 8th Green Jersey; and Matteo Trentin has come into better focus taking maximum Intermediate Sprint Points today while Sagan and Bennett have scored none. Dear Readers, we have not yet talked at all of the King of the Mountains competition and its Polka Dot Jersey, but I tell you: the race is open and soon there shall be headlines. Some riders, such as sprinter Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) hope just to survive the time cuts on these mountain stages that have been raced so hard in order that he might win victory on the crown-jewel of sprints: the aforementioned Champs-Elysees. Meanwhile many teams still hunt stage honors: Bora—despite their riders’ legs of iron—still have a big goose egg on that scoreboard, and now it is Open Season for the Ineos Grenadiers who are set loose off the leash with no leader to care for. And then there is the race we all care about most: for Yellow. Many of us are confident that we shall see our first Slovenian winner of the Tour de France, but who shall it be? Primoz Roglic, champion of Slovenia and captain of the mighty Jumbo-Visma team who have ascended to the top of the sport, or Tadej Pogacar, Roglic’s “little brother” who must not be underestimated and whose limits are still unknown. Yes, they are the Alphas, but so many—Rigoberto Uran (EF), Superman Lopez (Astana), Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren)—are still within or around two minutes back of the Slovenians; just one or two brilliant efforts and they could find themselves wearing Yellow on the Champs-Elysees.

With these thoughts in mind, the riders entered Stage 16, a day for the climbers, but perhaps not decisive enough for the GC Contenders. The fight for the breakaway was fierce in the opening kilometers. With the hard-but-not-hard-enough climbs, today would be a perfect day for the peloton to ease up and let the breakaway gain 10 or even 20 minutes to fight for stage honors while the GC men saved their powder for the next two pivotal stages. Yes, this is what happened. A breakaway of some 23 riders went up the road developing a 10 to 12-minute lead over the peloton. Those talented Ineos Grenadiers had three strong riders in the move, but they were matched by those tactical masters, Team Sunweb, who got three in the break as well. Our Musketeer, Julian Alaphilippe made the group and was looking spritely and motivated, bouncing around. Bora-Hansgrohe had men in the ranks looking to finally break the stage win seal. And there were others as well, too many to name today, dear Readers. Over the early climbs veteran Pierre Rolland (B&B Hotels—Vital Concept) made a splash drawing even with Benoit Cosnefroy (AG2R) overall for the King of the Mountains competition as he was the first to crest two Category 2 climbs in a row that came in the middle of the stage. But the finale was fought out on the big brute of the day, a Category 1 climb called the Montee de Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte. It was here that Ineos’ Richard Carapaz put in a blistering series of attacks. First he denotated the breakaway with only Alaphilippe, Sebastian Riechenbach (Groupama-FDJ), and Lennard Kamna (Bora-Hansgrohe) able to stay on his wheel. With another attack, he dropped Reichenbach and our Musketeer—O! Julian, surely now it is in your best interest to focus on Paris and the Champs-Elysees, use the remaining kilometers as training for your later season objectives in Imola where the Rainbows shall be awarded, the Ardennes, and maybe even the cobbles of Flanders. Yes, alas! Alaphilippe was popped like a pastry from a toaster, but one was still on the wheel of Carapaz, and surely this rider was not thinking of Paris yet. Lennard Kamna, the agonizing runner-up in the sprint to Dani Martinez (EF) and the workhorse for Vercingetorix-Sagan into Lyon, had not yet fired all the arrows from his quiver. As the summit of the climb drew near, Kamna fired his shot and came around Carapaz. And Richard Carapaz—the 2019 Giro d’Italia champion, Ecuador’s greatest sportsman now part of the dominant Ineos Grenadiers—had no answer. Perhaps, Carapaz was not as calloused-over in these ferocious and cutthroat breakaway affairs where unbridled Herculean attacks are unleashed in bids for stage glory—he was grown too accustomed, perhaps, to the order and metronomic control at the front of the peloton. Kamna went over the top of the climb alone. But the last 20 km was not a massive descent to the finish, it was rolling terrain at the same altitude and a leg-breaking final 2.2 km Category 3 climb to finish the stage at Villard-de-Lans. A Tour breakaway expert by now, Kamna relished finally being away solo. He put 90 seconds into Carapaz and more into everyone else to finally take victory and give the Bora-Hansgrohe sponsors a celebratory victory photograph. Well done, Lennard Kamna, now you too—so accomplished, a stage victory in your first Tour—may start dreaming of Paris.

Behind, the GC favorites rode the final Category 3 climb hard as Pogacar pushed the pace, but there were no differences in time, they all finished together. One now was absent from their ranks, the man with Bib #1 on his back: Egan Bernal. To append this piece, I want to highlight the strangest sight of the day. Halfway through the stage we saw Egan Bernal, the reigning Tour de France champion for still a few days more, dropping back to the team car to grab water bottles for his teammates. It was a sight to behold, and it was a sight of a humble young man still doing his part for the team. There is a good chance this was the first race he has ever been a “watercarrier” for not just the Sky/Ineos team, but his previous teams as well where he was always a top rider, always a “star.” His bid for a second Yellow Jersey is over this year, but his race goes on. Perhaps he will ride it out anonymously, perhaps he will purposely lose more time to attain freedom to hop in a breakaway—today, he fell back into the grupetto, another place he has not often been seen. We still do not know the cause of his downfall and collapse on Sunday, it seems Ineos may not yet know either. He knew his back was affecting him, but that was not the full explanation of the “empty” feeling he had. He even admitted that all the way back in Nice, he knew it would be difficult to defend his title. He said he did not so much feel pressure wearing Bib #1—the honor accorded to the most recent Tour champion—but that he had a strong desire “to respect the race.” He said he gave this Tour everything he had, he did all he could, he fought “full gas” until the final, but others were stronger. He says he will try again, but he also reflected on his win last year when he was the first Colombian to ever win the Tour de France. He is proud of that and knows it is something no one can ever takeaway from him, even if he never wins the Tour again. As he dropped through the cars to the grupetto out the back, he seemed in good spirits, and why shouldn’t he be? He has fought bravely, he has respected and honored the great race. He will not wear Yellow again in Paris this year, but that does not mean Egan cannot enjoy being a cyclist in the grupetto or a breakaway of the Tour de France. And he, like the rest of the peloton, can dream of finally reaching Paris and the Champs-Elysees.

REST DAY REAL TALK #2

Ok, I’ll keep this brief today.

Egan Bernal and Team Ineos Grenadiers – So Bernal cracked. I wrote the Jumbo-Visma piece yesterday that they have officially made it to the top. Now, I was confusing myself throughout the day about whether this was like the passing of the torch or the vanquishing of a mighty one before. Up until this point it has always been a mighty individual vanquished. Merckx, Hinault, Indurain. The Ineos team WILL reload and as far as I can tell they have much more young talent that Jumbo. So they will come back. Now in the heat of the moment where I confused myself was what about Egan? It’s a breath of fresh air to see that a Sky/Ineos rider will not win the Tour for the first time since 2014, but I really like Egan Bernal. When he gets shelled that bad, I didn’t know what to think. With a day of sleep, I come to the obvious conclusion: he had a horribly bad day and it cost him the Tour. I feel bad that Sky/Ineos’ youngest/most-“inexperienced” Alpha was the first one to screw up, but at least he’s still unquestionably a proven winner. Now my worries come from the fact that we have seen Bernal extremely vulnerable before Pogacar has ever shown any sort of crack in any armor throughout his short career. Roglic is in the driver’s seat to win the Tour and has looked tied for the best climber with Pog, but 2nd at your debut Tour would be a good result for Pogacar. And purely because we’ve never seen any weakness from him, I am scared that we are looking at Bernal fitting into a Gimondi-Ullrich role to Pogacar’s Merckx-Armstrong role. It is much too early to tell, we need probably 2 or 3 years to understand if that writing is on the wall, but when I saw Bernal drop yesterday these nightmares were flashing through my head. At this point above all, I root to see “The Greatest Race of All Time”…which means I do not want one man to set up a dynasty of five or seven wins in a row, that is my greatest fear.

Jumbo-Visma on top – I was confusing myself a little about them as well as I wrote yesterday’s piece—but I think I managed to correct my thinking in the long editing process. As far as I gather, for the past 5+ years, Jumbo-Visma’s goal has been to be a top Grand Tour team. They officially achieved that yesterday utterly defeating Ineos with still 5 riders on the front. What I was confused about is, are they the new “empire”? And the answer is no, I mean Ineos will potentially win the Giro next month with Thomas and I wouldn’t be surprised if Bernal goes to the Vuelta and wins it (don’t know what that means for Froome—but I don’t think Egan should care). I look at Jumbo as well, and Kuss and Van Aert seem like their young guys at 26 years old a piece vs Ineos with Bernal and Sivakov both well under 25. So it’s more so, congrats to Jumbo, for the first time in years Ineos is not the best team at the Tour thanks to yall’s efforts. But we and Jumbo are not delusional enough to think that they are the new masters of the Grand Tours. Ineos still has the deep pockets, but at this point they are no longer the only top dog…AND, it must be noted, Jumbo-Visma will rarely ever be considered an underdog going forward.

Bennett/Sagan battle for Green – I said it all in that frustration piece, I stand by that. I have no problems with refs saying Sagan should be penalized, but it shouldn’t have been for position on the stage: fine him $30 grand, I don’t care just don’t decide a jersey competition for something that is highly controversial about whether it was intentional or dangerous. But that’s what they did, I doubt he wins green: all the Intermediate Sprints come early in the remaining mountain stages, I don’t know how Bora are gonna possibly drop Bennett. Which is a shame, because it would have been a very interesting battle for Green that we haven’t seen in a number of years; and I would have been happy to see Bennett earn it, because it was Sagan’s own fault he didn’t come into form until the second week; but that call….unless Bennett wins by 50-60 points, I will not forget the refs had a hand in his victory.

King of the Mountains Competition – This has been nonexistent. And the Cosnefory has been a horrible rep of the jersey—nothing exciting and dynamic from him, going out the back far too early on big mountain stages. I’ll also say, the polka-dots are arranged vertically this year and it looks really bad, they should be lined up diagonally like the stars on the American flag, or even just make it completely random with different sizes and that would look better.

Bardet dropped out with concussion – I’m very indifferent to Bardet to be brutally honest. The replays of his standing up and falling over to get on the bike is scary to me and I’d lean towards something should have been done there, I’m not sure he should have gotten on that bike right away, but I’ll leave it at that. Best of luck to him at Sunweb, if he wants to be a major cog in their dynamic set up, excellent I’m excited to see it; if he wants to be sole leader with everyone working for him, boring and I’d bet against him.

Quintana time loses 4ish minutes – He was in the Bardet crash, and I can believe that that is severely affecting him. Sucks, understandable, but damn we all want to see you do well and in order for that to happen you gotta avoid crashes Nairo!

Enric Mas – Moving up, let’s see how much further he can sneak up. Movistar need results.

Mikel Landa – No attack yesterday, what gives? Too scared to lose a good spot or Jumbo pace so dominate? Typical Tour, honestly. We can’t complain: either the pace is too severe and/or everyone is more afraid to screw up and lose current place than risk it all for a higher one.

Richie Porte – Looks good, I wouldn’t mind seeing him in the top 5, even top 3 and make me eat my words. If he continues climbing like he has and then has these gaps for the TT, he’s the best TTist in 3-9 GC positions…or he was at one point.

Adam Yates – Looks good, obviously finish out Top 10 GC if you can, though I wonder if your position is hurting teammates’ opportunities for the breakaway? Anyways, glad to see he’s finally having a good Tour.

Superman Lopez – Same comments as Landa, he’s not exciting right now. He’s moving up positions because people like Bernal and Quintana are blowing up. Fine, and he could achieve a good result, but come on, Superman should be more exciting than this.

Rigo Uran – Looks good, and besides Porte he’s the most surprising, but like Landa and Superman I’d like to see him attack or something.

Rog and Pog – The GC is undecided, but I’m 95% sure a Slovenian is going to win the Tour for the first time. It’s exciting which one is not yet determined. But I can’t get over the fact that Pog is basically Rog’s little brother. They are friendly to each other, more so than usual, and I don’t blame them. And I totally believe both really want to win the Tour, but I get that sense that Pog will not be that upset if he loses to big brother Rog, because Pog understands that Rog is at his peak and his time will be over soon, while Pog is still maturing and just barely behind Roglic’s abilities already. At 21 he knows he’s still got time. I guess it would be crazy if Pog beats Roglic…like how does Roglic take that? Can Rog ever beat him again or is that the changing of the guard right then and there? But I think Roglic is gonna win the Tour, because I don’t even know how Pogacar could even attempt to gain back the 40 second deficit, because both are equal climbers and Pog benefits from Jumbo’s dominance until it is time to attack himself. And I predict Roglic WILL have a better TT (though Pog beat him in the Slovenian TT Nats a few months ago DURING lockdown).

Ok, not sure I care about anything else. No idea which days a breakaway even has a chance, it does feel like we’re coming to the business end of the Tour. I wish the Rog-Pog rivalry was spicier, but it seems this this unorthodox Tour is coming back to some sort of tradition where one by one the favorites are reduced, and we should be thankful it is not yet wrapped up completely and this year it will not be won by an Ineos rider. We’ve also been lucky that the majority of individual stages have been good races in themselves, which thank God—it is that simple. Anyways this has been hard work for me, I’ve enjoyed it, but I’ll be happy to take a real break when we reach Paris.

Oh, sorry one last thing: yes, yes, Movistar are leading the team’s classification…and by a solid margin.

JUMBO-VISMA REACHES THE SUMMIT ON THE GRAND COLOMBIER

TDF 2020, Stage 15 Lyon – Grand Colombier 174.5 km

Jumbo-Visma dominate up Grand Colombier, Bernal and Quintana lose minutes, but Pogacar still wins stage in a sprint.

