A Grand Spectacle
Neilson Powless, the 24-year old Native American riding his first Tour de France continues to impress. Yesterday on Stage 8 of the Tour, the opening day in the Pyrenees, Powless found himself up the road in a day-long breakaway just as he had done two days before on the mountainous race to Mount Aigoual. Just the fact that he was able to infiltrate those breaks as he did – lots and lots of racer try their hand, it’s a major skill to get the timing of efforts right- is a promising sign of his racing ability. The Mea culpa’s issued via Twitter by both Powless and his EF Education team boss Jonathon Vaughters regarding his overly enthusiastic tactics on that day, his throwing away of energy left and right, showed that he’d learned some lessons as he was much more cautious with his efforts yesterday in the breakaway. Unfortunately, too much so.
Powless was caught out when the break split on the first HC (super high and hard) climb of the Tour, the 1,755-meter Porte de Balés. He had the strength to slowly ride back to them, the other dropped riders unable to do anything but hold on, and just as he made the junction eventual stage winner Nans Peters and the higgledy-piddledy Russian Ilnur Zakarin (how absolutely frightening it is to watch him descend) counter-attacked, opening up a new gap. Powless found himself dropped yet again, struggling behind the group chasing the duo in front but kept his cool and clawed his way back up, eventually, after a hair-raising descent where his missed turn scattered a picnicking family, finishing 4th on the day. He’s young and inexperienced but learning how to better race every day. Powless climbs and descends, can put out a decent time trial and certainly has racing spirit and buckets of courage. We should all rejoice that a new American star is emerging.
Friday’s echelon battles into Lavaur left their mark, both physically and tactically on the peloton this first day in the high mountains. The Yellow Jersey group rolled along, almost 15-minutes behind the breakaway until the real drama began at the 11.7-k long Porte de Balés. I don’t know about you, but there’s enough tragedy in the world right now and I simply cannot take yet another Thibault Pino collapse, nor the sight of his entire team called back to serve as pallbearers for the coffin of his Tour de France career. Maudlin in the extreme.
The Jumbo-Visma’s took command on the Porte, riding their hard tempo eliminating riders from behind in the Team Sky manner we’ve all been seeing since 2012, but with a difference. Cracks began to appear in the Dutch team with Sepp Kuss, who has been a paragon of consistency since the mid-August Dauphiné, unexpectedly being dropped. Is the team saving the American climbing star for later or is he running out of gas? Today will be telling. “The Condor” Robert Gesink was next to drop leaving – here we go again – the marvelous Wout van Aert to haul his 78-kilos up the at times 10% grades of the Porte at warp speed, eliminating Ineos and other top riders struggling to hold on as he applied the weaning out tactic. Van Aert shepherded Yellow Jersey Primož Roglič safely through the treacherous descent before emptying his tank on the opening slopes of the Col de Peyresourd and presenting us with the most delicious spectacle we’ve seen in the longest time.
All of the tenors of the Tour were present, all isolated except for Roglič, who had Tom Dumoulin, the Dutch star throwing away any personal ambition to help his team, and 2019 Tour Champion Egan Bernal with 2019 Giro d’Italia winner Richard Carapaz to lend a hand. This is list of riders who emerged on the Peyresourd, about whom we’ll be speaking for the next two weeks: Tadej Pogacâr, Romain Bardet, Miguel Angel Lopez, the Yellow Jersey Adam Yates, Egan Bernal, Guillaume Martin, Primož Roglič, Nairo Quintana, Bauke Mollema, Enric Mas, Mikel Landa, Rigoberto Uran and Richie Porte. The above, ladies and gentlemen, is your Tour de France.
The race up the Peyresourd was like an uphill version of a Belgian Classic, all the strongmen just trying to kill one another. Julian Alaphilippe mischievously put in an acceleration that served to destroy some legs before pulling off to the left to slow and now lose as much time as he could, in the process settling any questions about Adam Yate’s right to wear Yellow, setting himself up for some stage-chasing freedom in the weeks to come.
Dumoulin made his final efforts putting the Yellow Jersey in difficulty and eliminating Emanuel Buchmann. Pogacâr attacked drawing out fellow Slovenian Roglič with a quick and supple Nairo Quintana closing the gap, showing us the three strongest men of the Tour. Yates was dropped but hanging, Bernal took the responsibility to chase before being countered by Uran who bridged up to the trio. Pogacâr, breathtakingly, attacked again. Carapaz somehow got himself up to the front, destroying himself for Bernal, trying to keep Pogacâr within reach. When Carapaz faded, the Slovenian, who, don’t forget, had lost 1’21” in crosswinds, quickly opened up 40” on the best climbers in the world. A flurry of attacks and counter-attacks went on behind, with third placed Martin making his own attempt to grab Yellow while the actual Yellow Yates, dropped, chased courageously 20” behind. Quintana popped another attack at the top of the climb drawing out Roglič in a display of his form and new-found morale. It all came back together again on the descent, with a combative Bardet attacking the group near the end to grab a few extra seconds. Whew! After all of that the G.C. remained pretty much the same, but the news was big.
Bernal’s not what was expected and his team, with the exception of Carapaz is not the one of old. Roglič is super and his team, despite showing some weakness is by far the best. Martin will replace Pino in the hearts of the French along with a reinvigorated Bardet. Pogacâr is terrifying everyone and no one has any idea of just how strong he can become and Uran is back to his old self. But Quintana is the one who really interests me. You could see in the Netflix documentary just how unhappy he was. When Amador rudely lectured him on the team bus in front of everyone and with the cameras rolling no less, you could see Quintana’s stone face holding in all his internal upheaval and fury. The French are smarter than that. His Arkea-Samsic team is strewing rose petals in his path wherever he goes, building his morale back up to the Grand Tour winning days. Nairo is playing a bit now, waiting for the great climbs of the Alps, perhaps and especially the 2,304-meter high finishing climb to Méribel. It’s good to see him back.