Stage 13: Pau to Pau - 27.2km, 16.9 miles
Stage 13: Pau to Pau - 27.2km, 16.9 miles
Individual Time Trial
It’s been a weird week. We’re down to 166 riders, which isn’t so much attrition, so that’s good. But it’s been a different one of them every single stage crossing the line first. I don’t remember that happening before. For many of them, it’s their first-ever TdF stage win, and that’s wonderful to see. Julian Alaphilippe remains in Yellow, however, with Geraint Thomas 1.12 behind him. Peter Sagan is still in Green, but I don’t think anyone’s surprised by that.
The wind played hell with the peloton on Stage Ten, breaking it up and scrambling everyone’s times as if it’d been a mountain stage. Far too many top riders were caught in the wrong group, and lost a ton of time. Riding in a heavy crosswind takes skill and luck: you never know when someone making an attack is actually going to succeed, and if you don’t go with them, you’ve lost the whole race right there. Knowing this, there was a lot of aggression out there, leading to a very, very bad day for some guys who thought they were doing well.
Weirdest thing so far, though, has to be what happened yesterday in Stage 12. Fairly basic stage, no huge crashes, no major upsets. So no one has exactly been able to figure out why rider Rohan Dennis abruptly abandoned the race in the feed zone. Like…”Fuck this shit I’m out.” Literally. And no one could figure out for several hours where the hell he’d gone, leaving his team not only baffled but quite worried. And then he just showed up at the team bus at the finish line, and left again with his agent and a media agent, leaving his bike leaning against the bus outside. He didn’t speak to the media. His team couldn’t give a good reason, even HE couldn’t- or rather, wouldn’t- give a good reason. He simply said he couldn’t continue feeling as he did, and didn’t elaborate. He didn’t seem to be physically ill. In fact, his team said he was in excellent condition, so this is, for the moment, gonna be one of those “WTF” moments of the tour.
What makes it even more incomprehensible is that today is the individual time trial stage, and Dennis is- of course- a world champion time-trialist. This was going to be his stage, his chance to really show his worth and move up the GC. Here we are on the day, and no Dennis. As Chris Horner pointed out, he’s ruined his team. They were all working for him, and now he’s gone. All the work they’ve put in all season, now all for naught. Not to mention he took the place of someone who would have…well, not done this. I mean, I hope he’s okay, but I also really, really hope he had a damned good reason to do this.
Anyway. So it’s a gorgeous day in Pau, and the course is just beautiful. It’s got some fast descents, some twists, and of course some climbing, including a pretty steep kick up just before the finish line, followed by a fairly sharp right turn. The road is a little narrow, and the crowds are enthusiastic, so there’s a lot of noise out there.
We’re halfway through, and everything is going swimmingly, when stage winner Wout Van Aert, setting a blistering time, takes a corner too close and slams into the barriers. And does not get up. The Jumbo-Visma team car car close behind him slams on its brakes, with the red officials’ car and other teams’ cars close behind THEM also pulling up dangerously close to each other.
It’s an acute turn, and Thomas De Gendt- winner of this year’s Eighth Stage- is coming up fast behind him, with his own team cars and race officials. Jumbo-Visma needs the doctors, and they need an ambulance, and they need to somehow get all Wout’s entourage out of the way at the same time. The white doctor’s car comes up, and one of Wout’s management team literally grabs at the car to get it to pull over. Meanwhile, spectators and other management have pulled the metal barriers off the road and onto the sidewalk to give the fallen rider and the doctor and managers more room, and taken down the banner that hung over the metal barriers to wrap him up. His helmet has been discarded, but he’s conscious and talking. He also seems to be heavily bleeding.
De Gendt speeds past, with gendarmes in the road warning all the riders and cars to swing wide. In an event where tenths of a second count, this could be problematic for the rest of the field, but apparently not for De Gendt, who crosses the line with the new best time by sixteen seconds.
The riders are still coming, of course, sent off in one-minute intervals, while Wout Van Aert is loaded into an ambulance and sent off to hospital.
Oh, dear. Bora Hansgrohe rider Maximillian Schachmann comes into view on the screen, and he’s, well. He’s not racing. He’s sitting up, and he’s weaving, and he looks like hell. Seems he crashed on that same corner. At least he’s still upright, though, so I hope he’s not hurt too badly. As it it, it’s bad enough: there’s no skin left on his right knee, and the almost-black patch is dripping blood down his leg like a too-heavy blast of spray paint. His kneecap looks like it’s already swelling and bruising, and his left wrist doesn’t look too good, either. His face is one huge grimace of pain, and the crowd is pounding the barriers and cheering, trying to encourage him. He crosses the line more than five minutes down, nowhere near the challenge he’d been offering at the checkpoints before his crash.
The top riders are starting to come out, now, and the interval between them is raised to two minutes. There’s still something so exciting about seeing the riders in their skin suits and time trial helmets come down the startinghouse ramp, with their team cars swinging out to follow them, roof full of spare bikes, and a wide placard above the front bumper with their last name in huge letters.
We’re down to the last riders: those highest in the GC. Richie Porte comes in a mere nine seconds behind De Gendt just as Julian Alaphilippe in his bright yellow leader’s skinsuit leaves the startinghouse, last to go. Thibaud Pinot is on the course and the French are going mad for their National Champion in his red, white, and blue skinsuit.
Also out on the course now is Jumbo Visma’s Steven Kruijswijk, and at the first checkpoint, he’s actually got the fastest ride by five seconds. He’s going so fast, in fact, that is something happens to Alaphilippe, he’ll be in Yellow tonight. Alejandro Valverde takes the last swing towards the line, and moves himself into eighth place. Rigoberto Uran is burning up the road- will he make it? Will he make- augh! No, he’s behind De Gendt by .28 of second! That’s gotta be frustrating.
Alaphilippe is descending, now, and this is his forte. He’s reaching speeds of 41mph. They say that wearing the Maillot Jaune makes you ride like two men, and that’s proving true today- which also happens to be the 100th Anniversary of the first Maillot Jaune being introduced into the race.
Now we’re really in the thick of it. Geraint Thomas is fourteen seconds ahead at his checkpoint, but behind him, Alaphilippe is ten seconds ahead at HIS checkpoint. Kruijswijk crosses the finish line with a furious effort- into fourth place.
And here comes Geraint Thomas! Oh my G-d is he- yes! He’s in first now by 21.21! But Alaphilippe is on the way, and he knows now what he has to do! The noise is deafening! He’s snarling as he grinds towards the line, his bike rocking side to side, and DAMN! He’s taken the lead now by OVER FOURTEEN SECONDS! His management is at the end of the road, already hugging each other as Alaphilippe rockets towards them, and for a second it almost looks like he won’t be able to stop in time! But he does, and leaps off his bike with a Hulk-like growl, then a huge embrace to his managers. He is overjoyed- they all are.
All that effort, and the top two haven’t changed: first Alaphilippe and then Thomas. No one thought Alaphilippe was a time-trialist. No one thought he was a climber. Why do I have a feeling he’s going to upset all those preconceptions yet again tomorrow?
Update on Wout Van Aert from his team: “It’s just a flesh wound,” they say, without the black armour and silly costumes. He’s had surgery, and will remain in hospital for a few days. There are no broken bones, though, and hopefully, he’ll be okay soon. What a tough break for him, though. Still, he has a stage win from his first-ever Tour de France, and no one can take that away from him.
Tomorrow we’re up the Col du Tourmalet- these poor bastards.
A much happier Wout Van Aert winning Stage Ten on Monday.
Photograph: Christian Hartmann/Reuters