2021 TDF Stage 19: The Heroes Head Home

Mourenx—Libourne, 207km

It was a long flat transition out of the Pyrenees today, a similar pen-penultimate stage to last year’s 2020 Tour. And like last year, the peloton did not have any impetus to keep the break in check for a full-bunch sprint finish. The break could take this one as everyone else would prepare for the final time trial test tomorrow, or quite simply let their Tour begin to tranquilly wind down.

A break formed and went up the road for the first half of the stage. Around the Intermediate Sprint, the peloton had actually brought them back to within a minute. In the Sprint, Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) only ate 3 Points into Mark Cavendish’s Green Jersey lead while the Quickstep sprinter clearly did not exert himself. But after the Intermediate Sprint, a few more riders bridged up to the early break of the day and their lead ballooned from there. No team in the peloton took up the chase. The breakaway was one cohesive unit until 45km to go, then the attacks began—much like the Stage 12 into Nimes than Bora’s Nils Politt won. For 15km everyone tried to find separation or make some sort of final selection as if this were a fierce Northern Belgian Cobbled Classic. In the end, the strongest man broke away not using much tactics, just simply his brute strength. Bahrain’s Matej Mohoric the Champion of Slovenia broke away from the breakaway some-30km from the line. He rode away from his rivals at the perfect time, or at the point on a hill or in a headwind when no one could follow him. Once Mohoric had a 30-second lead: already he had it won. Yes, it is the way of these situations: none had the strength to bridge up to Mohoric alone, and all were in the worst situation of the Prisoners’ Dilemma where none would fully work with the others to chase Mohoric down. So Matej Mohoric the Champion of Slovenia when on to take his second stage win of this Tour. It was he that won the 250km hilly Stage 7 into the foothills of the Alps when the Mighty Aces instigated that 30-man breakaway march on Tadej Pogacar and UAE. Ah! Ah! Does that not seem a lifetime ago? Mohoric won as the race entered the mountains, now he bookends it with a win after the Tour has left the mountains.

It was a fine feat of wily craft and enduring strength—it was a praiseworthy signature Mohoric win. But at the same time, there is no way it can be denied: after all we have seen this Tour, this was not the most exciting of stages. And unlike last year’s penultimate Stage TT, the stakes will not be nearly as high for tomorrow’s TT. Young Beowulf Pogacar has won the King of the Mountains Polka-Dot Jersey so long as he finishes the Tour. He has a 5:45 on second place, Jumbo’s Jonas Vingegaard, in both the Yellow and White Jersey Competitions. Even if Pogacar needs 3 bike changes in tomorrow’s TT, the Yellow and White Jerseys are still comfortably safe from Vingegaard and everyone else. The Grenadier Richard Carapaz the Jaguar of Tulcan sits in 3rd place 5:51 down on Pogacar, should he have the time trial of his life tomorrow perhaps he could unseat Vingegaard for second place, but still he has one of the podium spots already locked up. Young Ben O’Connor, the hero of Stage 9, sits in fourth place 8:18 behind Pogacar, over 2:00 back of Carapaz on the Podium. The only real compelling drama is who shall take the TT stage victory tomorrow, and can Cav wearing the Green Jersey finish this ultimate fairytale on Champs-Elysees by getting stage win #35? Like a descent of a mountain, this Tour-narrative’s falling action is quickly approaching the conclusion.

On last year’s Stage 19 transitional falling-action stage, I laid out the case for a traditional wrap up to Tour de France like we are seeing this year. This year’s route has lived out the ultimate traditional route in its entirety. We had the exposition in Northern Brittany, the rising action as we approached the Alps, the climax in the Alps and in the second week with Cav’s Carcassone win and battles into the Pyrenees. But on yesterday’s summit finish the falling action was already well under way.

With all the full-tilt decisive battles completed, today many of the riders were probably able to switch off, to unusually bask-in the long but wholesome and scenic journey. Perhaps they actually pinched themselves and enjoyed the beauty of the iconic sunflower fields around them mid-stage—one of those images that captured their hearts most when they first discovered the Tour de France. Yes, yes, they are now only 2 days’ ride from Paris, from home. After such a brutal and hard-fought Tour, think of what it must have been like for a warrior to return home by foot, horseback, or ship in ancient times of old when 90% of the journey was completed, almost the weary travel and adventure is at its end. Think of what it is like when you are now within two hours of home after an epic road trip of many days, the sense of impending-finality is beginning to wash over you. Think of what it is like to be back on the outskirts of familiar haunts after being away on a life changing journey—a bike trip, a backpacking trip, a special pilgrimage or retreat. Much has been seen and accomplished, life lessons and growth has been gained, but now the ordeal is on the cusp of being over: the longed-for return to normal life is on the horizon. Now these heroes return home out of the south like the hobbits on to the edge of the Shire at the end of Return of the King. They had left the Shire young and green and needed help at every turn: they returned battle-hardened warriors, experienced, confident, truly the ultimate versions of themselves. They were the same physical people, and yet they were not the same people at all. So it is also with the Tour de France peloton. Before this Tour, many thought young Pog would have his hands full defending the Crown, but Young Beowulf utterly trounced and shattered the opposition. Before this Tour, Jonas Vingegaard the young Dane was the last bit player—the eighth man—of the mighty Jumbo-Visma squad, now he is a Grand Tour star of the future who rose to the occasion in the absence of the Hectorian Primoz Roglic the Relentless to do the team proud by finishing on the podium and racing the Young Beowulf undaunted. Before this Tour, Cav was lucky to get one last unexpected loop around France where he was titan of the sport many years ago, now he is the Manx Missile once more who crafted the ultimate swansong Tour anyone could dare imagine for the end of their career. Before this Tour, Wout Van Aert had limits, now no mountain is too high or too tough for the Mighty Ace Wout Van Aert even more firmly in grip of The Swiss Army Knife of the peloton title than he even was before. The Australian Ben O’Connor was a bit player coming into this Tour, now the Australians have a star—even Grand Tour contender—to root for; and to a lesser extent finally, for the Americans, Sepp Kuss went from potential to established with his Andorran stage win. The hero-sculptings and the champion-crownings of this Tour have now just about all been accomplished by this leisurely homeward-bound transition stage.

