Tour de France Stage 8: Meet France’s Next Champion
He can climb, he can time trial, he can win a stage; the Frenchman fought, faltered, and found fame. Will he be a GC contender?
Early attacks launched, failed, and launched and failed again, making stage eight the most contentious day of this Tour de France. UAE Team Emirates kicked off the battles, followed by French Tour veteran Sylvain Chavanel and others.
Chris Froome and his Sky team held steady, shutting down nearly every wave of attacks. His general classification rivals stayed close, watching him on an unpredictable ride to the Swiss border that would end with the victory of a virtual unknown and a new era for French cycling.
The earliest escapees didn’t have a chance against Sky, working in tandem with the sprinter’s teams. The peloton led the first climb, around kilometer 28, but early attacks provided a forecast of the final victory.
What? Why were the sprint teams helping?
They were there to win the intermediate sprint, which appeared early today, at 45.5 kilometers. Today is the type of stage that can end a pure sprinter’s Tour, starting low and ending in the mountains far above. The sprinters struggle to climb, and can even come in so late that they get cut from the race.
Twenty points would be available in the green jersey competition for the first rider across the intermediate sprint. These sprints often go uncontested, seemingly irrelevant because of the dominance of Peter Sagan. He typically wins the green jersey competition by point margins of 200 or more.
Like Michael Matthews, he’s a puncheur, a rider who excels at sprinting after short, steep climbs. But with Sagan disqualified, the green jersey is up for grabs, and it seems to have inspired the pure sprinters to fight. Marcel Kittel, Andre Greipel, Sonny Colbrelli, and Alexander Kristoff all made it up the hill and into the final bunch.
Kittel had the best coordination, following a perfect lead from his Quickstep team towards the line. Greipel hovered behind him, followed by Matthews, looking for the moment to jump. First went Greipel, then Matthews, and finally Kittel, seconds too late to get up to top speed.
Greipel won the sprint, gaining 20 points, but with no change in the overall classification. Kittel looks comfortable with 72 points over Matthews, in third with 140, and Greipel in fourth at 130 points.
Arnaud Demare is still second in the sprints, but was nowhere near the bunch, a full two minutes and forty-five seconds behind. Commentators Matthew Keenan and Robbie McEwen began wondering if he’d miss the cut-off time and find himself eliminated from the race.
Did they finally break after the sprint?
Twenty-five year old Frenchman Lilian Calmejane, riding his debut Tour de France, went clear just after the showdown. As he attacked, countryman Demare dropped back, his deficit growing to five minutes.
Calmejane would be caught and passed by a four man counter-attack, only to go again with Chavanal. He never stopped fighting, even when he’d be caught again, mere minutes later, by the peloton.
What do you call a fifty man break?
I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that, but Keenan settled on “mini-peloton” a few minutes later. It was not the peloton that reeled in Calmejane, but rather, a fifty man break. This group included representatives of the top teams; three men from Richie Porte’s BMC, three from Team Sky, and a few riders from Nairo Quintana’s Movistar and one from Fabio Aru’s Astana.
It was possible that this was a tactic to help a GC leader, but unlikely. The GC contenders were able to sit back and let the break go, settling into a comfortable tempo. Attacks continued in the lead group, suggesting the real goal was a stage win for a non-GC contender. Warren Barguil and Serge Pauwels looked hungriest, driving the pace up and dropping the weakest tag-alongs.
Barguil netted a few King of the Mountains points on the category 3 Col de la Joux, the first categorized climb of the day. The advantage on Team Sky and the GC was over 3 minutes, and Demare was now 15 minutes behind, riding with two FDJ teammates and looking likely for elimination.
With 70 km to go, Barguil and Pauwels would be joined by six others. Belgian Pauwels welcomed countrymen Greg Van Avermaet, riding for Porte’s BMC, and Jan Bakelants of AG2R la Mondiale. Others in the group included Italians Diego Ulissi of UAE Team Emirates and Matteo Trentin of Quick-Step Floors, German Marcus Burghardt from Bora-Hansgrohe, and Australian Michael Matthews riding for Sunweb.
They cooperated for nearly 30 km before turning up the pace, shelling Trentin, Matthews, and Burghardt. Undaunted Calmejane, leading American GC contender Andrew Talansky, bridged back to the leaders, forming a seven man group.
What is Talansky up to this year?
Talansky was the most promising American cyclist since Floyd Landis was stripped of his 2006 victory. Despite a glamorous debut, though, his career has been marred with disappointments. His best result was a top ten Tour finish in 2013. Eighteen months of crashes and injuries left him eliminated in the 2014 Tour. He finished 11th in the 2015 Tour, worse than in 2013.
A family crisis took him out of the 2016 Tour, but he scored fifth overall in La Vuelta Espana, renewing expectations for this Tour. He sat nearly two minutes behind Froome at the start of today, making a yellow jersey finish possible if his break held.
And would it hold?
It would not. The group seemed to lose steam after they joined, and were caught by about thirty five chasers. Team Sky was steadily gaining ground, around two minutes behind, and the effort looked doomed.
A near tragedy for Team Sky
Even the most textbook Tour day can result in an upset. Nothing is certain; crashes can take out the best or the worst riders, and I watched in shock as Geraint Thomas and Chris Froome headed off-road through a hairpin turn. Thomas was uninjured, and Froome remained on his bike, but the pack slowed down considerably as they rejoined.
Porte and other rivals stayed with the group, a courtesy move typically expected of GC rivals. The attack was under no such obligation, however, and Calmejane and five others made a last-ditch break. With 28 km to go, they wouldn’t have another shot. It was Calmejane, BMC’s Van Avermaet and Nicholas Roche, Bakelants, and Robert Gesink.
