Mad Dogs

The superlatives keep mounting up and if it keeps going like this, which it will, we’ll begin to run out of them, so marvelous is this Tour de France, so passionate, so crazily and beautifully brutal. The ‘transition’ stage - ha, ha - through Beaujolais was yet another from-the-gun dog fight of a race attacked the entire day by our very own Pitbull, American Matteo Jorgensen. The American, who broke our hearts with his final 500-meters collapse on the Puy de Dôme (Stage 9), had shaken off that defeat and gone right back into the ring with his teeth bared. He clearly has no complexes, understands that he’s now one of the strongest riders in the world, raced like it, constantly in the fight from the first to the final climb.

Everyone wanted to be in on the action in what was the final ‘normal’ stage before today’s Grand Colombier then the Alps this weekend. Jorgensen and Mathieu van der Poel were the two main culprits in the explosive start as attacks, counter attacks and counter-counter attacks that defined the first two hours of the race. Of the 169-kms of the race, only 50 were flat, the constant climbs included three Category 3 and the two Category 2’s near the finish adding up to 3120-meters of vertical total elevation which didn’t stop the racers from averaging almost 43-kph for the day, with the first two-hours hovering around the 48-kph mark. They were moving.

It took two-hours for the elastic to finally break. With 80-km to go, the field was splintering, a group of 10, including Jorgensen and VdP moved off the front, just behind was a small group including the Yellow Jersey, Pogačar and the rest of the GC contenders who’d all finally had enough and sat up. Thibaut Pinot shook off his shackles and smartly bridged to the break, the first individual move by a Groupama-FDJ rider we’ve seen in the race this far, so devoted (imprisoned?) has the team been in the service of team leader David Gaudu. The break swelled to 15-riders as Julian Alaphilippe and others managed to bridge up as well.

 With 63-kms to the finish the break had 3’19” on the Yellow Jersey field, the Polka Dot Jersey Neilsen Powless was having a second bad day in a row and trailing 6’14” behind. Pino, who started the day sitting in 15thoverall, 9’36” down, was having a good GC raid, but not one that should have concerned any of the favorites. Appearing then, on the TV screen, was the sight of the AG2R team, in full chase mode on the front of the peloton. It made absolutely no sense. Had teams with riders sitting in the top 10 on GC been worried about Pinot moving up, teams such as Ineos-Grenadiers with Pidcock and Yates, or Bahrain-Victorious whose Pello Bilaboa had successfully pulled off a similar move the day before, why then it was up to them to work at the front. It was a real head-scratcher: was it a sort of fratricidal jealousy to prevent Pino from gaining time? In the end, according to an interview given by team director Vincent Lavenu, they were working to move Felix Gall up from 16th overall…He ended up losing a place, is now 17th. Please see yesterday’s post regarding the frustrating mentality of the French teams.

46-km to go and Mathieu van der Poel explodes off the front, the Dutchman looking to win the stage in grand fashion. He is so brilliantly exciting to watch, swashbuckling his way up and down the climbs, caressing the spectators’ toes in the turns so to-the-edge does he take it all. The 32-km mark, on the Category 2 Col de la Croix Rosier, he’s caught by Pino and, hello, Jorgensen, the break now reduced to seven racers with the field, at 4’26” now, properly led by the Jumbo-Visma. 2.3-km to the top of the climb and Cofidis’s Ion Izagirre blows off the front, crushing VdP’s chances, the Dutchman going backwards fast. The Basque, who is the sort of racer who waits long periods between wins but does get them - he won a Tour stage in 2016 and a Giro stage in 2012, took full advantage of his moment and fully committed to the effort, never looking back, arriving in solo splendor in Bellville-en-Beaujolais to an enthusiastic reception, the “I Love Beaujolais” promo flags fluttering up and down the finish line, the second Basque win in a row.

Jorgensen, who needs to temper his mad dog racing style and learn to make fewer yet more effective moves, such as does Izagirre, was outfoxed by France’s clever Mathieu Burgaudeau for second, with the peloton at 4’14”. Pogačar tried to win the field sprint for 14th, one must love his irrepressible nature.

Pino moved up to 10th overall, but it remains to see what he does with his new position, being that close in the GC will hamper his freedom of movement. Don’t be surprised to see him lose time today as he plots for a final career Tour stage win in the Alps.