Am I jumping the gun and saying things meant to be said on the last day when the heroes have firmly made it home like Odysseus on dry land for good with his estate cleaned up in order? No, I do not think I am jumping the gun, especially since more will be said in the coming weekend anyways. We have our champion in waiting—now last year at this time we thought we did too, but this time we must be sure, right? There is one minor GC skirmish left tomorrow, and it could prove a great battle for stage honors; and on Sunday we watch for the perfect career capstone on the Champs-Elysees. But beyond these anticipated highlights, this Tour is over. Let us too begin to wind down as we watch the last chapters neatly wrap up one by one. All the laboriously heavy lifting has been done, the last high hurdles are cleared, it is all downhill from here to Paris.

2021 TDF Stage 18: Mountains Wrap Up with a Carbon Copy

Pau—Luz Ardiden, 129km

It was another fun mountain stage on the Tour’s last day in the Pyrenees, but one could not help but feeling we had seen all of this before. Like yesterday the profile was pan flat for more than the first half of the course until the mountains began. Yesterday there were two Category1s before a Beyond Category summit finish. Today there was the Lord of All Pyrenean climbs, the Beyond Category Tourmalet, and another Beyond Category summit finish up to the Luz Ardiden. In hindsight, perhaps it was bold of the organizers to have two stages with such similar designs back-to-back. Across the flat it is difficult for a fearsome break to establish, so if people were looking for a headliner GC battle, for the second day in a row they got it. It was good to see again, but I cannot lie the novelty of it wore off for me today. It was still a fun watch, but sorry in advance if this stage report takes the day down from an 8.3 to a 6.7.

The Musketeer Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quickstep) and Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) were among others in a small breakaway on an extremely short leash today; I question if they ever had more than a 2-minute advantage. Perhaps there were four of them together across the Intermediate Sprint, thus a sizable share of Points would be available to the Green Jersey hopefuls. Yesterday, Michael Matthews (Team BikeExchange) had successfully outfoxed Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quickstep) in the Intermediate Sprint to eat into Cav’s advantage by a solitary Point. Today the roles reserved, Cavendish and Quickstep lead out man Michael Mokov the Tactical Grandmaster proved too strong for Matthews. Then it was onto the Tourmalet.

The breakaway must have had no illusions, with only a minute gap to the peloton where all the top GC climbers were being sheltered by teammates, there was no way this break was going to survive. Yesterday the break started with an 8:30 gap and even they in the end did not have a chance. Once more UAE looked good controlling the peloton, and Ineos lurked in the paceline as well surely desiring to take a stage win this Tour. The top of the Tourmalet approached without much action besides the breakaway dangling ahead out front. The Tourmalet is one of or the oldest climb(s) to appear on the Tour, and it is the most used on the Tour—it has been scaled on at least 2/3 of all editions of the Tour. Both sides can be raced up and descended down. Sometimes it is raced over mid-stage, like today, sometimes it is used as a summit finish like it was in 2019 when Groupama’s Thibaut Pinot took a sensational stage win. But I have not the heart to say more about the Tourmalet this year, for the KOM Hunters did not properly come to play on it.

For the past week, the KOM Polka-Dot Jersey hopefuls and competition animators have been Bahrain’s Wout Poels, Arkea’s Nairo Quintana, ISN’s Mike Woods, and Jumbo’s Wout Van Aert. But with yesterday’s Beyond Category Col du Poretet summit finish worth double points: Tadej Pogacar moved up 40 KOM Points to a total of 67 KOM Points for this Tour, which put him in second on the KOM Classification going into today’s last mountain stage of this Tour. Wout Poels wore the KOM Polka-Dot Jersey today, leading the Classification with 78 KOM Points. 20 KOM Points would be available for first over the top of the Tourmalet, another summit-finish-double-points 40 KOM Points would be available at the top of the Beyond Category Luz Ardiden climb where the Tour was finishing today. Thus even if Wout Poels took the Max KOM Points over the Tourmalet, if Pogacar won the stage, Poels could not beat him unless he somehow hung on and beat some of the top ten GC men and their other domestiques up the final climb. The most likely outcome was that Young Beowulf Pogacar would win the stage, and Poels would score nothing on the final climb. Thus Young Beowulf Crowned King Pogacar might once again be holding three jerseys at the end of this stage as he did last year in Paris. In the final kilometers of the Tourmalet, Canadian and once KOM hopeful Mike Woods attacked and Wout Poels followed him. By this point, EF’s Colombian Rigoberto Uran was already suffering a horrible day and dropping out the back of the peloton losing his chance at the Tour podium in Paris. Ahead Groupama’s David Gaudu and Total Energie’s Pierre Latour were putting in strong rides up front.

The top of the Tourmalet was misty and foggy, but it was not too difficult to figure out what was going on. Gaudu and Latour went 1-2 over the top and took the max KOM Points, Wout Poels wasted his energy still fighting Mike Woods, his old King of the Mountains rival. Both needed as many points as possible to hold off Pogacar, but they did not work together. Poels would go on to sprint away from Woods in the final meters of the Tourmalet, but he only took 4th place on the climb to score 10 Points—half the maximum available. It did not bode well for his Polka-Dot defense against Tadej Pogacar. I cannot contain my frustration: what have these guys been doing the past three days? For the past two mountain stages, neither got into the breakaways, and both scored at most a handful of Points combined. And because of cagey tactics, yesterday without even trying for the Polka-Dots, Pogacar got himself into contention for that competition. And if today were a repeat of yesterday in the finale with another Pogacar summit finish win, he would most likely be snatching the Polka-Dots from the guys who battled all the way from the foothills of the Alps to Andorra. But you can’t blame Pogacar for getting himself into contention for Polka-Dots without even trying. Perhaps next year the KOM scoring system will need some tinkering or tweaking, but for this Tour the Points available were clearly laid out. It is quite the miscalculation of Woods, Poels, Quintana, and Van Aert to not have picked up more points the past two days in order to hold off the real possibility of double Pogacar summit finish wins. Van Aert seemed to have bowed out of the competition today in order to support Jumbo teammate Jonas Vingegaard’s Podium position, and Quintana seemed out of energy. Perhaps this was the best Poels and Woods could muscle up, and they just had to hope against a Pogacar loss on the summit finish. But this did not occur, and the excellent war of King of the Mountains succession that has raged much of this Tour puttered-out into mediocrity as a rider who did not even attempt to target the classification would go on to win it after just two big days in the mountains.

