It’s easy to imagine how often Emanuel Buchmann thinks of a race from three weeks ago these days. The Critérium du Dauphiné was coming up at the time, the classic preparatory race for the Tour de France, Buchmann was in good shape, but then came the descent from a mountain called Col de Plan Bois: a lot of gravel, many potholes, Buchmann got it in a bend, a fall with consequences. Shortly afterwards there was a video on which he left a hospital in a wheelchair, with bruises, abrasions, back problems. That day, it still has an effect today.
On Monday was the first day of rest of the 107th Tour de France – and Emanuel Buchmann, 27, sat in La Rochelle on the Atlantic coast, very bent in front of the sponsors’ wall of his Bora-Hansgrohe team. A podium place, that was originally his goal on this loop, but he had to cope with a setback on the two difficult stages through the Pyrenees at the weekend. He lost almost six minutes to the Slovenian Primoz Roglic in the yellow jersey and his closest rival.
“The overall standings are no longer a goal at all,” said Buchmann: “It doesn’t make sense with this form.” You didn’t make it easy for yourself at Bora when you put your best class rider in France. His start was questionable for a long time after the fall at the Dauphiné, and on the weekend before the Grand Départ he was not doing particularly well. Then they decided to take part, and the first few days went pretty well.
Sure, Buchmann once lost nine seconds, not much, but maybe there was a hint that the state of health could still be problematic. He complained that there was no teammate with him on the last climb. That’s usually not his style. A few days later in the Pyrenees there were teammates with him – but Buchmann couldn’t go on.
Peter Sagan (right) wants to win the green jersey for the eighth time.
(Photo: Kenzo Tribouillard / AFP)
“I’m missing 15, 20 watts that I had before the fall and last year,” said Buchmann. Without the missing watts, you couldn’t keep up with the front runners in terms of power density. Buchmann’s sporting director Enrico Poitschke added: “It is mentally difficult to accept that you cannot be at the very front. He has been working towards it for months. If you then go into the tour in a bad state and realize that it is not working, it is tough.” he said. The overall ranking is now “invalid”.
Bora is taking part in the Tour de France for the seventh time, and it has not often happened that the overall classification is declared over on the first day of rest. Now, in any case, the team has to change the strategy – and activate the plan B that would have existed if Buchmann had to pass at short notice before the tour. At the top, according to sports director Poitschke: to defend the green jersey that the Slovak Peter Sagan is currently wearing until the final – and also try to win a stage.
The green jersey was a declared goal even before Buchmann’s problems, but now it has become even more important. For Sagan, 30, that would be a special triumph. He wore the shirt of the best sprinter seven times at the end of the tour, in the past two years in the service of Bora. Even then, he was not really one of the fastest sprinters; on the contrary, he won the jersey because he can get over the mountains better than most other fast sprinters and also collects points on the hilly stages.
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