EIt must have been in the last year. Or in the penultimate one? At least it was in the Pyrenees. I was at the stage destination. Glowing heat. The town had looked pretty, almost all of the drivers were through. Were on the bus, in the hotel, in the shower. Were nursed by doctors and masseurs, because tomorrow is a new day, a new mountain to be overcome.
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Most of the spectators were already gone. Happy they carried sponsor logos home, on clapping hands, cheap sunglasses and other trinkets that the tour likes to hand out. Only I was standing there with my clapping hand, no idea why, probably a slight sunstroke. I thought of the first riders who had come in from this difficult mountain stage.
They all came from far away, you could see that at once, they had certainly crossed the realm of the dead with desperately heavy kicks. Somehow they had made it to the finish line, still half dead, and the orderlies had taken them away. Now, forever after that, a group of drivers turned around the bend in the direction of their destination. A scattered heap. Sprinters, suspended. Drivers who only have one goal in difficult mountain stages: stay during the waiting period.
If it takes a little longer
The tour management grants you a certain deficit, depending on the difficulty of the stage, more or fewer percentage points are added to the winning time. In principle, this is an ugly practice, a kind of sprinter discrimination, against which legal action can certainly be taken in these egalitarian times. But you also have to understand the race organizers. For example, if I were allowed to take part in such a stage due to a fateful mix-up, I would probably need two days to get to the finish, and of course you can’t keep the track clear for that long.
The group of strangers at the time obviously had a boss, and that was André Greipel, the German veteran who was already on the tour when some of his current colleagues were still in kindergarten, well, not quite, but almost. Greipel’s scattered squad rolled the last few meters, and I don’t think I’ll see anything more relaxed again.
They drove at a slow pace, talked and joked. Waiting period observed. Best mood. If they had had a glass of rosé in one hand, no one would have been surprised. Greipel’s squad had evidently circumnavigated the realm of the dead. It goes without saying that it will take a little longer. If I could have chosen, I would have gone with him.
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