Newsletter

on the Champs-Elysées, Wout van Aert de triomphe – Liberation

On the roads of the Tour (21/21)

Tour de France 2021dossier

The Belgian offers himself another prestigious victory in this Tour de France. Tadej Pogacar wins the general classification. Mark Cavendish the green jersey. And also the statement, the stat, the bike dico, the quiz …

A hat-trick as prestigious as it is improbable. The Belgian Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) won the prestigious Champs-Elysées sprint this Sunday evening, the last stage of a Tour which saw him win alone on the day of the double ascent of the Mont. Ventoux and this Saturday during a time trial in the vineyards of Saint-Emilion. 3 victories on the same Tour de France in the mountains, chrono and massive sprint, two did it before him, Merckx (1974) and Hinault (1979). It classifies the guy.

Van Aert is part of this new class of runners who know how to do everything, even if it means disgusting specialists. In particular a certain Mark Cavendish. At the finish line, the Isle of Man sprinter knocks on the hanger of his bike. He’s angry, he just finished third. This image recalls another, Friday, of him at the start of a stage in Mourenx, where he brutalizes his bike as a sign of protest against his mechanic – the reason remains unclear. We definitely found Cavendish, winner of course, but also a bit eruptive, far from the images of the British all honey delivered so far in this Tour de France.

The well-oiled train of his formation, Deceuninck-Quick Step, was somewhat out of order this Sunday. 600 meters from the line, Cavendish lost the wheel of his powerful pilot fish Morkov. Proof that without the power of his collective, he is not necessarily the best sprinter of the moment. At 36, the Briton consoles himself with the green jersey of the winner of the points classification.

Before that, the Total Energies rider, Anthony Turgis, was left behind in the last 15 kilometers: feverish and exhausted, like a large part of the peloton at the end of this particularly exhausting Tour de France, in view of the average speed, around of 41km / h, one of the fastest in the history of the Tour. In a climate of suspicion not always justified, it is the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) who wins, accompanied on the podium by the Danish Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) and the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers). The young Slovenian, in addition to the yellow jersey, leaves Paris with the polka-dot jersey for the best climber and the white for the best youngster.

At the end of the sprint on the Champs-Elysées, four teams shared 15 of the 21 victories on this Tour, more than 70% of the successes. Deceuninck-Quick Step, 5 wins (Cavendish four times, Alaphilippe); Jumbo-Visma, 4 wins (Van Aert three times, Kuss); UAE-Team Emirates, 3 wins (Pogacar); Bahrain-Victorious, 3 victories (Mohoric twice, Teuns), best of the team classification in Paris.

15 out of 23 teams have not won anything, and some do not seem able to do so. Less strong runners, but not only. For the Canadian Michael Woods (Israel Start-up Nation), ephemeral polka dot jersey, “There are huge differences in the material between the teams”. Belgian Loïc Vliegen (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert) confirms: “Some brands aren’t really up to scratch, it’s part of the sport. For some runners, it’s obviously annoying because, at the end of a race, with fatigue, it’s the little thing that keeps you from winning. Afterwards, when you are a very good rider, you ride in a very good team with resources and good equipment. ”

The state: 3

This is the number of riders of the Arkéa-Samsic team in Paris: Elie Gesbert, Nairo Quintana and Connor Swift. The other five gave up. This French formation is the most decimated of the peloton. Several teams have, despite the falls of the first week, the changing weather and the proximity to the Olympics, retained their eight runners. This is the case of UAE-Team Emirates, the formation of the yellow jersey.

Thing seen

In the retro

“We were initially content to entrust a modeling agency with the task of finding four young women” good in all respects “and in all their forms, aged from 25 to 35 years old, dolled up, scented all in yellow. . And then, one day, at a meeting of brainstorming, one of us pitched an idea: “What if we did a casting to choose our misses?” Bursts of general laughter. And then on reflection we said to ourselves that the idea was not so stupid. Thus, to occupy some of our long days, we received around fifty young women proposed by specialized agencies. ”

— Taken from an off-putting sexism article dated 2018 and written by Guy Sitruk. This ex-journalist from L’Equipe, who went to sponsor LCL in the winter of 1991, tells, in the memoir “L’Equipe tells the Tour de France” the setting up of the hostesses on the podiums at the finish steps. For two years, there is now a man and a woman around the riders on the podium.

The dico of the bike

Make curtain

End your effort when you know it is in vain. The peloton forms a curtain once it no longer has the faith to seek the breakaway of the day. As for us, we lower it, the curtain, with this last step. Thank you for having followed us.

The question of the day

The 2021 Tour is over. See you on July 1, 2022 for the big start in …

♦Doha (Qatar)

♦Utrecht (Pays-Bas)

♦ Copenhagen (Denmark)

♦ Minas Morgul (Middle-earth)

Answer of this question: Copenhagen.

Answer of yesterday’s question: 1975.

2021 season Episode 01 / Episode 02 / Episode 03 / Episode 04 / Episode 05 / Episode 06 / Episode 07 / Episode 08 / Episode 09 / Episode 10 / Episode 11 / Episode 12 / Episode 13 / Episode 14 / Episode 15 / Episode 16 / Episode 17 / Episode 18 / Episode 19 / Episode 20

.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Trending