Yes, Gaudu and Latour descended down the Tourmalet. As must always be praised when it is spotted: Pierre Latour stuffed newspaper down the front of his jersey to keep his chest warm for the descent. In my eyes this newspaper trick is a last romantic vestige of many eras ago that still holds up even amidst all the new fancy technologically-advanced clothing options. But Latour’s charming ride ended there as he took the descent incredibly slow and was caught by the entire peloton before the bottom. David Gaudu rode strongly and bravely today, O! how he deserved a stage win in this final week of the Tour, O! how he surely would have finished high on the General Classification should he not have been sick to his stomach and lost time on the double ascent of Mont Ventoux. But behind the GC teams were much too close and much too strong. The Ineos Grenadiers did much of the pacing on the front, and shelling of competition out the back as they attempted to set up their GC leader Richard Carapaz the Jaguar of Tulcan, for the stage win in addition to his podium finish. But UAE rode well for their Young Beowulf leader again for the second day in a row. Yes, once more, Rafal Majka was Pogacar’s last man as we all had hoped and expected at the beginning of this season. Majka did a great effort on the front. He brought Pogacar to within 3km of the line. When he swung off, Pogacar attempted to attack again immediately. Only Vingegaard, Carapaz, Movistar’s Enric Mas, and Jumbo’s Sepp Kuss could go with him. When Pogacar could not drop them with the initial attack, he settled back in and let Sepp Kuss take over the pace making for Vingegaard. We waited for a Vingegaard attack, but there were not the flaring-fireworks of yesterday’s summit finish. If we had not been treated to such a show yesterday, we would have been much more towards the edge of our seats today. But today was more controlled and subdued until the final kilometer. Enric Mas put in an attack in attempt for a Spanish stage win—on this Luz Ardiden mountain many Spaniards have gone well—and in an attempt to salvage Movistar’s Tour and season. Sepp Kuss was then dropped, but Pogacar was instantly on Mas. Vingegaard and Carapaz tried to follow, but they could barely and then couldn’t hold Pogacar’s wheel in that final kilometer. Pogacar glided around the final curves of that climb to take another dominate summit finish stage win for the second day in a row. And for a second day in a row, Jonas Vingegaard and Richard Carapaz were 2nd and 3rd. With the stage win, and with Wout Poels scoring no points on the final climb: Tadej Pogacar moved into the King of the Mountains Polka-Dot Jersey tonight, his KOM score to Wout Poels is now 107 to 88. With only a few Category4 climbs left, each only worth 1 Point, Pogacar’s KOM lead is unassailable…along with this lead in Yellow and White. Barring the majorest of disasters, Tadej Pogacar has now fully sewn up three jerseys of the Tour de France. With that wardrobe reality and the Pyrenees, the final mountain range of this Tour, now conquered, the Tour is now certainly winding down as it traditionally should.

2021 TDF Stage 17: Bastille Day Battle on the Col du Portet

Muret—Saint-Lary-Soulan (Col du Portet), 178km

Another round of King of the Mountains boxing was denied to us, just as it was yesterday. The situation in that Classification battle is now turning dire and falling under threat of exhausting into mediocrity. That may be the subject of tomorrow’s post, but the fact of the matter is of the six riders in the early breakaway of the day: none were the four main KOM-Hunter protagonists of Sunday’s high mountain Andorra stage. And perhaps the missed opportunity and possible dire straits of the battle for Polka-Dots is the fault of the four Hunters themselves for not battling across the three high peaks this day from the early breakaway. But more on that perhaps tomorrow, today the KOM challengers go unnamed for other heroes battled in their places.

For over two decades, the French Cofidis team has been attending the Tour de France. Their heyday when they were a bigger budget premiere top tier team was around the turn of the century. For the past fifteen years they have been in slow decline, until suddenly two years ago the sponsors seemed to change strategy. No longer did they want to sponsor just a team of bicycle-riding billboards at the Tour de France, they wanted to be winners again once more. Cofidis’ sponsors injected the team’s budget with more money, they signed world class sprinter Elia Viviani away from Quickstep, they picked up the promising Guillaume Martin to ride GC, the team continues to grow. But, but, they have almost a curse of a drought to overcome. Cofidis have not won a stage of the Tour de France for 13 years. Now as they beef up their team, this is quite the monkey they are trying to get off their backs. And that brings us to their man in the breakaway today, Anthony Perez.

The early break of six riders—Cofidis’ Anthony Perez among them—went over the Peyresourde together, the first climb of the day that crested with about 50km left on the stage. They had begun the Peyresourde with over an 8-minute lead, but by the top of it the gap to the peloton of GC favorites was already down to just 5 minutes. They stayed together down the descent, and began the second climb of the day: the Col de Val Louron-Azet. But as the peloton began climbing behind, this breakaway’s gap continued to plummet. Thus it was, Anthony Perez dared strike out for glory on his own. With 35km left on the stage, 5.5km from the top of the climb, Perez dropped what remained of his breakaway rivals. Anthony Perez the Frenchman was on the attack for a solo mountaintop stage win: not just for himself, not just for his Cofidis team, but for all of France. Today is July the 14th, Bastille Day, it is the French equivalent of America’s 4th of July Independence Day. It was the exact opposite of a “chance” that there was a big mountain stage this day: No, no, no, this massive spectacle was entirely planned to entertain the French public on their national holiday. Surely there could be no better way for the Frenchman Anthony Perez to break Cofidis’ winning drought with a summit finish victory on Bastille Day! He rode with ferocity, he rode with great purpose, the enormous roadside crowds and his country willed him on.  He rode with steady confidence, it was a calculated and greatly measured effort. Ah! Ah! But AG2R breakaway companion, Dorian Godon, was not finished yet. Down the descent of the Val Louron-Azet, Godon latched back onto Cofidis’ leading Perez.

