Rest Day Round Up: Is it really only the end of the first week of the 2022 Tour de France? A lot has happened since the first rest day and Denmark, Ed Hood catches up with all the action as the Tour moves to the big mountains via Belgium and Switzerland – Stage 4 through to stage 9.
# You can see ‘Rest Day #1’ HERE. #
STAGE FOUR:
Dave was reaching for his ‘Paint drier’ rubber stamp, then the race hit 20K to go, the moto speedo started reading 80kph and guys were popping left, right and centre. Perhaps it was so subdued initially because everyone knew what was coming in ‘da finul,’ as Sean might say – narrower roads, wind and two nasty ‘snaps.’ Or maybe their minds are on tomorrow and those 11 ‘secteurs?’ Then with 10K to go the stage really ignited. . .
The yellow jersey of Wout van Aert on the attack
But what can we say about Wout that hasn’t already been said? He opened 2022 by winning Het Nieuwsblad; had six podiums including a win in the time trial in Paris-Nice; eighth in Milan-Sanremo; won the E3; 12th in Gent-Wevelgem; second in Paris-Roubaix; third in Liege; four podiums including two stage wins in the Dauphine – and now, in le Tour, three second places and a win.
The win Wout wanted
He’s already on 170 points after just four stages, Cav won green last year with 337 points. A ‘Woutstanding’ accomplishment.
Green from start to finish for Wout?
But apart from the frantic last 20K and ‘Woutastic’ last 10 kilometres where the riders’ faces – with the exception of impassive beasts like Durbridge and Rowe – told a story, it was a pretty dull stage.
Anthony Perez enlivened the early part of the stage, helped by Magnus Cort, of course
But ‘Chapeau!’ to Anthony Perez for his solo effort to grab the dossard rouge for tomorrow; and what of his equipe, Cofidis, since 1997 they’ve been ploughing Euros into that team for not a lot of major results? They’ve done so much for French cycling but get little in the way of plaudits.
Not the Mathieu we were expecting
Tomorrow? That big MVDP fella has been awfully and uncharacteristically quiet. . .
Stage 4 highlights:
STAGE FIVE:
No need for ‘Paint Drier’ stamps on this day where a story could be written about every one of the 11 secteurs on this day. And Strewth! What about that Clarke fella?
Win for Simon Clarke
He waits until he’s almost 36 years-of-age to pull off the biggest win of his long career.
It’s 18 years since he was in the winning Aussie team pursuit squad at the junior worlds and 16 years since our paths crossed at the le Six Jours Cyclistes de Grenoble. Because he and partner Nic Sanderson had been riding well on the UiV circuit – the u23 six days – they’d been granted a ride in the pro six in Grenoble.
Grenoble ‘6 Days’
Sanderson was a bronze medallist in the 2002 Junior Worlds and rode pro for five years but never made it to the ProTour. I delved back into my collection of six day programmes but the tiny picture is of Sanderson, I think? But it’s not surprising given that for the Dutch team of Peter Schep and Jens Mouris there are two pictures of Mouris; one with him smiling and the other with a ‘rabbit in the headlights’ expression.
With South Australia in Langkawi 2008
Clarke rode for the South Australia team back then but signed with low budget – and often ‘last chance saloon’ for pros fell on hard times – Amica Chips squad in 2009 before transferring to the Italo/Ukrainian ISD team the following year. In 2011 he remained east of Europe with Astana before signing with Aussie squad, GreenEdge where he’s stay for four seasons. We met him at the Tour of Lombardy, where he was spectating, at the end of his tenure with Astana – the minute he told them he was leaving the team they withdrew him from racing. Teams don’t want to be letting guys who will be rivals next year get any more UCi points. . .
Clarke on those cobbles
After GreenEdge Clarke rode for Jonathan Vaughters’ teams for five years before spending last season with the ill-fated Qhubeka Assos set up. When that team folded it looked like his career was over – but a lifeline came from Israel and today he repaid then in spades for their belief in him. His Tour stage win adds to his king of the mountains title and two Vuelta stage wins, the Royal Drome Classic and a dramatic second place in the Amstel Gold Race. A great day for Clarke then and a much needed win for Israel, their 11th of the year with Quick-Step on 36 and UAE on 32 victories.
Not a bad day for INEOS Grenadiers – ‘Off Road Vehicle’
A good day for INEOS who now have three in the top 10; Yates, Pidcock and Thomas.
And surprisingly good rides from Bardet [DSM] and Quintana [ARKEA] to keep their GC hope alive. But a bad day for Jumbo Visma despite WVA finishing the day in yellow; however, his was no armchair ride, dropping back to shepherd his GC men Vingegaard and Roglič back after misfortune.
Roglič finished, but that shoulder
Roglič’s dislocated shoulder now puts him at 2:36 whilst his Danish team mate is at a more achievable 40 seconds – the issue of team leadership at Jumbo looks to have solved itself. Bad days too for Aussie potential podium contenders, Jack Haig [Bahrain-Victorious] – out with a broken wrist – and Ben O’Connor [AG2R Citroën] dropping four minutes after an ill-timed puncture.
