The meanest Tour de France: All the chaos of Stage 1, plus a preview of Stage 2's MOUNTAINS
Programming note: Just three more stages left of total coverage for free subscribers. You know what to do.
Alexander burst up the right gap past what seemed to be a well-coordinated Trek-Segafredo sprint train to take Stage 1 of the Tour de France and become the 2020's first yellow jersey wearer.
I'll be honest, I forgot Kristoff was at the Tour. The 33-year-old Norwegian didn't get involved much in last year's Tour, finishing 18th in the points classification, and had been quiet in 2020. But a slightly uphill finish apparently suited him well. He looked plenty spritely at the end of a chaotic Stage 1, easily pipping Mads Pedersen, a rider who is nine years his junior.
But as brilliant as Kristoff's sprint was, the story of the stage was carnage.
Note to self: Check the weather report.
In my stage preview, I wrote that "It’ll be nice to bask in the Mediterannean sun." But there was no hint of sunshine throughout a rain-soaked stage around the normally sparkling city of Nice. You can't fault me for assuming the weather would be better.
Nice rarely has days of any rain, much less enough rain to turn narrow, technical roads into a slippery, soapy mess. At some point, keeping track of the number of riders who'd fallen became futile. It's better to assume everyone was affected at some point, but here's a sampling of the carnage that began just after rain began to fall with roughly 130 kilometers to go.
- With 115k to go, a crash on the flat, relatively wide Promenade des Anglais took down Deceuninck-Quick Step's Sam Bennett among others. All would catch back up to the peloton.
- At 105k to go, two AG2R riders — Pierre Latour and Benoit Cosnefroy — fell, along with a couple Cofidis riders and Ineos' Pavel Sivakov, who seems the most shaken up. As Sivakov pedaled gingerly with a bad scrape down his right elbow, Cosnefroy passed and gave him a pat on his lower back.
- At just under 98k to go, a Bora-Hansgrohe rider and two Arkea-Samsic riders, one of them Nairo Quintana, slipped on a hard right turn.
- At 93k to go, race radio reports that Daryl Impey slipped on the first descent.
- At 90k, Alaphilippe's front wheel locks up and he has to stop for a bike change. As he charges down the descent to catch back up to the peloton, he nearly fishtails off the road again.
- Both Alaphilippe and Sivakov catch up to the peloton, but Sivakov crashes AGAIN with 71k to go, this time scraping his left elbow badly. He would wind up perhaps the day's biggest casualty, finishing minutes behind the peloton. His chances of starting Stage 2 have to be in doubt.
- With 69k to go there's ANOTHER big crash on the Promenade des Anglais, taking down Mike Nieve, Richie Porte, Ilnur Zakarin and Andrey Amador, among others.
- With 64.5k to go, another crash on what should have been an innocuous stretch of road puts Caleb Ewan, a sprinter who had been one of the day's favorites to win, minutes back. He would claw onto the peloton 20 kilometers later, but he was not involved in the finish.
With 50k to go, and bodies piling up, riders decided to take their safety into their own hands. Veteran Tony Martin, who had been driving the peloton, sat up near the top of the day's second climb and waved his arms to calm everyone down before another trip down the mountain.
Everyone seemed to accept the truce … accept Astana, who said "screw you Tony" and took off. Karma immediately bit them in the ass.
Miguel Angel Lopez would be OK after eating a face full of roadside, but maybe respect the neutralization, eh guys?
After that slip, the peloton would slow down again. Jumbo-Visma's George Bennett took a hard fall near the bottom of the final climb, but would catch the peloton and appeared to be OK. Then racing restarted in earnest once the road flattened out. AG2R's Cosnefroy went off the front with 20k to go, but he led for only six kilometers before he was caught and sprint trains began to form.
Tour organizers, finally getting the hint that rider safety was at risk in the wet conditions, announced that final times would be taken at the 3k-to-go mark, allowing GC teams to sit up and allow the sprinters to contest the finale with fewer bodies around them.
Of course, because the day hadn't been a big enough circus, one last crash — the day's biggest — took place at the 3k mark, putting perhaps a dozen or more riders on the tarmac, including (and you knew this was inevitable) a yellow jersey favorite in Thibaut Pinot. His expression afterwards summed up the day:
https://twitter.com/VeloVoices/status/1299741031173324801The fallout
The extent of the damage done in Stage 1 won't be fully known until we see who does and does not show up to the start of Stage 2. But as of now, the biggest loser seems to be Sivakov and Team Ineos.
Sivakov, miraculously, would finish the stage.
But whether he continues (or can even be effective if he does) remains to be seen. If he can't go, he'd be a major loss for an Ineos team whose playbook had already been revised once after they left off Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas from the team. Sivakov is a 23-year-old budding star who was expected to be a key mountain lieutenant for team leaders Egan Bernal and Richard Carapaz.
That said, every Tour team likely sustained some bruises Saturday. Unfortunately for them, the road is about to get MUCH harder with two Category 1 climbs on the docket for Sunday.
How'd the breakaway do?
