Featured image courtesy of gettyimages
Week one of the 108th Tour de France is over as the race is now way beyond Brittany, across the heart of France and now the two Alpine stages concluded. Stages 5 to 9 have seen a time trial blow up the GC, another sprint stage won by Mark Cavendish, Bahrain-Victorious bouncing back after losing Jack Haig, an Australia riding high into Tignes and the defending champion looking like a double Tour de France champion in waiting already.
The controversy from the early stages in Brittany certainly created headlines. A crash caused by a spectator and a nightmare of falls on Stage 3 has sadly had a huge effect on the race as a whole. There are lots of battered and bruised riders out on the road, two of them being pre-race GC contenders Primož Roglič and Geraint Thomas. A nasty fall for both on Stage 3 has led to significant pain for both, Roglič now out of the race and Thomas still in it but feeling the effects of a dislocated shoulder. The challenge for the yellow jersey is over and it’s unfortunate to see after all the hard work, the sacrifice away from family, and being in the best shape possible for the biggest race in cycling. To see everything go up in smoke is cruel, but that’s bike racing.
A rotten week for Jumbo-Visma not just because they’ve lost Primož Roglič and Robert Gesink, but to a degree the mental game it imposes. Tipped as the strongest team to challenge the might of INEOS Grenadiers and the man who rode to take yellow last year, seeing Tadej Pogačar destroy both their moral and everyone else’s will feel demoralising. To make thing worse, Jonas Vingegaard, the Danish rider at his first Tour crashed on Stage 9 to increase the misery. He’s the one rider now who has any chance to get a high GC placing and maybe a stage win.
Where do the INEOS Grenadiers go from here? There can be no disputing that Richard Carapaz is the leader after Thomas’s fall and subsequent hemorrhaging of time on Stage 8. The Welshman was already struggling on the early climb out of Oyonnax, the ambition to try and claim a second Tour title gone, but we knew that already after Stage 5’s time trial. Even before dislocating his shoulder, Stage 2 atop Mûr-de-Bretagne saw him lose around ten seconds, something didn’t seem right. Losing time to an already injured Roglič in the time trial was justification that Thomas’s yellow jersey ambitions were gone.
The question for Geraint Thomas now is whether he’ll ride further into the Tour to support Carapaz with Tokyo to consider also. Luck just never seems to follow G wherever he goes but despite another significant setback nothing can take away what he’s achieved already. He’ll always be a Tour de France winner even if it is only once.
Tokyo to come and maybe the Vuelta, Geraint Thomas will ride on and continue the fight wherever next.
It’s never nice to see a rider crash out and leave the race, Australian climber Jack Haig being one of them. Spare a thought for Bahrain-Victorious who’ve sadly not been so victorious in the GC stakes. They lost Mikel Landa early at the Giro last May and now losing Haig is history repeating itself. But the team do not despair despite setbacks, that was evident at the Dauphiné where Ukrainian climber Mark Padun took back-to-back mountain stages.
At this Tour de France since losing Jack Haig, we’ve seen the team bounce back to take another set of back-to-back stage wins. Stage 7 from Vierzon to Le Creusot was the longest stage at the Tour for quite some time, 249.1 km with some difficult climbs in the Morvan regional park. It was destined to suit a breakaway and a breakaway win it produced. Slovenian rider Matej Mohorič already had stages won at both the 2017 Vuelta and 2018 Giro, so why not complete the set! He rode the Giro last may and sadly had to abandon due to a nasty fall on a descent. A victory at the Tour makes up for that crash now, and who knows with more freedom he could get the chance to take more.
Mohorič (below) winning Stage 7 was good enough for any neutral fan watching this Tour, so imagine our delight to see Bahrain-Victorious go again and win another, this time in the Alps. Stage 8 from Oyonnax to Le Grand-Bornand as the first mountain stage of this Tour was always going to be a nervy affair for the GC but a huge chance for a breakaway to succeed. A final climb up and then down the Col de la Colombière is bad enough in the dry so imagine riding in the wet! Belgian rider Dylan Teuns was left out of the Tour team last year so you can imagine his delight at winning a stage once again in France.
Teuns already had a stage done and dusted back in 2019, the summit to La Planche des Belles Filles announcing him as a supreme climber chasing stage wins. We had come to expect big things from Dylan Teuns in the Classics, which he’s perfectly capable of winning one or two, but maybe his forte is actually grand tour stages? One ticked off in the Vosges, now another in the Alps, all he needs is three more in the Pyrennes, Jura and the Massif Central to complete all five of France’s mountain ranges with a stage!
Disappointment but a comeback for Bahrain-Victorious. They’re a team on the up that still has plenty to go for in the final two weeks of this Tour.
The green jersey competition is fascinating. Three times world champion Peter Sagan doesn’t look set to win an eighth one, the Slovakian not looking himself but maybe that’s Giro fatigue kicking in, who knows? Italian national champion Sonny Colbrelli has looked chipper, the man himself showing good form at the Dauphiné, and Australian Michael Matthews is up there in contention. Yet the inspiration to never give up and maybe win the maillot vert ten years on belongs to Mark Cavendish.