DENVER, CO—Dear Readers, it was an absolutely historic day on the Tour de France, and yet it does not feel like it at all—why, the casual fans may not even have noticed it. As far as dynamic bicycle racing that leaves us wanting more, this was probably the worst day of this year’s Tour. To be sure, the racing was hard, but alas! it was one of those days where that did not come across on screen for us viewers to properly perceive. But make no mistake dear Readers, today we saw a new team deal a definitive blow to the Imperial Empire that has dominated the Tour for a decade. They did not even win the stage, but their performance sent shockwaves through the peloton like the victory on Endor did a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Who could have foreseen this Rebel Alliance’s rise and this humiliating defeat for the Ineos-Empire coming just a few years ago?

From the mid-1990s through the first 12 years of the new century the Dutch financial services company Rabobank sponsored a top-level Dutch-DNA professional cycling team that had already existed since the mid-1980s. But by the end of 2012, the Rabobank company was so sick of the doping scandals in cycling that they finally pulled their sponsorship. Though this Dutch-DNA team continued on, it really became a new team altogether. I remember their next incarnation, Belkin. I remember only two things about this team. I remember their rider Lars Boom, a former cyclocross champion, winning Stage 5 of the 2014 Tour over the muddy cobbles when Vincenzo Nibali, on Astana at the time, put in such an excellent ride for himself to take a commanding GC lead, that same day is when Chris Froome (Team Sky at the time) crashed out of the Tour—do you also remember the day, dear Readers? I promise you, if you watched that Tour you remember that day: the storms were biblical, the carnage was extreme, I do not exaggerate here, it absolutely was a legendary day. The only other thing I remember about Belkin is that afterwards, when I was buying HDMI cords to hook-up the laptop to the TV, I chose theirs over competitors purely because of their sponsorship. In 2014, I do not know if the management was the same as it is today, were they already trying to plant seeds back then to be a Grand Tour team that could compete with the might of the already Imperial Empire-like dominance of Team Sky?

Fast-forward to the 2016 Giro d’Italia with me, dear Readers, and surely by this time the seeds had been planted and were even starting to be watered. I remember watching that opening Individual Time Trial in the Netherlands: an absolute no-name had set the best time early in the day over a short 10 km course. He was sitting in the hot-seat for hours, all the headliners of that 2016 Giro were going off last: though the leaderboard was tight, it became clear only two could challenge this best time. Spartacus Fabian Cancellara, four times Time Trial World Champion with the goal to wear the maglia rosa for the first time in his last season, failed to beat the time. But the last man off down the ramp, in the Dutch TT Champion’s Skinsuit, did beat the best time by less than a second, and his name was Tom Dumoulin (then on Giant-Alpecin). And who was the no-name that sat in the hot-seat with the best time for most of the day? Primoz Roglic of the LottoNL-Jumbo team. Yup, this was when many of us heard his name for the first time—unless in 2015 you had watched either the Tour d’Azerbaidjan or the Tour of Slovenia. And yes, after Belkin the Dutch lottery and the Jumbo supermarket chain took over title sponsorship of the team. And at that time not only was the emerging Roglic on that Giro team, its GC rider was Steven Kruijswijk, The Human Coat-Hanger (big shoulders, skinny body). On Stage 9, another Individual Time Trial, Roglic went one place better than the last time trial to take his first Grand Tour stage win…this was also the day when every commentator found out he was a former world-class ski jumper. But Steven Kruijswijk out did Roglic that Giro. On a stage in the Dolomites, Kruijswijk and Estaban Chaves (on then still called Orica-GreenEdge) left for dead Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Vincenzo Nibali (still on Astana), and Kruijswijk went into the Pink Jersey as race leader. It was surprising for many of us, but we were excited and impressed by this second or third tier GC rider having the race of his life: he looked totally in control and had not put a toe wrong…until Stage 19. O! Dear Readers, if you saw that crash on Stage 19 you still remember it, Kruijswijk’s crash was horrific in itself—his pedal scraped the side of the large embankment of snow flipping him straight over the handlebars at such high speeds—but we also knew then that his Giro win was in severe jeopardy, because Nibali—the Shark of Messina—smelled blood in the water and had risen from the dead. Kruijswijk managed to only finish 4th Overall that Giro, because of the crash. In interviews over the years, it seems like management realized, possibly even at the time, Kriujswijk’s 2016 Giro was all too much too soon. It was too good to be true, because they were not ready to support him on that scale at that time…but they were already working to assemble a Grand Tour-contending team.

Yes, during those years Team Sky was at the top of the sport with GC leader Chris Froome the undisputed Grand Tour rider of his generation swaggering about France, Italy, and Spain with Darth Vader-like confidence. Their fiercest competition around that time came from the talented but old-school Spanish Movistar Team. The likes of Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde, and Mikel Landa did trouble Sky’s thoughts at times, but this ramshackle Rebellion never actually threatened Sky’s dominance. And when Chris Froome was off his best, Geraint Thomas (Sky/Ineos) and Egan Bernal (Sky/Ineos) perfectly filled the void in the Empire’s leadership. But quietly, on the periphery, Jumbo was actively building a team to challenge that dominance, a more sophisticated Rebel Alliance. Primoz Roglic continued to go from strength to strength, taking perfect incremental steps—no massive leaps forward, but more importantly zero setbacks along the way. In 2017, Roglic won the GC at smaller races and started taking road stage wins in the World Tour weeklong stage races; he capped off the season with a Tour de France stage win and 2nd to Dumoulin in the Time Trial World Championships. In 2018, Roglic went back to those World Tour weeklong stage races and won them Overall; additionally, he took another Tour stage and finished 4th Overall with teammate Kruijswijk right behind him in 5th Overall. In that 2018 Tour, Jumbo was on the fringes no longer, the Empire put them on their radar. It was clear that if any team was to challenge Ineos’ supremacy they were the New Hope. But in 2019, they still knew they were not ready or at full strength. Roglic was lights-out in the early season, but they sent him to the Giro where he finished 3rd; he was the red-hot favorite going into the race and he was in the lead until he faded in the third week. Perhaps that could be seen as a setback, but looking at his progression: 3rd was still his best result at a Grand Tour. While at the Tour, Jumbo were winning left and right: Mike Teunissen and Dylan Groenewegen sprint wins, a Team Time Trial victory, the newly-signed Wout Van Aert crosswinds stage, and Kruijswijk’s podium finish were all steps forward. And finally, two months later, at the Vuelta a Espana, Primoz Roglic won the team’s first Grand Tour. This past winter, they signed Tom Dumoulin, 2017 Giro champion and runner-up in both the 2018 Giro and Tour; the Dutch Grand Tour hero was joining the premier Dutch team—surely it was a homecoming. Thus Jumbo-Visma were finally ready to compete with the Sky-Ineos Empire in open battle, and they made their intentions clear when they announced Roglic, Dumoulin, and Kruijswijk would all be going to the 2020 Tour de France together.

And if you peruse my Tour preview talking of Jumbo’s early skirmishes with Ineos at Tour de l’Ain and the Dauphine and throw in Van Aert’s wins straight out of the gates from lockdown, then dear Readers, you are caught up on Jumbo-Visma’s progression until this Tour. Alas! Kruijswijk crashed out of the Dauphine and was not healthy enough to start this Tour, it is a shame he is not here. It is a shame, because he is the individual that best embodies the team’s ethos: meticulous work-ethic, steady progression, generous self-sacrifice. With such model qualities, Jumbo-Visma has now reached the goal they have been building towards—would that Kruijswijk were physically with them. Yes, for the past fortnight Jumbo-Visma have been the best team at the Tour de France. And finally today, for the first time—by Jumbo’s strength—the Sky/Ineos Imperial Fleet has been toppled at the Tour. Today on the lower slopes of the Grand Colombier—on the famous picturesque snaky-switchbacks part—Egan Bernal completely cracked. The leading group still had about 20 riders left and the five on the front were from Jumbo-Visma: Wout Van Aert drilling the pace, George Bennett waiting in the wings, then Tom Dumoulin, Sepp Kuss, and Primoz Roglic in Yellow. Van Aert finished a massive turn, George Bennett did a massive turn afterwards, and Dumoulin out did them both. He worked all the way to the last 600 meters of the stage, Sepp Kuss did not even get a chance to do a share of the work. For the whole 17 km climb only Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) tried an attack that went nowhere. The other riders in the Top 10 on GC stayed with them, but in the sprint during the final 600 meters of the stage: it was only Tadej Pogacar (UAE) that could get the better of Roglic to take the stage win. Over 7 minutes later, Egan Bernal, with a couple of Ineos teammates, finally crossed the finish line, his hopes of winning the 2020 Tour de France completely dead—for at least a time the galactic peloton was now free of Imperial domination.

Dear Readers, watching that finish today left me stunned and puzzled. It is a historic day, the mighty one—team in this case—has surprisingly but finally fallen. And yet there were no fireworks—not even a bottle-rocket really. Not a single fan was on the Colombier to even get some adrenaline pumping. The stage may have been hard racing but it was very dull viewing, and it was unexpected and anti-climactic Ineos’ defending champion—or Sith lord—could implode so severely with such little fight. From what I gather, in the 1996 Tour when Miguel Indurain—already winner of five Tours in a row—finally and unexpectedly cracked, the day was absolutely filled with fireworks. Same with Merckx in ’75, and the end of the Hinault era in ’86. Even Armstrong, though his was delayed, and was off the bike, and cost him everything, his downfall in the courts and media had fireworks. Perhaps its different this time, because it was a mighty team defeated by another mighty team and presumably both teams will reload and clash in future conflicts. Perhaps we need to find out more about how or why Bernal imploded before we can formulate more thoughts. Truly, I am at a loss, I can say no more on Ineos today which is why I have focused on the accomplishment of Jumbo-Visma. Finally, after 5+ years of work, they have reached their goal, they have assembled an Alliance of riders at the Tour de France that could defeat the Empire. But perhaps never again can we consider Jumbo-Visma the Rebels, perhaps now they look to set up a New Empire, now that for the moment they are the top team in the world. Perhaps it is flattering and fitting and more unequivocally clear that they have reached the summit, because their performance was so suffocating-ly strong and boring today. Team Sky at its most dominant best was boring to watch, and it has been the same with the most dominant individuals in the past: Merckx, Hinault, Indurain, Lance, Van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) in Cross, at their best there was no real competition for them. But the Tour is not over. Roglic himself has not yet climbed to the highest step in his perfectly incremental progression: wearing Yellow in Paris. Roglic and Jumbo-Visma must still defeat Pogacar—and the others, each still with a very outside shot of winning. But today Jumbo-Visma have defeated the Empire, they have done what no one has been able to do for a decade, and now they are the top team themselves. Who knows what Ineos will try to do in the last week of this Tour, in the Giro and Vuelta later this season, and what they will do next year; but today they have been vanquished by a superior team for the first time and this is a date worth remembering. Congratulations, Jumbo-Visma, you have accomplished something great today, but the job is not finished. Perhaps, perhaps it is most like the 1980 Olympics, when the US hockey team upset the Soviets in the semi-finals: that was a legendary and historic day, but the US team was not finished. They still had their hands full with Sweden in the Gold Medal game in order to complete the fairy-tale, and it seems in this last week you Jumbo-Visma lads will have some trouble with Roglic’s pesky and talented “little brother.” Enjoy the Rest Day tomorrow, surely you all will sleep well as all great athletes and warriors do after they slay the giant, defeat the Soviets, or blow up the Death Star.

VERCINGETORIX IN THE PELOTON

TDF 2020, Stage 14 Clermont-Ferrand – Lyon 194 km

Bora drops sprinters in Sagan’s pursuit for Green. City streets of Lyon produce thrilling finale.

DENVER, CO – Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? No, not today at least. Today our route has provided a more apt comparison. Dear Readers, please cast your minds back centuries. Back to the first century before Christ, an age of strife and civil war. The Roman Republic was coming to an end as larger-than-life personalities vied for mastery in titanic clashes that would have impressed even Zeus and Chronos. Each had legions upon legions loyal to him and with such legions they defeated their enemies, both foreign and Roman. Marius and Sulla, Cicero and Cataline, Crassus, Cato, Pompey and Caesar, Antony and Augustus, what a century of Romans it was! But the cast is not complete, for the enemies of Rome had just as charismatic and legendary leaders: bold Jugurtha, the supremely wily Mithridates, freedom-fighter Spartacus, famous Cleopatra, and the one that comes to mind today. He comes to mind, dear Readers, because our start town of Clermont-Ferrand was his birthplace, in fact in the main square of the city they have a grand statue of him on horseback, sword raised, leading his Gauls in defense of the homeland against Caesar’s invading Romans. Yes, I speak of a time when France was not home to the Franks, but to the Gauls. For those who remember Caesar’s Gallic Wars, you have guessed him by now: the statue remembers the tenacious Vercingetorix who was so much more than just a name in a history book. O! If not for him surely Julius would have conquered Gaul years earlier. Vercingetorix was the man who would not submit, the man who rallied the whole of Gaul to fight on and not accept Roman rule. His hometown on the Tour route today reminded me of him, and seeing the action of the day’s stage reminded me of him too.

Bora-Hansgrohe has yet to take a stage victory in this year’s Tour de France and Peter Sagan faces an uphill battle to reclaim his Green jersey. For two days in a row the Bora team has animated the race with riders in successful breakaway escapes, but alas! none of their men have turned up a victory for the team. And yet they fought on today, like Vercingetorix and his Gallic army, they tirelessly began hostilities again. The Intermediate Sprint came early in the stage, but 6 km before it was a small Category 4 climb. And yet even the small climb was enough for Bora-Hansgrohe to mass on the front, string out the peloton, and break the legs of the sprinters. Like a lead-out train, they peeled off one by one as they climbed until Sam Bennett (Deceunink-Quickstep) in Green could no longer hold Sagan’s wheel. Bennett did crack, and Sagan with Bora teammate Max Schachmann went over the top of the climb alone. They time-trailed together for the next 6 km; and yes, dear Readers, this is the Schachmann who just yesterday rode so bravely off the front until Dani Martinez (EF) caught him—his legs must be made of iron. With two riders in a breakaway well up the road, Sagan crossed the line 3rd to take 15 Points; behind Bennett still placed well and took 10 Points. Thus Sagan’s effort resulted in minimal gains on the scoreboard, but it must have been quite a psychological blow to Bennett in Green. With that move, Peter Sagan and Bora-Hansgrohe showed they are prepared to fight tooth and nail for every Point all the way to the Champs-Elysees as Vercingetorix and his army contested every field in Gaul 2,000 years before.

