Stage Fifteen

 

Rather than lingering in Faverges after the caravan passed I skipped on watching the peloton zip by an hour later and had a nice bike ride down to Albertville fifteen miles away, a big, former winter Olympic city, where I knew there would be bars aplenty to watch the last hour or so of the stage.  It would also take me through Ugine, where I remembered from years past that the WC attached to the tourist office in an old train station had a shower, an extreme rarity, catering to all the outdoors people that pass through.

The shower was still in operation and even though the tourist office didn’t have Sunday hours, its Wi-Fi was in operation, unlike the tourist office in Faverges, enabling me to download all the daily cycling podcasts devoted to The Tour.  I heard a fair bit of English in Faverges from the tourists joining the locals lining the road awaiting the caravan.  
The town had such an air of affluence that the caravan was very parsimonious in giving out free stuff.  Most of the givers gave nothing, just passing by waving.  

Some of the tossers seemed to be on lunch break, munching on apples and sandwiches.  An older lady standing near me spat out the word “mange” (eat) with disgust.  It’s the first time in all my years I got nothing from the caravan, not even a bag of Hariboo candy, which is usually a certainty.  I had been all primed for the scramble for socks and hats and key chains, so couldn’t help but feel disappointed as all around me felt.

At least I had an exceptional day of cycling, first along Lake Anency on a very popular bicycle path, reason enough to vacation in the area.  It has a few beaches, though people go wading into it anywhere.

And the cycling was superlative too on a bike path to Ugine and then a lightly trafficked secondary road along a highway to Albertville.  Cyclists are very much catered to in this region.

As I ventured to the center of Albertville there wasn’t a soul to be seen it being a Sunday.  I went to the train station knowing there is invariably a bar nearby and there was but it’s television had Wimbledon on and though no one seemed to be watching it, the woman bartender didn’t care to put on The Tour.  I came upon another bar a few blocks down the road.  All its patrons were sitting outside and the television inside was turned off because the bartender said it was out of commission.

I circled back into the city and at last came upon a square with several cafe/bars mostly with outdoor seating.  The first I ducked into had the cycling on its television with an audience of three elderly, the usual demographic. The upper left hand corner of the screen had 57.4, the number of kilometers left in the stage and then across the top of the screen was the time the leaders had on a group of pursuers and then the time to the Yellow Jersey group.  Vingegaard and company were six minutes back, so it wasn’t likely he and Pogaçar would be vying for the stage victory and it’s bonus seconds.

Three strong riders were in the lead—the ever present Wout Van Aert of Vingegaard’s team, Marc Soler of Pogaçar’s team and another Wout, this one Poels, a former Sky rider now on Bahrain Victorious.  Poels managed to shed his companions and took the win.  As usual Vingegaard and Pogaçar whittled their group down to just themselves, with Yates the last to depart, who for awhile went on ahead threatening to move up to third overall, but he faltered.  Rodriguez, presently in third, joined them and was able to extend his lead on Hindley to over a minute, with Yates jumping ahead of him into fourth.  Once again Vingegaard was able to valiantly match Pogaçar’s accelerations and maintain his overall ten second advantage.  When they crossed the line together I thought they might give each other a pat of respect but they both sped directly to their awaiting handlers and a cold drink. 

With Vingegaard still in Yellow, as he was on the previous rest day, he will be obligated to meet the press, which he does with great reluctance.  He so much likes to keep to himself, he broke a long-standing tradition of the year’s previous winner of The Tour attending the much-publicized ceremony in October when the next year’s route is announced.  All the top riders generally attend, but no pressure from his team or The Tour could convince him to participate.

Tuesday’s time trial, the one and only this year, will be riveting and could well decide the race, since they both have been finding it within themselves to stick to the other when the road heads up and one tries to drop the other.  They are two heavyweights pounding each other without either flinching.

If it had been Wednesday, the day before Thursday’s 18th stage, when I left the bar and resumed riding I would have come upon a course marker, as the stage starting in Moutiers would be passing by Albertville on its way to Bourg-en-Bresse. I considered heading down to Moutiers fifteen miles away to ride the stage in its entirety, but I didn’t care to double back.  I was bypassing the time trial and the stage after, as they too would have required doubling back from another direction, plus there are two long transfers of forty and ninety miles after Stages eighteen and nineteen that I wanted to get a jump on so I wouldn’t miss my flight home.

With Stage Eighteen right there in Albertville I started in on it three plus days ahead of the peloton.  Since the next day was a rest day for the peloton I wouldn’t have to worry about adjusting my schedule to be in a town with a bar late in the afternoon and could just ride as whim struck me.  Maybe I’ll even come upon a mediatheque I can take advantage of.  

I will have no concern of team riders flying by me on their Rest Day ride, as happened to me on the first Rest Day.  If that is something I wanted, I needed only go to Passy, the start of the time trial, as all would be out previewing it.  But I’ve been to Passy in years past so didn’t have the curiosity of checking it out.  Instead I’ll have a pleasant day of cycling all to myself and not demanding too much of my legs.  As Geraint Thomas said on his podcast, everyone has tired legs at this point, two weeks into The Tour.