At the base of the final 15.7km climb, the Col du Portet, upon which the stage finished, Perez and Godon had just under a 4-minute lead to the peloton. But finally, finally, today the entire UAE Team was on a dominant day. As soon as the peloton started climbing the final Portet climb, the gap began tumbling at an even more rapid rate. Anthony Perez knew he could waste no time, with 14km left on the climb and the stage, he attacked Godon again to drop him for good this time. Once more Perez was alone striking out for solo stage glory. But behind, UAE’s Marc Hirschi, and Mikkel Bjerg, and Rui Costa had done some massive turns of controlling the peloton behind for Young Beowulf Crowned King Tadej Pogacar wearing the Yellow Jersey as race leader of the Tour de France. Then finally, having done so much work on the previous climb, UAE’s Davide Formolo pulled over to the side of the road, his job well done too for leader Pogacar. The American Brandon McNulty came to the front to shred the shrinking peloton even further. O! It was proper carnage! Ahead, Anthony Perez looked great, but ever the gap shrunk and shrunk. It was a slow and agonizing reality, but we all knew surely Perez would be caught. For behind, Brandon McNulty was doing such a great ride: finally! UAE was acting like the dominant and imposing GC team of iron might for their leader in Yellow like Sky or US Postal did before them in bygone eras. And when McNulty swung off, to the front came Pogacar’s last lieutenant on the day: Rafal Majka. Ole! Ole! Finally, for the first time this Tour, Majka was Pogacar’s last man! He is the one with the most climbing prowess among Young Beowulf’s domestiques, in 2014 and in 2016 it was this Rafal Majka that won the King of the Mountains Polka-Dot Jersey here at the Tour de France. Yes, yes, Majka was the one who began shelling out Pogacar’s minorest GC rivals and softened up all the rest; and Majka demolished Perez’s gap up front. When Majka swung off with 8.4km remaining on the stage, Perez’s lead was a miniscule 10 seconds…and the Young Beowulf Crowned King went on the attack.

Yes, yes, it has been his strategy all Tour. The instant all his UAE teammates were spent, Tadej Pogacar immediately attacked like a cannonball being fired. We sat straight-back and up in our seats, O! O! surely we were about to strap in for a Young Pog 8km mountain time trial! But no! His biggest GC rivals left had enough strength and energy to stay on Pog’s wheel! Perez was caught and passed as if he were standing still like some sort of anonymous lapped rider. Cofidis’ drought would continue, this stage would belong to the GC men. But who would take it? Pogacar relented from his blistering attack, for the others were matching it. Pogacar swung over to the side for someone else to come through…purely so that he could get into position to launch another ferocious attack within 10 seconds since letting up. Again all his GC pretender rivals had to scramble out of their saddles themselves to not let the Young Beowulf Crowned King get away to dominate the stage. Only three could stay with him: best looked Jumbo’s Jonas Vingegaard sitting third overall and wearing the White Jersey on loan from Pogacar himself, then came Colombia’s Mick Jagger Rigoberto Uran (EF Education-Nippo) fighting to defend his second place, and at the rear of the quartet was the Ecuadorian Grenadier Richard Carapaz the Jaguar of Tulcan; all the rest were already out of sight. On, on, Pogacar in Yellow rode on the front, Vingegaard trying to stay glued to his wheel. And then Uran popped! Cracked! Dropped out of contention for the stage win. The other three maintained the high tempo and were sailing away.

When Young Beowulf Pogacar was aware Uran had dropped with 7.4km to go, Pog flicked his elbow to Vingegaard to come through and share the pace-making. Pogacar and Vingegaard both knew it would be in Vingegaard’s interest to ride with Pog now. For if he could distance Uran, Vingegaard could move up to second place on GC. Ah! What a result 2nd on GC at the Tour would be for Jonas Vingegaard. If the Danish Vingegaard is not the revelation of this Tour, then he is now the revelation of the season. Few knew his name before the UAE Tour way back in February, but it was after his summit finish win there that he gained prominence. He rode extremely well as a makeshift two-pronged attack for Roglic’s GC victory over Pogacar in the Tour of the Basque Country. He was named the substitute in Jumbo’s Tour line-up for mighty Tom Dumoulin who was taking a sabbatical from cycling. In the absence of Roglic who exited this Tour after Stage 8 when he was plagued with injuries, Jonas Vingegaard took up the Jumbo GC mantle…and now he was going toe-to-toe with the Young Beowulf Crowned King Tadej Pogacar. Yes, I knew he wanted to distance Uran, I knew he would be happy with second on GC, but I was surprised with how much swaggering confidence Jonas Vingegaard shared pacing duties with Tadej Pogacar. Ah! The way Vingegaard rode this stage, my O! my, he did not at all treat Pogacar like his physical superior. Pogacar told him to come through, and Jonas Vingegaard undauntedly did. Meanwhile, it was Richard Carapaz the Jaguar of Tulcan that sat behind seeming to hang on by a fingernail.

On, on, they climbed at the ferocious pace. For the entire last 7km it did not seem the Col du Portet ever dipped below 10% gradients. Pogacar in Yellow, with the classic tuffs of hair sticking up through the helmet did much of the work, but Jonas Vingegaard certainly did his fair share—even though most of the time Pogacar tried to attack him when he took over the front. Still third in the group, Carapaz did nothing, hanging on as best he could. Perhaps Pogacar kept attacking to drop the dead weight Carapaz specifically, and if he could get rid of Vingegaard too all the better. But still Carapaz hung on, and still Pogacar and occasionally even Vingegaard would attack. Ole! Ole! It was beautiful to see! Every time Pogacar would attack, Vingegaard would chase him down and Carapaz would hang in there to follow. Truly, truly, I praise them with the highest compliment I, Patrick Santino, can give. Their ascent up this Col du Portet reminded me of my days of most yore: to the memories I have of Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador duking it out round for round on the third week Pyrenean climbs of the 2010 Tour. If you listen to my first Introduction episode you will understand why I hold those days in such mythically high regard. I only remember bits and pieces of them, I mostly only saw highlights, but or thus: those battles culminating in Chaingate are my archetypal golden standard of going toe-to-toe on a mountain climb. Ah! Too often Froome and Sky were too dominate, so often they would dwindle down the competition and Froome would drop them all in one go. Surely, we thought we would see the same from mighty Young Beowulf Tadej Pogacar today, but we did not. Vingegaard, young Jonas Vingegaard the Dane who is beyond salvaging this Tour for Jumbo-Visma, matched this generational rider of riders.