The next trick up Bora’s sleeve was the daring one I hoped they would pull. The Tour soon began the Category 2 climb of the Col du Beal, never used in the Tour before, but a familiar name on the Dauphine profiles—remember the battle between Chris Froome (Ineos Grenadiers) and Alberto Contador in 2014? With still 125 km to go on the stage, the Bora-Hansgrohe team went to the front once more and dropped sprinters like Cees Bol (Sunweb), Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal), and the one in their crosshairs: Sam Bennett in Green. And Bora was prepared to ride this gap all day to make sure Bennett would not return to score any Points at the finish. You might be wondering as I was, dear Readers, how the Bora-Hansgrohe riders seem to have bottomless wells of energy. The wonderful Simon Gerrans commentating for us today reminded us that this Bora team was mostly built of climbers prepared to support Emanuel Buchmann in the high mountains. With Buchmann no longer in GC contention, this team of climbers is well-built to push the pace for Sagan on these hilly transition stages. In other years, this would have been a stage where a 20-man breakaway went up the road to contest the finish while the peloton took an informal “rest day” and finished half-an-hour behind, but not this year, not until Sagan has secured his Green Jersey. For the next 40 km the chase was on. A minute or so behind Deceuninck-Quickstep—they call themselves the Wolfpack, aye! How have I not mentioned it before—rode at the front of a large chasing group to return Sam Bennett to the peloton. But on the front of the peloton, Bora-Hansgrohe—they consider themselves a Band of Brothers, another thing I should have mentioned before—rode hard to ensure Bennett did not return. Yes, it was a duel between the two cycling teams that have adopted team names beyond just their title sponsors. The Wolfpack vs. the Band of Brothers, what amazing team names for such a match! But as Sam Bennett and the Wolfpack passed through the feed zone with 87 km to go, they had not put a dent into Bora’s lead. Thus they waved the white flag, threw in the towel, gave up the chase. On this day, the Band of Brothers had defeated the Wolfpack. With one adversary defeated, Bora turned their eyes to the finale where everyone else left would become an adversary for stage honors. Bora wanted a stage win for its own sake of course, but if Sagan could take the victory he would get a whole 50 Points and be only 11 Points down on Bennett by the end of the day.

The final run-in was a tricky finish into metropolitan Lyon. O! Lyon, Lugdunum it was called in the ancient days of Rome, was Irenaeus your patron watching the race today from above? Since its founding it has been a hub of trade and a city of importance throughout French history; in cycling history it is renowned as well, for Lyon has the honor to be the finishing town of the first ever stage of the first ever Tour de France. In 1903, the riders came in one by one as the 467 km stage had taken the winner almost 18 hours to complete; obviously this would not be the case today: the pace would be ferocious and furious as the peloton would fight for the front to be in best position to negotiate city streets at times as narrow as one car wide and filled with road furniture galore for the rest. Additionally, there were two Category 4 climbs on these city streets that would surely be used as launchpads for some ambitious escapists rolling the dice and trying their luck for a stage win.

The peloton came to the bottom of the first hill with 12 km to go, and it was Tiesj Benoot (Sunweb) who started the attacks. The climb was just over a kilometer long, but in that time another Sunweb rider, Soren Kragh Andersen, went off the front as well. It was these two riders that set up Marc Hirschi’s (Sunweb) win on Stage 12, but just because Sunweb had already celebrated victory once didn’t mean they would stop hunting for more! It was Lennard Kamna—yes, the one who lost the sprint to Martinez yesterday—who went to the front for Bora to chase them down. It took Kamna until the bottom of the descent after the climb to catch Benoot, but he caught him; and found he had a gap on the peloton. He began the second climb solo with a few seconds lead, but behind Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), that Escape Artist, attempted a late attack. Though the hill was in the middle of the city, there were still switchbacks, and who flew around them the fastest? The Musketeer. Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) launched his bid for glory like an F-16 rising from the runway. He sprinted by De Gendt, hawked down Kamna, and kept going; but in hot pursuit was Baby Spartacus, Marc Hirschi, going for glory again, with a string of riders following behind. The Musketeer really did look good today, but there was too much firepower behind and with 4 km to go it was all back together. Then Hirschi counterattacked as Alaphilippe was brought back and every alarm bell was ringing. Who chased him down? The man who refuses to submit, the Vercingetorix of the peloton, Peter Sagan himself would not let him escape. O! It really was a sight to see when Sagan chased Hirschi down, he really did seem like Vercingetorix. Sure, at this point Sagan no longer has the flowing locks or the bushy facial hair that every Vercingetorix portrayal shows, but you could see in his body language he was doing everything in his power to better his cause today. With 3 km to go, he caught Hirschi, only for the strung-out peloton to come back together and Sunweb’s Soren Kragh Andersen to launch another counterattack. To chase down Hirschi had taken almost everything Sagan had and it had taken everyone else almost everything they had just to stay on the train Sagan was leading to catch Hirschi. Thus it was that Sunweb played a blinder again, with this Andersen attack, everyone hesitated for just a few seconds to see who would sacrifice themselves to chase him down—Sagan couldn’t do it again—and that was all it took. Andersen had a few seconds gap, committed everything, and came in solo 15 seconds ahead of everyone else who collectively couldn’t cobble together a chase behind.

In the sprint, Sagan only managed 4th, but it was a respectable showing for how much work he had just done in the final. It gave him a reasonable hall of Points, but at the end of the day Bennett still leads the competition: 262 to 219. And remember, dear Readers, going into Paris, Sagan needs a comfortable lead in the Green Jersey, because Bennett will most likely place higher—even win—on the Champs-Elysees. And so the task to reclaim Green is still a tall order, but Sagan and Bora did what they could today. They fought bravely and are prepared to fight on despite the odds stacked against them, like Vercingetorix did.

Vercingetorix literally translates to “superior warrior king,” has not Peter Sagan embodied such a title for the past decade? But alas! Vercingetorix’s fall eventually came. Sagan is 30 years-old and has already been around a very long time, alas! we shall soon have to brace ourselves for his twilight and fall. I guess, dear Readers, we can only hope his end is dealt out by another mighty warrior as Vercingetorix’s was. For Julius Caesar to defeat Vercingetorix he had to build a wall around the entire city of Alesia—a circumvallation—where Vercingetorix was held up, only to have tens of thousands of other Gauls show up to liberate their warrior king. The outnumbered Caesar had to build a wall around his own wall—a contravallation—and fight Vercingetorix and the Gauls on both sides…and he did, and he won. Yes, though Vercingetorix fought to the end, he was finally defeated by a better man. It seems one day Peter Sagan will have to face such an adversary too, but I hope it is not now. No disrespect to Sam Bennett—who is a likeable, talented, and dynamic sprinter—but unless he wins this Green Jersey by a very wide margin, I am not sure I can see this as a real vanquishing of Peter Sagan. The juries’ relegation ways on my mind, and of less importance in the first week Peter Sagan was not up to proper snuff. And beyond this year, Sam Bennett is also already 30 years-old how much longer does he have at the top of this sport? Vercingetorix demanded Caesar and his men go to every length to defeat him. When Caesar did, with his double-walled siege of Alesia victory, his men had surely become the best fighting force in the world. It was in the wars with Vercingetorix and the Gauls that Caesar earned undying loyalty from his men and developed his masterclass skills of generalship and diplomacy that would allow him to conquer the Roman Republic. Without defeating an adversary like Vercingetorix, would Caesar have had the courage to cross the Rubicon and the skill or endurance to win an arduous Roman civil war? Who in the peloton could be a worthy Caesar to defeat the Vercingetorix-Sagan? My nomination would be Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) who some are now calling “The Aertist,” surely he has the talent and is still only 25. As I have said before, I hope Sagan wins an 8th Green Jersey this year because an intrusive ruling has hindered his chances. But when another eventually comes to vanquish Sagan—as someone must—I hope Sagan is on his highest form and the challenger is just as mighty an adversary, and the battle is as epic as Alesia was 2,000 years ago.

A TALE OF TWO COLOMBIANS

TDF 2020, Stage 13 Chatel-Guyon – Pas de Peyrol (Le Puy Mary) 191.5 km

Steep Puy Mary sees intense breakaway duel for stage honors, and catches out some GC favorites behind.

DENVER, CO – The Tour de France has entered the Massif Central. This an area suited for ambushes. No dear Readers, I speak not of highwaymen or bandits like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. A cycling ambush, where a GC hopeful gets up the road in a break that the race leader’s team has trouble bringing back. Like the finale of yesterday’s stage, all the roads are up and down, there are no flat valleys for a team or group to make a well-oiled cohesive chase back to even a semi-strong group up the road. Were Alberto Contador, el Pistolero, not retired he’d have been licking his lips seeing the profile of such a stage as this. Here was what was on the agenda for the peloton today: Category 1 climb, Category 3 climb, Category 2 climb, Intermediate Sprint, Category 3 climb, another Category 3 climb, Category 2 climb, no decent—just a few kilometers of “flat,” and finally the summit finish at the top of the Category 1 Puy Mary climb. Despite no GC ambushes, the entire stage was relentless. It was full gas from the start, by the top of the first climb Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) in the Green Jersey was already on the limit. The landscape for the first part of the stage was dominated by the most famous cycling mountain in the area: the now legally inaccessible Puy de Dome. The Puy de Dome climb is where the picture of Jacques Antiquetil and Raymond Poulidor rubbing shoulders was taken, look it up dear Readers—Google: “Anquetil Poulidor puy de dome”—it is one of cycling’s immortal photographs that deserve a whole piece of its own. And another famous incident, yes dear Readers, this was the climb where a maillot jaune wearing Eddy Merckx, the Cannibal, the Greatest of All-Time, was fighting to win his record 6th Tour de France, but was punched by a roadside fan and the incident hampered his climbing and potentially was what costed him the Tour victory. But the end of this stage would finish not on the Puy de Dome, but another “puy,” the Puy Mary. After such a long day, the first few kilometers would be bearable, but the final 2.5 km which average a grueling 12% gradient would string out the field. When asked about the stage, Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) said there would be time differences today. Now apparently, dear Readers, all these “puys,” with their steep sides carved out by glacial rivers, are extinct volcanoes of old. So when asked about the stage it was fitting that Tadej Pogacar (UAE) said there would be fireworks. And the race leader, Primoz Roglic’s (Jumbo-Visma) thoughts on the stage, dear Readers? Silence.

As stated, the beginning was a furious pace, ‘twould be a brutal stage for the sprinters and their companions in the grupetto—the men off the back trying to make the time cut while the GC leaders and domestiques duke it out up front on the mountains above. But things began to settle down for a while as a breakaway went up the road. The break of 16 riders was strong with many big names making the split. But since none were GC threats, the peloton let their lead grow to be as wide as 10 minutes. With 28 km to go Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) bridged up to the American Neilson Powless (EF) to take a 25 second lead on the rest of the breakaway. This allowed Powless’ EF teammates Hugh Carthy and Dani Martinez behind in the breakaway to not help with the chasing effort, same with Schachmann’s Bora teammate Lennard Kamna. With 18 km to go, Powless and Schachmann had a 53 second lead over the chasers, but then the young American cracked leaving Schachmann to power on alone. As soon as Powless their teammate had cracked, behind Carthy and Martinez came to the front of the group to help chase down the powerful Schachmann. At the front with them were Movistar’s Marc Soler—yes, the one who was vanquished yesterday with Schachmann by Marc Hirschi (Sunweb)—and Quickstep’s Alaphilippe the Musketeer. With the raising of the pace, this large group of chasers became more elite by the meter. Finally, it was whittled down to EF’s Martinez, Bora’s Kamna—doing no work at all with his teammate up the road, Movistar’s Soler, and the Musketeer. But alas! Alaphilippe cracked and soon after so did Soler. With 13 km to go EF’s Dani Martinez would have to chase down Bora’s Max Schachmann while Schachmann’s Bora teammate Lennard Kamna sat on his wheel for the entire ride up. If Martinez was up to the task, what a finale this would be!

Dani Martinez, the Colombian and recent surprise winner of the Criterium du Dauphine—the final preparation race for the Tour, was now outnumbered in a fight for stage honors with two Germans of the Bora-Hansgrohe team. The German up the road, Max Schachmann was the winner of Paris-Nice, the last race before lockdown, O! he was on flying form for that one! Meanwhile the one Martinez towed behind, Lennard Kamna, was a stage winner at the aforementioned Dauphine. Success at the Dauphine implies flying form so perhaps Martinez, with Kamna on his wheel, was up for this bridge to Schachmann. Schachmann had already been engaged in a hard-fought battle the day before only to be broken by Hirschi, and his lead up to the Tour did not contain Dauphine success but an unfortunate collar-bone injury when a local illegally driving on a race course knocked him over with their car. And yet Schachmann looked strong now! But Martinez, who had crashed on Stage 2—ruining his GC prospects, looked up to the task of catching him. Why! Martinez looked so undaunted at the challenge that lay before him, it was remarkable. Dear Readers, in case this is not clear: the number one rule of racing is to not chase down your teammates up the road, do not lower his chances by bringing more rivals up to him; sit-in on people willing to drag you up, and it is acceptable to bridge over to one up the road solo, but you must not drag any others with you. Therefore it was not even a question that Kamna would sit in and let Martinez do all the work. Now on steep climbs like these, sitting-on isn’t particularly easy, but ‘tis still easier than riding on the front.

