Stage Fourteen

 

Sleeping under the canopy of a thick forest, the morning light didn’t wake me and I slept until 8:30, a much needed couple hours of extra sleep.  Thankfully I didn’t need to be on the road by seven, as has all too frequently been the case, as I wasn’t getting anywhere near today’s stage, starting in a corner of the Alps some eighty miles away.  

The route wasn’t coming my way, so I didn’t need to be in a rush to try to intersect with it.  It would be a day off The Tour route until later in the day after I watched the end of the stage in a bar in Annecy and would then pick up the next day’s route a few miles out of town and have the company of course markers as evening came on.

It was just thirty-five miles to Annecy and its spectacular lake, but I had a steep five-mile climb over a ridge to get there and then some more climbing after dipping into a valley.  I was caught by a downpour halfway up the climb and pulled over under some trees joined by a couple of cyclists and a motorcyclist.  The cyclists were just out for a morning ride and had no rain gear, as it was one of those surprise mountain storms that come and go.  This one went in less than half an hour.

As I approached Annecy the traffic thickened considerably.  It is a large tourist town that is a very popular getaway, especially in the month of July.  Most of the patrons at the bar I selected were sitting outside and were of many nationalities—German, Chinese, Dutch.  The bartender could have been Parisian.  When I requested a menthe á l’eau he told me to take a seat and give my order to his waiter.  It was no surprise that the cost was double what I’d been accustomed to paying in small towns.  I was relieved it was no more than that.

The stage in the Alps was once again the Pogaçar/Vingegaard show though they were surprised by the Spanish Ineos rider Carlos Rodriguez on the descent of the Beyond Category climb seven miles from the finish who took the win and thanks to the ten second bonus slipped into third place by a mere second over Hindley, who wore the Yellow Jersey a day.  Pogaçar’s teammate, Adam Yates, who wore the Yellow Jersey the first few stages, moved up to fifth, just thirty-six seconds from third.  It’s turning into a barn-burner for third as well as first.  Ineos had the best rider last year too after the two top dogs, when Geraint Thomas took third.  It is a small consolation for a team that won The Tour seven times with Wiggins, Froome, Thomas and Bernal.  

After the Ineos stage win yesterday the retired American pro Ian Boswell, contributing to the  British Cycling Podcast, asked the Ineos director Rod Ellingsworth how many Tour stage wins that was for his team since it was founded as Team Sky thirteen years ago.  He didn’t know, as overall wins is the only thing he really keeps track of.  He thought maybe ten.  It was actually twenty, and today was number twenty-one. The Ineos riders all have a yellow number on their back as the leading team, and they’ll extend their lead after today.

Vingegaard reversed his dwindling lead and added a second to it today thanks to a time bonus on the final climb putting him ten seconds ahead of Pogaçar.  He sprinted past Pogaçar as they neared the summit and earned eight seconds, while Pogaçar earned five.  Pogaçar gained back two seconds of it at the finish line when he nipped Vingegaard earning a six second bonus for finishing second behind Rodriguez, while Vingegaard earned a four second bonus for finishing third.  It couldn’t be more nick and tuck.

Pogaçar tested Vingegaard on the final climb taking off earlier than usual 3.6 kilometers from the summit.  Vingegaard clawed his way back and regained him after two kilometers.  They rode together until just before the summit when Vingegaard was the first to go and had the superior sprint this time.  Tomorrow’s stage ends with another Beyond Category climb.  The next day is a rest day, so they won’t be holding back.

The traffic continued to be relentless leaving Annecy and no less so even when I came upon a course marker after a two-mile climb, the worst traffic since Paris.  And it didnt let up even after dark past my tent off in a clump of trees.  Out in rural France there is virtually no traffic after the dinner hour.

Rummaging through my panniers I discovered I still have some Cheerios I brought from home that I’d put in a zip loc bag and had been snacking on early in the trip.  It’s not the only food I’ve been carrying for over fifteen hundred miles.  I brought two jars of peanut butter and have only finished one, rationing it out.  I also still have some powdered Gatorade that I’d just been using on the really hot days.  It’s nice to know I can lighten my load, or at least compensate for the caravan loot I’ve been gathering, by powering through them.  Tomorrow will be another caravan day and then a break for a few days, as I won’t bother with Tuesday”s short time trial, choosing instead to get out of the Alps and on to flatter terrain.

The mountainous terrain has done in two more of the top sprinters—Ewan and Jakobsen.  Philipson isn’t going to have much competition on the final two sprint stages.   Lance will be sorry to see Ewan go as the number on his back, 181, has special significance to him, giving him a jolt of pleasure whenever he sees it, as he mentioned in a podcast after Ewan finished second on a stage. That is the number he pinned on his jersey before every stage of his first Tour win in 1999.  The next six years it was number 1 as the defending champion.