Stage Five

 

Time trials are known as the “race of truth,” but the mountains reveal truths as well. Today’s first foray into the mountains answered the question hovering over The Tour of who is the stronger of the past two winners and overwhelming favorites to repeat.  

Last year’s winner, Vingegaard, took a whopping minute out of the winner of the previous two Tours, Pogaçar, riding away from him a kilometer from the summit of a Category One climb eleven miles before the finish and held him off to the finish. He didn’t win the stage nor gain the Yellow Jersey just yet,   both went to Aussie Jai Hindley, who joined a breakaway group of podium threats that Pogaçar and Vingegaard inadvisably let get several minutes up the road, as Hindley, a former Giro winner, was considered the strongest rider in the peloton after the top two and was the oddsmaker’s favorite to finish third.  

His two prime rivals weren’t showing him a great amount of respect to let him off the leash.  Vingegaard brought back much of his advantage finishing only forty-six seconds behind, which he could easily overcome on any long climb, unless Hindley is invigorated by the Yellow Jersey and can stick with his attacks, which so far no one has been able to do.  

Suddenly The Tour has another storyline, though it could go poof on tomorrow’s second day in the Pyrenees with a finish up a Category One climb after dealing with the Beyond Category Tourmalet.  It will be must viewing.

I had the pleasure of watching today’s action in a bar with two other patrons who were already riveted to the television when I arrived with ninety minutes left in the stage.  The bar had Wi-Fi, so I could supplement the French commentary with updates from the Tour de France website and the cyclingnews website.  

It would have been a perfect setting if only there’d been a L’Équipe newspaper laying around with its multiple pages of Tour coverage. It would have been nice too if  the bar hadn’t been infested with flies that were nipping at my ankles.  At least there were easily accessible electric outlets so I could do some charging, though it wasn’t a great necessity as I had spent two hours earlier in the day in a mediatheque (library) taking my first prolonged break of this ride.  

For the first time in two weeks I wasn’t pressed to be getting down the road as I was bypassing the Pyrenees and was starting on Stage Seven to Bordeaux, two stages ahead of the peloton.  It would make for stress free riding for a couple of days simply enjoying the glorious French countryside.  I made no demands on the legs letting them soft pedal and have a recovery day.  My present short-term goal is to get to the Stage Eight start by Friday morning just as the course markers are being mounted and before whatever groups there might be here this year riding a day ahead of the peloton.  

The past few years there has been a group of women doing it, but with the brutal first three days of this year’s Tour such groups may have opted out, as they wouldn’t be able to ease into the demands of riding over one hundred miles a day for three weeks with relatively flat days as is the customary start to The Tout.  They could have been done in after a day or two of this year’s two killer opening stages.

Ralph, who I’ve yet to cross paths with since he stays at hotels and eats in restaurants and resorts to trains like an otherwise civilized human being, rode a day ahead on the Dax stage a couple days ago and reported only one encounter with two guys who said they were riding a day ahead with a “Pedal for Purpose” group.  I hope to find out more on Friday, riding a day ahead myself before letting the peloton catch up to me on Saturday.

Today I was actually riding two days ahead, something I rarely do as the course markers wouldn’t be mounted until the next day.  The route often revealed itself with fresh pavement and barriers stacked up waiting to be put in place and crews out cleaning the road and trimming trees and signs advising locals the hours the road would be closed.   Plus there were many decorations already in place.  Surprisingly there was a camper van already parked with a course marker in its window choosing to avoid the strain of the torturous Pyrenean climbs.

I patronized a Carrefour supermarket for the first time this year.  I had been sticking to the Intermarché, as it is a co-sponsor of a team, and E.Leclerc, as it sponsors the climbing jersey, which Carrefour used to do.  At the two stores I’d been sticking to I’d been asked at checkout every single time if I wanted a receipt (“ticket” as they call it), a move to cut down on wasted paper.  Carrefour has not instituted such a policy, so it’s not government mandated, as is not providing plastic or paper bags.  Everyone has been trained for years to bring their own.  

Another environmentally friendly policy is doing away with plastic straws.  I’ve sometimes been buying a six-pack of mini-cartons of chocolate milk, each with their own straw.  The straws are cardboard and after a single use have lost their strength to puncture the hole into the carton.  Since I drink two or three at a time I have to unwrap a new straw for each carton, unable to use the one I’ve just drunk from unless I puncture the hole with my pen, which I sometimes have to do if a fresh straw has gone astray.  Surprisingly the six-packs are sometimes cheaper than the liter bottles and provide an extra 200 milliliters.  Since they don’t have to be refrigerated, I can have chocolate milk first thing in the morning in my tent, always a good way to start the day.