Unphased by any of this, Martinez gobbled up Schachmann’s 53 second lead across the rest of the stage. It took him until 1700 meters to go and by then they were on the steepest gradients of the climb, but he caught him. Now, dear Readers, you think this should be an easy win for this Colombian Martinez: why, all those Colombians are all so small and skinny, so light and their limbs are twigs, they’re perfect specimens for these steep goat-track mountain climbs. A common misconception, dear Readers, a common misconception. The Colombians are unsurprisingly from Colombia where they train on not these extremely steep but relatively short climbs. Colombia is a country in the high Andes, a mountain range that only the Himalayas can dwarf. Why, these Colombians train and race on climbs that are 40, 50, 60 km long and reach altitudes over 3000 meters high; the most revered of these climbs is Alto de Letras—80 km long, with an elevation gain of more than 4000 meters when all is accounted for. Does it make sense now, dear Readers, when in the 1980’s the first great Colombian cyclist, Lucho Herrera—what a pioneer he was—said all the climbs in France were too short for the Colombians to excel? My dear Readers, the Colombians, due to their training grounds, are made to be diesel engines who can climb for hours and hours, perhaps days and days. Well despite these historical facts, our man Martinez was still up for this today. Surely he knew that once he caught Schachmann, the relatively “fresh” Kamna, who had been sitting in conserving as much energy as possible, would put in a searing attack to drop him completely; this is what happened, dear Readers. Kamna dug deep and launched the big attack, but Martinez was onto it. Schachmann looked done, but actually caught back on only for Martinez to ratchet up the pace too high again. Again Kamna attacked and Martinez covered. Then Martinez tried his luck, but Kamna responded and caught back on. This dear Readers, was a boxing match on wheels—between the featherweights, of course. Into the last 400 meters, both with their hands on the drops, both ready for some final sprint. And then Kamna went with his strongest attack yet! Martinez was barely able to jump into his slipstream, but he made it. He made it and had the strength to counter and come around him to take the sprint victory! O! How the Colombians would be so happy as they always are when one of their own takes a victory. But down the slopes, the Colombian fans had many GC contenders to worry about! Today, dear Readers, we were treated to two races for the price of one.

As Martinez was crossing the line in victory, behind the fireworks were finally exploding. Dear Readers, while the cameras were focusing on the men vying for stage honors some events behind must be pieced together and inferred. By this time, the favorites were all on their own, all domestiques long shelled and cooked except for notably Colombian Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) working for Egan Bernal and American Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) working for Primoz Roglic wearing the maillot jaune. As Martinez launched his sprint, below Tadej Pogacar launched a decisive attack. What was not clear until after Martinez crossed the line is that Sepp Kuss must have done a last Herculean turn for Roglic, because on the replay it was clear that Carapaz was pacing Bernal’s White Jersey a couple of dozen meters behind the peloton when Pog attacked. The only man who was a match for Pog was Rog, the Slovenian pair would once again be the men of the match. All the other GC rivals behind were in trouble: Richie Porte (Trek-Segafredo), Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Mclaren), and Superman Lopez (Astana) chased 30-50 meters behind but the gap seemed a chasm on the steep grades; and behind them Bernal was scrambling to catch up with Rigoberto Uran (EF), and Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsaic) was still even further behind them. Pog and Rog, both traded turns as they twisted the screws on the others. Surely, in that moment it was in the interest of both to press on the attack and even drop the other if possible, but dear Readers an idea of a soft brotherly rivalry is developing in my eyes: Rog the elder trying to remain top dog as long as possible before the younger Pog reaches maturity and comes to his full powers. On they sailed away from their GC rivals, Rog doing the majority of the work with his high cadence and metronomic rhythm, why, the younger Pog could barely latch on for the ride! And behind? Porte seemed to make some inroads, but it was not enough. And all the Colombians behind were truly in a hurt-locker.

None looked worse than Egan Bernal. No dear Readers, it was not because of his crappy haircut—the untidy buzzing of the sides and back was a “recovery” of his own mistake while attempting to cut his own hair on the Rest Day. Bernal looked the worst, dear Readers, because this was the first time we ever saw him appear so vulnerable. “This is Egan Bernal, winner of the 2019 Tour de France,” we thought. “He wears the #1 on his back, he is in the White Jersey of Best Young Rider, but surely that will be on Pogacar’s shoulders tonight at this rate! Why is he in so much difficulty? Has he gotten his nutrition wrong today, is he bonking? He is the leader of the mighty Ineos Grenadiers, the masters of the Tour for a decade, but in such a crazy year is this team of teams not fully prepared and up to top-snuff?” Yes, yes, Egan Bernal was in trouble and it was strange to see. The defending champion, the first of that great cycling nation to win the most prestigious race of them all, the youngest Tour winner of the Post-War Era, did not have the strength of the Slovenians on these steep slopes. I told you dear Readers, these gradients are not the Colombians’ natural habitats, but that does not mean Bernal could give up nor did he want to. He fought on, though it was plain for all to see he was having a bad day. Perhaps like Samson when his hair is cut he loses his strength? He almost reached Superman and Landa and Porte…but no, more accelerations and he was struggling behind again. “What a world of pain he must be in today,” we said. Yes, yes, the physical pain is excruciating, but psychologically is it quite a blow to see your rivals looking strong, so far ahead, already out of sight!

At the finish line Rog was sprinting for more seconds and Pog could barely hold his wheel and then the countdown started for all the GC rivals behind. Porte and Landa finished only 13 seconds down, a great recovery; with Superman only a further 6 seconds back. And then the clock continued to click, second by second. We could see him, but still it felt like a lifetime for him to get to the line. An agonizing 38 seconds behind Rog and Pog, Egan Bernal—the defending champion—“limped” over the line with Rigoberto Uran. His tank was empty, he was physically spent and psychologically drained, this was quite a blow to his Yellow Jersey defense. And now he is out of the White Jersey too, that did in fact transfer to the shoulders of Pogacar who has moved up to second overall on GC. Dear Readers, the GC looks very interesting now: Roglic in Yellow, Pogacar 44 seconds behind and now in White, Bernal in third at 59 seconds down, Uran 1:10 back, Quintana at 1:12, and Superman at 1:31. Do you see it? It goes: Slovenian, Slovenian, Colombian, Colombian, Colombian, Colombian; never have we seen such a thing on the Tour de France, never have we seen or would have expected these countries to dominate in such a way just a few years ago! But where does this leave one of the Colombians of this tale, the one that is the defending Tour champion? His team worked hard for him today, surely the plan had been for Egan to create gaps in front of the Slovenians. But there are higher mountains to come in the Alps, high passes most like to the Colombian climbs that we shall find anywhere in France. But he shall have to attack hard, as he did last year on Stage 19 where surely he would have won the stage and taken minutes on every GC rival if the stage had not been stopped for landslides and storms up ahead. Last year, in the third week Bernal’s Tour winning move was stymied and we were robbed of an epic end to the greatest Tour in a generation. But now, now, we are in a position that if Bernal is to come back and win this Tour, why, he will need to out do the performance he was in the process of unleashing last year. Can he do it this year? Currently it seems a very big ask. The first thing on the agenda will be to drop both Pog and Rog, a very tall order for both have looked bulletproof in the mountains thus far. But the third week of this Tour is tough, surely the riders will be going to dark places physically. And truly these steep goat-tracks are both the Slovenians’ bread-and-butter, but the high passes of the Alps to come are surely Egan’s.

NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER!

TDF 2020, Stage 12 Chauvigny – Sarran 218 km

Baby Spartacus comes of age in thrilling hilly finale into Sarran

DENVER, CO – Winston Churchill and the British people in their Darkest Hour. Unbroken’s Louie Zamperini. Frodo and the Fellowship of the Ring. The Galaxy Quest crew. It is an ancient theme with countless stories, but we humans all find their resilience so inspiring, dear Readers, that most of us are always happy to hear another one. And it is one of the great beauties of cycling that we are treated to so many such shows of fortitude—sometimes multiple per day—and today was the best of the Tour thus far. After yesterday’s rulings which may have decided the winner of one of the four Jerseys at the Tour—which it must be noted, even Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) disliked the ruling because he wants to earn the Green Points Jersey himself—Peter Sagan and his Bora-Hansgrohe team did not wilt or roll over. They went right to work trying to close the Points deficit to Bennett; dear Readers, as you know I am now openly rooting for Sagan to come back into contention in this Points competition. With the hilly 60 km finale on today’s Stage, containing most notably the Category 3 climb of the Cote de la Croix du Pey followed by the Category 2 climb up the Suc au May, Bora-Hansgrohe swarmed to the front of the peloton to take up pacing duties. With these hills it was another opportunity for Sagan to score many points while Bennett, if dropped, would score none. Unfortunately, the Bora team were in a tricky position: the breakaway of 6 riders was only 2 minutes up the road. Thus when they increased the pace on the hills in order to drop all the other sprinters, they brought the breakaway back too quickly. On the lower slopes of the Croix du Pey most of the sprinters including Bennett were dropped, but the breakaway was brought to within 30 seconds which encouraged new and fresher and stronger riders to attack. It would become difficult for Bora to neutralize the attacks and maintain a peloton containing their leader, Peter Sagan who was on the rivet.

The first riders to move were Marc Soler (Movistar) and—O! dear Readers, surely you know which team will be trying something—2 Sunweb riders: Tiesj Benoot and Soren Kragh Andersen. The persistence and depth of Sunweb this Tour has been remarkable: Cees Bol 3rd in the Stage 1 sprint, Marc Hirschi 2nd on Stage 2 into Nice, again Bol 2nd on Stage 5 with a great lead out, Nicholas Roche in the strong breakaway on Stage 6, again Hirschi with the heartbreaker on Stage 9, the good lead-out train from the whole team on Stage 10. At no point have they given up or doubted. Surely this wonderful team has held their heads high knowing that if they keep putting themselves in such winning positions surely, just statistically, one of them is bound to pay off. Thus Benoot and Andersen began the assault on the last 40 km of the stage, and the other teams followed Sunweb’s lead knowing the quality of their riders to be able to make some escape stick across this rolling terrain.

Many riders tried to bridge across the gap, but dear Readers it is too difficult to even attempt to name them all. Soler went over the top of the climb solo with a few seconds lead, but he soon was caught again by a select group of the said Benoot and Andersen who were joined by Sunweb teammate Marc Hirschi, Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Quentin Pacher (B&B Hotels – Vital Concept). All the teams knew the strength of the Sunweb trio of Benoot, Andersen, and Hirschi, and the alarm bells were sounding. A 20-or-so-man chase group, led by Bob Jungels (Deceuninck-Quickstep), frantically attempted to bridge the gap, but they made no inroads on the descent. And at the bottom of the Category 2 Suc du May, Benoot emptied the tank for his Sunweb teammates Andersen and Hirschi. Over the 11% gradient section, Soler attacked solo again, but Bora’s Schachmann and Sunweb’s Hirschi attempted to close the gap. Behind, the best riders were pushing on in an elite chasing group a couple dozen seconds ahead of the peloton. Jungels was done having given everything for his Quickstep teammates Dries Devenyns and—you guessed it, dear Readers—Julian Alaphilippe, our Musketeer who had bridged to this chasing group as well. But at the front of the race, Soler was caught by Schachmann and Hirschi. Immediately Marc Hirschi counterattacked…and immediately Marc Soler bowed in his in defeat. Soler knew right then the writing was on the wall, he had no hope of a Stage win when Hirschi made that sort of attack.

Marc Hirschi of Team Sunweb was solo once again at the front of the Tour de France. The Stage 9 loss in the sprint had not been easy for him to swallow, surely it would fuel him for this final 30 km escape. Soler and Schachmann were still chasing with little hope, but it was Julian Alaphlippe the Musketeer in command of the chasing group 35 seconds behind who was Hirschi’s biggest danger now. Hirschi seemed to slow, but he actually maintained the same effort while the gradients became steeper and steeper. There was a flat respite and Hirschi began motoring again, I think it was at this point, dear Readers, most of us believed this was another real-deal Marc Hirschi attack. But he was not at the top of the climb just yet, the road pitched steeply up once more. Surely, we all began to have the same thoughts: “Yes, come on Hirschi, we are rooting for you once again! And now, he is over the top. He has a good descent for a bit of recovery, and he is a fine descender.”

Ah! But dear Readers, the descending we saw from Hirschi on Stage 9 was only a B+ compared to the work he handed in today. In following coverage of Stage 9, it became apparent that it is a safe assumption that a Swissman always makes for a fine descender: for many come out of the womb with downhill skis on their feet. And like Sean Kelly to Sam Bennett, it was confirmed Spartacus Fabian Cancellara has had a hand in Hirschi’s rise…enough to consider Marc Hirschi to be a Baby Spartacus. Cresting the top of the climb, Baby Spartacus emulated his mentor’s renown bike-handling skills; he became a daredevil conserving every bit of speed he could. The corners were sharp, but Baby Spartacus nimbly skidded through a couple of them as he kept the bike upright while his brakes locked up. Unphased, Baby Spartacus plummeted downwards. O! He looked marvelous in the aero-tuck, sitting on the top tube; surely there is a new candidate for best descender in the peloton! I tell you dear Readers, flying down this descent he looked like a spacecraft re-entering the atmosphere.

At the bottom of the descent with 18 km to go Hirschi had a 35 second gap on Schachmann and Soler, a 55 second gap on Alaphilippe and his chasing group, and a 1:53 gap on the peloton containing all the GC favorites. But the run-in was not simple, the entire thing was still left-and-right, up-and-down, not a stretch of straight road, not a meter of flat. Behind, the chasing group was not cohesive and the Musketeer was forced to attack to close down the gap, but always someone from the group latched onto Alaphilippe like an anchor weighing down his progress. Our Musketeer tried three of these attacks, but to no avail, they only ended with the chasing group swallowing up Schachmann and Soler. The road would rise up and Hirschi would sustain the high tempo, never letting up for even a single pedal stroke. The road would sink down and again Hirschi would drop into the aero-tuck zipping down at the speed of sound. He was dialed in, on an all-out assault for the stage win. With 5 km to go, Baby Spartacus Hirschi still had a 39 second gap on the chasers while Alaphilippe still kept attacking them because they lacked cohesion. At this point, dear Readers, it became clear that Marc Hirschi, Baby Spartacus, could not be stopped this day, and he would not be denied the victory he had already almost tasted twice before.