After a steady 10 km of riding, Calmejane attacked yet again, dropping the rest of the break and opening his time gap to Froome by a minute. Bizarrely, BMC’s Roche, supposedly riding for a Porte victory, tried to bridge and failed. Robert Gesink went second and got clear but couldn’t quite catch Calmejane.
Calmejane fought on just thirty seconds ahead, crossing the 1st category Côte de la Combe de Laisia-Les Molunes to win 10 points and the polka-dot jersey for the King of the Mountain competition. A minute later he was awarded the most aggressive honor, his second time in that category, and his second award for today.
Pushing a big gear, Calmejane kept his lead after the summit, almost guaranteed to finish ahead of Gesink, who was still thirty seconds behind, followed by Guillame Martin. The third man, a debut French rider from Wanty, was almost a minute behind after attacking from the peleton and passing Roche et al.
Where did he come from? He’s incredible!
Calmejane is in his second year as a professional, and this is his debut Tour de France. He started late but has already shown success, and calls former French champion Thomas Voeckler his mentor. He’s already won a Grand Tour stage, in his debut at last year’s La Vuelta Espana.
Race radio stopped reporting the gap for Demare, the current French champion, who had a time deficit of more than twenty minutes as Calmejane raced to the finish. The 25 year old Frenchman was set to win his first Tour de France stage and establish himself as a national hero.
Then, thirty seconds ahead of Gesink, he fumbled. His right leg visibly cramped; the muscles bulged grotesquely; he looked like a man about to fall off his bike. Gesink’s team must have called it into him. He jumped out of the saddle and rode hard, setting a grueling pace.
Calmejane veered right and left, suffering to regain his cadence. He was moving so slowly that a spectator stopped to pat his back. The catch felt inevitable.
No! Go Calmejane, go!
What could it feel like to earn a stage win, the polka-dot jersey, and the most aggressive award, all in the same day? It was a tense ten seconds as I watched Calmejane struggle, worrying that he’d never get to know. Then, the time gap came through: forty seconds.
Despite Gesink’s sprint, despite Calmejane’s cramp, despite the pressure and the nerves, he not only kept but extended his lead. Cramps beget cramps, though, and under the 3 km banner, I knew it was a matter of time before his second hit.
He kept a comfortable cadence, in a slightly smaller gear, and the time gap held steady. The camera panned back to a defeated Gesink. He must have seen Calmejane for a second, must have heard it was over on his radio, but he just didn’t have it. He rode on, slumped, at a second place pace.
“It’s fantastic. This is the way of racing I like. I’m a rider with a lot of panache” — Lilian Calmejane on his stage win
At the 800 meter mark, Calmejane sat up, looked around, and flashed a brilliant smile as he raised his arm in triumph. The finish was in sight and he was home free. The cramps returned as he crossed the line, and the camera lingered for just a moment on him as he lay on the ground, his quad in spasm.
What about Demare?
“I’m not ill, I’m dreadful. Clearly today I was dreadful.”
He’d disappeared from the feed at this point, and the announcement came in: Based on Calmejane’s time, he would have to arrive at the finish in under forty five minutes or be eliminated. It didn’t look good. Worst of all, he had two FDJ teammates with him, and was still off the radar.
Gesink finished second, followed by Martin, Roche, and Roman Kreuziger. Aru was sixth, with the same time as Martin and the rest of the peloton, including Porte and Froome. The time gaps for the top ten in the general classification remain unchanged.
After the peloton came the stragglers, smaller groups with sprinters and support riders. As each group came in, the drama was heightened for Demare, who was rumored to be another twenty minutes behind thirty minutes after the finish. This would mean a loss of three men for FDJ, or one-third of the squad.
The rumor turned out to be wrong: He rolled over the line at 37'33", several minutes before Peter Sagan’s brother, Juraj, finished the race in last position. Hopefully he stays with the others tomorrow and recovers on Monday for the back-to-back sprints next week.
Is Calmejane a future GC contender?
Probably not. He looks like he’ll be a reliable stage winner and attacker in the model of his mentor, Voeckler, but he denies any hope of being the next Bernard Hinault. I’ll remain optimistic regardless and am looking forward to his development for next year’s Tour. Today was probably the highlight of his Tour, and I expect we will see him stay in the pack and look to recover tomorrow.
Do we get any Taylor Phinney today?
Nope, I’ve got nothing. Nor is there any more news on the popular Sagan brother, but some clever marketer has released some very cheesy shirts. The shirt slogans include #FreeSagan and “Rubbing is Racing”. I’ll be buying none of it, no matter how sad I am to see Sagan out. Frankly, as a cycling writer, I just can’t afford the social cost of wearing insider t-shirts for my nerdy pursuit.
What’s going to happen tomorrow?
They’re going to do it all over again, with a brutal race up three of the top-ranked hors categories mountains. The final climb comes before a 13 km descent, then a roughly 13 km flat finish. I’m going to call it for Froome. Despite the slip up on the descent today, he’s got the skill set for this. If he goes, he’ll be the one to take the polka-dot jersey from Calmejane, which seems the most likely outcome.
Today was probably rougher than the GC riders hoped for, and Team Sky seemed to put in most of the work, with the exception of Van Avermaet and Roche for BMC. Roche going for the stage win seems incomprehensible in the context of Porte’s GC hopes; it’d be like Michael Kwiatkowski abandoning Froome to try to win a random stage. I’m not sure if this represents a lack of confidence in Porte, or just a lack of dedication for BMC, but it doesn’t improve Porte’s position.
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.
Did you miss yesterday’s recap, covering Kittel’s tight victory on Stage 7?