It was a feast for any sporting fan to watch these two do battle, but as the kilometers closed down the stage would have come to an end, the summit would have to be reached, and someone would have to take victory. And with 1.3km to go…Richard Carapaz the Jaguar of Tulcan launched his bid for glory! After an entire lengthy climb, Carapaz dropped the struggling façade; he had been bluffing the entire time. Headlines would later say Pogacar and Vingegaard were both aware—hence their constant attacks, I assume. Yes, yes, there he went, the Jaguar Richard Carapaz, in my opinion more in pursuit of the stage win than any GC time. Pogacar and Vingegaard had been giving him a free ride, carrying him past Uran in the GC standings onto a Tour podium position, but I am not too sure I blame Carapaz for playing this cagey bluffing game. How else was Richard Carapaz supposed to beat Tadej Pogacar? I am simply much more impressed with Vingegaard daring to ride toe-to-toe with Beowulf Pogacar than I am disappointed in Carapaz using cowardly tactics. Carapaz rode away like his Jugaur nickname stampeding across a green jungle floor hunting down smaller prey that could not escape his speed, but supreme Young Beowulf Tadej Pogacar was on him; Vingegaard, it seemed, was finally fading and cracking after such a noble ride. With 1km to go, the three passed through a short tunnel. Carapaz led Pogacar into it, and he led him out; they must have had a 5-second gap to Vingegaard in White. The Jaguar Carapaz did not let up all the way until 400m to go. Still Pogacar, in control, sat on his wheel, but Carapaz afforded himself a look back: to his chagrin there was Jonas Vingegaard in White still clawing his way back, successfully closing the gap. What a ride this Vingegaard was pulling off! Still, still Carapaz led them on into the last 200m even when Vingegaard had latched back on. O! O! How the legs must have been screaming on those relentless 12% grades, here on the final ramp after 178km of hard racing. In the final 100m Pogacar let it rip for one last time, and finally, finally after about 100 attacks in the last 8km alone: Pogacar found a gap. Carapaz could not hold his wheel. Vingegaard came around carapaz on the final curve but he did not have a shot at Pogacar. Young Beowulf Crowned King Tadej Pogacar posted up at the line almost rending his Yellow Jersey garment in celebration after such a hard-fought victory. Vingegaard came in 3 seconds later, Carapaz a second after him. It was quite a show today, it was all we could hope for out of a proper summit finish. O! But we are in luck. Of course, anything can happen at the Tour, but with the Tourmalet and another Beyond Category summit finish on tap tomorrow for Stage 18: the most likely outcome is a repeat carbon-copy battle of today.

2021 TDF Stage 16: Last Ditch Efforts for Green

El Pas de la Casa—Saint-Gaudens, 169km

With a Category2, a Category1, another Category2, and a tricky Category4 in the finale, we thought or hoped it would be the pen-penultimate round of the battle for Polka-Dots today. But as the breakaway was forming, Jumbo’s Wout Van Aert was monitoring affairs, but did not roll the dice. The other KOM Hunters—Bahrain’s Wout Poels, ISN’s Mike Woods, and Arkea’s Nairo Quintana—were no where to be seen today to monitor the break. If one had made the break, surely he would have mopped up many KOM Points for this was a day the break was nailed on to stay away to the finish. But should one of the four KOM Hunters have escaped, at what cost would this have come for the final two rounds tomorrow and Thursday where more weighty and higher ranking mountains loom? We shall not find out, because the KOM Hunters called a truce. There would be no race for the Polka-Dots today…but there would be for Green.

Mark Cavendish (Deceuninck-Quickstep) currently wears the Green Jersey, four stage wins on flat stages really helps straggle the hold of it. Pure sprinting opposition has been decimated this Tour, and even Monsieur Green Jersey Peter Sagan the Rockstar (Bora-Hansgrohe) has gone home to have surgery on his knee from his Stage 3 crash. Thus Cav’s two biggest challengers for Green have become Bahrain’s Sonny Colbrelli and BikeExchange’s Michael Matthews (who won Green in 2017); neither by any means pure sprinters. They are in a similar mold to Sagan where they are deadly if there is any sort of kick to the finish, or if it is a reduced bunch sprint. They do not have the pure speed, but they can get over some climbs that the pure sprinters like Cav could not pray to crest with a peloton. A la the Rockstar Peter Sagan, their hope for Green has been maxing out Green Jersey Points available at the Intermediate Sprints, and then finishing as respectably high as possible on all the sprint days. But when the most Green Jersey Points are available on the completely flat finishes, and the Manx Missile has dominatingly won four of the six of those thus far, and kept decently competitive at the other Intermediate Sprints…it has begun a tall order for anyone to strip Green off of Cav’s shoulders. At the beginning of today’s stage: Cav had 279 Points, Matthews 207, and Colbrelli 159. For much of the second week, many of us thought Cav’s biggest rival for Green has not been Colbrelli, Matthews, or even himself, but the dreaded time-cut on mountain stages. The time-cut is based on a percentage of the stage winner’s time, the exact margin is not known until the winner crosses the line, but riders and their Directors have been doing back-of-the-napkin calculations and estimations for the entire night before. Should a rider finish beyond the time-cut, he is booted out of the Tour de France. In the Alps and on Sunday’s stage into Andorra, the time-cut was a great hurdle for Cav to overcome. But thanks to a true Quickstep Wolfpack shepherding him on, Cav has been within the time limit thus far. With the profile of this stage already stated, needless to say: Cav was not in the breakaway, in fact he was once again trying to stay within the peloton in the most economical fashion he could contrive. But! But! Cav’s top rider rivals, Colbrelli and Matthews, did make it into this breakaway in a last-ditch effort to put a dent in Cav’s Green Jersey Points lead.

