Tour de France Stage 20: La Course & Le Tour in Marseille
Can anyone catch Annemiek Van Vleuten, and will Chris Froome finally win a stage?
The second stage for La Course is a pursuit time trial; each rider begins with the time gap they had on Izoard. Forty-three seconds ahead, van Vleuten flies out of the velodrome, due to the anachronistic course rules; no time trial bikes are permitted.
The next rider on the road, Lizzie Deignan, comes out slower and in a more relaxed position. Deignan, one of the most awarded modern cyclists, rides at a pace that looks surprisingly casual, as her rival races all-out.
She’s waiting. Deignan finished on Izoard in second; behind her were Elisa Longo Borghini and Megan Guarnier, with 1'23" and 1'28" respectively. The two women reach Deignan, and they seem to be discussing something: I wonder if they want to wait for Shara Gillow, five seconds behind Guarnier.
Whatever they were discussing, they didn’t wait any longer. They quickly formed into a group of three and attacked, making an impressive chase group for the lone leader. Behind them, Gillow found a group of three and settled in, pursuing Deignan and Longo Borghini.
They all had one goal: Catch van Vleuten and pass her, redeeming their loss on the Izoard. The big chance was going to be determined by the sole climb of the day, starting at the 15 kilometer mark; a 1.2 km climb at 9% grade over the Notre Dame de la Gard.
It doesn’t look likely
Van Vleuten sits in the drops, perched on her saddle in a tight aero-dynamic tuck, right up to the climb. She never looks comfortable but she moves fast and keeps a steady, sure rhythm. She’ll say in her interview later that she was nervous — she’d seen the trio behind her. But she has no race radio, no team car, no motorbike with a chalkboard listing her time.
The first on-course time check is on a banner at the climb, but it reads 0" when she goes under it; it’ll only tell her rivals how far back they are.
When they hit it, they’ll see that they’re more than a minute behind her, about 1'40" in pursuit. They’re a smaller group now too; Longo Borghini dropped Guarnier on the hill, knowing that whatever value she had in chasing van Vleuten must not be worth waiting longer with such a big gap.
The two have only 7 kilometers left, and they take equal turns chasing down the leader. They’ll never come close.
Van Vleuten gets her first time check
With 2 kilometers remaining, the official car pulls alongside van Vleuten, and she breaks into a smile and waves in triumph. She’s taken her lead and increased it to 1'50". It’s her first official check, and she knows she’s won the race.
She never really slows down, but she takes the moment to wave and pump her fists in triumph, although she’s still got a bit of road ahead. In the end, she’ll win with 1'52" over Deignan, who takes the more tactical line into the finish and outsprints Longo Borghini to second place.
After the Italian, it’s Guarnier, then Amanda Spratt, who has passed Shara Gillow, the rider who began before her, and comes in sixth.
What’s next?
This is the end of La Course for this year. Hopefully they’ll expand the event next year and improve the coverage. This year, La Course used an innovative format, which drew some mixed reviews. Deignan, who criticized the tokenism of La Course, expressed two views on the format.
“At first I was like ‘what are we a circus’? But then, having seen the success of the men’s Hammer Series it’s kind of potentially the way modern cycling is going. I’m a bit more open-minded than I was. I’m not that keen on doing a time trial on a road bike. And logistics wise, booking hotels and flights, it’s a bit of a nightmare. How do teams know if you will be in the top 20? But we’ll give it a go.”
Why doesn’t Le Tour manage a stage race for the women? The Giro d’Italia hosts a 10 day stage race, the Giro Rosa, which must be easier for the teams to plan and train for, making better racing and spectating.
The tokenism continued right up to the podium presentation, sans podium boys, which was given only a few minutes between the end of the race and the start of stage 20. After all the effort and cost of sending racers to France from places as far away as Australia, I had hoped that the organizers would put on more of a celebration.
This is a Tour de France blog. Why did you start with La Course?
Three reasons.
- They raced first and I was awake to watch it live.
- To make it harder tougher for readers to skip that section.
- This one needs a few paragraphs.
The women’s time trial used an innovative format: The best rider in the race overall leads the race. Why is this so innovative? Why does the Tour de France work in opposite?
I don’t know, but I think we can safely say that the men’s race would be a hell of a lot more interesting if it ran a similar format. Instead, we have to watch Luke Rowe, of Team Sky, who sits dead-last at 167 start the race.
What do you think Rowe is going to do? Win the stage with the best recorded time in history and crawl back his 4 hour, 33 minute deficit? Not even in his wildest dream. Nah, he’s just going to roll along and soft-pedal. He won’t be out of the saddle; he won’t be perched on the nose of his time trial bike; he probably won’t even be in a respectable time trial tuck.
And why would he? He has no chance of improvement; he probably can’t even leave dead last! We won’t see anyone really work until Taylor Phinney, a time trial specialist in position 163, who goes out a little bit harder. He’ll set the record until the 116th man, Maciej Bodnar, puts in the first real race effort and takes first with 28'15".