No problems for Pogačar
However, as one might expect from, ‘Teflon Tadej’ the Slovenian was seventh on the stage, clear of the mayhem, looking cool as a cucumber and is fourth at 19 seconds. And answers on a post card please regarding Sen. Bettiol chasing like a mad man whilst having two team mates up in the breakaway and his chase may well have eroded the vital seconds that stood between Neilson Powless and the maillot jaune?
What was Bettiol thinking?
Apparently, he just got ‘over excited’ but has admitted that and apologised to his team mates and all’s well. He should think himself lucky that he didn’t have the late Peter Post in the team car. . .
Stage 5 highlights:
STAGE SIX:
‘Why oh why did Van Aert do what he done? He just handed the jersey to one of the most boring pr###s in cycling.’ Opinions, we all have our own and there’s no accounting for it sometimes. The above opinion was posted on my FaceBook page under a picture I posted of terrific Teflon Tadej taking the stage and jersey.
Stage and yellow jersey for Tadej Pogačar
Well, I’ll try to explain it to you, sir. . . Wout knew he was going to lose the maillot tomorrow on Planche des Belle Filles whatever happened so gambled on going out in a blaze of glory in front of his adoring Belgian fans with a stage win on this longest day of the race; which was run off at 49.376 kph. It didn’t come off, but he gave guys like me something to write about and took the pressure off his team to defend him.
The most exciting riders in the Tour
But as for Tadej being boring? I can’t explain that one; along with WVA and MVDP, in my eyes he’s one of the most exciting riders of a generation who subscribe to Henry Ford’s mantra that; ‘History is bunk!’ doing it THEIR way. Continuing on the subject of the young Slovenian, the myth of his team’s ‘weakness’ was again debunked today with Majka and McNulty both riding very strongly and doing sterling work for their leader.
The UAE lead-out on stage 6
Today also again reminded us that, ‘every day is a GC day,’ – the leader board is beginning to gel with Vingegaard, Pidcock, Yates, Vlasov, Thomas, Martinez, Gaudu, Mas, Bardet and Quintana all moving up. It’ll be interesting to see how it looks after tomorrow’s stage though; at least one ‘Big’ will have a ‘jour sans’ and/or bad luck on that hard, hard climb to the line.
Stage 6 highlights:
STAGE SEVEN:
You can tell it’s been a hard finale when Tadej can only lift one arm off the bars to celebrate his victory.
Only a one arm celebration from Pogačar
And for sure, ‘Pas de cadeaux’ – ‘no gifts,’ as Bernard Hinault once famously said to Lance. There are times and places where Leonard Kämna would have been allowed to win after his epic day in the break and then, ‘en seule’ – but as Eddy Merckx said to Barry Hoban after he pipped him for the intermediate sprint bonus seconds which would have given Barry the maillot jaune, and the Englishman remonstrated with the Baron; ‘but it’s the TOUR, Barry!’
‘No presents’ Hoban beats Merckx Gent-Wevelgem 1974
It would have been a fairy tale to see the BORA man take the win but this is the Tour and Vingegaard wanted the win and those bonus seconds – but Teflon Tadej wanted it too, on this day when he launched his cancer foundation.
Tadej hand slapping
And call me a sentimental old fool but I like watching Tadej slap all those out stretched hands as he free wheeled off the summit – the man is far from inscrutable and distant.
Vingegaard had the win… for about 40 metres
I was watching on Eurosport and Dan Lloyd said that the Dane had the maillot jaune under real pressure when he jumped over Kämna to go for the win – yes Dan, for all of about 40 metres, or was it 50? The Dane is strong, for sure but Pogačar is on a different level and with only seven stages gone, the Tour is his to lose. And to repeat what I said yesterday, ‘reports of his team’s weakness are much exaggerated.’
Rafal Majka brought Pogačar perfectly to the front on la Super Planche des Belles Filles
Good days then for UAE and Jumbo, but also INEOS with Geraint causing me to eat my words that his Suisse win was down to who wasn’t there as Covid ravaged that peloton. The world’s richest team have four riders in the top 10 on GC – Geraint, Adam Yates, Tom Pidcock and Dani Martinez, impressive by any measure.
Another ‘not bad’ day for INEOS
And good to see Messrs. Mas, Gaudu and Bardet all quietly moving up the standings. But it was also a day for dreams to land in the dust, Thibaut Pinot riding on home turf for one – he’d say later that it was perhaps the last time he’d ever ride the climb; Ben O’Connor for another – watch for him in the breaks come the high mountains though; Neilson Powless, who started the day just four seconds away from jaune but ended it @ 1:37; and Vlasov who dropped five slots and is now at 2:41, suffering from the after effects of his crash the previous day.
Louis Meintjes finish the stage with a run
And if you’re thinking; ‘that finish climb can’t have been that steep?’ When was the last time you saw a quality climber like Louis Meintjes pushing his bike across the line? Albeit we’d learn later that his rear derailleur had taken to making its own decisions about which gear ratio he should be in.