What must it be like, Marc, to be on the wrong end of two thrilling finales in the span of eight days? On Stage 2, you rode with the famous Musketeer Julian Alaphilippe, but you were vanquished in the sprint. On Stage 9, you impressed us all: you were the daring man measuring a great effort for 90 km solo, only to be engulfed in the race for Yellow, and vanquished by two certain Slovenians. How did it feel on the Rest Day, Marc? Did you think you had blown your chances at this Tour? Not many riders even get two chances for the win like you had. Did you think that was it, your shots were fired, your reserves spent? This is the first Grand Tour you have ever done, your first three-week odyssey. On that first Rest Day, did you feel like an explorer on the edge of the wild about to enter unknown territory? Having never done a race longer than 10 days, did you wonder if you could keep the same form, or if you would have to enter survival mode just to make it to Paris? Were you scared you would miss opportunities to perform on such stages as this that are on paper suited to you? Perhaps, perhaps these thoughts did pop into your head on Sunday night and on Monday’s Rest Day. But it seems, I deduce with the help of your team, these doubts were shooed away. “Never give up! Never surrender.” Did you and the Sunweb team watch Galaxy Quest on the rest day and laugh from the depths of your bellies, or has the phrase been engrained in your team’s ethos? Quite frankly, Marc, you and your team came into this Tour with one of the quietest line-ups on paper, nobody expected you all to make as big of a splash as you have. But, surely, you and your teammates and your staff have been keeping morale high and not seen the missed opportunities as wasted, but as building blocks and signs that you have all been on the right track. Your power numbers have been good, the group has been gelling well. For twelve stages you guys have continued to try your luck, fired your arrows, and finally it has converted into a win today. It has been a lesson in persistence for all us viewers, and once again we are all happy to see you rise to the top—not a viewer was rooting against you today, Marc. When you started grinning with 300 meters to go, so did we. It was wonderful to see you sit up and celebrate across the line, because we had all seen it was a win earned and deserved. Congratulations, Marc Hirschi, thus far Baby Spartacus has been the revelation of this Tour.  

FRUSTRATION AT THE TOUR

TDF 2020, Stage 11 Chatelaillon-Plage – Poitiers 167.5 km

Ewan wins the stage. Race officials decide to expand Bennett’s Points lead with controversial ruling.

DENVER, CO – We all had a long day ahead of us or had just finished one up as we sat down to watch the sprint into Poitiers. Coming off the feel-good stage yesterday, we were hoping for something similar today. Could Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) double-up stages and take a win in the town where his mentor, the legendary Sean Kelly, won his first ever Tour de France stage? And what about the Green Jersey competition? Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) did not look half-bad yesterday. He finished a highly respectable third place, might he be coming back onto form at the perfect time? It was a long flat day, no threat of winds, so might as well watch the replay of the Intermediate Sprint, then catch the final kilometers.

The Intermediate Sprint was taken by the lone breakaway rider, Matthieu Ladagnous (Groupama-FDJ), leaving 17 points still available to whoever crossed the line in second. The intermediate sprint was a rather dull affair where Sam Bennett in Green took the 17 points, his lead-out man Michael Morkov (Deceuninck-Quickstep) actually took 3rd place behind Bennett to eat up points that Sagan, finishing in 4th, could have had. Bennett’s Points lead lengthened. Then dear Readers, let us fast-forward to the finish. In the final 6 km, Sagan’s teammate Lukas Postlberger (Bora-Hansgrohe) launched a daring stealer attack reminiscent of the 1K Flyer he accidently launched to win Stage 1 of the 2017 Giro. Interestingly, Sam Bennett’s teammates, Bob Jungels and Casper Asgreen (both Deceuninck-Quickstep) bridged to Postlberger. The three rode on forcing Caleb Ewan’s Lotto Soudal teammates to chase them down. All three were caught by 2 kilometers to go, but Ewan was already down to just one man on the front. The run-in was weird, no team really wanted to take the lead-out reins. Finally, in the last 400 meters Wout Van Aert, who had been let off the leash by his Jumbo-Visma team, came surging up to the front, Bennett and Ewan lurked behind him. At 200 meters to go, Van Aert launched his sprint, it was a clean straight line on the right side of the road. On his left came Bennett in Green drawing even, but around him also came Ewan. Meanwhile, despite his large size, Sagan was sneaking up the barriers on Van Aert’s right side, coming from a long way back. O! it was a close call, Sagan certainly nudged Van Aert as he came up. But who would take it? All four were looking good. On the line….Ooo! A photo between all four! All four with the bike throw. Look at that arrangement, dear Readers, it was a beautiful sprint. “Bravo to Sagan bouncing back after struggling that first week! And Bennett, Ooo! he was close, did he win like King Kelly of old? I think Van Aert was a close but clear 4th. Ewan probably took it though. Yes, there are the results: Ewan, Sagan—really? Wow!—Bennett, Van Aert. Well, well, Sagan surely must be coming back onto form, and with that second place he shall close the gap on Green to Bennett. As our commentator, Simon Gerrans, has just declared: this was the best sprint of the Tour so far.” These were our thoughts, dear Readers, watching the replays and seeing the initial standings, but they were denied to us.

Alas! dear Readers, Sagan was relegated for his nudging and bumping with Van Aert along the barriers. He was placed at the back of the sprinting peloton in 85th place. Now, dear Readers, I am not here to give my judgement whether his move was so dangerous it was worthy of relegation, I cannot formulate an opinion of my own. In such matters I feel judgement must be conferred singularly to current and former sprinters who have experienced situations like this one firsthand and then have thoroughly analyzed the current replay. What look like fierce headbutts or flaring elbows to the average viewer may not actually be so violent at such high speeds. Much of the barging and nudging are only knee-jerk reactions in order to stay upright or are the nature of the beast that is sprinting. I will say, seeing Sagan come up that close to the right-side barriers eerily reminded me of Fabio Jakobsen’s (Deceuninck-Quickstep) hideous crash at the Tour of Poland one month ago, the worst crash I have ever seen quite frankly—I sincerely advise the dear Readers not to look it up. But I still don’t even understand who comprises the juries in such decisions: are they officials who work for the Tour de France or officials from the UCI, cycling’s governing body? Are they judging just the isolated safety of this sprint on its own, or are they involving the optics of the situation and do recent events weigh in on their decision-making as well? Have any of them ever sprinted in a bike race before? Seriously, I feel that is a necessary condition, because not everything is as violent as it seems from the TV; this is something only experienced people should attempt to make judgement calls on. But, dear Readers, in this situation I shall not even consult the expert sprinters’ opinions, because I am not interested in any opinions on whether this was a fair or cheap play this time. I don’t care that Wout cried foul, it’s expected when he finishes in a lower place. I haven’t even looked up reaction from Sagan’s camp. I am simply and plainly frustrated that such a good sprint is now marred by the controversy and that is the only topic for the rest of the day.

I hate relegations and penalties like this one, dear Readers. I hate that now for the next 24 hours all we will be discussing is the worthiness of the relegation even though the decision is final and we all must move on—this is also why I never bother to understand who these officials are and who they work for, because what does it matter? The decision is final. But what I hate most, dear Readers, is that I saw a coming-onto-form Peter Sagan remarkably rising to the occasion, as everyone was counting him out, to keep the Green Jersey competition very tight. And now instead of keeping the competition around a 15-Point difference, the gap is somewhere around 60 or 70 Points which is perhaps insurmountable for anyone (obviously, dear Readers, when Sagan was relegated he lost the 30 points he was going to receive for 2nd place while Bennett now gained the 30). Jeez, seriously dear Readers, endings like these—where someone changes the result I saw—drive me up a wall. It is one thing when everyone with eyeballs calls foul immediately, like in the Jakobsen crash, or in the dark days of old when a doping test was failed and the result needed to be stripped; but here without any popular consensus or experienced consensus, a committee steps in and decides the outcome of the race instead of the athletes themselves. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth, it is sickening.

Dear Readers, if you have been keeping up with my reports you know that Wout and Sagan are two of my favorite riders, and Bennett is continuing to soar in the rankings as well. So I really don’t have a dog in this fight about whether Sagan should have been relegated or not. I simply want to see an exciting race decided by the riders, which doesn’t mean the officials shouldn’t officiate, but they should make their presence as minimized as possible. With this controversial relegation, I do not believe they are minimizing their presence. It was probably these same officials that irrationally completely disqualified and booted Sagan from the 2017 Tour for a similar incident in a sprint, and that dear Readers, was my least favorite Tour I have ever seen. It was ruined and became boring, because officials overstepped their boundaries and decided the race. This scenario isn’t as bad, because maybe Sagan was being too dangerous and deserved a penalty, but maybe also this committee just decided the winner of the Green Jersey instead of Peter Sagan and Sam Bennett. Perhaps as a warning of disapproval, but without deciding the race, this committee could have heavily fined Sagan instead. Dear Readers, I finish by saying that I pray greatly that Sagan harnesses this incident as motivation to heroically come back from this deficient to win his 8th Green Jersey. I love the Sam Bennett fairy-tale and he is a worthy adversary and I wish him the best, but now I root for Sagan because I feel this committee or jury may have screwed over the “best man”—as in “May the best man win,” words I accuse the jury of not believing in when they insert themselves in such a way.

I don’t know, dear Readers. I am sure this will be my worst report yet. As I say in the title, I am deeply frustrated and scatter-brained because I cannot even tell if Sagan was in the wrong (nor do I care) and instead of talking about the riders we are now talking about some shadow committee we know nothing about who potentially just decided the Green Jersey Points competition for us. It is ridiculous. It is so ridiculous, that I will now watch the replay of today’s stage of Tirreno-Adriatico, what always turns out to be one of the most mediocre races on the calendar, as a rebound. The only thing the “Race Between the Two Seas” has going for it are its blue leader’s jersey and the massive golden trident trophy awarded to the winner.  But seriously, any bike race without a disqualification will be better than the crap we just saw today.

“YOU DREAM OF IT”

TDF 2020, Stage 10 ile d’Oleron – ile de Re 168.5 km

Sam Bennett wins sprint after nervous day on the Tour de France

DENVER, CO – Dear Readers, today we traded out helicopter shots of beautiful chateaus for picturesque and epically situated lighthouses. The Tour de France has come to the coast on the Rest Day, on the harsh Bay of Biscay on the west coast of France near La Rochelle. The hope for the viewers was that the winds would blow and we would feast for hours on another day of crosswinds. This was not the hope of many of the riders in the peloton. Whether the crosswinds would materialize or not, this would be a nervous day in the bunch. Perhaps it is bad etiquette to give a preamble about things I will not be focusing on, dear Readers, but quite frankly this is my report and I am free to write about what I wish, and you are free to read it or not. I had thought to tell the tale of the stage from Richie Porte’s (Trek-Segafredo) point of view, for crosswinds and cobbles and descents are the bane of his racing existence. Or perhaps focus on Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) who had a mechanical or crash at an inopportune time when the potential for crosswind splits was highest, O! how frightening that must have been as he lies 3rd Overall on GC. Though I have not experienced it myself, the point would have been to give a sense of the stress and nerves for a General Classification (GC) rider on a day where if they are out of position they could lose their high placing within minutes despite being on great form. The crosswinds today did not materialize, but that would not have deterred me from trying to get into the head of a nervous GC rider. What did deter me was the winner’s interview.

Now, now, dear Readers, surely the theme of the story I am about to tell could generically be applied to literally every stage winner of the Tour de France. But sometimes we, all of us, viewers, commentators, journalists, team staff, race organizers, and riders themselves, go through the motions of a typical Tour de France stage—especially on a transitional one like this was—and we forget to acknowledge that many of these days are a seminal event in someone’s life. But every once in a while, we are pinched by a moment of real humanity that moves us all so deeply as we realize that the culmination of someone’s career has just transpired. Dear Readers, today it happened in an unlikely place: on the immediate post-race winner’s TV interview. Quite frankly, such things are usually dull affairs like, for example, when it is one or two certain Slovenians who put up a brick wall between their thoughts and emotions and all the viewers get to see is a blank poker face giving short, generic answers to basic questions with no elaboration of any sort. Sorry to pick on Pog and Rog, they are not the only guilty ones, most of the interviews go this way…but not today’s. Today’s interview stopped us all in our tracks as we were about to go back to normal life, it reminded us that even though 99 out of 100 of these interviews will be bland and useless, just 1 out of 100 can make it all worth the effort. But I am going out of order, dear Readers, allow me to rewind just a few minutes.

It was a fast day for the entire stage, because the crosswinds were a constant threat. Despite it all, everything basically stayed together for a final sprint. Sunweb had the superb lead out train again for their man Cees Bol, they controlled the last whole 4 km with 6 or 7 of their teammates. But deep into the final kilometer Bol’s last lead-out man peeled off the front and up came Deceuninck-Quickstep’s final lead-out man, Michael Morkov. It was a straight shot, the pace was already high and no one would be coming past him. Behind Morkov was his sprinter, Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep), the champion of Ireland, how magnificent the Shamrock Jersey looked. But behind Bennett, cool and comfortable in perfect place on his wheel was the Pocket-Rocket, the champion on Stage 3, Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal). How he weaved with such speed in Stage 3 to come back from so far down, why it was like the Millennium Falcon in an asteroid field! If he could overtake Bennett and so many others on that stage, surely Bennett was in trouble today as Ewan sat on his wheel. And yet, Bennett did what he must, surely he could not win if he did not try. Morkov peeled off, Bennett launched his final kick. It was a straight shot, Ewan was in his slipstream, and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) was in Ewan’s. It was a clean sprint, a fair gallop, pure sprinting, the beauty of all athleticism in a microcosm. Bennett was accelerating, Ewan coming out of the slipstream to the left was also accelerating and faster, while Sagan was coming on his right. But neither had enough room or acceleration to come around. Bennett beat Ewan by a quarter of a wheel, and Sagan by a full length. Bennett sat up and gave a little fist pump in the air. Ewan gave him a quick handshake, because he knew Bennett had it. Dear Readers, it almost seemed like a routine affair, very little glamor was involved, it was just fundamental sprinting. And it was just another transition stage smack-dab in the middle of the circus that is the Tour de France. We watched the replays a couple more times, checked the results and fantasy scores, then that’d be a wrap. “What’s the profile for tomorrow, something a little more interesting than today, please? O! well, what’s for dinner tonight? Pasta sounds good.” We were all about to flick off the pictures and move on, but something weird caught our eye, dear Readers.

