Stage Twenty

It was more dark than light when I broke camp at 6:30 this morning in a forest five miles from the Pau train station.  I’d allowed plenty of time to make my 7:47 train in case of mishap or flat.  I had to push my bike through a barrier of prickly bushes, which is almost a matter of course when penetrating the periphery of French forests. They had yet to cause a flat, but I’m always wary.  I survived once again, even in the dark, having to use my headlamp to find my way back to the road through the brush.  

The station was filling with others heading to Paris on the first of three daily trains from Pau  that make the 400-mile trip in less than five hours including a handful of stops.  The French pride themselves on their trains being on-time, but there was a notice our departure wasn’t until 8:20.  The train was sitting in the station but there’d been a delay in cleaning it.  I didn’t see any other cyclists.  I had a slight concern that my bike might need to be in a bag, as is the case on some TGVs, though I’d been assured that there was no need on this one.  Luckily that turned out to be the case.  

There was a space for two bikes in an open slot beside my assigned seat. One bike had preceded me and a couple of passengers had put suitcases beside it hoping there wasn’t another bike. One was quite perturbed when I moved his bag.  It sure was nice to wheel my bike right on, panniers and all, and have easy access to it all during my flight, or what seemed like a flight as we smoothly flew along and I sat in highbacked comfort.

The train had WiFi so I could catch up on all the pre-time trial stories on the cycling websites.  The consensus was Thomas had it all wrapped up, but Froome was doomed to fourth and that Dumoulin’s second was in jeopardy from the fast-charging Roglic who’d won the previous day’s final mountain stage and seemed to be getting stronger and stronger as The Race went on.  Someone even speculated that if The Race were four weeks instead of three that Roglic would win it.

But Froome was having none of it when he set out on the 31-kilometer time trial course west of Pau just inland from the Atlantic in Basque country.  He was the fourth to the last rider to hit the course shortly before 4:30.  I had found a bar nearly an hour earlier in Houilles, the Paris suburb where the next day’s stage would start.  It was less then ten miles from the Champs Élysées, where the peloton would end up after skirting the western periphery of the city for thirty-some miles before its eight 3.6 mile circuits of the Champs. Tour boutiques were already set up on the Champs, and they were thronged.  

By the first checkpoint at the 13-kilometer point it was clear Froome had rediscovered himself.  No one had a better time until Thomas, the last rider, came along.  Froome had erased his deficit to Roglic and had regained the podium.  Not only was Froome having a great ride, Roglic was having a bad, or not good,  ride, maybe paying for all the energy he expended the day before.  Many thought Roglic would win today, but he came in eighth, over a minute behind Froome.  

Dumoulin, in the World Champion colors as he can wear in time trials and not Sagan, since he owns that title, came on strong and nipped Froome by a second.  Thomas let up taking no risks after having the best time at the two intermediate time checks and finished third, fourteen seconds back, but securing the Yellow Jersey.  It was hearty hugs all round at the finish, first with his wife, but no kisses as he was still wearing his special time trial helmet with built-in visor. He was so overcome by emotion in his post-race press conference he was in tears.  Vincent, who has ridden The Tour with me several times, one year dispensing small packets of vegemite to his fellow Aussies along the road, wrote, “makes you believe again.”  

Sky dominated the time trial even more than The Race, with Michal Kwiatkowski having the fourth best time, Jonathan Castroviejo 14th, Wout Poels 17th and Egan Bernal 25th.  Sky is impressive—six of the top 25 times.  How did they not win the team time trial?  The seventh Sky rider, Thomas’ fellow Welshman, Luke Rowe, just one of three Welsh riders to compete in The Tour in its entire history, didn’t push it, coming in 112th.  This is Sky’s sixth Tour win in seven years with three different riders.  It gets good riders and trains them well.  Thomas had three altitude training camps of two weeks each on Tenerife Island, the first time he has had so many before The Tour.  His team believed in him and prepared him as if they expected him to be a contender.  He rode the time trial course three times in May after winning the Dauphiné.  Roglic had not ridden it  even once until the morning of the stage.  

