Stage nineteen and we’re so close to Paris by now you almost reach and touch it. Well, not quite, it is a few hundred kilometres away but you get what I mean. Some relief for the riders though with the big mountains out of the way and a chance for the sprinters to shine once more.
During the day news came through of Jumbo-Visma sports
director Merijn Zeeman’s expulsion from the Tour for, ‘intimidation, insults,
improper behaviour of a team member towards a UCI member during the bicycle check
carried out after stage 17’.
Apparently Zeeman became agitated during a check of Primoz
Roglic’s bike for motor doping, which has become routine in recent years. He
became ‘emotional’ when a UCI official removed the crankset for closer
inspection and Zeeman alleged the crankset had been damaged – a claim refuted
by the UCI.
So Zeeman has his lad in yellow but has been kicked out of
the Tour. His bank account will also be CHF 2,000 lighter for the fine he has
to pay on top of his expulsion. CHF 2,000 by the way is about the price of a
coffee and a sandwich at a Swiss airport.
Speaking of money, Tomo had Rochelle Gilmour back and the
discussion turned to real estate and how cheap it is to buy rural property in
places like France and Spain compared to Australia.
You can buy a 100 room chateau with large grounds full of
game in France for the price of a handkerchief sized block with just a termite
ridden outhouse on it in inner Melbourne next to a meth-lab.
Over in the Plat du Tour kitchen and Guillaume Brahimi was
making chicken a la crème. Another good looking recipe and I might actually get
around to making some the Plat du Tour recipes one day.
Back to the SBS studio and Macka checked in for the regular
Zoom meeting. All eyes were on Tasmania’s Richie Porte who held on to fourth
place in the GC after that puncture on gravel in yesterday’s stage.
In a post-race interview Porte was grateful for some of the
support he received from the Murder Hornets, and the main lesson from Porte is,
“It’s good to have friends in the peloton”; which could be interpreted as be
kind to others and what goes around comes around, or simply just don’t shit in
the nest of the peloton.
Over to the race (yes, there was some racing today) and the
Remi Cavagna TGV had left the station.
Cavagna set a blistering pace on the flat valley roads of
the Jura averaging at about 50km at one point, which is roughly around world
hour record pace and, as Robbie noted, on a regular road bike.
Perhaps Cavagna was going for the three-hour record over
166km but the TGV was not even slowing through the stations.
Mmmm, Bienenstich!
At the 105km to go mark a large tractor bell rig was spotted
at the roadside. It had lots of bells, in fact all the bells, the only thng
missing were the whistles.
By now Cavagna was moving so fast the race was already ten
minutes ahead of schedule so the caterers for the end of the stage had better
get a wriggle on.
Speaking of food, and one of the more unusual causes for a
withdrawal from the Tour, Lukas Postlberger was stung by a bee on the inside of
his mouth. I don’t think Postlberger quite got the memo that eating Bienenstich
doesn’t mean literally eating a Bienenstich.
Oh, and a standing ovation please for Troll DJ for playing
Nirvana’s Stay Away from the album Nevermind in honour of the breakaway. Troll
DJ could have gone for other tracks such as On A Plain (flat stage), Drain You
(a three week bike race) or how about Territorial Pissings? (Nature break).
Meanwhile in the Cavagna TGV the first class passengers expect
to be in Paris before Saturday.
We may have found a winner in the Field Art jersey
competition with a cow fashioned from a round of cheese drinking a glass of
milk and winking at us. Actually ‘the Winking Cow doesn’t just win the Field
Art jersey, it’s worthy of inclusion in the Louvre.
Halfway through the race and Cavagna was joined by riders
looking for some glory including Peter Bennett, Sam Sagan, Matteo Trentin and
Soren Kragh Andersen. With so many sprinters congealing up the front, it was
hard to pick a winner.
Andersen went solo from 16km to go and with a yell for “TIME!!!!”
in the last kilometres, time was on his side and notched up win number two.
In the Bennett v Bora Battle, Bennett looks to have the
green jersey competition stitched up. Roglic looks to have all but won the Tour
de France but all eyes will be on tomorrow’s individual time trial, and Richie
Porte, for a possible spot on the podium in Paris.
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