The Gravel Wall

This Tour de France is firing on all cylinders, providing great emotion and drama on each and every day, with yesterday’s finish on la Planche de Belles Filles surpassing even the breath-taking racing we saw into Epernay. The race exploded out of the gates with five Belgians in command, all working together in one of those mysterious political alliances that make cycling so interesting and unlike any other sport. The two “cyclotourists” who rode home to Belgium together after the Tour of Lombardy, Thomas De Gent and Tim Wellens, were leading the charge, with Wellens grabbing up all the Mountains points he could along the way.

Deceuninck-Quickstep, the team with the Yellow Jersey Julian Alaphilippe, for some still unknow reason, sat up and let the breakaway go. The boys in front took full advantage and, largely staying together over the first five (of seven) climbs on the day holding an eight-minute lead with only 60 kilometers to go. Behind, the big teams played a game of chicken, none wanting to be the first to dedicate their collective efforts to shutting down the break and giving advantage of the others. Deceuninck-Quickstep had at least put their rising superstar, the tall and lanky Kasper Asgreen, on the front and, by himself it should be noted, held the break steady in an effort that literally lasted hours. It’s curious as to why Alaphilippe’s team dropped their hands in the way they did since they were the ones in Yellow. Defending it in a full-throated manner was their duty. Each additional day in Yellow represents a tsunami of publicity returns and adds to the luster and fame of the jersey holder. A massive miscalculation on their part I’d say, from a team, while superb at the cut and thrust of sprinting and classics, is perhaps less sure in their defense of the Maillot Jaune. As Team Director Tom Steels said at the finish: “We’re not really a team made for the hills…”

Finally, with around 50-k to the finish, the Movistar blinked and hit the front, launching the race from behind. Groupama-FDJ joined in – they are confident in themselves and in their leader Thibault Pinot – but the Spaniards were making the majority efforts. On the penultimate climb of the Col des Chevrères we learned that the World Champion, Alejandro Valverde, weight loss and all, was indeed placing himself in a supporting role for the team as he sacrificed his personal chances to set up Mikel Landa and Nairo Quintana for the finish. Team Ineos, curiously passive and undermanned with their strongman Wout Poels dropped surprisingly early, made some tepid efforts on the front, but clearly had no real interest in taking charge of the race. 

The drama now became palpable as the break began to fall apart under the pressure of Dylan (his father named him after Bob) Teuns and Giulio Ciccone and the unleashed peloton behind. Calculations gave the two a good chance to contest the win, but, because of the time bonuses he grabbed and the fact that he started the day less than two-minutes behind on the general classification, Ciccone had a good chance to take Yellow away from Alaphilippe. Calculations everyone was making except, it would seem, the Trek-Segafredo directors. Ciccone and Teuns begin playing cat and mouse on the climb as though they were setting up a sprint finish, when in fact, back to the politics I mentioned above, the Trek directors should have been on the radio screaming at him to put his head down and simply go, perhaps inducing Teuns to work in exchange for the stage win. Trek-Segafredo either didn’t believe in his chances to take the Yellow, or didn’t have the needed info – the latter seems likely. They gambled on the stage win, which Ciccone lost, and his complete dejection at the finish line showed that the Yellow Jersey calculations had never even entered his head. 

Behind, with 3-k to go, Movistar launched Mikel Landa forcing Ineos, who were now down to three, to the front. Kwiakowski didn’t last that long, Thomas and Bernal remained somewhat – as you can be on a steep finishing climb – uncommitted, and Groupama-FDJ took up the charge with young David Gaudu just destroying himself for Pinot, eliminating Valverde in the process. 

The clock was ticking for Alaphilippe - he is showing us all who is really is and can still yet become - and the Yellow Jersey launched out of the tiny bunch with everything he had to save his lead. It was all so very edge-of-your-seat dramatic. Then, in a “Shut the F* up, all you bloody wankers” move, the defending Tour de France champion, Geraint Thomas, in the saddle, flew up the 24% final stretch with Pino and Quintana close, catching Alaphilippe and finishing the first of the true Yellow Jersey contenders, abruptly ending any and all media speculation on the true state of his form. 

Thibault Pino had a tremendous day, as did Quintana. Alaphilippe’s devasted visage after the finish - but for six tiny seconds he would have been in Yellow all next week – is what the gut-wrenching emotions of the Tour are all about and an illustration of why the race enters into people’s souls the way it does.

Guilo Ciccone should not have been a surprise, nor an underestimated rider the way he was to the Team Directors following behind, barking the orders through the radios to their riders. The Abruzzese, like many riders from the south, moved north to Bergamo as a junior to learn how to become a true bicycle racer. After a stellar amateur career, he lost almost two years of good results due to a pair of heart operations to cure an arrhythmia condition.

Ciccone came to the good in a big way this May at the Giro d’Italia, showing a non-stop attacking style that garnered him the Mountain jersey, but most of all, displaying a courageous side that endeared him to the Italian public. Leading a break over the famed Motirolo in the Dolomites, in Dantesque metrological conditions, completely frozen, his hands and lips violently shivering in the TV closeups, Ciccone was unable to put on any cold or rain protection. He finally grabbed a newspaper from a spectator to stuff under his chest, 1948, Gino Bartali style, for the descent. The Italians went nuts for that trip back to the heroic era and afterwards lauded him with all sorts of bravery awards. He won’t fold so quickly, and for all of his – proper - comments on how he’s there to support Richie Porte the fact is that he’s singlehandedly saved Trek-Segafredo’s season. If I were them, I’d ride that pony as long as I could.