Stage thirteen and a tough day in the saddle loomed for the peloton with a mountain finish on the extinct volcano Puy Mary.
Joining the SBS coverage and a list of the GC placings
flashed up on the screen and how the hell did Rigoberto Uran end up in sixth
place without anyone noticing? He is a smooth operator.
Over to the Plat du Tour kitchen and Guillaume Brahini was
matching two ingredients dear to my heart – prawns and butter in a dish of wholeking prawns with Cafe de Paris butter with a fennel and herb salad. Brahini really
knows how to please a crowd!
Out on the course and a sixteen-man break held a comfortable
lead over the peloton and the day was shaping to be a tale of two races – one for
the stage win and another for GC.
The Murder Hornets were out in front of the peloton doing
the pace making again, or as the resident Doc of Chateau du Tete calls them the
‘Biene Maja’.
In the Couch Peloton Dr Bridie O’Donnell declared the evening’s
Tour snacks theme as Fromage Friday and many obliged breaking out the fine
French cheeses and crackers. My contribution was a really ripe Camembert, the result
of a 37 hour power outage and it was perfect.
Half way through the race and Romain Bardet, Baulke Mollema
and either Nairo or his brother Dayer Quintana crashed heavily.
Mollema abandoned with a broken wrist, Bardet looked Dayer
and confused as much as we were about which Quintana went down (it turned out to
be Nairo).
Bardet was up and going along with Quintana but Bridie and
Mattie weren’t so sure he should be riding concussed. Robbie reminded us of Toms
Skujins’ crash at the 2017 Tour of California. He was clearly concussed and tried
to get back on and get going - an awful sight to see.
Upside down #13 dossard of sliced ripe Camembert. It is stage 13 after all.
Back to the race and now there were sixteen Jumbo-Visma riders at the front of the peloton acting as bodyguards for Tour leader Primoz Roglic.
The Tour chopper spotted seated vache who tried to trick us
into thinking it was going to rain. Look, we see you giggling as the peloton moves
on but the gig is up cows!
Mattie had another instalment in the adventures of Billy-Joe
Shearsby. As it turned out Shearsby once left his World Championship gold medal
and a rolled up rainbow jersey in a plastic bag in an HJ Holden that was going
off to the wreckers. We presume he carried the jersey for a makeshift fanbelt
should it break, but that’s some cycling rock ‘n roll history right there
folks.
Some of the mountain roads on the course were quite narrow
and twisty and we saw the addition of old school hay bales marking the descents.
Who needs fancy electronic signs? Not Neilson Powless, who rode superbly off
the front of the breakaway group with Max Schachmann in pursuit.
Schachmann caught up with Powless and worked together until Schachmann
took the lead. Shachmann was caught by Danny Martinez and team mate Lennard
Kamna, the Schach tactics hadn’t worked.
He reached out for gels and water offered up at the roadside,
all of which was no good for Schachmann when all he was really hanging out for
was a red can, unfortunately the Mavic drinks motos only stock Dr Pepper.
On the brutally steep run to the line Kamna made his move
but Martinez was too strong. Chapeau, that was a great battle with Kamna at the
end and didn’t you heart the heart victory salute from Martinez?
Back in what was left of a shattered peloton the battle for
GC raged on with last year’s Tour champ Egan Bernal on the ropes, Richie Porte
climbed the climbing ropes and Primoz Roglic was cool, calm and collected even
with Tadej Pogacar snapping at his heels.
Bravo Romain Bardet who made it to the finish but had
slipped from fourth to eleventh in the GC. He later retired from the race,
tough for Bardet but probably the right decision given those concussion
concerns.
A great day for Tasmania’s Richie Porte Porte who moved into
the top ten. Rigoberto Uran quietly moved into fourth.
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