As I said, Bennett gave a minor fist pump at the finish, Ewan offered a handshake or fist bump as they freewheeled past the photographers in an act of good sportsmanship, but beyond that Bennett was not celebrating too much. Sam! O! Sam! Are you not aware that you just became the 100th rider to win a stage of all three Grand Tours? O! Sam, are you not aware that you have just won a stage of the Tour de France for the first time ever? Dear Readers, I concluded he wasn’t. There must have been a couple things going on in his head. He is a sprinter by trade, his life revolves around being in position for crazy-fast finishes. There is hours lead up to them, but on a superb team like Quickstep, his teammates will guide and protect him until the finale. It is in those final kilometers where he really switches “ON,” when he “gets in the zone,” flow they call it. In flow, he is completely focused on the task at hand: he is only trying win a sprint as he has won so many before. He no longer remembers the nervous hours he’s already ridden in the winds. He no longer remembers it is Stage 10 of the 2020 Tour. He no longer remembers it is even the Tour de France, the biggest bike race in the world. It is simply a bike race and he wants to win it. He is completely dialed in, sensing and accounting for everything. He’s acutely aware of his rivals, he knows who is on his wheel, he knows when his lead out man will peel off the front, and he is prepared to spend every ounce of energy he has in the final kick to win where he must hold off the rivals behind benefitting in his slipstream. He crossed the line, and he knew he had won…hence the fist pump and the accepting of Ewan’s congratulations. But then, dear Readers, life started to come flooding back to him. He remembered this wasn’t just any bike race. This was the Tour de France, had he really just won a stage? He doubted. Denial. He doubted, because he admitted in the interview that he was scared that Ewan beat him in the bike throw, that he did not lunge his front wheel out far enough at the line and Ewan’s snuck past his. Had he blown it again, lost to Ewan again like he definitively did on Stage 3? But then the confirmation came, a masked race official came over to him and confirmed the win. Then he started celebrating: high-fives and hugs with his teammates, cheers and shouts of joy; and it was time for the winner’s interview as he had done many times before at other races big and small.

He came to the interview saying he was in shock, because he thought Ewan won with the bike throw, with the little lunge at the end. The interviewer had to assure him, “You’ve won, I’m telling you: you’ve won.” And then we saw it, dear Readers, we were glued to the screen…dinner can wait. Despite the mask covering most of his face, we saw it in his watery eyes. Now the emotions were overwhelming him. Now he wasn’t just acknowledging he had won another stage, he realized he had won a stage of the Tour de France. “You’ve been waiting for this for such a long time,” the interviewer prompted. Looking into his eyes we saw the achievement of a lifetime, a childhood dream fulfilled. He was tearing up. He was thanking everyone involved, he was thanking his whole team, his team-boss Patrick Leferve for the opportunity, everyone it took to get to here: his wife, and everyone around him. His sentences were broken, he couldn’t control his emotions, only an Irishman’s face could go so red.

“You dream of it and you never think it will happen. And. It does, and it did. I don’t know, it took me a while for it to hit me.” Bennett said.

Yes, yes, “You dream of it…” Young Sam Bennett was from the same town as Sean Kelly, King Kelly, the greatest cyclist Ireland’s ever known. Surely, Sam Bennett had a poster of him over his bed. Surely, Sam Bennett watched the replays on TV of his greatest wins. He was not even two years old when Kelly descended the Poggio to win the 1992 Milan-Sanremo on St. Patrick’s Day with clover in his back pocket—his last big win—but surely he had seen the finish a hundred times before he was a teenager. And surely, he had seen the footage of Stephen Roche winning the 1987 Tour as well. Yes, those two inspired a generation to dream. Yes, yes, he said it himself: “You dream of it…” Surely, surely, the young Sam Bennett wished upon a star that someday he would win a stage of the Tour de France. And he took the steps for it to become a reality: the legendary Kelly—from the same town—became his mentor, took him under his wing, guided him, set him up for success at the highest levels of the sport, from amateur to World Tour and Irish Champion. And yet…

“…you never think it will happen.” As he DNFed his first Tour de France. As he hobbled through his second injured and bruised to finish the lanterne rouge, the Red Lantern, the caboose, last place at the Tour de France. As he won multiple Giro stages in 2018, but was not even sent back in 2019 by Bora-Hansgrohe, even though he had won a stage in every race he had partaken that year: relegated to the mountainous Vuelta a Espana as his only Grand Tour of the year. As he did everything right and had all the speed on Stage 3 in this race, but someone was still faster. How many times does he have to keep trying? How many more setbacks will he have to face?  

But finally, finally, after thinking it’s never gonna happen: “It does, and it did. I don’t know, it took me a while for it to hit me.” Sam, today your dreams are reality, but you do not need us to tell you that. Instead it deeply moves us to witness you realize it for yourself. We are reminded of our own childhoods, sitting on the floor in front of the TV watching the big games and big races: our heroes hit the home run, hit the buzzer beater, cross the line first; and we dreamt someday we could do that. For one reason or another, that was not the path for the vast majority of us, and yet we see it become a reality for someone like you and it fills us with pure joy. We appreciate and love seeing your hard work pay off and your dreams come true. The ecstasy of victory, watch it again, dear Readers, O! see how the grown man cannot control his emotions…and that is a beautiful sight. Sam, we saw it in your eyes: everything that got you to this point was flashing in those watery circles. Again, dear Readers, I’m sure this sounds cliché, but we certainly do not appreciate this every time. Just one stage ago, on Stage 9, Tadej Pogacar (UAE) took his first Tour stage as well, but these emotions did not flood our hearts then. But here, Sam made us remember why we waste our time with these silly two-minute interviews. And I tell you, dear Readers, just as young Sam was inspired by the footage of Kelly and Roche, and Abdujaparov and Museeuw after them: today, a young child was inspired by Sam. Today a young child in Ireland watched that sprint and that interview and made it their dream to win stage of the Tour de France just like you, Sam.

Congratulations, Sam! We do not need to tell you to savor the victory. But I and the dear Readers will tell you: stay sharp! Do not lose your focus, this is not yet the time to rest on your laurels for you are now back in the Green Jersey! The Stage dream is fulfilled and it was beautiful to see, but now you must refocus on defeating the mighty one, a former teammate, who has worn Green for so long before. To wear such a jersey in Paris, would that be beyond your wildest dreams?

REST DAY REAL TALK #1

The curtain is about to be drawn back, you read on at your own peril. It is the first Rest Day of the Tour de France and I am going to take that seriously. No “dear Readers” and no “Surely’s” for this one, and not much narrative either. I need a break as well, and the purpose of this is just to recap and assess how the race has been.

Here is what I have decided to do. First, I will run through the Top 20 on GC and give my quick thoughts on each person’s performance this race. Then I’ll run through the stages we’ve seen so far and even reveal my biased strange ratings. Before you say “What do you mean? I’ve already read nine ‘incredible,’ but lengthy posts about them, what else is there to cover?” Well, in each one, I basically tried to pick out the most all-encompassing storyline or what singularly excited me most. There are somethings I have thoughts on that should be shared—like Alaphilippe cracking on Stage 8. Then I’ll wrap up with any thoughts on the profile of the stages to come next week. I haven’t seen any news yet on the COVID Rest Day tests results and I’m sick of the topic already.

TOP 20 ON GC

20. Esteban Chaves – There was no really need to start with 20th, I could have easily started from 15th on down. But since Chaves was in 20th I figured I wouldn’t pass it up. I’ll spoil a little secret for those who bother to read this: Chaves has been a card-carrying member of the “Makes-Your-Day” Club since 2016. He’s had a few rough seasons where the only bright spots were a couple of Giro stages, but I think he’s looked good so far. Not 2016 good where he was on Giro and Veulta podiums and won il Lombardia. But a step in the right direction. That said, coming in I figured for some reason he’d be better the first half than the second, but last year he took his Giro stage in the third week so maybe he can do that here. Now that Yates is out of Yellow, I expect Mitchelton to be launching Chaves, Impey, Yates if he loses more time, and especially Nieve in all sorts of breaks that stay away to the line. I am very hopeful for Chaves.

19. Sergio Higuita – I’m looking at Pro Cycling Stats for this list right now, but I don’t want to click to see any riders’ stats, because that will take me down too many rabbit-holes. For awhile I got Higuita and Martinez mixed up, but Martinez is the one who won the Turini Paris-Nice stage last year while Higuita had the electric Vuelta stage win, and one of them did well in California last year too but its 50-50 who it was. The Vuelta stage was electric, and then in his Colombian champ’s jersey Higuita rode surprisingly well in the crosswinds of Paris-Nice before lockdown so I like Higuita more than Martinez. But Martinez’s Dauphine win was impressive. That said, I expected Martinez in the top 20 in GC while Higuita would be lighting it up slightly more on these climbs. Not the case, he always looking to be struggling on the early climbs, but then is surprisingly back deep into the finally. But I still have not seen anything electric like his Vuelta stage from last year. Hopefully he comes good in the second half.

18. Emanuel Buchmann – Between him, and Schachmann, Konrad, and Grossschartner, and there might even be a last German climber…I can’t keep track of them. I only know Buchmann was 4th at the Tour last year a la Haimar Zubeldia (the most “famous” guy for riding anonymously into a Grand Tour (GT) GC Top 10). Anyways, looks like he’s not in as good of form this year. Shame, I wanted to learn more about him, oh well. And sorry, I’ve probably been spelling Emanuel with two “M”’s.

17. Alejandro Valverde – I always think Valverde underperforms at the Tour. He has enough good results here at the Tour and even at the Tour I think he has an impressive string of Top 10 GC’s, but he could have more stages if he ditches GC completely and in this transition year for Movistar where their only win is from Challenge Mallorca in January maybe he should drop out of GC, get in a break and take a stage. Movistar might not even win the team classification this year!

16. Damiano Caruso – This is the random Bahrain guy we’ve been seeing up front the past couple days. I forget what I know about him/I would confuse him with Alessandro de Marchi if I attempted to speak on him. But impressive he’s doing this well.

15. Richard Carapaz – 3:42 down, I think this is a fine place for him to be considering he had a mechanical in the crosswinds. Also it must be noted, if he’s not on top form it’s because he wasn’t supposed to be ready until the Giro in the coming month. Then, also, when he won the Giro last year, I think he was a solid 2 or 3 minutes down on Roglic at the time anyways. Nibali and Roglic just looked at each other as he went up the road and his team leader Landa (better placed at the time) couldn’t chase down his own teammate. So Carapaz, I think is back in that “stealer” roll, but I doubt Roglic gets duped by it again. Also, I think Sivakov is gonna have a big third week whether Carapaz gets better, worse, or stays the same over rest of this race.

14. Tom Dumoulin – 3:22 down, So from what I gather, in the middle of Stage 8 (Probably while Wout was putting pressure on HIM—by accident—during the Port de Bales, the climb before the Peyresourde), he formally told the whole team on the radio that he didn’t feel on good enough form to win and that he’d sacrifice his chances from Roglic…which we all saw on Stage 8, and which he did on Stage 9. Luckily on Stage 9 he didn’t lose too much time, finishing with the Yates group. Now was this sacrifice noble? Yes, it goes without saying. Tom’s a great guy and a good teammate…but this wasn’t part of management’s plan and Jumbo would be in a more commanding position with two leaders. Movistar won the Giro last year with their 1b. leader. Potentially Ineos did too last year with Bernal. In both 2018 and 2019, Ineos made the two leaders work: Thomas and Froome were 1st and 3rd in 2018, Bernal and Thomas were 1st and 2nd in 2019. Going all in for Roglic too early could be dumb, no matter how noble it is. Beyond that….Tom, you’re Tom Dumoulin. You’re the guy I watch almost win the Vuelta in 2015 with literally 1000/1 odds at the beginning of the race. We said a new star was rising in the 2017 Giro d’Italia where you manhandled Quintana and Nibali. How do you only have one GT to your name, three years later? Bernal, Pogacar, and Evenepoel are not getting any younger and more are coming: get a Tour win before it’s too late. All cycling fans want you to do well, and you’re too good a rider to not win the Tour de France. I want your name on that list.

13. Bauke Mollema – 2:31 down, Riding well as usual, nothing stellar, nothing bad. Mollema fine as usual. How old is he? He must be getting old.

12. Enric Mas – 2:02 down, Ok I saw him yesterday and today with Yates, but he and Movistar have been so horribly anonymous this year (not just this Tour) that 12th actually seems like a good position on GC for him. Also, was it 2018 he was on the Vuelta podium? He potentially surged late into the race to take that second spot: if he could do something similar to get in the Top 10 that’d be good, and Top 5 would be really impressive.

11. Richie Porte – 1:52 down, Best he has looked in 2 or 3 years (outside of Tour Down Under). That said, Porte is clearly, clearly over the hill and he’ll maybe be Top 7, I can’t see him being Top 5 even this year. Sorry, Richie but you’re in the twilight of your career.

10. Mikel Landa – 1:42 down, Ok, he’s had a pretty clean run at this so far. No bad crashes, he lost time in the crosswinds, but that’s racing. He’s looked good climbing, TBD if he’s good enough to launch an attack again Pogacar, Bernal, and Roglic.

