The Two-headed Slovenian Monster

The Tour enters a grand phase for spectators, the attacking stages where we get two races for the price of one as the Yellow Jersey contenders monitor and race among themselves while the “Baroudeurs”, or stage chasers, take advantage and escape the peloton in search of glory. A big break went early on Friday’s Stage 13, termed the hardest of the entire Tour by some, a race through the lush Auvergne region where the area’s unrelenting ups and downs led to the steep finishing climb of the Puy Mary, 5.4-k with sections of almost 12%. 

 The star-studded break included media darling Julian Alaphilippe, Colombian Daniel Martinez, winner of the hyper-intense Dauphiné, and Maximillian Schachmann, who’d triumphed at Paris-Nice way back in the spring. EF Education First (EF1) had numerical advantage in the break, with Hugh Carthy and, for the third time in a major break this Tour, Neilson Powless who launched solo on a Cat 3 climb with about 35-kilomters to the finish. The EF1 objective, to my mind anyway, was to force the others to chase Powless, allowing Martinez (EF1) to follow in the wheels and prepare for the Puy Mary, a climb perfectly suited to his explosive style and, as the Dauphiné win showed, deep strength. 

I don’t know what goes on in the EF1 team car, probably I’m missing something, but they don’t seem to know quite what to do with their talented Native American. Powless was in front, riding with gusto, but from behind like a rocket came Bora-Hansgrohe’s Schachmann who bridged the gap. Then, in what astounded me, Powless began to work with the German. Why? Schachmann was clearly stronger – shown by that bridge and his status as winner of a major stage race, thus a real danger to Martinez. Did the team give Powless the green light to try and win the stage? He’s too green for that responsibility if a sure bet like Martinez is in the mix. Powless basically served as a springboard for Schachmann’s attempt to win, working just long enough to pull the German away from the Martinez group, before exploding, going total lights-out leaving Martinez alone (Carthy had already dropped) and in a terrible tactical situation of his own team’s making. 

 Luckily for EF1, Daniel Martinez is a fantastic bicycle racer. He emerged from the chasing group with 14-K to go with Schachmann’s Bora teammate Lennard Kämna glued to his wheel, now caught in a trap as he tried to close the 55” sandwiched between the two Bora’s. What followed was great sport. Martinez fought with everything he had, closing the gap to Schachmann just before the final climb. Now both Bora’s were on the Colombian’s wheel who had to keep forcing or risk a counter-attack from the Germans. Schachmann was dropped, but still chasing and a threat, so Martinez simply rode, with great confidence, parrying the -somewhat- rested Kämna’s moves on the climb with his quick, powerful pedal strokes, before creaming the German in the final 100-meters to take a hard-fought and most deserved victory.

 Ten-minutes behind in the Yellow Jersey group, all sorts of drama was going on. The Ineos, still trying to relieve glory days it seems, lined up in the front, hit the accelerator and tried to squeeze the life out of the group using the tactic that’s worked so well since 2012. Defending Tour champ Egan Bernal needed to show the world that he was still the strongest, riding his team of horses as though he were. Which, as we saw at the finish, he is not. The group exploded into pieces under the attacks of Tadej Pogačar, who is blowing up this Tour on every major climb he finds, matched only by fellow Slovenian Primož Roglič, a combination that has the French calling them the “Two Headed Slovenian Monster”. Behind, nothing but shock and chaos. Bernal lost 25”, finishing in a pocket with Colombians Rigoberto Uran (EF1) Nairo Quintana (Arkea-Samsic) and a sneaky Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) whose protestations of “not caring about chasing a top placing in the race” are no longer believed by anyone.  

 There was a bit of a media storm surrounding Bernard Hinault’s comments on Thibault Pino, in which Le Blaireau (the Badger), in his unfiltered manner, dismissed Pino as a Tour contender. He remarked on how Pino shows too much emotion making him an easy mark for the others.  I know that Hinault’s manner is no longer in vogue, his is a coarser approach, one from a time in which the French actually won the Tour de France. Blaireau was a master bluffer who would never show pain or distress no matter what the situation. Where do you think that nickname came from?  I mean, Coyotes use badgers as hunting partners such is their ferocity. Lance was the same, he’d show effort, but never distress, thus “Robocop”.  Primož Roglič has the best stone-face in cycling, one has absolutely no idea of what he’s feeling or thinking. The Slovenian suppresses any emotional energy, channeling every micron of it into creating forward motion. 

Behind him, the faces and eyes were bleeding pain and distress. Bernal, who thought he’d been on a grand day, collapsed, overcome with emotions at the finish. Even happy-go-lucky Pogačar openly showed his pain and believe you me; Primož Roglič will be studying all of those faces like a card shark picking up a tell.