Dhe diary of Jonasrutsch from the Tour de France is regularly updated here. His reports are recorded by Alex Westhoff and Michael Eder.
Tag 25: The tour finale in Paris was another good day for me, a great ending. I initiated a breakaway on the Champs-Élysées and it worked. I hadn’t planned it properly. But a little of course. I had already said before that we’ll have another real race in Paris. So we did. I think one or the other will remember for a while how well it worked. And that was the goal.
The chance of getting a result or even winning on the Champs Élysées in the final stage from a breakaway group is very small. On the other hand, it’s also the only chance my team or a driver like me has had. We’re not that strong in the mass sprint, we don’t have a sprinter, which means we wouldn’t have had a chance in the final. Then you just have to find a way to avoid the sprint. And for that I threw everything in the pan that I have. I initiated the group and then found strong fellow campaigners who gave absolutely everything.
The “last man standing” at my side was Max Schachmann. Together we shook up the place again and made it as difficult as possible for those in the back. It was brutally hard. You have to be mentally prepared for this beforehand if you plan to do something like this. You have to be prepared for the fact that it’s going to hurt really badly for another hour or an hour and a half. Then you drive at the limit the whole time. It was basically our second time trial at the end of the tour.
The field only caught up with us shortly after the bell rang for the final lap. After that, we were told more often that it was really tight at the back. There wasn’t much left. They drove with six men at the front, and at the front we were five at the beginning, then four, then three and then just two. I think we neutralized a sprinter like Dylan Groenewegen who wanted to win. He had to sacrifice his whole team to bring us back. Then at the end of the day there was nobody left to force the sprint for him.
Attention by breakaway group: Jonasrutsch in Paris
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Image: Reuters
For me, the power for the breakaway came from the mental. Each racer had been cycling for three weeks before the finale. Nobody was super hot on it anymore to get everything out of themselves again. But if you are prepared to scrape everything out of yourself again, then that helps immensely.
The atmosphere on the Champs-Élysées and the crowds of spectators, that is of course a very special scenery, as well as the emotions that resonate there, but when you are in front it is just hard. You don’t get much of the outside world. Sounds silly, but the fun part really only started after we were caught. Then the escape attempt was over and I drove the last lap completely relaxed and was able to enjoy it, absorbing everything that was going on. I got a coke out of the car and ate it. Another pat on the back and then we crossed the finish line.