9. Superman Lopez – 1:15 down, I feel like he should be further back. He looked good on the Oriceres climb, but he was 2nd or 3rd tier on Stages 8 and 9. Good on him for hanging in there again. That said, he was electric a few years ago in any sort of high mountains and he’s due for a big result. Any chance he gets better here and rides himself onto the podium? That would be a really good result for him, anything below Top 5 and I would say he’s critically stalling out as a GC rider. I like him, and love the nickname so I hope he does well. FYI because I don’t think I’ve said it, his real full name is Miguel Angel Lopez.

8. Adam Yates – 1:02 down, He impressed me on Stage 2 going with Alaphilippe. Then he hung around in Yellow longer than expected which was nice to see. It’s good he’s finally having a good Grand Tour for once, like the last 3 or 4 he’s targeted have been clunkers. And he rode very well on Stage 8 to save Yellow, but to be perfectly honest that wasn’t too much of a big deal for me, because it’s clear he’s been on borrowed time this whole time in Yellow anyways. Now the question is, does he fight for GC or go stage hunting? He’s in the Top 10 and only a minute behind Yellow so I think it would be silly to lose time just yet, but he’s already done his maillot jaune stint and from a break he looks on form to win a stage.

7. Tadej Pogacar – 0:44 down, Man of the match for me so far. There are no limits with this kid. Bernal, last year we saw have at least a bad TT in Pau, potentially was slightly flat in one or two mountain stages…I have yet to see Pogacar put a toe wrong in a Grand Tour. He lost time in the crosswinds because of a mechanical. I was excited to see that, because I knew he would grab the race by the scruff of the neck and attack right away in the Pyrenees…if this were Quintana (even 2015 Quintana) he would be quietly bidding his time for a big attack in the Alps that would come way too late when the gap is insurmountable a la Alpe d’Huez 2015. I also find it so exciting that he’s Bernal’s age…and he’s not on Ineos. Whatever happens this year, I’m sure Ineos will easily reload with top talent, but potentially Pog might just be straight up better at everything that Egan Bernal. I find it hard to believe Ineos missed out on this guy! But I’m getting way too ahead of myself and I’m not even mentioning where Remco fits in. But Stage 9 was cool because I believe this WAS the first time ever we got to see Bernal and Pog dealing out blows and then counter-attacking each other, their first proper head-to-head fight. Pog, man of the match right now, in my opinion, even over Roglic.

6. Rigoberto Uran – 0:32 down, He’s looking good. Now he’s another one that must be getting old though, he’s been around for like a decade at least. Good on him to still be around, I thought he peaked with 2nd at the 2014 Giro, then I thought he peaked with 2nd at the 2017 Tour, so what do I know? Maybe the sky is the limit.

5. Nairo Quintana – 0:32 down, Feels good to see him be a relevant GC contender again. Seriously, we haven’t seen it since the 2017 Giro where he finished 2nd to Dumoulin. I’m very happy for him. He looked good on Stages 4 and 8, and luckily good enough on Stage 9 to only lose 10 or 11 seconds. Who knows, back in the heydays he would have good third weeks at these things so maybe he can deliver. I’m super happy for him though, it’s fun to see him do well.

4. Romain Bardet – 0:30 down, I am shocked he’s in 4th place and only 30 seconds down. Did he hold onto a car or something? Didn’t notice him at all on Stage 4, only times I saw him on Stage 8 on the Peyresourde he looked bad, but then was nipping seconds at the finish having caught up on the descent. He looked pretty good on Stage 9. I don’t know, I don’t have the energy to invest thoughts or hope into these temperamental French guys. He’s more reliable than Pinot, but not as fun. Pinot though it’s annoying how often he blows it, when he’s “ON” he’s way more fun than Bardet. Goes without saying Alaphilippe is more reliable than both (but not a rider built to win a GT) and he’s way more fun too.

3. Guillaume Martin – 0:28 down, What an impressive ride! I remember seeing him on Wanty Group-Gobert in previous years and they would say he’s their GC rider and I would seriously think to myself “Oh, that’s cute. Wanty think they have a GC rider.” Anyways, his Dauphine was really impressive so there was some sort of signal this was coming. He’s also finished in the Top 20, maybe Top 15 before so this is somewhat for real, like he can ride a three-week race unlike Pinot. What’s been the coolest so far is that this hasn’t been an anonymous third place, he made a solid winning move on Stage 4, but you can’t beat upset when two Slovenians named Pog and Rog beat you. But the move to Cofidis has been impressively successful, I am impressed and eager to see his next two weeks.

2. Egan Bernal – 0:21 down, I’ve found this to be an EXTREMELY interesting Tour for Egan. Ineos Grenadiers are not the strongest team at this race and the Slovenians do look better than him at the moment. I loved seeing the first showdown ever between Pog and Bernal on Stage 9. I would love to see this bud into a great rivalry were they and Remco and others go toe to toe and someone always gets the better of the other in these Grand Tours and even some Classics and Monuments. The LAST thing I want to see a lopsided rivalry like Merckx v. Gimondi. Anyways, I think Sivakov will come good in the third week to help Egan out, but this is a really early test to see how great a champion this kid can be, will he rise to the occasion and win in the third week? I don’t know, but he was my pick to win from the start of the race and I stand by it still, I guess, but sternly not as firmly.

1. Primoz Roglic So I was highly critical that Roglic was flying too high at the Dauphine like he was at Romandie before the Giro last year. That said, the way he has raced this week, it has been conservative…he is saving something. With Dumoulin sacrificing his chances, he must also be convinced Rog can go the distance for the three weeks. He’s been Pogacar’s equal, but the sky is the limit with that 21 year-old. Where is Roglic’s ceiling? I thought we maybe saw it at the Giro because 3rd felt like a disappointment. But in his career trajectory it really wasn’t: 3rd in a Grand Tour was still his best result at that point. Since 2016—from memory—I believe he has won a Giro time trial. In 2017, he began winning road stages of the week-long WT stage races capping it off with a Tour stage win. In 2018, he won some WT stage races, finished 4th at the Tour and took another stage. In 2019, was lights out in a bunch of WT stage races and took stages left and right, then got 3rd in the Giro and came back and won the Vuelta. If he wins the Tour this year, over the past 5 years he will have risen from the bottom to the top in perfect incremental steps with no setbacks of any kind. That would be super impressive to see actually, I would enjoy seeing that constant, but reasonable progression pay off instead of a meteoric rise of Tadej Pogacar. It would also be exciting to see another team besides Ineos/Sky win the Tour for once. But above all I root for an exciting race so I don’t want him to just dominate this thing for the next two weeks while in Yellow or have his major competition be Pogacar who is basically just his little brother at this point…that’s not dramatic enough. Last thing I’ll say about him, sorry, actually about my coverage of him: I haven’t mentioned once that he is a former Ski Jumper, because I’m just that good of a guy.

THE STAGES

Stage 1 (Kristoff wins the rainy sprint.) – I was really happy for Kristoff, but I was surprised Bennett of Quickstep was out of position they’re usually really good about setting up their sprinters to win even in the bad conditions, apparently Morkov was further back? He really is their talisman in the sprints. I actually didn’t mind the rain, it seemed like it’d have been a snoozer of a stage without it. The rain made it more interesting even if it resulted in a rider led neutralization. My rating: 7/10, allow me to explain what a “10” is really quick: a “10” is a complete race, it had everything I wanted. Thus yes, it is possible a race can exceed my wildest dreams and score higher than a “10.”

Stage 2 (Alaphilippe wins into Nice ahead of Hirschi and Yates) – I absolutely loved this stage, this is why I watch bike racing. People were saying even then Alaphilippe was off his best. I had hoped he proved right there that he was on his best form at the perfect time. Unfortunately, I was wrong on that count, but you couldn’t tell that from that win…on that win Al looked to be back at his best. People were saying he didn’t beat Hirschi by enough. Well maybe Hirschi has risen to another level of rider…Stage 9 proves he has. My rating: 9.4/10

Stage 3 (Caleb Ewan wins the sprint) – Really good and impressive sprint win by Caleb. But for whatever reason, he doesn’t fire me up as much as other riders. And he actually should, that was a very, very impressive win to weave and come from so far behind. I love Sagan and Gaviria, because they re-write the script and win however they can and they never give up. Meanwhile, Ewan in the past 2 or 3 years has become more dynamic too winning some pretty tough sprints with uphill kickers at the end. Anyways, I expect him to take more stages. Also, I was rooting for Sam Bennett, I really like him, and by all accounts he did everything right: there was just no way to stop Ewan that day. My rating: 6/10

Stage 4 (Orcieres, Jumbo clinic where Roglic won the sprint) – Roglic and Jumbo all looked super impressive. At the time I thought this is exactly what Roglic shouldn’t be doing is getting ahead of himself. But others covering the race thought he almost reluctantly won at the top, and after seeing this weekend of racing I could potentially buy that. And then, this is when he became clear that Alaphilippe probably wasn’t on the same form as last year, because that was a sprint he would have won last year…just no way around it. My rating: 8.8/10

Stage 5 (Wout’s first sprint stage) – This one was extremely boring, luckily I didn’t watch much of it. There wasn’t even a breakaway, when the Tour reduced the teams down from 9 to 8, they should have invited two more teams. All these smaller teams have sprinters too, that’s why they didn’t go into the break. Wout was lights out, I think I covered that enough in the Swiss Army Knife report. But damn, Sunweb are so impressive at developing talent. Not sure I knew anyone on their lead out train, and Cees Bol was just the name of someone who gets 7th in a bunch sprint on a stage of the Eneco Tour or something…but now he’s a name to not underestimate. It’s a shame Sunweb has such trouble holding on to all their guys, but they have a smaller budget and I’ve heard the management is unbearably rigid or something?? My rating: 7.2/10 (can you tell Wout’s my guy!!)

Stage 6 (Lutsenko on Mont Aigoual win) – This one was boring. I was actually really mad the GC guys wasted this summit finish. The break was super strong, but I thought some would try something! Maybe a summit finish with no GC gaps (usually created by an early time trial) isn’t a good idea. They probably should have rode the descent into the nearest town to see if something happened there. I don’t know, maybe this stage was bound to come up flat. My rating: 5.7/10

Stage 7 (Crosswinds, Van Aert’s second stage) – This was an excellent stage and it would have been a perfect race if Sagan had won. Not even win, but just finished it off with at least a high placing to take a big lead on Green. He really is off this Tour. I don’t think he had a good training regime in lockdown (I can’t blame him either). I’ve been thinking he wouldn’t be on form until the Tour started, because he still has the Giro afterwards, and maybe he’ll look good in the last week with more racing. But right now, I agree with everyone else he’s well off his best. And this will be his most challenging Green Jersey to win, and I’m not even holding my breath he takes a stage. Bennett is the biggest competition for it. Also if Wout wasn’t on team duties, he would have already sealed this Green Jersey by now. My rating: 9.7/10

Stage 8 (Peters wins Peyresourde, Pog takes back time) – Out of the guys in the breakaway, I think I probably would have rooted for Nans Peters the most, or Neilson Powless because he really is stepping up. Anyways, Peters: Giro stage in his debut, Tour stage in his debut: he’s a talent. 26 seems old compared to Bernal/Pog/Remco, but who knows, maybe he’s the next Thomas de Gendt Breakaway Specialist. Also, I knew Pog would attack, I guess I already said that though in his GC run-down paragraph. O! Pinot’s back was hurting him, I guess, whatever it’s one thing after another with him. I want him to win and I’m sure his excuses are legitimate, but I’m not even interested in reasons for his collapses anymore. And then Alaphilippe, I don’t know. I wasn’t too surprised this year, and if he wasn’t gonna win or go very deep in Yellow maybe it’s for the best so that he can start getting in breaks and possibly take some stages. Hopefully this will keep him fresh for the rest of his season as well, because he shouldn’t have to dig too deep here. My rating: 8.9/10

Stage 9 (Pog wins sprint over Rog, Hirschi, Bernal, Landa) – Great stage, this is why I watch cycling. Another great Sunweb rider, I hope he tries again this Tour and gets a stage, this kid is the real deal at something, he’s another that could go for Green if he wanted. I’ve talked enough about the GC guys. Two good days in the Pyrenees despite no summit finish, and this one I’m hesitant to even call a High Mountain stage. My rating: 9.5/10

First week overall: five excellent days, two average days, and two subpar days. That’s an excellent first week. From a personal standpoint I never really lacked for material to talk about either, so I really enjoyed it. This week was at least tied with best first week I’ve ever seen or takes the crown, but I don’t keep too much track. I remember I really enjoyed 2016 where Cav, Sagan, and Van Avermaet each all took Yellow for the first time ever, can’t think of any other rivals to this first week besides.

THE STAGES TO COME (follow along by looking up the stage profiles).

Stage 10 – Pan flat, but on the coast. They want this to be a crosswind stage, but I may have been seeing stuff that there isn’t supposed to be much wind. Who knows though, and I just consider Wout a top sprinter now anyways honestly so he’s probably my guy.

Stage 11 – Another flat one. Sprint stage. I mean the sprinters do need their days, we should NOT be in the mountains every day.

Stage 12 – Two tough hills probably close enough to the finale with bonus seconds on the last hill that some of the sprinters are disenchanted. I could see them just letting a breakaway go, I guess. The GC guys may not even want to mess with sprinting for Bonus seconds that day. Not sure what to expect and I’m not very good at predicting. I think the GC teams really will want to use these days as recovery, plus Jumbo is solidly now in the jersey too so they should easily control the majority of the stages however they want.

Stage 13 – Extremely hilly if not low-key mountainous day. These stages are the best if someone lights it up. I remember Vuelta stages where Contador would light them up before making it a surprise GC day. I would love for someone to do it. Or if a high-quality breakaway goes up the road and we see a great battle between 2 or 3 really strong climbers duking it out for the stage win.

Stage 14 – It’s like every stage in this second week is made for the breakaway. I would love something GC-wise to happen on the Cat2 climb and then everyone has to race full gas all the way to the finish like on a crosswinds stage. But who knows, probably unrealistic. This is a lame stage for a primetime Saturday.

