Tour de France Stage 10: Some Stage 9 Chatter and a Sprint on This Fast Flat Day
Today is a day for helicopter shots of chateaus and meta-conversations about the state of the race
A pancake-flat day made for a mostly uneventful race until the end. It started with a break just as the peloton exited the neutral zone at KM 0, initiated by Frenchman Yoann Offredo of Wanty Group — Gobert. He’d be joined by Elie Gesbert of Fortuneo-Oscaro, and the duo would remain ahead until the final 7 kilometers of racing.
Offredo has been a consistent breakaway rider who already earned the most aggressive rider award on stage 2. Today the honor went to Gesbert, despite the bigger effort of Offredo, who won the intermediate sprint. Gesbert won the measly 2 King of the Mountain points on both of the small category 4 climbs, but I think Offredo’s previous win was the decisive factor.
The Battle for Green
“I feel like I live in a small little bubble, in a small little world, but that’s not really true for me.” — Marcel Kittel
While 90% of the peloton was practicing their synchronized cycling skills, the sprinters were focused on a winner-take-all finish. Marcel Kittel continues to fight for points in the green jersey competition, coming in fourth at the intermediate sprint, just behind Andre Greipel. Former sprinter now commentator Robbie McEwen reflected that the point distribution and flatness favored Kittel even without Peter Sagan’s disqualification. It’s a pity that we’ll never know if Kittel would have beat Sagan.
The run-in to Bergerac was led by Kittel’s Quickstep - Floors team, seeking to set their leader up for his fourth victory. After a hard day’s work — the 8 men performed 25% of the total effort among the 180 remaining cyclists — they faded yet again, leaving Kittel on his own. If any day looked good for Greipel, it was today; Lotto-Soudal moved to the front and had him in fourth position.
As the race closed in on the sprint, though, it became harder to predict a winner; John Degenkolb, Dylan Groenewegen, Alexander Kristoff, and less well-known sprinters all seemed to get around Greipel. He was slightly boxed in and launched a less than ideal attack from the bunch.
In the end, all of these men would beat Greipel, but the victory would go to Marcel Kittel. Despite a seemingly weak position, he won with a solid lead, visibly ahead of all others. Like in stage 6, his attack came from the back of the pack, and no one could keep his wheel. It’s great to see a consistently humble and grateful sprinter winning what’s normally a battle of the egos.
What’s up with Quickstep?
Look, I have no idea. They’re never at the line; it’s always Kittel, from behind, with an incomparable top speed. The lack of Quickstep in the final kilometer made me predict that Demare would outperform Kittel and wear green in Paris.
Now I’m wondering if I didn’t just miss the real strength of Quickstep. The Matteo Trentin-less eight man team performed 25% of the total effort on today’s stage, keeping the speed high and Kittel out of danger. Maybe that’s their strategy? Kittel clearly doesn’t need a lead-out in the last kilometer; he’s that strong. He’s quick to thank the team, and it makes me think that we’ve all had it wrong.
Quickstep has one goal: Ride harder throughout the stage than any other team and keep Kittel clear of crashes and trouble. The numbers show that they’ve done that perfectly. Dimension Data, the Tour’s technology partner, measures effort by wattage and has revealed that Quickstep constitutes 29% of the total peloton over this year’s Tour.
Only Team Sky, defending the general classification leader and best team award, has more: They’ve produced 45% of the total watts. I’m now more sure than ever that Kittel will wear green, and, equally, that Team Sky is made up almost entirely of cybernetic clones engineered to race bikes.
What about Michael Matthews?
After looking at the course and hearing McEwen’s commentary, no. It would have been hard enough for Sagan to win, let alone Matthews. This year has nine flat stages with 50 points per victory, or 450 total, on offer. Kittel has won four of them. Matthews can’t earn points in the pure sprint stages, even the 20 for intermediate sprint, and there simply aren’t enough points left in the hill stages to make up Kittel’s lead.
What about Greipel?
I love the Gorilla, but he came in 12th today. He’s 125 points behind Kittel, who has 275, and would have to win virtually every sprint finish from here to Paris to make up the deficit. I’m not sure what’s going on for Greipel this year, but am hoping he’ll just nick a stage win in consolation.
How do they calculate the breakaway time gap?
Up until 2014 it was done with motorbikes and stopwatches; no joke. Cycling is an anachronistic sport that resists new technologies. Unlike car racing, the goal is for a mostly human spectacle, which is why the bikes have weight minimums and outlaw purely aerodynamic kits for most stages.
The official yellow motorbike would catch the leaders and start a stopwatch as they came to a stop. When the next group came, they’d write the number on a chalkboard, and ride up to the race leaders and drive by them.
It wasn’t very consistent, and commentators used their own methods, counting down from visible landmarks on the camera feed. This changed in 2015 when Dimension Data became the technology partner and outfitted all the bikes with the little trackers you see under the saddle. This unit is now used to report time gaps, speed, and all other data.
The live tour tracker on LeTour.com is powered by Dimension Data, and they also publish some of the analysis on their own site.
How far away are they with a 30 seconds gap?
Or, how do you use the time gap to calculate the distance between the break and the chasers? Thirty seconds usually seems to be 500 meters, give or take; just over a quarter of a mile. Average speed is close to 40 km/hour, or 25 mph, so it would take 30 seconds to close this gap if the break stopped pedaling. This never happens, though; instead, the peloton simply accelerates a few km/hour over the leaders, and slowly reels them in.
How do you feel about Rigoberto Uran today?
I just keep feeling more and more impressed! McEwen announced something new about his mechanical difficulties today. First, it looks like it was a hit with Daniel Martin that damaged the derailleur; second, his race radio wouldn’t stay in his ear, and he had to put it in his mouth.
He had to remove it though before the sprint: You simply can’t take in enough oxygen without a little mouth breathing. The earbud and microphone were dangling and knocking against his top tube for that entire final run. It makes it an even bigger accomplishment, and I’m excited to see more of “Mick”, a nickname bestowed by his team for his resemblance to the Rolling Stone’s lead singer.
What’s going to happen tomorrow?
Is that a joke? Marcel Kittel is going to win his fifth stage tomorrow. Just look at it!
We leave the Dordogne tomorrow and arrive at the base of the Pyrenees. The general classification riders will stay sedate, prepared to duel it out in the mountains on Thursday and Friday, then in the hills over the weekend. Thursday could be one for Fabio Aru to attack on the summit finish, and Friday looks like a repeat of stage 9.
Anything else to note? Any controversies today?
Another rider abandons the tour this morning. Rafal Majka, two-time King of the Mountain, has withdrawn after a crash on Sunday. His difficulty comes from a punctured lung. He was the leader of Sagan’s suffering Bora-Hansgrohe team.
Nicholas Roche, who bizarrely raced for a stage win earlier this Tour, told reporters that his BMC team has come up with a stage win strategy following the loss of leader Richie Porte. Contrary to his riding in stage 8, he said that they’d been 100% behind placing Porte on the podium.
Just one. As they approached the finish, hot-head sprinter Nacer Bouhanni punched New Zealand rider Jack Bauer of Quickstep. It looked like it was retaliation for an accidental bump. I found a clip of the punch, but not the bump. Watch the fifth rider back on your left. Maybe Bouhanni saw a Volkswagen?
That’s all for today! See you tomorrow, and thanks as always for reading.
Thanks for reading! I write about cycling and am currently blogging the 2017 Tour de France here on Medium.
Visit my personal website at davidstreever.com.
You might have missed my rest day post yesterday; please see it below.