It was another rainy day, but besides bike-handling the weather did not affect the riders too much today. The main breakaway of day containing 12 riders was still forming up and over the entire Category2 Col de Port climb. At the Intermediate Sprint, three riders were out front to take the 20-17-and-15 Green Jersey Points available to the first three riders across. But in the rest of the breakaway forming behind, Michael Matthews and Sonny Colbrelli squared off for the first time this stage. Both know they cannot really hope to assail Cavendish’s lead, but on they still fought. In 2017, Matthews found himself in a similar battle for Green. Peter Sagan had been controversially disqualified that Tour, and the pure sprinter Marcel Kittel had won 5 stages by Stage 19 of that Tour. Kittel wore Green, but Matthews kept working for every Green Jersey Point he could find: he won 2 stages himself and it was a close battle that might not have been decided until the Champs-Elysees. But all of a sudden, in the course of a few minutes, Kittel in Green suffered some sort of foot injury and he pulled the plug on that Tour de France right there on Stage 19…and Michael Matthews inherited the Green Jersey right there that day without having to beat Kittel tooth-and-nail the hard way. So it was Matthews and Colbrelli battled on today: should anything happen to Cav, whoever is in second shall inherit Green. In that Intermediate Sprint, Matthews beat Colbrelli. Matthews added 13 more Points to his Green Jersey Points total, and Colbrelli added a further 11…Cavendish would score nothing. After this point, or even before it, Colbrelli and Matthews looked at the lay of the land, and sized up their breakaway competitors. Both then naturally shifted focus to the next major goal for the day that would earn them the next maximum amount of Green Points available: the stage win.

But before the two could duel in a breakaway group sprint, these hybrid sprinters would need to hang onto their breakaway companions—hold the break together, not let anyone escape to spoil the sprint. A much easier said than done job. Over the up-and-down course of the Category1 Col de la Core climb and descent, three riders from this 12-man breakaway escaped from even this elite group of competitors: Fabien Doubey (Total Energies), Jan Bakelants (Intermarche), and Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe). But with 50km remaining on the stage, the three only had a 30-second lead on the rest of the breakaway chasers. It was well known, Matthews and Colbrelli were the favorites in a sprint should it come down to that, thus the other chasers put most of the onus on them to catch the trio out front. Luckily, Matthews and Colbrelli each had one teammate in this group that could help them chase down the trio in the valley before the last big climb of the day, the Category2 Col de Portet-d’Aspet. But the leading trio maintained the 30-second gap into the base of the climb…and one man took his shot at glory. The Champion of Austria, Patrick Konrad decided to make the most of his rare shot at personal glory on the Tour de France, just as his Bora teammate Nils Politt did last week as well after team leader Sagan pulled out of the race. Konrad has finished in the top ten on GC in multiple Grand Tours, he is a capable climber; but outside of two Austrian National Championships, never before had Konrad won a professional road race. Yes, yes, the 29-year-old went on a mission to make the most of his rare chance: to take his first win outside of Austria at the biggest race in the world. Konrad was phenomenal riding up that climb, he was yet another underdog story that always come up in the Grand Tours. O! O! It was great to see, but after his attack this stage was by no means a done deal.

Of the 9 chasers in the Matthews and Colbrelli group, the climber of most renown was Groupama’s David Gaudu—the strong climber that lost his GC top ten because he was vomiting midride as he scaled Mont Ventoux. All eyes were on Gaudu to bridge the gap to the flying Konrad up front. And on that climb, Gaudu did launch his bid for glory. His attack strung out and shattered the breakaway group; only one man could follow him. If you watched the Stage 9 Rain Jacket Worlds, perhaps you saw him sneak in to take the remarkable 3rd place on the stage, perhaps you saw his phenomenal Dauphine form, or perhaps you saw his sensational Italian National Championship Road Race. Yes, yes, the only man that could hang onto Gaudu’s wheel was the hybrid sprinter Sonny Colbrelli, the Champion of Italy. Gaudu and Colbrelli would catch the two fading chasers Konrad had dropped. David Gaudu, with the sprinter Sonny Colbrelli, got within 20 seconds of Konrad over the top of the Col de Portet-d’Aspet.

The descent was wet and historically treacherous. Infamously and sorrowfully, this where Fabio Casartelli crashed and lost his life in the 1995 Tour de France; in 2018 this is where Philippe Gilbert (now of Lotto-Soudal) crashed over the side barrier into a ravine, but he heroically got back up and finished off the stage. Yes, yes, for better or worse, especially in the wet, whoever could pull off the most risks was going to be in the lead for this final run-in to the line. And in pole position, having the ride of his life: Patrick Konrad, the Champion of Austria, took all the risks and pulled off the fastest descent. His lead on Gaudu and Colbrelli eeked back out to 40 seconds. At the bottom of the climb, Konrad had a 45-second gap on Gaudu and Colbrelli, and a 1:05 gap on the other chasers—including Matthews—who had regrouped together on the descent of the climb.

In the chase Gaudu and Colbrelli began working together, but as is often the case they were in a strategic equalizer. Konrad alone up front completely emptied the tank in a time-trial effort to get himself to the line solo…Gaudu and Colbrelli had to save something so that once they caught Konrad they still had energy to attack or sprint at the very end of the race. Additionally, behind a group of 7-or-8 were now rotating like clockwork to reel them back in. Alas! Alas! For the versatile Sonny Colbrelli who is too often a nearly man in this sport. He has been chasing a Tour stage for so many years, he has so often been on impressively great form, but there are always one or two stronger than he…so often the bridesmaid, rarely the bride. With 13km left to go, the seven chasers that included Matthews brought Colbrelli and Gaudu back into their fold with Konrad still solo 1:00 ahead. This situation actually helped Patrick Knorad up front. Once Colbrelli and Gaudu were caught, they opted to sit in and not help with the pace-making for they had both just been doing a harder effort ahead together that had proven fruitless. It was understandable and natural for Colbrelli and Gaudu to sit on and save their energy for an ending sprint if this group could catch Konrad before the line, but the rotating group did not like the idea of these two freeloading on their work—even if they were just caught or not. Thus the cohesion of the chasers failed all together. Patrick Konrad up front was free to fly. The final Category4 climb did not bother Konrad. Patrick Konrad would maintain his minute gap until the last kilometer where he joyously rode in to celebrate the greatest victory of his career thus far. Another bit player, stock character turned hero for the day on the Tour de France.