The race won’t be animated until Tony Martin and Jack Bauer, the German and New Zealand time trial champions respectively, put in their efforts. Martin or Bauer could win the time trial, but they don’t, although they do well on the first checkpoint before the hilly section in the middle. But really, what are they going for?
Yea, what are the stakes?
Imagine if Chris Froome went first! Imagine if the overall leader went out and set a time that his general classification rivals wanted to beat. Imagine if the time trial specialists went after them, establishing a second set of stakes and competition?
You have two goals today. GC riders want to limit losses or consolidate gains; they’re in the top ten. Time trial specialists tend toward the middle of the overall pack, and they want to win the stage with the best time overall.
In my fantasy time trial format, Froome would race on guts, looking as dynamic as Annemiek van Vleuten. No race radio, no time check, just going as hard and as fast as he can, racing on guts to do his best. Romain Bardet would wait a full two or three minutes before he went, one last word from his team director: “Bardet, he’s gone fast. Don’t hold anything back.”
No, I wouldn’t want a pursuit style with the same gaps; I’d want the usual delay. I just want to see some real stakes on the road. Like a lot of hardcore fans, I love the slow stages, too; I love the sleepy, snoozey stages where we get to hear background chatter and historical tidbits and random commentary. It’s great; don’t get me wrong. But we’d still have all that, we’d just have it after a truly thrilling race.
The women’s race demanded attention; the stakes were right there. Annemiek van Vleuten was barreling down the course and radio-less Lizzie Deignan and Elisa Longo Borghini had to determine what they’d do. By comparison, the men’s race is almost without stakes. Most of the riders are just going for safety right now, everything has been decided; they just want to finish.
I can’t help but wonder: Wouldn’t the women’s race have had more spectators if Froome was racing before Rowe? Unless you specifically follow women’s cycling, I imagine it’s a tough choice to make: Sit in for the short women’s race, and then spend the next three hours in the sun watching the most mediocre part of the men’s race. If it started with a bang, the decision becomes an easy one: Let’s show up thirty minutes early for a thrilling Tour stage, and catch La Course, too.
OK, OK! I agree. That would be better. But what’s going on in the race?
Where were we. Tony Martin finishes 2nd; a good showing. Bauer comes in 5th, and has some dynamic moments where he rushes through tight turns on the descent. After him, it’s pretty sedate until Michal Kwiatkowski, who races all-out while Chris Froome follows in a team car, watching the curves and turns and plotting his own race.
Kwiatkowski is fast and comes in with a second on Bodnar at the first time check; of the two Polish riders, Kwiatkowski is the better climber, and this might get him a bigger lead after the second checkpoint up to Notre Dame. On the descent, he catches Esteban Chaves, who began four minutes earlier, and looks like he might beat Bodnar’s final time.
Despite an all out-effort, a 6" lead at checkpoint one, and a 1" lead at the second, Kwiatkowski slips and finishes just behind Bodnar, second place by one and a fifteenth second.
Even Robbie McEwen wants to see a pursuit time trial!
After 58th place Kwiatkowski’s ride ends, it’s Daniel Navarro who goes next, in 28th place. With the two minute gap between starts, it’ll be 56 minutes before Froome finally races. Even McEwen entertains a new format, and Matthew Keenan agrees before quickly noting that it’ll never happen — and everyone is disappointed.
The most exciting thing to happen for the next twenty minutes would probably be a tweet about Taylor Phinney:
And his response!
Mellow.
Hey, you got any more Taylor Phinney?
Do I ever! He made a little video with Lululemon
And, I’m sorry I haven’t been linking to this guy EVERY DAY because he’s hilarious and has great analysis, but I did link to him early on, and it’s your own fault if you aren’t following him on Twitter.
Almost fifty minutes later…
Daniel Martin, in 6th, goes out on the course looking to do one better and take Fabio Aru’s 5th place. I always had Aru as a dark horse — a potential Cadel Evans if Froome crashed out — but the inability of Astana to support him has made him look even less likely than before. He had the strength to wear yellow for a little bit, but the lack of team support made it short-term loan.
The other dark horse, Rigoberto Urán, rode out third-to-last; he’s just behind Bardet, and he could take second today. He’s even beaten Froome in a time trial, but his form is not as strong this year, and it’s more likely that he’ll lose time to Froome.
The crowd cheers, but it’s Romain Bardet, two minutes later, who gets the biggest applause. A giant AG2R La Mondiale jersey in the velodrome seats shows his support, a full-throated scream that sours and turns ugly as Bardet disappears and Froome comes up to the box.
It’s ugly out there for Froome and must be embarrassing for Bardet, who has already apologized for the way his fans treat the yellow jersey.
As Bardet, Urán, and Froome face the ride of their careers, Warren Barguil comes in a little too slow to maintain his 9th place position, and sinks behind his childhood hero, Alberto Contador. It goes better for Aru, who manages to maintain his lead over Martin, and seems set to keep fifth place.
