So far the Tour has
been a race of attrition, a race of nutrition but tonight it’s the race of
truth and truth is very thin on the ground these days.
This was no flat
fullgaz style time trial – it starts off flat but kicks up at in the final
5.9km at an average gradient of 8.5%.
The course was
cause for a mix of strategies. Some riders would start on a time trial bike and
swap for the lighter road bike for the climb to La Planche des Belle Filles. It
still made me wonder why the bike change? If it’s going to be too steep for a
TT bike, then why only regular road bikes?
In the Plat du Tour
kitchen for the second last time Guillaume Brahimi was putting a fancy twist to
the famous fancily named toastie, the croque monsieur. In this version he uses
smoked salmon instead of ham and mozzarella. However, I’m pretty sure this is
technically a croque madame with the addition of salmon roe.
Out on the course
and the riders took to the road one by one. The starting order is the reverse
of the GC standings so it was a long wait for the top riders. Good thing about
a long ITT is being able to nap early on and not miss out on much of the
action. Boy, this last week has been difficult trying to stay awake.
Kudos to Troll DJ
for bringing out The Good, the Bad and The Ugly. That’s cycling for you and a
nice tribute to Ennio Morricone. Oh, and to vaches, horses and raptors as well.
Some understated
support for Thibaut Pinot judging by the paint on the road in the town of
Melisey. Well, it is Pinot’s home town after all and it probably helps that his
father is the mayor so no problem with getting permission to paint Pinot’s name
all over the road.
As the starting
order edged toward the final ten, Nairo Quintana started as the seventeenth
last rider and I really feel for Quintana who had a run of rotten luck with
crashes this Tour.
As Richie Porte
warmed up Robbie mentioned Porte would probably be listening to some Metallica and
Troll DJ obliged with Enter Sandman. Gotta say Troll DJ is very astute, definitely
sharper than a bag of wet mice.
In thirteenth place
Guillaume Martin took to the road. He enjoyed a few days in third in GC and I was
hoping he could get back into the top ten.
Talk about home
ground advantage but that was a good ride from Pinot but no threat to the hot
seat.
Fingers crossed and
Porte rolled out of the start house. He is a very good time trialist and so far
so good. He was opting for a bike swap, potentially risky if Richie or the team
fluff it.
Not even Dexter dared to predict.
But as Australia’s
greatest cyclist Cadel Evans noted in his Zoom chat with Tomo and Mark Renshaw,
the gains outweighed the risks by swapping for a lighter road bike. Fortunately,
there was a nicely executed bike change for Richie and his pace was enough to
bump Superman Manuel Angel Lopez off the third step on the Paris podium.
All eyes however
were on Pogacar and Roglic, the last two riders to leave the start house.
Roglic was looking
strong, like one big glute ball out back. Maybe a yellow skinsuit will do that to
you but with glutes like that it’s no wonder he’s good in the mountains.
Pogacar was putting
in a belter of a ride and it was game on, Pog v Rog, and with Porte in the mix
it was super excite.
The times between
the two Slovenians narrowed and you know shit is serious in an ITT when the
Perfect Match split screen appears.
The times were even
for Pog and Rog and not even the Perfect Match robot Dexter was prepared to
make a prediction.
That’s it! It’s
official, Richie has made it to the podium!
Amazingly the Pog posted
the fastest time to not only win the stage but cleaned up the yellow, the polka
dots and white jerseys. Incredible, all this and he’s only two days away from
his 22nd birthday.
It was also a great
day for Slovenia with the tiny country on the top steps on the podium. No sour
grapes from Roglic, it must be devastating to lose the yellow so close to the
Paris procession, but a big hug from the Rog with the Pog and that’s special.
No doubt this will
go done in history as one of the best ITT stages of all time. Many will compare
it to the battle between Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon in the individual time
trial in the final stage way back in 1989 when the American made one of the greatest
comebacks to win the Tour by eight seconds.
Now only Paris awaits.
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