Tour de France 2021, the gazette: shoe, “chronoman” and mummy

• Today’s stage: Changé-Laval, 27 kilometers (individual time trial)

On Wednesday June 30, only 177 riders left Brittany, its menhirs and its rain curtain to take the start of the first of the two individual time trials between Changé and Laval (Mayenne).

On the program for this fifth stage of the Tour de France, 27 kilometers and half an hour of effort. Not very long, therefore, but enough so that climbers lose two to three minutes in the general classification. A desire on the part of the organizers of the race to upset, at least in part, the hierarchy established during the first week of the Grande Boucle. The first part in a false flat uphill should see the runners getting into a dance at the exit of Changé. The second, more rolling, will benefit specialists in the discipline.

• The rider to watch: Stefan Küng

He did not fall and checked the two stopwatches of this 108^e editing. Handyman of the French Groupama-FDJ team, the Swiss Stefan Küng is a complete “chronoman”, in other words a specialist in the event. Supported by Arnaud Démare in the sprints and David Gaudu in the high mountains, the European champion in the discipline won his fifth national time trial title, in Lausannne on June 16, 2021, like a launching pad for the Grande Boucle.

Victim of a puncture on Monday June 28, the rider of the Cofidis team Christophe Laporte was, this time, forced to change his shoe on Tuesday during the fourth stage of the Tour between Redon and Fougères, won by the Briton Mark Cavendish . An operation that the Varois carried out with grace, without getting off his horse, before taking seventh place on the stage.

“The riders of the Tour ask the International Cycling Union to adapt the 3 km rule during stage races”

The riders set foot on the ground on Tuesday, June 29, shortly after kilometer 0 of the fourth stage linking Redon to Fougères (Ille-et-Vilaine). An action of the peloton which aims to ” underline [son] dissatisfaction and lack of attention to security issues ”, according to a press release released before the race by Associate Professional Cyclists, the international association of cyclists.

The day before, five new falls during the third stage between Lorient and Pontivy had tarnished the first week of the Tour de France. Broken collarbone, Australian Lotto-Soudal sprinter Caleb Ewan, who fell 200 meters from the finish, was forced to retire, like his compatriot Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) and the Dutchman Robert Gesink (Jumbo-Visma).

In the afternoon, riders called on the International Cycling Union to extend the rule from 3 kilometers to 5 kilometers, a rule which allows a rider affected by a mechanical accident or a fall in the last three kilometers to be in spite of everything classified at the same time as the group to which it belonged at the time of the incident. What would have refused the world body of cycling.

• Photo: Primoz Roglic mummy

The demanding Mayenne circuit could very well have corresponded to the powerful Welsh Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers) and Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma). But the Tour favorites also fell on Monday during the third stage. The first, winner of the Tour in 2018, stumbled on a speed bump and suffers from a dislocated shoulder; the second ended up on the ground after touching a runner’s wheel in a tug-of-war turn.

Yesterday, the Slovenian posted a photo of himself on his Instagram account. “The situation is far from good”, quipped the leader of Jumbo-Visma, covered in bandages and bandages. Hit in the leg, buttocks, hip, elbow and shoulder, Primoz Roglic nonetheless keeps smiling.

Demoted to twentieth place overall more than 1 minute 30 from the yellow jersey, Mathieu Van der Poel, the runner-up in the 2020 Tour can hope to glean precious seconds this Wednesday so as not to permanently compromise his chances of victory on the Tour.