It was odd seeing the number eight on the back of the Yellow Jersey.  Next year Thomas will have number one, but what will happen with him and Froome?  They both have two years left on their contracts with Sky.  Will they enter next year’s Tour as co-leaders and let  the road decide, as it did this year, who is the strongest?  Even though Thomas was demonstrating he was, it wasn’t until the Pyrenees that he was officially anointed team leader, since he had never proven himself, a situation Froome was in during the 2012 Tour won by Wiggins when it was clear to everyone Froome was the stronger climber, having to wait up for Wiggins at times.  Dumoulin can point to the Stage Six of the Mur de Bretagne when a flat tire and a 20-second penalty for drafting his team car comprised a good part of his deficit to Thomas, but still Thomas put time into him on seven stages and not once did Demoulin take any time out of Thomas until the time trial. 

With such a short final stage into Paris I only rode the first few miles after watching the time trial with course markers guiding me, which there none of on the Champs Élysées, before camping in a forest.  I attempted a campground along the Seine beyond Houijlles thinking it would be nice to get a shower before my flight home on Monday, but there was such a long line of people at the receptionist’s desk, I turned around and headed to the peace and quiet of the nearby forest, which I knew all about from my scouting trip the month before allowing me a much better sleep than if I’d been in the campground.  I’ll get a semi-shower at a cemetery in Mitry-Mory near the airport as I usually do. 

There was a hint of cool in the air when I stepped off the train at the Austerlitz Station, at least in contrast to the hotter south, so I worked up no sweat as I pedaled through Paris on assorted bike lanes for better than ten miles until I neared Houilles.  There were plenty of other cyclists taking advantage of them, some on rental bikes, but mostly on their own.  Someone in a large group of fifty or so all wearing the Bora jerseys of Sagan’s German-sponsored team took a fall in front of me on the cobbly Champs Élysées, but at a slow enough speed not to be injured.  

Yesterday’s most spectacular Tour injury went to Taylor Phinney, who crashed face first into a tree on the final descent breaking his nose and a small bone below his eye.  He finished the stage and had his nose reset and did the time trial today.  There is a strong competition for who is riding with the worst injury and is the champion of suffering.  Lawson Craddock, who has ridden the entire Tour with a broken scapula, seemed to being dominating the competition, but Sagan has ridden three stages with a totally battered body, saying he’s never suffered so much.  Gilbert finishing a stage with a broken knee and shoe full of blood merits honorable mention.  Quintana has had some ugly, Lycra-lacerating crashes and others too.  One must be tough to endure in this sport.  Porte’s toughness was questioned when he quit a stage with what he thought was a broken collarbone when x-rays showed that it was only a severe contusion.  

Bob Roll, NBC Tour announcer and former teammate of Lance and great wit, finally made an appearance on Lance’s podcast.  He was like a big brother to Lance in his early days and was one of those he called upon when he returned to the sport after recovering from cancer and wasn’t so sure he cared to endure the suffering leaving Europe after struggling in an early-season race.  He took a long ride with Roll and Chris Carmichael and they convinced him to stick to it.  Since Lance doesn’t mention Roll on his podcasts even though he listens to his broadcast every day, there was reason to think maybe they’d had a falling out.  So it was nice to see they seem to be on good terms.  

Lance let him know he was recording and not to say anything stupid.  Roll replied, “You may have the wrong guy.”  None of them could fault Roglic for chasing after the lead motorcycle on yesterday’s descent.  They all would have done the same thing.  Roll was known as a fearless descender in his day. Hincapie chided him for letting Vande Velde drop him on a descent filmed for NBC.  Roll explained he was a little hesitant after having a blow-out of a front tire on a descent a couple days before.  

Once again Lance allowed us to see beyond the surface of the sport and get to know the personalities of those involved in it.  He maintains a most entertaining repartee with Hincapie, admitting George is right way more than he is, and poking fun at him for being so well-liked, especially compared to him. Lance attended a dance-competition fund-raiser in Aspen the night before.  When he arrived he was greeted by the woman at the door, who didn’t know him, as “Mr Hincapie.”  A couple of guys with the woman who listen to his podcast whispered to her that the guy coming is George Hincapie.  Lance and the guys got a good laugh out of it.  Lance was asked if he participated in the contest.  He said he had no interest, though his mother is always telling him he should do Dancing with the Stars, thinking it will make everybody will like him again.