Heat of the Battle

Today is the last chance for the “baroudeurs” those daring adventurers of the peloton who escape in breakaways to seek their fortunes down the road. Thomas De Gent is the barourdeur par excellence of today’s cycling, constantly escaping the peloton and pulling off big results in doing so: a breathtaking stage win in this Tour and third overall in the Giro are among his list of prestigious victories, that only occasionally, it must be said, reward his long-distance raids. These power riders will struggle in the three days of mountains that begin tomorrow, and the final stage into Paris is the property of the – surviving – sprinters. Today will explode into action from the gun as the riders desperately search for this last chance of glory. Look for 50 kph+ action at the front as they ride as if there is no tomorrow.

200 kilometers in 100-degree heat is on the menu today when the peloton leaves the ancient Roman commercial wine center of Vaison-les-Romain for the finish in Gap, a perennial stop for elite races. The heat will be a main obstacle, with riders in danger of either under or over-drinking, opening themselves to stomach issues and/or dehydration. Peter Sagan has gone on record complaining about the heat, apparently proposing that the Tour stage be shortened or, who knows, even eliminated the way the New York Triathlon was canceled last week due to our own heat wave. Generally, when top racers begin to complain like that, it signals that they are approaching the ends of their reigns of terror. Remember how Fabian Cancellarra seemed to have a complaint about just about every aspect of race organization in his last years?

Cyrille Guimard, the Gandolf-like team director of Greg Lemond and Bernard Hinault, put it well on l’Equipe television last spring during Paris-Nice (I get it through a VPN but do pay a subscription) when he said in essence, “Cycling is an extreme sport, perhaps the most extreme of all, which is a major part of its allure for the public. Make the sport too protected, take away the man vs elements aspect of it the way many are trying to do, and Hinault would have never won that legendary Liege-Bastogne-Liege nor Andy Hampsten his Giro (both in the snow). Cycling will lose a fundamental part of its attraction and become a sport like any other rather than the heroic undertaking it has always been.” Bravo to him.

Thibaut Pino, the French fav going into this final week, has always been vulnerable to the heat and addressed this weakness over the past year by putting a home trainer inside a sauna – serious- and training inside at ever increasing levels of heat as his resistance grew. Today will be a perfect test to see how that approach has worked when many racers will go into crisis as the combination of extreme exhaustion and terrible heat work together against them. This is the Tour de France, however, the hardest endurance in the world and the race must and will go on. The race jury has at least lengthened today’s time cut to be calculated from the group of the favorites, and not of the winners in the case that a breakaway gains 15-minutes or so on the rest – which is probable - as once the group is gone the GC contenders will just roll in, saving everything for the Alps, and the riders who are truly suffering off the back will have the chance to make the limit and continue their self-inflicted torture in the days to come. 

I watched Sir Bradly Wiggins, Chris Horner and Christian Vande Velde analyze the race yesterday, which was most interesting. Horner brought up the fact that each of the top six contenders has spectacularly collapsed when knocking on the door of a Grand Tour win (except Alaphilippe I might add who has never been in this position) and Wiggins, perhaps channeling his own conflicts with Chris Froome, wondered why Egan Bernal had not waited for Geraint Thomas when Pino popped him on the final Pyrenees climb rather than racing to save his own skin. None of them addressed the Movistar at all which I found odd. There are serious observers of the sport who feel that Mikel Landa may still win this race with his and his team’s third week strength. Thing is, and this is what makes this Tour so absolutely magnificent, no one really has any idea.