The New Look Tour

Historically, a defining characteristic of the Tour de France has been its balance between “Rouleurs” or rollers of big gears, and climbers, with the nod, more often than not, going to the power riders. The first 10-days of the Tour are generally fast and flat, with hours upon hours spent in giant, 53 x 11-14 gears, pure torture for the little climbers who then arrive at the base of the Alps or Pyrenees – depending on the direction of the Tour – in a diminished state. Add to that the traditional two long time trials, 40- to 50-kilometers the norm, and it’s clear why riders like Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Greg Lemond, Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong (yes Lance, sorry, I can’t write him out of history like that) dominated the Tour in the ways they did.

This Tour is cut more along the lines of a Giro or Vuelta. Today will be the third day with climbs in a Tour not yet a week old, and the one time trial of the race is only 27-kilometers – the Tour used to provide Anquetil 140-kilometers of TT to play in – weighting this race heavily in favor of the cycling mountain goats. This is all-climbing-all-the-time trend in European cycling is coming from the search for TV ratings, and in response, the racers are becoming thinner and smaller – the already emaciated Alejandro Valverde has apparently lost something between two and five kilograms for the Tour – with articles appearing about “the extinction of the sprinters”, few of whom, in fact, are expected to make it to Paris this year. 

The fast boys certainly seemed an endangered species yesterday on the first of the two stages through the Vosges. They all came off the final climb in one fell swoop, leaving only the strong/fast men like Peter Sagan, Michael Matthews and, to the delight of everyone, the astonishingly good Wout van Aert, who hauled his heavy body up that climb in the top five positions, in front to contest the win. Sagan and his Bora-Hansgrohe team have finally found their groove as the team that can help to eliminate the sprinters but manage to keep their star in front for the win. His explosive sprint of joy was long-coming for the Slovak who has endured all sorts of media speculation this year. As he might have said at the press conference, “the rumors of my (career) death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Matthews and his Sunweb team must be in full crisis today. The team rode like Trojans yesterday (shout-out to American Chad Haga who was terrific), yet Matthews, who is plagued by an inability to handle his bicycle at the required WorldTour level, yet again found himself outmaneuvered in the sprint finish. He’s afraid, plain and simple, and had he even 70% of Alaphilippe’s handling abilities, the Australian would have an incredible palmares. Add to that the rumors of Tom Dumoulin’s imminent departure and the next two-weeks will seem very long indeed for that team.

Van Aert’s second place yesterday capped off an amazing Tour debut for the cyclo-cross man. The White Jersey (Best Young Rider) holder picked the wrong wheel for the sprint – Olympic Champ Greg Van Avermaet – and had to switch from the left to the right-side of the road mid-sprint. More experienced positioning – this was, after all, the first time he’d sprinted for his own account at the Tour level – might have brought him up to Sagan’s hip by the end, but no disgrace in losing to that uber-champion, especially as a rookie. Van Aert will give up the White Jersey today with his focus now turned to helping team leader Steven Kruijswijk improve on his fourth-place in Paris last year. How far will the young Belgian make it in this mountainous Tour? One more interesting aspect to follow. 

The French have copied the Giro’s invention of finding the crazy hermit’s goat path at the top of the mountains, far above civilization, and forcing the riders and the massive race infrastructure up into places they really don’t belong. It’s spectacle, that’s for sure, but it makes this, the most extreme sport of all, into something cruel. The new addition to the already-brutal final climb today, la Planche des Belles Filles, only adds an extra kilometer, but it’s at a 24% gradient and on gravel. Riders are saying that today may very well be the hardest day of the Tour, one of those days where the Tour won’t be won, but for many will be lost.

The Geraint Thomas – not the best climb for him – Egan Bernal dynamic will be front and center, as will the performance of the current Yellow Jersey, Julian Alaphilippe. Does the Frenchman have an overall Grand Tour win somewhere, someday, in his legs? We’ll know more by the finish. Thibaut Pinot is on home soil today and both he and his team have been tremendous so far. Will the Tour of Lombardy winner come through for France? And can Romain Bardet, already almost 1’ 46” down on the leader after his AG2R-La Mondial team’s slow-as-molasses Team Time Trial, either make up some time or at least show promise for the big mountains to come? And what is the truth at Movistar? Where are Nairo Quintana, Mikel Landa and Valverde? Jakob Fuglsand, Adam Yates, Vincenzo Nibali, Rigoberto Uran, Steven Kruijswijk, Dan Martin, Richie Porte – today is the day where we’ll find out who’s in and who’s out. Sit back and enjoy the spectacle.