Released
Nils Politt is a rider who knows how to seize opportunity when it presents itself. The 6’3 ½” 178-lb German is normally a pilot fish for Peter Sagan, the great Slovakian strongman – it’s wrong to categorize Sagan as a sprinter – hired this year to guide him through the Tour in search of Green Jersey points. Politt, still only 27-years-old, is an old hand at fighting in the scrum of high-speed sprint finishes having started his professional career with Katusha in the service of sprinters Alexander Kristoff and Marcel Kittel. He’s also an excellent Classics racer when he gets the chance, as his 2nd and 7th at Paris-Roubaix and 5th at the Tour of Flanders show.
The news broke yesterday that Peter Sagan was out of the Tour, never having recovered from that 75-kph crash with Caleb Ewan way back on Stage 3. The loss of their leader released Politt from shepherding duty and, coming on a day designed for high-speed attacking, gave the German the perfect opening to show his worth to the world.
I watched the start of the race and right from the neutral section, where the racers amass around the Race Director’s car, Politt was on the front. The flag went down and in a stunning sight, the entire peloton began sprinting, a row of flailing racers curb to curb across the road with Politt leading the charge. The strong side/tailwind pushed the race up above 55-kph, echelons began to form – again, Politt in front – and it was as though a bomb had been dropped on the peloton, there were suddenly four echelons roaring towards Nîmes. Geraint Thomas was in the second echelon, Tadej Pogačar had only one teammate with him, the rest were scattered in the three groups behind, it was all exciting and beautiful. Suddenly, it was over: 13-men, including Politt and Julian Alaphilippe opened a gap, the tenors of the peloton made their calculations and after 20-km of intensity, the field sat up and the break escaped for good.
Politt, Spaniard Emanol Erviti and 22-year-old Aussie Harry Sweeny (remember him, he’s good) dropped the rest including Julian Alaphilippe, the victim of wanting the win too much and everybody knowing it, and the trio, none of whom has ever won a professional race, approached the final obstacle of the race, a 3-K climb just outside of Nîmes. Sweeny was making the two old pros nervous; it was his attack with 40-K to go that had eliminated Stephan Küng from the front. Politt, a proper German who knows his way around a velodrome, used those skills to win.
He maneuvered Erviti onto his left hip with Sweeny to the left of the Spaniard then attacked. Erviti, slow to respond – perhaps it was bad legs, perhaps two veterans working over a newbie – blocked Sweeny who had to take the long way around to try and catch the German’s wheel, but it was too late, Politt was gone. And he flew, perfectly turning those long legs at speed, holding the two chasers at 10” for a couple of kilometers before cracking them to win by 30”. You could really see the track racer in his solo win, not just his perfect form and application of power, but in the crisp, accurate way he made his way through the turns in Nîmes. Nils Politt got up that morning, learned of his new status and took every advantage, riding a textbook race to his first-ever professional win.
Today is another ‘transition stage’ leading to the Pyrenees, and a long one at 220-Kilometers. It’s not certain that the Decueninck-Quickstep team will try and dominate the stage with the objective of bringing Mark Cavendish to a stage win and the equaling of Eddy Merckx’s record, they could be tired. Them team has fought hard to bring the Manxman through the mountains within the time limits and the race is certain to again explode into action today as the unheralded racers look, as Nils Politt did, to make their names at the Tour de France.