If Stage 4 into Fougères was written in the stars then take Stage 6 from Tours to Châteauroux where Cavendish had won already in 2008 (his first-ever win) and 2011. 32 stage victories, he never likes the question being asked, but the Manx Missile is oh so close to equaling the all-time record of 34 set by Eddy Merckx. Deceuninck-Quick Step announcing Cavendish in the team was a shock in itself, so to win two stages already and more possibly to come, it is literally a dream that probably Cav himself cannot quite believe. Happy to be at the Tour is the vibe we’ve seen from him in week one, it’s a perfect example of a comeback for the ages.
Can he win the green jersey? There’s a confidence about him and with the upcoming stages suiting a sprinter to go for the intermediate sprints, there’s nothing to stop a second green jersey coming his way. Three flat stages in the third week, if Cavendish can win all three then the record will be beaten, his hold of the green jersey superior. The only thing that could be a problem is getting over the Pyrennes in week three and maybe being caught out in crosswinds on Stages 12 and 13. into Nîmes and Carcassonne.
Nacer Bouhanni, Sonny Colbrelli, Michael Matthews, Jasper Philipsen and Peter Sagan are still in the race but some sprinters have unfortunately not made the time cut after the Alps, stage winner in Pontivy Tim Merlier had to abandon and French riders Arnaud Démare and Bryan Coquard have been left disappointed. You want the best sprinters around at the Tour but it does make Cavendish’s task a little easier. Wout Van Aert is still around and with Jumbo-Visma already out of GC contention, the Belgian will have freedom to sprint.
For now even if Mark Cavendish ends this Tour without green and just two stages, it’s been an extraordinary comeback to witness which you hope will instill some hopes for others in cycling, Tom Dumoulin and Marcel Kittel just two names that come to mind.
Tignes finally got to witness a Tour de France stage after landslides caused by horrific weather blocked the road in 2019. The man who took the stage was one Ben O’Connor, the 25-year-old Australian who has also made a huge comeback. In 2018 he was up in a high GC position before crashing out at the Giro, and just last year he even won a stage in Italy when riding for Team Qhubeka-ASSOS. A stage at the Tour for the AG2R Citroën Team, it will mean everything to him and it could have been better with a yellow jersey but it wasn’t to be.
Right now going into the first rest day O’Connor sits second in GC, the only man under five minutes behind Tadej Pogačar. On Stage 7 there was a thought that UAE-Team Emirates would put all their energy into chasing the breakaway. They sat back and let it go, the thought being that in the Alps they’d have nothing left to give. It never materialised with the defending champion attacking on the Col de Romme, Richard Carapaz the only man to follow before he was distanced. On Stage 9, UAE rode as a unit, the first time we’ve ever seen that happen as Tadej Pogačar only took yellow on the final time trial last year. So much talk about UAE being a weak team is for the birds. They may not be strongest, Tadej Pogačar having never been in a position of wearing yellow earlier than Paris before, but right now that’s irrelevant – he looks comfortable!
Right now the Slovenian looks invincible in yellow, the rest all fighting for the podium in Paris. A time trial victory on Stage 5, coming through the early stages unscathed when others have fallen, he’s had the luck, he has the talent, and now he has nothing to fear it seems. Pogačar dropped everyone on Stage 8, consumed the entire break except for Teuns. UAE are in control, the 22-year-old is a cut above the rest, he’s dominant and winning this 108th Tour de France no question.
The only thing that could prevent him winning now is testing positive for COVID. He doesn’t need to take any risks on descents, when others attack he just needs to follow and if he can get through the flat stages and avoid any potential subplots, the young man is safe and dry. The final TT on Stage 20 should be his crowning glory (Stefan Küng after missing out on Stage 5’s TT will hope not), it’s now down to other teams to take the race by the scruff of the neck and put the pressure on.
What can INEOS, EF Eduction-Nippo, Jumbo-Visma, AG2R and Movistar with riders inside the top ten actually do? Richard Carapaz is probably the best placed and most experienced out of everyone to try and consolidate a podium place, he will have the best support from others such as Richie Porte and Tao Geoghegan Hart, but you do wonder whether INEOS actually have the firepower anymore?
This Tour de France is shaping up to look exactly like how the Giro d’Italia played out last year, the difference being that COVID hasn’t ruined the race. Pogačar looks to have the yellow jersey won but behind him just like Geogehgan-Hart winning pink unexpectedly, we may see a podium and final GC way beyond anyone’s pre-race predictions. O’Connor can possibly make the podium, Vingegaard and Mas are two names capable too (Mas did suffer from a crash but has a Vuelta podium under his belt) and Rigoberto Urán cannot be discounted as well.
So many teams will be doing some soul searching on the rest day, resigned to the fact that Tadej Pogačar is unstoppable and they are fighting for the scraps. To make thing worse the young man is scheduled to ride the Vuelta after the Tour.
You cannot win the Tour de France in week one but you can definately lose it. That’s the phrase cycling is accustomed to on so many occasions. For Primož Roglič and Geraint Thomas that is the case but for Tadej Pogačar the 108th Tour de France is already his unless something drastic changes. He hasn’t killed this Tour, he’s simply been the best whereas others cannot find the answers.
Week one is over, Stages 5 to 9 providing epic tales of comebacks for the best sprinter this sport has even known and a team down in the dumps but not giving up. The defending champion is on course to be a back-to-back Tour champion, others are looking for a comeback themselves. You can keep predictions you’ve made but others, throw them out now, because this 108th Tour de France isn’t over yet our maillot jaune in 2021 seems to be secured earlier than we expected.