But behind, the sprint for second was still of consequence, for Green Jersey Points were up for grabs. Surely, Colbrelli and Matthews were kicking themselves that one man got away to dash their hopes of a stage win which were and still are much more realistic than actually defeating Cav for Green. But like true professionals, they did what they could and gave it everything. It was a fierce sprint between the two, but this time it was Sonny Colbrelli that bested Michael Matthews—a reverse of their Intermediate Sprint. Once more, far back in a grupetto on the day, Mark Cavendish in Green was one of the last riders to come in, and he would score no Points. Thus the standings for Green are now: Cavendish 279, Matthews 242, and Colbrelli 195. Cavendish’s gap is still large with two stage win opportunities still available to him, and a few Intermediate Sprints in reach before the climbing of the next two days really begin. Yes, yes, it will be a tall order for Colbrelli and Matthews to topple Cav who not only has confidence on his side, but almost fairytale destiny to win his 2nd Green Jersey 10 years after his first. But the two hybrid sprinters did what they could today, and with similar unbowed efforts they shall honor the race as they fight Cavendish all the way to Paris…which now finally begins to loom.

2021 TDF Stage 15: Kings of the Mountains on the Queen Stage

Ceret—Andorra la Vella, 191km

It was one of those incoherent days where everything was happening: riders in the break, riders fighting for GC among the peloton, riders fighting to make the time cut behind. It was a proper Sunday Showcase of peak action. It was a proper Queen Stage for this Tour de France. But today, constrained by life, time, and attention-span I opt to focus on what held my attention for most of the day.

As all predicted, it was a fierce day for the King of the Mountains Classification—the race for Polka-Dots was more in full swing than it has been for a generation. All the top contenders got themselves into the breakaway today. With the uphill start and all of the GC gaps so massive, Tadej Pogacar and his UAE Team were letting anyone into the break who had the legs to make it so long as they were not in the top ten on the General Classification. One of those large 30-man breakaways containing some of the finest riders in the world proceeded to go up the road early. And the best men of that break would not be seen again until the finish line, but others would…and not just because they had blown a gasket. With still 120km to race, this large and elite breakaway had some 8:30 on the peloton led by UAE.

Ah! Ah! It was one of those stages where the most obsessed fans began watching eagerly early, for the profile contained so many jagged high peaks surely it would be a fierce battle for KOM Points at the top of every climb! And the obsessed fans were right: all four riders at the top of the KOM Classification were in the breakaway today hunting for Polka-Dot Points—ISN’s Mike “Rusty” Woods (54 Points) wearing Polka-Dots, Arkea’s Nairoman Quintana (50 Points), Bahrain’s Third Week Wout Poels (49 Points), and Jumbo’s Mighty Ace Swiss Army Knife Wout Van Aert (43 Points). On tap for today’s Queen Stage route were a Category1, a Category2 that step-laddered into another Category1 without much of a descent to speak of, and finally a last Category1 all on Andorran soil where the race would be finishing this evening for its only international foray this Tour. On the Category1 climbs: 10-8-6-4-2-1 Points would be available for the first six riders over the top; on the Category2: 5-3-2-1 Points for the first four riders. As the kilometers of climbing ticked down towards the top of the first Catgory1 climb, the Montee de Mont-Louis, the anticipation built. Would all four challengers sprint for the KOM Points? Will some attempt a midrange attack to beat the better sprinters to the punch? Shall they give it everything in a sprint at the top of a mountain, or shall they save something for deeper into the stage? No 2-or-3km midrange attack came on this first climb, it would come down to a hardy mountaintop sprint. Third Week Wout Poels was the first to really lead out the uphill sprint with some 300m to the top of the climb, in his wheel wearing the Polka-Dots was the Canadian Mike Woods, and on his wheel in the Belgian Champion’s Jersey was Wout Van Aert The Swiss Army Knife of the peloton; strangely Nairo Quintana was nowhere to be seen. To be sure, Quintana is by far the worst sprinter of the four biggest challengers, but he did not even ride for fourth place. Considering Van Aert has won full bunch sprints of the Tour de France, on paper Van Aert must have been the favorite. Perhaps Poels got the jump on him or perhaps Van Aert got his timing wrong, but it was Wout Poels from the front that won this sprint to take the maximum 10 Points, Van Aert nipped Woods for second to take the 8 Points, and Woods in third took 6 Points. Quintana scored nothing. There was then a decent length of a descent and quite a steady climb to come after this where surely these aspiring Mountain Kings would try to recover or conserve their strength for the next sprint.

In between mountain peaks, a shoutout must be mentioned to the battered-and-bruised-but-still-fighting Groupama-FDJ team. They had put 3 men into this 30-man break, at this point that is three-quarters of their team. Groupama rode for their top man in the race David Gaudu, were he not sick past the point of puking in the heat midride on the evil Mont Ventoux surely Gaudu could still be in the top ten on GC. Either way, whether riding for a stage win for Gaudu or even to increase his GC position, Groupama’s Bruno Amirail’s massive workload on the front of that large breakaway cannot go unmentioned. Such valorous domestiquing duties are why we love the sport. Truly, truly, as the road climbed to the sky for kilometers and kilometers, on the borders of Andorra, Amirail did his gigantic turn on the front. It was one of those deceptive climbs were there was a bunch of uncategorized climbing before—without skipping a beat—becoming categorized climbing up the Category2 Col de Puymorens. The KOM challengers all left this one for a sprint as well. This time Wout Van Aert would not let Wout Poels step ahead. Both geared up for the sprint, ready to dig as deep as they needed with no thought to what was still to come for the rest of the stage. Woods in Polka-Dots slotted in behind them too, and finally Nairo Quintana showed his face as well. In the final hundreds of meters to the line, Van Aert and Poels wound up their sprints and Woods hung onto the coattails. But before they even tapped out their top speeds, Nairo Quintana sat up and literally shook his head: “No way,” much too high was their sprinting speed…and too much of the stage was left to climb. This time Van Aert won the sprint to take the maximum 5 Points available, Poels was second to take 3 Points, and Woods took third to take 2 Points. The large breakaway stayed together for the extremely short descent, and then it was time to battle up the Category1 Port D’Envalira.