Chris Froome la Super Planche des Belles Filles 2022 style
And finally, what of the first winner, back in 2012 on this brute of a climb? Chris Froome finished in 41st place @ 3:48 and is now 50th on GC @ 14:54 – Old Father Time is one tough adversary.
Stage 7 highlights:
STAGE EIGHT:
Wout, wow! Not much left to say, the man of the Tour thus far, for sure. His DS Frans Maassen reckons that Wout is the equivalent of three ‘normal’ riders – that’s hard to argue with.
Another win and more green points for Wout
Wout’s secondary motivation to remain in green is to avoid donning that Jumbo Visma 60’s ‘tie dye’ Tour maillot, it’s worse than the EF and Israel offerings – and that’s saying something. But if Wout was man of the day then Fred Wright was a close second, away all day and only caught on that horrible climb to the line – CHAPEAU! – when the ‘feeding frenzy’ began in the peloton. Such a shame he wasn’t awarded the ‘dossard rouge’ – that went to Cattaneo, who Fred rode off his wheel. . .
Fred Wright – Last man to be caught
And I hate to come on with the nostalgia but I remember that finish climb – the late season and late lamented, ‘a Travers Lausanne’ used to go up that same road.
Ocaña, Van Impe, Zoetemelk and Merckx in a Travers Lausanne
It was a short, savage two stage race, time trial and road race with the last edition, sadly in 2001 when Cadel Evans won. Joop Zoetemelk is ‘recordman’ forever on five wins but many of the Greats won the race – Eddy some four times, Kubler, Coppi, Poulidor, Ocaña. . .
Workhorse Luke Durbridge
And Switzerland not only has lovely, smooth roads it has picture post card views – stunning. Stunning too, the work rate of big Luke Durbridge who was instrumental in hauling the race together for Michael Matthews, MM did nothing wrong except be in the same race as WVA.
What could Matthews do?
Then there’s Pogačar, taking more bonus seconds and extending his lead to 39 seconds. And whatever UAE pays Majka, he deserves it. And last mention to Thibaut – OUCH! – that looked sore, Monsieur.
Stage 8 highlights:
STAGE NINE:
It’s a dozen years since I interviewed Bob Jungels as Junior World Time Trial Champion. Here are a couple of the questions and answers from back then, bear in mind he was 17 years-old:
A young Bob Jungels in the U23 Worlds time trial 2011
PEZ: You did 28.5 kilometres in 40 minutes to win the world junior TT title, that’s 52 kph – how did you train to go so fast on the day?
Bob Jungels: The Training for the World’s was pretty hard and long. I started with it about two months ahead of the Worlds. I spent a lot of time on my TT bike, even in the mountains. I did two training camps, the first one in the Alps with my road bike and the other one in Germany with my time trial bike. Finally I did a stage race in Germany two weeks ahead of the World’s. So I did not so much races but just improved my shape by training.
PEZ: Who coaches you?
Bob Jungels: I have three coaches, my dad, Christian Swietlik (National team coach) and ex-pro, Lucien Didier who’s my personal coach.
Jungels on the attack
And he had an agency to do his personal website. I remember thinking; ‘this boy will be finished by the time he’s about to leave the u23 ranks or he’ll be a real star.’ By 2012 he was with the Leopard Trek continental team before moving up the World Tour with RadioShack Leopard in 2013.
Giro’17 stage win
The team became Trek Factory Racing for 2014, he spent two seasons there before joining Quick-Step and enjoying the best phase of his career including two World Team Time Trial Championships; twice being best young rider in the Giro, taking a stage there and spending time in pink; winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne.
Solo in Liège
Last season he moved to AG2R and up until today his results haven’t shone, albeit there was a back injury, a bad crash in the Amstel and finally surgery for iliac artery endofibrosis. The man has been through the wars – good to see him back.
Not a good Tour for Ben O’Connor
And AG2R deserve a bit of good fortune after Ben O’Connor’s collapse and Geoffrey Bouchard succumbing to Covid. It was a classic Tour stage, sunshine, beautiful scenery, a big break, a brave 60K solo to win and a gallant but ultimately doomed chase from a French Hero – Thibaut. Not much more you can ask for.
Pinot gave it his best shot
Pog’s team controlled the day but didn’t look to go deep and the man himself pinched a couple more seconds from most of his rivals. Jumbo Visma are still there in numbers but the INEOS four pronged attack is now a trident as Dani Martinez shipped a whopping 16 minutes on the stage whilst Tom Pidcock is looking fragile – but it’s his first Tour and he’s still only 22 years-old.
UAE looked after Pogačar too the line
And good to see David Gaudu and Romain Bardet quietly going about their business in fifth and sixth spot respectively – we can dream. . . And is this really just the end of the first week with two more full weeks to go?
Stage 9 highlights:
All happy in the Pogačar camp – With fiancée Urska Zigart
# Stay PEZ for all the ‘Stage Reports’, Rest Day Round-Ups’, ‘Race Breakdowns’ and all the news in ‘EUROTRASH’ Monday and Thursday. #
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