Not bad. Cyril Gautier and Fabien Grellier were the token representatives of the small-but-mighty French squads of B&B Hotels - Vital Concept and Total Direct Energie, respectively. Michael Schar joined them from CCC in an attack from the starting gun.
Grellier took the first King of the Mountains points, but wouldn't contend for the second summit after being dropped with 63 kilometers to go. Schar edged Gautier to take the second set of points, then both were nabbed by the peloton at under 60k.
All three riders would finish with two points apiece in the climbers' competition, but Grellier will wear polka dots on Stage 2 for reportedly finishing ahead of Schar.
See anything fun?
Also this monstrosity of roadside flare:
https://twitter.com/VeloVoices/status/1299718245696581633As of yet, no butts.
Any final thoughts?
That was STRESSFUL, and absolutely in keeping with the vibe of the world right now. I hope to hell we don't see a rash of abandonments ahead of Stage 2. This Tour is now on watch to become the meanest since riders were forced to do their repairs on the road.
The standings
STAGE 1
- Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) - 3hr 46min 23sec
- Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo - "
- Cees Bol (Team Sunweb) - "
- Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) - "
- Peter Sagan (SVK) Bira-Hansgrohe - "
- Elia Viviani (Cofidis) - "
- Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT) - "
- Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) - "
- Anthony Turgis (Total Direct Energie) - "
- Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) - "
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
- Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) - 3hr 46min 23sec
- Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo - + 4sec
- Cees Bol (Team Sunweb) - + 6sec
- Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) - +10sec
- Peter Sagan (SVK) Bira-Hansgrohe - "
- Elia Viviani (Cofidis) - "
- Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT) - "
- Bryan Coquard (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) - "
- Anthony Turgis (Total Direct Energie) - "
- Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) - "
GREEN JERSEY
- Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) - 59 points
- Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo - 30 points
- Peter Sagan (SVK) - 29 points
- Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quick-Step) - 28 points
- Michael Schar (CCC) - 20 points
- Cees Bol (Team Sunweb) - 20 points
- Cyril Gautier (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) - 17 points
- Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) - 15 points
- Elia Viviani (Cofidis) - 14 points
- Giacomo Nizzolo (NTT) - 12 points
POLKA DOT JERSEY
- Fabien Grellier (Direct Energie) — 2 points
- Michael Schar (CCC) — 2 points
- Cyril Gautier (B&B Hotels-Vital Concept) — 2 points
Stage 2 preview — 186km from Nice Haut Pays to Nice
A helpful reader pointed out that I didn't include any time or broadcast information for the stage. Apologies, I'm a little rusty on my SEO game.
Stage 2 will begin at 1 p.m. local, 7 a.m. ET. For those watching from the United States, coverage will begin at 8 a.m. on NBCSN. (Here's NBC's complete broadcast schedule).
Don't get that channel? You'll need to pay, sadly. I really like the NBC Sports Gold Cycling Pass, which gives you a commercial-free stream as well as some handy race-tracking whatzits. The much cheaper option, however, is Peacock Premium, which costs $4.99 per month and will reportedly get you access to live coverage of every stage, though presumably with ads and without the whatzits.
If you can't watch live and want access to replays, it appears Gold is your only way to go.
If ever there was a year to ease into the Tour de France slowly, this would be it. For riders, the restarted season has been densely packed with major competitions. They've had little time to relax since hopping off their indoor trainers onto starting lines all over Europe.
And typically, the first week of the Tour de France is a slow toe dip into racing: a few sprint stages, maybe a short time trial, but nothing much more than a hilly stage at the end of the week. But as we saw Saturday, this Tour will be relentless.
Tour director Christian Prudhomme has made it his mission to inject some verve into the route the last several years, and may have accidentally constructed an incredibly mean pandemic-year Week 1. No, he couldn't have planned the rain-soaked carnage of Stage 1, but this Stage 2 profile is 100 percent his fault:
That's a tame mountain stage by Tour standards, but it's a mountain stage nonetheless, and it is a SHARP test during what is historically a sleepy opening week. Prudhomme couldn't possibly have known when he made the course that so many riders would be uncertain of their form entering the Tour. I wouldn't call this a "happy" accident, but it's certainly a new variable for this race.
Stage 2, though difficult, likely won't tell us much about the eventual yellow jersey winner. The two Category 1 climbs are over by the midway point, and the last two climbs aren't conducive to time-seizing attacks. Any GC hopefuls dropped on the climbs will be considered as good as cooked, however, with so little reprieve scheduled at any point in the Tour. Like I said: This year is mean.
And though relatively low in terms of stakes, Stage 2 should be fun to watch. Unfortunately for Kristoff, his reign in yellow will likely only last the day. Those Cat 1 climbs could string out the peloton, giving a breakaway a solid chance to go the distance and take a big chunk of time out of the sprinters ambling behind in the gruppetto. Keep an eye on Pierre Rolland, Lilian Calmejane and the ever-attacking Thomas de Gendt for the stage win. Or else, someone neither you nor I have ever heard of. Stages like these have a way of making made men out of anonymous riders.
Oh, and the weather will be sunny.