The Port D’Envalira would be the highest elevation this 2021 Tour de France would reach, thus for the first climber over the top a special purse of prize money would be awarded: the Souvenir Henri Desgrange—named after the man that founded the Tour de France. But as the breakaway began to climb this rarified-air Category1, riders were starting to drop like flies, and the cream was rising to the top. Two riders that ominously dropped off the back not for fatigue, but because of strategy were the Grenadiers Dylan Van Baarle and Jonathan Castroviejo. While the Grenadiers were dropping back, one man saw the opportunity to finally assert his dominance of old. Nairoman Quintana attacked 2km from the summit of the Port D’Envalira and none could follow this spritely-est of spritely climbers. Nairo Quintana, the generational hero of Colombian cycling who was once heralded as the man to dominate the Tour for a generation and was destined to become the greatest climber in the history of the sport, was showing a flash of that former brilliance from those days of yore. Quintana’s dominance has not materialized, alas! he has never won the Tour and it is highly unlikely he ever will. But none of this mattered in that moment, all that mattered was securing the maximum 10 KOM Points at the summit…and the Desgrange prize would be an honorable bonus as well. In the last 2km to the top of the climb, Quintana put a full score of seconds into his rivals. What Quintana could not take with a final sprint, he would take with prestigious endurance. Behind it was Van Aert in the Belgian Jersey that took the next 8 Points available for second, Wout Poels was after him in fourth with 6 Points, and Woods shook out fourth taking just 4 Points.

By this point, there were only 44km left in the stage and the breakaway had entered Andorra. Andorra, the small Pyrenean Principality, is a ski-resort, tax haven, and functions as some sort of modern-day romantic Rivendell-esque wonderland. It is a paradise and hotbed for outdoor adventures—especially cycling, 37 pros in this Tour alone make Andorra their European home and training base of operations. Yes, this was a home stage for many of them. Many of them were in this breakaway today. They would go on to dominate the last climb and wrench the show away from the KOM Hunters. On the final Col de Beixalis, of the four KOM Hunters, only Wout Poels would score any KOM Points. How Third Week Wout Poels managed to score 6 KOM Points (3rd across the line) is beyond my knowledge, by then Jumbo’s Sepp Kuss and Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde and others had already ratcheted up the pace for the stage win so high the Mighty Ace Wout Van Aert was already cooked and strategically packing it in for the battles to come, Mike Woods had faded for the day, and Quintana had popped completely. But perhaps, on the eve of his nickname, that is why he is called Third Week Wout. The nickname comes from his days at Team Sky where he was a loyal and clutch domestique on many of Chris Froome’s victorious Grand Tour campaigns. In the final hard, mountainous third week: this Wout Poels would have saved his energy and power to unleash in the service of his leader Froome when all the other domestiques were beyond fried and fatigued. Poels’ efforts on the final climb turned out to be vital, thanks to them: he now has an 8 Point lead in the King of the Mountains Classification.

Ah! The American Sepp Kuss would go on to hold off Alejandro Valverde for the stage win ahead. It was the greatest win of Kuss’ career, it is arguably the best day we Americans have had on the Tour in a decade (since our last stage win from Tyler Farrar of a bygone era). Kuss lives in Andorra now, these are adopted home roads. He was impressively strong, he denied old Valverde a swansong victory as they were denied to him by younger riders in the Ardennes Classics in April as well. Behind, the Ineos Grenadiers rode their hearts out to successfully isolate Tadej Pogacar. From the breakaway Van Baarle and Castroviejo had purposely dropped back in an attempt to support their Grenadier leader Richard Carapaz. But once more Pogacar proved the uncrackable Young Beowulf Crowned King. On the final climbs all the GC favorites still left would try attacks, but Pogacar was instantly able to cover them all. At the end of the day, Pogacar and all the top GC men would finish together with the same time—save Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) who actually lost contact with the GC group on a descent and could not catch back up and lost further time on the final climb. And finally, 34:57 after Sepp Kuss crossed the finish line as the winner of the stage, Mark Cavendish the Manx Missile wearing the Green Jersey finished the stage with a Wolfpack of 3 Quickstep teammates—a comfortable 10 minutes ahead of the time cut for the day. With this day complete, Cavendish’s biggest hurdle to making it to Paris is now cleared, no other mountain stage will have so much early climbing for Cavendish to get dangerously distanced.

But, but, as was the subject of the day: my, my, these KOM Hunters! What a war for the Polka-Dots this is truly becoming! Seeing diminutive Nairoman Quintana in the hunt is no surprise, it is almost natural—ah! in 2013 he wore that jersey O! so well. Third Week Wout Poels is an unexpected challenger, but with a crashed-out Bahrain team leader and his climbing prowess already expounded upon: surely Wout Poels is a worthy adversary and not to be underestimated in his Third Week domain that approaches. With the well-known talented climbing and endurance of Mike Woods, it is no surprise he is vying for this climber’s honor. Ah! Ah! This Spring, Woods said he has been on the form of his life; seeing him in the Ardennes, in Romandie, Suisse, and here at the Tour…O! Surely I believe it! But, but, it is the fourth challenger…the one most biasedly closest to my heart who still surprises me most. Wout Van Aert, Wout Van Aert is actually mounting a challenge for the King of the Mountains Polka-Dot Jersey. I know, we all know, he is The Swiss Army Knife of the peloton, but truly, truly the most any of us thought that he would ever net would be two or three Green Jerseys at some point in his career—like his versatile predecessor the Rockstar Peter Sagan. But Greedy Green can wait, Van Aert is now in the rare position to take Chicken Pox Polka-Dots—surely he shall not pass up the once-in-a-blue-moon position he finds himself. This is what I mean when I say we are living in the Second Golden Age of Cycling, the top stars of the sport exceed our expectations by achieving or targeting results in a Range of objectives that seem thoroughly outside their wheelhouses. I heard rumor Wout did not even intend to make the break today, but when he found himself there of course he had to challenge for the KOM Points. He dug deep with the others, and attacking over the top of each climb deadened their legs for the stage finale. But at the end of the day, it was Wout Poels that moved back into the KOM Polka-Dot Jersey he wore way back on Stage 8. Poels has 74 Points, Woods is behind him with 66 Points, and Quintana and Van Aert are both behind tied for third with 64 Points each. It was a fiery battle today, luckily for all their legs it is a rest day tomorrow. But come Tuesday, come Wednesday, come Thursday: these men shall have three more massive rounds of open warfare to establish their high-altitude Kingdom. There can only be one Highlander. Shall they be in the breaks once more for the coming three stages? Who shall be the one to don this most unique of Jerseys, so beloved by all? Who in Paris shall claim the prized Polka-Dots?