First time check for Urán
Urán isn’t making great time: he hits checkpoint 1 at the Palais du Pharo in 14th, 26 seconds behind Kwiatkowski’s 11'53". Urán’s time is 12'19" and we’ll need at least two minutes to see if he’s taking time on Bardet.
Before Bardet, it’s Contador who finishes the time trial, doing an incredible effort for a man who isn’t a time trialist or a contender. Fifth overall with a dangerous sliding finish secures his 10th place position and makes an impressive last fight by the former champion.
Dan Martin hits checkpoint 2 just before Bardet’s time check at the Palais du Pharo. It’s a massive disappointment for the Frenchman. 12'38" puts him in 33rd position, 45 seconds behind Kwiatkowski, and his chances of a podium finish have suddenly disappeared.
As if to twist the knife, it’s Froome who comes across the 1st checkpoint only 2 seconds behind Kwiatkowski, and Mikel Landa, in fourth, is edging toward third place overall. If Landa can just gain a little time, he’ll have ousted Bardet from the podium, in a year when he hoped to wear yellow. It’s an ugly scene for Landa at Notre Dame de la Garde, where the fans audibly boo the Polish rider in defense of Bardet.
This will be the big change in the finishing. Urán is virtually guaranteed to make 2nd place, and Froome looks as if he might win the stage, with a time better than Bodnar by six seconds on the first checkpoint.
Bardet looks worse and worse; he’s taking a drink on a tight turn, he almost clips a barrier, he’s clearly nervous and looking like a rookie on the turns. He must be in a complete panic at this point, seeing his dreams of a podium finish fading fast.
The white jersey finishes
It’s Simon Yates across the finish now, in 28th overall at the time. He’s secure the white jersey and will wear it in Paris tomorrow for the victory with an identical time as second place Louis Meintjes. As that is confirmed, it’s Urán over the Notre Dame checkpoint; he’s the 7th best finisher there, 21 seconds behind Kwiatkowski. He’s actually improved his time since the first checkpoint, and he won’t have to worry about Bardet.
But Bardet can climb!
It’s true, but you wouldn’t know it today. He finishes the Notre Dame de la Garde checkpoint in 42nd, a full minute and seventeen seconds behind Kwiatkowski’s best. He’s looking secure in third at this point, but not by much; Landa is creeping closer and closer.
Froome falls back — a little
Froome must want a win here. No one wants to win Le Tour without a stage win. It’s definitely possible after his second checkpoint at Notre Dame, where he’s fourth overall, just three seconds behind Kwiatkowski’s time.
He’s gain 1'14 on Bardet and 14" on Urán. As he finishes, it’s his teammate Landa who lunges for the line: He’s 13th with a final time of 29'06", and Bardet needs to come across with a deficit no larger than 2'04" to keep his podium.
Urán hits the finish line after averting a near tragedy. The final turn has a divot in the road right through the racing line, and he pops his tire out and away from the divot before speeding toward the line for a 7th place finish at 28'46".
Bardet and Froome are the only men on the road now, and as Bardet seems to stutter and slow closer and closer to the cut-off, his podium finish looks less likely than ever. Froome may pass Bardet; he’s 300 meters back and he can see the Frenchman. It’s a matter of seconds for Bardet, as Landa paces around the scoreboard, waiting for his chance.
One damn second
Provisionally, it looks like Bardet keeps his place, but it’s as close as a single second. It’s a tense wait for the final result: Kwiatkowski’s time was adjusted earlier by a second from an inaccurate initial reading. If Landa had simply gained one second; if Froome hadn’t counter-attacked on the Izoard; if Landa had gone with Froome the day Aru attacked; the what-ifs pile up, but Bardet keeps his position, and he’ll finish in third.
It’s a downgrade from last year, but also an upgrade; he was second to Froome, but the winner had four minutes on him versus the 2'20" this year. If it wasn’t for the time trials, he may have even won; he only lost time to Froome in the two time trials.
Did Froome win the stage?
It looked possible three times: At the two checkpoints and in the final approach, as Froome nearly caught Bardet on the final run. But, it wasn’t enough. Froome found himself in 3rd, six seconds behind Maciej Bodnar, who wins the stage — a first for Bora-Hansgrohe, the team of disqualified rider Peter Sagan.
It’s a big comeback for Bodnar, who crashed heavily and almost abandoned on the Grand Colombier, and a big win for Bora-Hansgrohe in an otherwise disappointing Tour de France. Bodnar last won the national time trial championships in 2016, and this is the first stage win for him and his team in this Tour, despite numerous close calls with victory.
What happens tomorrow?
It’s one last battle on the Champs-Élysées for the sprinters; Nacer Bouhanni, Andre Greipel, and Alexander Kristoff are all looking to save their Tour, and they have one last chance for it.
Michael Matthews is guaranteed to wear the green jersey of the best sprinter, but he’ll likely go for the stage too: It would be a fantastic finish for the young Australian rider, who has come into his own with roommate and teammate Warren Barguil, the French King of the Mountain.
One more blog entry?
We’ll have a short one tomorrow and then a recap sometime next week! Follow this publication for updates as always. Thanks for tuning in for so long!
