Stage 13 and it was going to be the shortest stage in the
saddle barring the individual time trials for the 101 km from Girons to Foix in
the Pyrenees.
Tour organisers had been listening to calls from fans and
commentators for shorter stages with full gas racing, so they’ve taken a leaf
out of the cricket book and went with a Twenty20 style experiment, you know, with
fireworks, music, dancing, colourful costumes and...oh hang on, cycling already
has that.
The riders were lead out of Saint-Girons by the big red car.
Jakob Fuglsang’s left arm was bandaged up and he was riding hands off the
handlebars which wasn’t got a good sign since you can’t really climb without
hands on the bars.
The flag dropped, Frenchmen Warren Barguil and Thomas Voeckler were
off like scolded cats in a "go until you blow" effort according to
Robbie.
The attacks started coming and Barguil and Voeckler were
hauled back after 10 km of racing.
Sylvain Chavanel, Philippe Gilbert and Alessandro De Marchi
got out front and Chavanel collected the maximum intermediate sprint points.
Arthur Vichot hoisted up the white flag abandoning the Tour.
After a great first week in which Arnaud Demare took stage 4 and led in the
points competition, FDJ was reduced to a shadow of itself with just four riders
remaining.
The Tour choppers were back in the air after the unscheduled
chopper rest day and brought us magnificent breathtaking pictures of the
Pyrenees. The choppers were also on Pyrenenean vulture watch in case they
started circling any stragglers in the Gruppetto. Two vultures were spotted soaring
high above the valleys and Phil and Paul must have been going berserk out the
back of the NBC catering truck.
De Marchi was first over the top of the Col de Latrape. Back
down the road Barguil attacked in the yellow jersey group and, Mikel Landa and
Alberto Contador followed.
Landa looked to be riding for Landa again and some of that
old Bertie El Pistolero spirit was back to try and get a stage win.
Speaking of Bertie what was with his bottle cage with the
chop-top bidon? A packet of biscuits? For some reason Robbie suggested it was tin
foil. Perhaps it was just a blanket he could throw over the riders up front.
So much was going on in the race and Mattie declared that,
"not even Nostradamus would dare to predict a winner". Well yeah,
there’s that and the fact that he’s dead.
Twenty20 cycling comes to Paris
On the second climb of the day Landa and Bertie dropped De
Marchi with Nairo Quintana in pursuit. Mikel went Rogue Landa when it became
apparent he wasn’t working for Froome anymore and got a sniff of yellow.
SBS commentator Henk Vogels turned up for official Tour
duties and Tweeted, “Love the short stages , real bike racing none of this
controlled BS , love a filth stage’. FILTH STAGE!!! HENK IS BACK!!!
The winner of the Criterium du Dauphine Jakob Fuglsang
abandoned the Tour after trying to ride up mountains with no hands became too
much for him. This meant team leader Fabio Aru was on his own now to try and
fend of Landa’s tilt at the golden fleece.
The final climb was the brutally steep goat track Mur de
Péguère or ‘Wall of Péguère’ which must have felt like a wall of purgatory to
the Gruppetto. Quintana and Barguil reached Bertie and Landa albeit at snail’s
pace. The track narrowed so far that even the neutral service motos had trouble
getting through. Any mechanical problems and neutral service drones would need
to be deployed to drop in spares.
Barguil reached the top of the Mur de Péguère, then passed
the Fidler on the Camping Car Roof.
Back down the road and Froome dog looked to be in a whole
lot of trouble, or maybe he was foxing? ‘Boring’ Curious George Bennett was
anything but boring and Aru stuck like glue to Froome.
‘Voldemort’ (no not that Voldemort, Lance) Rigoberto Uran was
stirring up the yellow group and somehow remained, “almost unseen in the
brightest kit".
The yellow group crested the Mur de Péguère and it was on
for young and old with constant attacks on the descent and all the way to Foix.
Barguil crossed the line and got the win every French man,
women and child desires on Bastille Day.
In the battle for GC Froome finished 6 seconds behind the
Italian national champion and I bet there were some words for Rogue Landa in
the Skybus later.
Aru was presented with his second yellow jersey and right
now, in Mattie’s words, "Fabio Aru has got more presents under the tree
than anybody else".
It must be Christmas in July.
No comments:
Post a Comment