Cycling Weekly – July 25, 2019

6 | July 25, 2019 | Cycling Weekly

NEWS

T

he French are calling it the

‘Tour à la Alaf ’, giving a nod to

the wholly unexpected victory

taken by Roger Walkowiak in

1956, with Julian Alaphilippe evidently cast

in the role of the unheralded home performer

who upsets the established order. For most,

though, it is the least predictable and thrilling

Tour de France for more than a generation.

“We’ve definitely moved away from the

model of past years, where you have one

very dominant team with a dominant rider

strangling the race. So, it’s super interesting,”

said Charly Wegelius before the start of the

Limoux-Prat d’Albis stage, which offered

more support for the EF Education First

team director’s assessment.

That one team is, of course, Ineos,

favourites for a seventh title in eight seasons,

but rattled as they’ve never been before as

the race moved towards its high-altitude

finale in the Alps. Speaking before the

Pyrenees, Ineos team director Nicolas Portal

foresaw a scenario where the GC contenders

would attempt to gain time on each other

during the opening passage in the high

mountains and then defend their position in

the Alps. The French DS was right to a point.

But after as the

yellow jersey

favourites went at

each other all guns

blazing at the

summit finishes on

the Tourmalet and

Prat d’Albis, the gaps

between them

narrowed instead of

increased. Alaphilippe stood firm at the

head of the classification, although he looked

a little wobbly after that second test, while

not far behind him a handful of rivals covered

by just 39 seconds awaited their next

opportunity to attack him.

Like last year, Ineos have a double-

pronged attack, but almost everything else

about the British team’s defence of the yellow

jersey hopefuls is different. As Alaphilippe

surpassed everyone’s expectations by

retaining the lead going into the final week,

L’Équipe pointed out that every time Sky had

won the race their victor had held the yellow

jersey before the end of the second week.

After Geraint Thomas failed to follow the

pace of his rivals on the Tourmalet, where the

team’s domestiques had failed to steamroller

the opposition, the French sports paper

gleefully asked the question: ‘Is this the end

of the Ineos empire?’

Given its rider and financial resources, the

answer to that question is no. But, it is in a

weakened state and, as Portal admitted, other

teams “are scenting blood”. He also suggested

that a lowering of the performance bar at the

top of the GC had encouraged this. “I think

this Tour is a special case because at the start

there was no Tom Dumoulin, there was no

Chris Froome and ‘G’ hasn’t had a perfect

year on the road,” he said, adding that

teams such as Jumbo-Visma, Movistar and

Groupama-FDJ had sensed this might give

them an opportunity and have endeavoured

to take it.

Throughout

the Sky years, the

British team was

always good at

concealing moments

of weakness. In

2012, on the day

of Thibaut Pinot’s

breakthrough stage

win at Porrentruy, Bradley Wiggins was

below par but managed to bluff his rivals

into thinking the opposite. In 2017, Froome

pulled off the same trick when he felt bad

throughout a stage over five passes to

Peyragudes. He lost ground and the yellow

French attack puts

Ineos on the ropes

Alaphilippe and Pinot light up the home fans by

shaking Brit team’s dominance, says Pete Cossins

“‘Is this the end

of the Ineos

empire?’ asked

L’Equipe”

jersey on the final haul up to the line, but

prevailed eventually. One key question as the

Tour entered its sky-high finale was whether

defending champion Thomas had pulled off a

similar stunt that would enable him to retain

the title.

Portal had labelled the Pau time trial and

the two summit finishes that followed as a

block where all of the GC favourites would

have to go full gas. Yet towards the end of the

first test, Thomas got cooked in the heat and

lost crucial seconds to Alaphilippe. That then

also drained his resources for the Tourmalet,

where he finished 36 seconds down on Pinot.

He had, he admitted, felt bad all day. Was this

his Peyragudes, a day where he saved his

Tour thanks to his grit and his rivals’ failure

to perceive his jour sans?

At Prat d’Albis, as had been the case on

the Tourmalet, the 2018 champion was

once again unable to follow Pinot’s attack

and Alaphilippe scurrying across to his

compatriot. However, on this occasion he

responded well, catching the yellow jersey

and then dropping the race leader to gain

time by the finish and conserve second place,

albeit narrowly. “I decided to let them go and

ride at my own pace with Wout [Poels],” he >