On the roads of the Tour (18/21)
The Slovenian wins in yellow for the second consecutive day. Pogacar, Vingegaard, Carapaz: same podium as the day before. The spectacle was above all off course, from the Bahraïn affair to the Tourmalet fauna. And also the statement, the stat, the bike dico, the quiz …
We could summarize the end of today’s stage for you, but we already did it yesterday. And again, yesterday there was a bit of suspense. Tadej Pogacar is stronger than everyone, on all terrains. In the last hectometers of the stage, he planted the same two stakes in the asphalt as the day before. The Slovenian won ahead of Jonas Vingegaard and Richard Carapaz, same order in the general classification.
The difference with yesterday? Pogacar recovers the best climber’s polka-dot jersey and will have, except for accidents, in three days in Paris, the same collection as last year and probably the next ones too: best youngster white, yellow and polka dots.
In the early morning, when the organization installs the road signs and closes the roads, we leave Pau in search of Luz Ardiden. It is the day of the visit of the President of the Republic: “Will she be there, Brigitte?” “Will he be on a bicycle, Macron?” we hear onlookers patiently waiting for the publicity caravan. We go to Lourdes, and the major news of this morning falls: the search of the hotel of the Bahrain Victorious team in Lescar, near Pau, the night before. The best team on this Tour de France is under police investigation, probably for suspicion of doping. Victorious of two stages on the Tour, Bahrain has had a series of astounding performances for months. Latest to date: the two podiums, on this Tour, of sprinter Sonny Colbrelli in mountain stages. The Marseille prosecutor’s office recalls that all are presumed innocent. We continue on our way.
Three hours before the passage of the runners, climb in the back of our “Libémobile” three hitchhikers. Friends from Lyon and Paris who, the day before in the Col du Portet, saw Wout Van Aert and Julian Alaphilippe discussing when the others were in pain. They imagine them this Thursday escaped together. As a thank you, they have a «info» to give us: motorhome owners, for three days installed in a nice lace, have been “Cleared to make room for President Macron’s helicopter ”. And instead of seeing five minutes of spectacle uphill, it will be five seconds, relegated to the flat in Sainte-Marie-de-Campan, at the foot of the Tourmalet.
On the sides of the Pyrenean giant, many flags for Bruno Armirail, the guy from Bagnères. We drop off our squatters in La Mongie, our car empties and the Tourmalet fills up, puts on, under the sun, its costume of light, as if dressed in these budding sportsmen lined up in the green along its curves. First, in the first kilometers, many families, fathers on bicycles towing their offspring’s bicycle using a simple rope. Higher up, a few motorhomes with well-planted folding tables. Then the legs on the side aisles are more and more shaved and shiny: they pedaled up the pass most used by the Tour de France since 1903.
We can see the summit in the distance but just in front of us it eats, it drinks, it sings sardines by Patrick Sébastien, it falls on a chair, it collides, one going up, the other going down, it gets up, it apologizes, it smells the merguez and the stirs of perspiration. The climax is reached in a traffic jam of cycling jerseys who have dismounted, the same smile wrinkled by the effort. We think of splitting this crowd of our four wheels but no, finally, we are there, stuck between the summit panels as in the middle of a Nîmes alley during the ferias, and behind 200 winners of the day, who dominated the Tourmalet. Once the cyclo cloud has passed, it’s time to descend, a background purplish green with irises and whitened in the distance: sheep looking like grains of rice.
In the ascent to Luz Ardiden, many Basques, the first political messages of the day, “Save the Barèges funicular”, “long live the free Basque Country” and the daily anti-Israel message. Conclusion: nobody seems to think of Macron. In the last four terminals, at every kilometer its refreshment bar, its music and its happy souls, three Slovenes, three t-shirts and “Pog, Rog, Bog” (Pogacar, Roglic, “God” in Slovenian), a slogan that slams with rap from their country in the background. Roglic gave up but they are right, Pogacar is our light and our salvation.
The state: 84
This is the number of times that the Tour de France has taken the Tourmalet. The most familiar pass of the Grande Boucle.
Thing seen
The declared
The dico of the bike
Make the elastic
The runner who is let go then comes back to the group, and lets himself go again and comes back again makes the elastic (or the accordion, it is according to). Jonas Vingegaard Tuesday night.
The question of the day
This Friday, during the Mourenx-Libourne stage, the runners will pass, 20 km from the finish, through the town of Créon. Creon is also king of Thebes in Greek mythology. He had three children, who’s the odd one out?
♦Lycos
♦ Haemon
♦ Mégara
♦ Ménécée
Answer tomorrow!
Answer of yesterday’s question : non-classification in mountain areas. The threat paid off, Loucrup will become a mountain area a few months later.
The profile of tomorrow’s stage
2021 season – episode 01 / episode 02 / episode 3 / episode 4 / episode 5 / episode 06 / episode 7 / episode 8 / episode 9 / episode 10 / episode 11 / episode 12 / episode 13 / episode 14 / episode 16
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