Stage 15 – This stage was supposed to happen on my birthday. GC day, this should be legit and I’ll be upset if they let a breakaway have a 20 minute lead going into it.

I guess that’s all I wanted to preview for now, because after this is the rest day. So we may not see anymore GC battles until Sunday. I’m not sure that’s a fair trade: such an exciting first week, but potentially a quiet second week. I would hope the wind picks up for tomorrow then and that one of those lumpy stages has GC implications.

HIRSCHI ENTANGLED IN GC AFFAIRS

TDF 2020, Stage 9 Pau – Laruns 153 km

After fast start, Hirschi led peloton from a solo break until GC favorites battled behind on the Col de Marie-Blanque

DENVER, CO – At the beginning of the day when interviewed by reporters Marc Hirschi (Sunweb)—you remember him dear Readers—the 22 year-old who narrowly lost to Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck—Quickstep) in the sprint on Stage 2, said his goal was to get into the breakaway today. Dear Readers, I do not have any experience getting into a Tour de France breakaway myself, but ask any rider and they will all tell you it is easier said than done…in fact the smallest teams in the race treat it as a victory in itself. But yes, easier said than done…especially today as Jumbo-Visma relentlessly chased down all the attempts for the whole first third of the stage. Countless attempts went off in the flat beginning, including multiple moves started by Hirschi himself. But all the way up the slopes of the Category 1 Col de la Hourcere Jumbo-Visma brought back any groups that went away. You see dear Readers, they did not like the composition of the groups going off the front and thus they exercised their authority as the strongest team in the race and chased down everything. What were wrong with most of the groups up the road? Ineos riders. Ineos desperately wanted a man in the break today, then again so did every team. But anyways, this young Marc Hirschi, come hell or high water, he was getting in the break this day.

Hirschi rolled up his figurative sleeves and dropped any potential allies halfway up the long climb. Perhaps he thought Jumbo would just chase them down again if an Ineos rider bridged up to the group. He certainly developed an attitude, “I cannot get into the breakaway today if there isn’t one. So I will be the breakaway.” And that dear Readers is what he did. A group of 6 or 7 chasers were behind him, but they never got much of a gap on the Jumbo-Visma led peloton behind, while Hirschi started to soar. It was an impressive move from the young rider to declare he would be in the break at the beginning of the day and then he achieved it even though it meant a long range solo effort, he and the peloton were still over 90 km from the finish. Hirschi crested the Category 1 Hourcere, weaved down the short and wet descent, and then hit up the Category 3 Col de Soudet. At the top of the Soudet, with 75km to go, he had a gap of 1:52 on the chasing group of six and a 2:52 gap on the Jumbo-Visma led peloton.

The mountains were very green in the Pyrenees, and it was easy to tell why this day: it was very damp and cloudy, the roads were wet and rain was starting to fall again. The crowds were out in the Pyrenees again—how they love their cycling—despite the fact that all had to wear ponchos at the top of the climb. Behind, it was difficult for the chasers and the peloton to grab their rain gear from the cars because the pace was so high and the race still felt “ON,” but eventually all got their gear in time. After the crest of the Soudet, there was a long plunging descent down into a Pyrenean valley and the weather was only getting worse. Without the proper gear, a rider could start to cool down or even freeze on the descent and throw them off for the rest of the stage. Notably, the only one not to get his rain gear: Marc Hirschi. Was this Swiss—dear Readers, what do you call them? Just Swiss? Swissman? A Swit, or a Switz? Do any still go by Helvetians, using their Helvetica font? Swiss rider, just to be safe—was this Swiss rider used to a cold rainy descent like the ones we so often see in the Tour de Romandie or Tour de Suisse…or was this a mistake of immaturity? My commentator, the experienced and accomplished Simon Gerrans (of Orica-Greenedge fame), was wondering if he managed to get some newspaper at the top of the climb before the descent. Dear Readers, please allow me a few sentences to digress on this romantic image. Unlike so many ancient and fabled training and racing practices and preparations of old that are now out of date—my favorite being the eating of a hardy rare red steak for breakfast on the morning of the hallowed Paris-Roubaix race—this newspaper trick still actually works today. Nowadays the riders have all sorts of fancy high-tech waterproof and decently aero vests and raincoats, but in a pinch this oldest practice still gets the job done which I find quite romantic. At the top of such mountains on cold and windy stages, the support staffs would have newspapers ready for the riders to stick down their jerseys to break the wind on the descents in order to keep their torso and bodies warm, and it actually would do just the trick. So here today, the recently retired Simon Gerrans, actually wondered if Hirschi used this method for warmth today. Dear Readers, I lean towards no, and on the descent all could see his fingers were pail, his arms seemed cold. But he handled himself well, it was a fine lesson in descending for the amateurs watching at home especially as visibility was precariously reduced by fog and rain. Whether the weather would come back to bite him remained to be seen.

By the bottom of the climb, Hirschi had further lengthened his lead: 3:20 on the chasers, 4:22 on the peloton. Perhaps he needed to warm himself up, because he went straight to work in the flat valley. He then went into the best possible aero position he could achieve: forearms draped over the tops of the handlebars, hands holding his computer sticking out in front of him; from the camera following behind him he looked to be on a time trail bike. His arms were curled in tight, his shoulders were rounded well, and his legs were massive pistons; dear Readers, I wondered if we were watching his compatriot Fabian Cancellara, Spartacus, returned from retirement.

Funny I should mention him—what a transition I have made—because it turns out our Marc Hirschi is not only a compatriot, but from the same city of Bern and was a neighbor of the great Cancellara. In case you have come to cycling recently, dear Readers, Cancellara, recently retired, is arguably the greatest Swiss cyclist of all time, perhaps even better than the ancient great ones from the Golden Age: Ferdi Kubler, Monsieur 100,000 Volts, and Hugo Koblet, the definitive Pedaleur de Charme. The commentators all said Hirschi got Spartacus’ autograph when he was 9 years-old and still keeps it safe today. Is this a modern version of the legendary Coppi/Girardengo relationship? Yes, Constante Girardengo, was 1920-30’s cycling royalty, he was Italy’s first il Campionissimo (“Champion of Champions”); and Fausto Coppi, the most iconic cyclist that ever was or ever shall be and Italy’s definitive il Campionissimo, would deliver milk by bicycle to his mansion when he was a boy and Girardengo was at the peak of his powers. Surely, such romantic legends must be real as we see their modern equivalents play out today. Did Cancellara ever take Hirschi under his wing to teach him to be such a Spartacus like himself? This Hirschi seems made of stern stuff; and surely the veterans all have a care for the young ones that will take their place when they grow old, especially the ones from the same backyard. And especially this Hirschi, such a promising talent: he can sprint with Alaphilippe, climb away from strong chasers and Jumbo-Visma, the ferocious weather hasn’t phased him in the slightest,  and now he time-trials without a time trial bicycle. Come on, Spartacus, Hell of the North specialist and four times the Time Trial World Champion! Fabian, you must have a soft spot for such a young rider. Surely, wherever you were today, you were cheering him on.

Hirschi looked good over the next Category 3 climb of the Col d’Ichere. After another descent and short valley ride, he reached the lower slopes of the final Category 1 climb of the Col de Marie-Blanque. Behind the chasers were caught, but Hirschi still had 4 minutes over the peloton, a sizable gap for how well he was riding. But how would the peloton play this climb? Would there be fireworks? Would Tadej Pogacar (UAE) attack again, he still needs more time; when would he attack? Of course too, at the top of this climb: 8, 5, and 2 second Time Bonuses were available for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd over the top; and from there, it was less than 20 km with only a descent and a flat run-in to the finish. Yes, there was no doubt the GC men were interested in the Bonus Seconds at the top; and from there, the ones at the finish line: 10, 6, and 4 seconds for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively.

By the time the peloton reached the bottom of the climb, Hirschi’s gap was only 3:24 and Jumbo-Visma were driving it on the front. Robert Gesink (Jumbo-Visma) swung off, job done; and the too familiar Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) took over pacing duties again, surely the other riders now cringe to see him on the front! Wout rode like a madman and totally emptied the tank once again, shelling many out the back. Already suffering was Emmanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgorhe), his second bad day in a row—something must be off with the man who finished 4th in the Tour last year. To the front came the American, Sepp Kuss with George Bennett, Tom Dumoulin, and Primoz Roglic (all Jumbo-Visma) all still waiting in the wings. Behind Roglic, the other favorites were lined up: Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) in Yellow, Tadej Pogacar, Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren), Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsaic), Superman Lopez (Astana), Egan Bernal in the White Jersey of Best Young Rider with his Ineos Grenadiers lieutenants, behind them the Trek-Segafredo duo of Richie Porte and Bauke Mollema, and behind them Rigoberto Uran and his EF Colombian compatriots. Yes, on the last climb before the Rest Day, there would be fireworks; and Hirschi’s lead was evaporating.

With 20 km to go Pogacar launched an attack on the steepest gradients of the climb, 12-13%. Soon Dumoulin was finished and Roglic was on his own. Bernal in White was feeling better today and launched multiple attacks and covered many of Pogacar’s. But Pogacar also covered his or returned fire. The two youngsters, the stars for the next decade to come, were equal matches for each other today. Meanwhile Roglic and Landa were able to cover all of their attacks as well. Richie Porte looked better than he has in years and just held onto them, but only just. A hierarchy for the day was being established, because 10 or 15 seconds behind: Bardet, Quintana, Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), Uran, and Mollema had formed a chasing score. A score or more of seconds behind them, Adam Yates rode with Valverde and Mas (both of Movistar), Superman, and Caruso (Bahrain-McLaren).

Meanwhile our soloist, Hirschi, finally reached 1 km from the top of the climb. But Bernal’s White Jersey group was now only some 48 seconds behind! On the front of the White Jersey group rode Primoz Roglic, keeping tempo, if these gaps held he would be in Yellow heading into the Rest Day; his pace was too much for Porte who drifted to the chasing group. As Hirschi was only a couple of hundred meters from the top of the climb, his gap to Roglic and the White Jersey continued to shrink extremely rapidly, would he be caught? No, Marc Hirschi went over the top alone, but only 16 seconds later, Roglic came across the line just ahead of Pogacar to take the 5-second bonus still available, Roglic was now already provisionally in Yellow regardless of the time gap to Yates and despite Pogacar almost colliding with him in the sprint.

Thus we began the furious descent. Marc Hirschi, the young talent, the up-and-comer was fighting for stage glory, meanwhile the GC battle behind would soon envelop him, surely. Roglic, Pogacar, Bernal, and Landa chasing behind were thinking purely of GC, it was in their interest to bomb down the descent and work together to take time on the rivals behind, but also sprint for first in order to gain the 10 second Time Bonus for 1st. But Marc Hirschi would not go down without a fight. The time checks that came in on that descent always turned in Hirschi’s favor: he was extending his lead, putting time into the GC groups behind. With 11 km to go, Hirschi had 19 seconds on the Bernal’s White Jersey group, 37 seconds on the next group, and 1:06 on the Yates Yellow Jersey group. All dropped like stones down the wet roads into Laruns where Roglic had won a stage just two years earlier. The corners were technical, the straightaways required every ounce of power still available, and the bends were taken at high speeds. Hirschi was descending so fast he overtook his camera-bike, on such occasions all viewing instinctively hold their breathe. Hirschi’s gap on the White Jersey group was now 23 seconds and counting. It was all thrilling viewing, it was cycling at its finest. What a finely balanced race!

Hirschi came off the descent with 7 km to go and curled straight into the aero position to powerfully time-trial his way to the finish. The GC groups behind hit the flat as well. With 6 km remaining, Hirschi had 29 seconds on Bernal’s White Jersey group. But on the flat the quartet of Roglic, Bernal, Landa, and Pogacar rotated evenly like clockwork. Bernal and Landa did equal turns with Pogacar and Roglic, though the latter two had already proven on the last summit to be the better sprinters, but they all needed to maintain the gap on the GC chasers behind. With 3 km to go, it was highly questionable if Hirschi could solo it to the finish, and then dear Readers, he made a highly controversial decision.

With only a 12 second gap and still more than 2 km to go, Hirschi—thinking the writing was on the wall and surely with guidance from his Directeur Sportif in the car behind—sat up, and let the White Jersey quartet catch him. Yes, on paper Hirschi must be a better sprinter than all of them—why just 7 days ago he almost beat Alaphilippe—but is this the case after riding solo through the mountains for 100 km? This was the gamble. And dear Readers, were I in his position right then with 2 km to go, I would have grit it out win or lose, I had already invested too much. Were I to sit up, the proper time would have been right at the bottom of the descent where I could have sat in for 7 km. But Hirschi made the decision and had to see it through. He sat at the back of the group. They came into the final straightaway. With 250 m, Hirschi launched his sprint first from the very back. It was too early, Pogacar was thoroughly on him. Hirschi reached top speed and Roglic was still in his slipstream. Pogacar accelerated past him on his right for the win, and Roglic came around his left to take 2nd. Hirschi was consigned to only 3rd place while Bernal and Landa took 4th and 5th.

The first group of chasers finished 11 seconds behind. Yates’ Yellow Jersey group was 54 seconds behind. Roglic had now captured Yellow, Egan Bernal was still in White, both masked up and cooled down on the turbo trainers next to the stage winner Tadej Pogacar…who is obviously not our man, Marc Hirschi. Ah! He had put in such a big day, he had descended and time-trialed so well. He deserved the victory, but he had made a controversial decision, maybe it was the right call, but the young Swiss rider was still too eager at the finish. Surely, it is clear for all to see that he jumped too early, after such a day and with his speed, he should have left it late. He did not and he lost. But it was still a fine showing, Marc; you impressed the cycling world today. You are a very strong rider who can climb, descend, sprint, and time-trial; a complete package, no? Perhaps you will see it as curse, but it is the highest compliment your rivals and the public can give you: from now on, you shall never fly under the radar, because now everyone knows your name.