Les Coureurs Sont Tous Fous
“The racers are all crazy” is a famous racing proverb and yesterday’s deranged stage proved the wisdom of the saying. The race erupted out of Vulcania, the French educational volcano-themed park, on a day of such extreme heat that the riders might as well have been rolling along on a lava stream as much as on tarmac. Fire companies were spraying water on the finish line crowd. Temperatures were 40 to 44 degrees Celsius (100-110 Fahrenheit), there was not a meter of flat on those slow and heavy roads of the Auvergne, the wind was blowing hard, so of course the racers of this Tour de France decided to gift us with the most explosive start in memory.
Matteo Jorgensen, showing the form that has suddenly appeared for him in this Tour, was early out of the blocks. He blasted away, along with seven others including former World Champion Michael Kwiatkowski, as the field went berserk on the first climb right from Kilometer Zero (where the race officially starts after the neutral zone). Astoundingly, coming up from behind, was the Yellow Jersey and Tadej Pogačar, the Yates twins and Tour of Suisse winner Matias Skjelmose. Sepp Kuss clawed his way up there to support Vingegaard, Pogačar had one, 19-men were in front and flying. That group then reformed, 13 riders, with Jorgensen, pulled away and the star-filled Yellow and White Jersey group was absorbed by the panicked peloton. It kept going back and forth like this, pure high-speed carnage.
French GC hope David Gaudu was dropped and almost his entire Groupama-FDJ team had to go back to rescue him in a stark example of the - have to use the word - malaise that’s defined the French presence in this Tour so far. 14 racers settled in front with 114-km to go and the peloton finally seemed to calm down, a 2’35” gap opened up. The break roared along, the average speed close to 43-kph even with that terrible heat and all those climbs. Latvia’s Krists Neilands of the Israel-Premier Tech team - on fire after Michael Wood’s power win on Stage 10 - went solo with 32-km to go, blowing the break into pieces. Kwiatkowski and Skjelmose were dropped leaving seven racers to chase the Latvian: Esteban Chaves (EF Education), Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-Deceuninck), Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-Victorious), Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citröen), Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché Circus Wanty) and Antonio Pedrero (Movistar). The second group, with Alaphilippe, who’d been dropped after looking so good, stayed tantalizingly close, at 0:20” but was unable to close.
Neiland was terrific but caught with 3.2-km to the finish. Ben O’Connor, whose Tour, given that he had podium ambitions and a team built behind him just for that purpose, has been a disaster so far, went solo at the 1.4-km mark, was in turn caught, Zimmerman countered, it all came together, and Pello Bilbao sprinted to the win. It was his 16th career victory, the first Spanish - ok Basque - Tour stage in five years, and movingly, a deeply emotional tribute to Gino Mäder his teammate and close friend, who died after plunging off a mountain pass in the Tour of Switzerland earlier this year.
Bilbao seems to be a universally liked character in the racing world and most respected. He’s highly intelligent, and, like Mäder, deeply involved in environmental causes and works. Known for his tranquil nature - it was him calming down the team directors on the race radio, not the other way around - the Basque has slowly and consistently built himself up an excellent palmarès that include two Giro stage wins. He is now sitting 5th overall, having moved up five places in the GC with that courageous ride.
It is hard to imagine what Gino Mäder’s death did to that team. They immediately withdrew from the Tour of Switzerland, all deeply in mourning. Yet, despite their lack of competition and mental state, they rallied, and as Bilbao put it to the press some days ago, “Little by little I’m feeling better on the bike, I’m ready to do my best for Gino.” His victory salute, pointing to the sky and his departed friend, showed what his very best could be. An honorable man.