Calm Before the Storm
Ewan with the red helmet sees light for the first time in 200K
Stage Three of the Tour de France, from Nice to the walled fortress town of Sisteron, was an example of beautiful course design, the sort that the French do best, combining beauty and history to create national pride. The racecourse traced the famed Route Napolèon, the road to Paris that Napolèon Bonaparte took in 1815 after escaping his banishment to the Isle of Elba. Veterans of his military campaigns flocked to join him along the way, the entourage swelling all the way to Paris where Napolèon simply marched in and peacefully took over the country after King Louis XVIII, recognizing the unstoppable force of the Corsican, fled to Belgium. Sisteron, a Royalist town along the Route, could have stopped the march but instead allowed the Emperor to pass without a shot being fired.
No shots were fired in the race either as the peloton, exhausted and many wounded after the crazy battles of the first two days, and with today’s first mountain-top finish at Orcières-Merlette, the scene of Eddy Merckx’s – dare I say it - Waterloo in in 1971 when Luis Ocana took eight minutes out of him, the racers took an easy day. Billed as a “flat” stage yet with over 3000 meters of climbing, the stage reflected the current mode of “all climbing all the time” that we’re seeing in race design, all to the detriment of pure sprinters. A man weighing anything over 70 kilos (154 pounds) is considered enormous in today’s stage racing, which is why so many sprinters simply stayed home this year.
Of course every race needs a winner and the peloton sparked into action as the finish approached. It was a wild, headwind sprint and with the sprinters marginalized in the climber-heavy teams, there were no real lead-out trains to organize the finale. The “Pocket Rocket”, Caleb Ewan, risked losing in order to win. With 1.5 kilometers to go, the Aussie was in 4th position behind teammate Jasper De Buyst. Sensing the headwind, Ewan slowed to 53 kph, allowing a good 12 riders to pass him, slotting in behind Sam Bennett and Peter Sagan at the 500 meter to go point. At 350m he let European Champ Giacomo Nizzolo go, dropping even further back. Sagan launched at 250m, Nizzolo slotting in behind with Bennett seemingly in the perfect position on Nizzolo’s wheel. Ewan was still nowhere to be found. It was only with 180m to go that Ewan appeared and began his acceleration to the line. Starting at 64 kph, he dove to his right at 67 kph and just slipped in between a fading Sagan and the barriers, topping off at 68kph as he lasered in on Bennett’s wheel to slingshot around for the win. It was only in the final 50-meters of the 200-kilometer race that Caleb Ewan finally felt the wind in his face and saw clear road ahead.
I was struck by a difference in Ewan’s sprinting style, one that is normally an even more extreme version of Mark Cavendish’s, which is to say, with his body stretched out over the front of his bicycle and the weight distribution shifted to the front. I mean, he uses an “extra-small” frame with, serious, a 150mm (extremely long) stem. It’s looks a frighteningly unstable position, one that would seemingly not handle a hard-thrown elbow very well. Yet yesterday he looked like a normal rider, head actually above his shoulders and the body balanced over his machine. Perhaps it was due to the chaotic and acrobatic nature of that finish that he needed balance to pull off all those twists and turns, but I’m hoping that it’s a new and more commonsense way for him to sprint. It certainly worked for him yesterday.
Traditionally, a big difference between the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia or Vuelta a España, is found in the opening days of the French race, normally flat, windy and fast, where the big men pound enormous gears all day and the little climbers suffer and hang on for dear life every inch of the way. After 10-days of punishment, the now-diminished climbers go slower up the mountains, which all combines to create the extraordinarily deep endurance event that we know. This race, cut much more along the lines of a Vuelta, will see fresh-legged climbers rip up the mountains at crazy speeds. Today’s finishing Category 1 climb up to 1825 meter-high Orcières-Merlette, seven-kilometers at an average gradient of 6.7%, will be the first real battle of the Tour and reveal the true contenders for Yellow. Can Julian Alaphilippe hold on to Yellow and continue the fairy tale of 2019? What are the true states of Nairo Quintana, Egan Bernal and the rest of the Colombian mob? Has Primož Roglič recovered from his crash in the Dauphinè? Is Adam Yates in crazy form as we saw on Sunday? So many fascinating questions and a delightful stage to watch and have, at least some of them, answered.