2023-07-09 20:38:01
The two leaders of the general classification that everything opposes continue their confrontation after an intense first week. The ninth stage which ended at the top of the legendary Auvergne summit was won by Canadian Michael Woods.
An old elementary school joke teaches us that there are two styles of humor: rehearsal comedy and… rehearsal comedy. Since the start of this Tour de France in Bilbao and before the first day of rest this Monday in Clermont-Ferrand, we have the impression of being stuck in a playground where, day after day, the stages at the top look alike. . The same two kids, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, replay their favorite score of “yours, mine”. They occupy all the attention in the general classification and leave only crumbs to the others as soon as the road rises. In the class photo, Hindley, Rodriguez, the Yates twins, everyone has red eyes except them, in the front row, one smiling, the other more scowling.
On Sunday, in a stage which promised to be volcanic to the summit of Puy-de-Dôme, and from which only a few fumes escaped, there were three races. Up front, a breakaway of fourteen brave riders quickly took a significant lead under the Auvergne dodger. After a few good-natured combings between the various protagonists, in front of a band of half-naked Smurfs, a sign “Even fat people like cycling”, another “Retirement at 33, Pinot president”, and an incalculable number of Asterix and Obélix (a little imagination please!), victory seemed promised to Matteo Jorgenson. But in the last 600 meters, in an impressive silence, without any spectators, while the road did not want to weaken, the American of Movistar was devoured by Michael Woods, of Israel-Premier Tech. Released earlier on the plain, the 36-year-old Canadian returned to the experience, swallowing his opponents one by one, keeping their bibs as trophies like an old trapper piling his furs on his shoulder when leaving the woods. He signs his first victory on the Tour.
Tripous to the dregs
At the back, despite the encouragement of a whole Arvernian people present in large numbers for this free show, the leaders hesitated for a long time. On the road, the Puy-de-Dôme can be seen from afar. Its TDF pylon catches the eye and reminds us how hard it will be. The peloton arrived with the brake on the pedal. It was only 2 kilometers from the finish that Tadej Pogacar decided to place a first arrow, immediately followed by Jonas Vingegaard. For the rare survivors still there, it was tripous to the dregs. The French with a vague hope of doing well were already far behind and the rest of the competition promises to be a constantly renewed ordeal for Gaudu, Bardet, Pinot, Martin.
It is not known if Pogacar and Vingegaard had had the memo of the epic clash between Anquetil and Poulidor, in 1964, when they found themselves shoulder to shoulder. One week, however, that we were fed with like little ducks before the Christmas holidays. The highlight was Sunday morning in Saint-Léonard-de-Noblat, the starting village and the town of “Poupou”. Flowering of the tomb of the great man, grandpa’s bicycle offered to his grandson Mathieu Van der Poel, multiple fanfares, it was the total, in a town illuminated with photos, jerseys and cycles of vanished glory, on the walls from the closed hotel, to shop windows, under church courtyards, probably in the pockets of old ladies. After a while, we blinked and saw everything purple: probably a heat stroke or the abuse of candied prunes, the local speciality. In any case, the Slovenian and the Dane have not completely replayed the duel of their illustrious predecessors. Left too late, the courier of the UAE only managed to take eight seconds from his enemy of the Jumbo-Visma. And if he now leads 2 to 1 in their confrontation, if he seems to be in a favorable dynamic, he has not managed to take the yellow jersey from him.
Fascinating fight
This day of Sunday will therefore not be remembered, which is not said of this first week. In addition to the three victories of the car Jasper Philipsen and the sad retirement of Mark Cavendish, who will not beat Eddy Merckx’s record, the yellow and black bear and the white wolf have set up the foundations of what could become the one of the most beautiful duels for a long time.
With seventeen seconds between them, maybe it will be played out in seconds until the Champs. Their almost equal level, light years away from the others, just like their absolutely opposite personalities makes this fight fascinating (if not necessarily credible). Between one, the Slovenian, a little prince who has always smiled on everyone, a teasing and sunny personality, and the second, the Dane, as cold as a Nordic winter, unable to cheer himself up, air-conditioning a room by his mere presence, the audience and followers have chosen sides. With each attack of the first, a shiver of joy runs through the bays. There is, however, in the impossibility of being in the world of Jonas Vingegaard something touching. A form of malaise, a social difficulty, which it would be too easy to take for arrogance. He knows he won’t be able to change the way people look at him. It doesn’t matter, he made up his mind.
#Pogacar #Vingegaard #explanation #Dome #man #Liberation