An Evolving French Team
I used to race with Vincent Lavenu, Team Boss of the AG2R Citroën squad, when we were amateurs in the Haute Savoie region, the area that has hosted the past two days of infernal racing in the Alps. Vincent was always super organized, calm and meticulous in his approach, constantly searching for new training methods – in short, he had Team Director written all over him.
Yesterday’s Alpine win by his new recruit, the Australian Ben O’Connor, is the twentieth Tour stage win for Vincent’s team and is the result of his new approach on team structure, one that he’s been developing for the past five-years. Vincent began to realize that keeping his team almost completely French was limiting both the team’s results and the development of his riders and that he needed a more international makeup to bring new mentalities and stimulation for his organization. Today, out of 30-man team, 12 are from different countries than France.
Vincent’s been pursuing Ben O’Connor for three years, after seeing his strong performance in the 2018 Giro d’Italia where the then 22-year-old was sitting 12th overall before crashing out near the end. It wasn’t an easy seduction as French teams are notoriously difficult places for “foreigners”, but O’Connor finally took the plunge and, as we see from yesterday, it was certainly the right move for the Aussie. The team has embraced him, he’s learning French – I feel sorry for the racers who go through their entire careers speaking only English, a language or two is one of the great gifts that one can get from cycling – which will only help by sharpening his mind, giving him a different perspective on life, and above all, bringing him to the inside of the Tour rather than being on outside looking in. Makes a big difference, French teams know every nook and cranny of the Tour.
O’Connor has blossomed under Vincent’s tutelage. Eighth at the Dauphiné, sixth at Tour of Romandie, fourth at Mont Ventoux Dénivelé Challenge (a preview of Wednesday’s double ascension of the Ventoux – is this not a bit extreme one must ask), the young climber’s success yesterday is the result of a logical progression.
He was most impressive on the stage, run under the most challenging conditions imaginable: Cold, cold rain hammers the racers over the 4500 total meters of climbing that went above 2000 meters for the first time this Tour. The peloton truly suffered yesterday. Riders were scattered all over the countryside as the harsh weather combined with the fatigue of the previous eight-days of hyper-intense race proved to be too much for many. Mathieu van der Poel got up that morning, looked out the window and decided that the moment had arrived to focus on winning Gold in Tokyo. Class act as always, he spoke to the press in a graciously manner before leaving. Primoz Roglič, missing half of his body skin, threw in the towel. The wait at the end of the race for the stragglers to come in before the time limit (each stage has a sliding scale, depending on difficulty, of how much time is allowed for the limit or Delais) was just as interesting as the stage finish. Will Cavendish make it? How many won’t? Cav did make it, just, surrounded by four teammates who insured his arrival, but eleven riders didn’t.
The action was intense as always, Bahrain-Victorious’s Sonny Colbrelli went on the attack, uphill, to get the first Green Jersey points sprint, and continued fighting the entire day to finish third on the stage, a remarkable performance for the sprinter and a sign of his ever-developing strength, the sort of metamorphosis that we saw with Sean Kelly. Colbrelli scored 35 points on the day, moving into third in the special classification, 47 points behind Cavendish. A tough, stubborn way to get sprinter points.
Nairo Quintana had a fine day, on the attack with a 20-man group, leaving them behind to score all the Mountain Points that he could, the Colombian is now in Polka Dot, reliably fulfilling his contract as he does every year.
O’Conner, on the penultimate climb, found himself in the company of Quintana and Sergio Hiquita, the EF Education climber. The two Colombian’s combined against the Aussie, who may be a poor descender, dropping him on the downhill, but he fought his way back to them by the start of the final, 22-kilometer climb. Higuita then dramatically collapsed, Quintana, exhausted by all his points chasing, faded too, and O’Conner flew up to Tignes for the win, adding a Tour stage to his Giro stage of last year.
Behind, in the Yellow Jersey group, which was controlled by the UAE-Emirates the entire day, the gap grown to a point that put O’Connor in the virtual Yellow Jersey. Pogačar pushed his team into higher efforts – “I like wearing the Yellow Jersey” – with particular kudos going to Mikkel Bjerg, their Danish powerhouse who turned himself inside out for his leader. Brandon McNulty, worryingly, crashed himself for the second time this Tour, let’s hope this isn’t a habit.
Team Ineos tried to launch Richard Carapaz in the final climb, setting a hard tempo, but Pogačar just sat behind them, not bothered a bit, and – what did I say yesterday about Poking the Bear?- blew away from them all, taking 30” out of Carapaz by the top in an insolent display of domination.
Ben O’Connor is now sitting second in the Tour de France. His team, however, is not pushing him to try for the podium. They say that he’s a “one-week” racer, not a “three-week”, so the focus will continue to be on stage wins. However, three-years ago O’Connor was sitting 12th near the end of the Giro and he’s finished 20th and 25th in the Giro and Vuelta respectively, so he is consistent. Perhaps Vincent is just taking the pressure off his pony, but I’m curious as to what this young man, whose parents emigrated from Liverpool to Oz, can do. He’s yet another star from this new generation of brilliant racers who are giving so much of themselves for us.