At the top of the Fosse-aux-Loups hill, the words of Julien Alaphilippe, winner of the first stage of the Tour de France 2021 and first wearer of the yellow jersey, are relieved on Saturday June 26: ” I am so happy. “
Julian Alaphilippe (Deceuninck-Quick Step) who, 2 kilometers (5.7%) from the last summit, squirted from the leading pack. Five minutes and forty-seven seconds of intense effort. He turns. Nobody. Dig. Maintains. And win.
Cycling is easy. Simmer your decision, then sit down to the table without making any leftovers. Has the leader of the Belgian training, world champion, set himself the goal, this year, to cross the promised land – the Tour? In any case, it crosses mountains, lakes and rivers while flying over obstacles.
Its manager, Patrick Lefévère, must be exulting. Three “Deceuninck” at the foot of the bump, including Kasper Asgreen, have done a titanic job: “You had to harden the foot. Then hold up to the line. Here “, said the champion.
Julian Alaphilippe does his job with joy and without fatigue. It will be objected that this final had all the Ardennes races. April in July, in fact. Michael Matthews (BikeExchange team) and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) complete the podium. The Slovenian, who was trapped in 2020, decided to pick up the seconds. There are no small savings. The enemy brothers, Mathieu Van der Poel (Alpecin-Fenix) and Wout Van Aert (Jumbo-Visma), rank respectively 20e and 24e.
Cursed cardboard
Without wishing to prophesy, the Tour starts well, because two huge falls punctuated this first stage. The astrologers had predicted it: in the North, catastrophes; in the South, cataclysms. Warholian moments in the Arrée mountains.
In truth, the story is horrible. It is that of a spectator who kills the Tour of the German Jasha Sütterlin (Team DSM) with a cardboard sign on which is written “Opi-Omi” (“Grandpa-granny” in German). At kilometer 45, on the coast of Saint-Rivoal – one of the many Breton saints, who would have arrived from Cornwall in a granite vessel, as deep as a hip bath – Tony Martin, of the Jumbo-Visma, collides with the cursed cardboard box . And fall. Resulting in an incredible entanglement of forty runners.
Wout Van Aert, after a long effort, managed to get into the cars, but ran out of juice for the final. We will not judge unconsciousness. Or stupidity. Did the spectator go on tiptoe, folded sign under her arm? Will a complaint be lodged by the German team DSM against the organizer of the Tour, Amaury Sport Organization (ASO). Or against the compatriot for endangering the lives of others?
7.6 kilometers from the finish, a second fall, this time caused by a runner from B & B Hotels p / b KTM who rubs the rear wheel of a runner from Bahrain-Victorious. This is no longer the Tour, but a retrospective of Hieronymus Bosch. The language of the Tour, which is full of ornaments, must imperatively publish a ministerial circular: ban on brandishing boiled cardboard signs.
Another Warholian moment: the solo escape of the young Dutchman Ide Schelling, of the Bora-Hansgrohe team, that is to say 160 kilometers in Finistère of David Gaudu and Laurent Madouas.
We were in the homeland of the economy, shelves and groceries: Landerneau. Here, the Leclerc family is at home. The city has given the homeland one of the most important grocers on earth. Michel has that tone of cheerful sincerity that you only find in the best shoe dealers. Michel-Edouard, son of the late Edouard, is on the Tour, and this is one of his passions. Not content with being on his own land, he is also the godfather of the polka dot jersey. Besides, all Landernau yesterday was nothing but peas and Gwenn ha Du (the Breton flag) brandished.
Tomorrow, Mûr-de-Bretagne is on the program. With two ascents of the “wall”. The last of the general classification are already more than sixteen minutes behind the yellow jersey. Among them are Tony Martin, Sepp Kuss and Mike Teunissen, all three teammates in Jumbo-Visma, but also one of the revelations of the 2020 Tour, in the person of the Swiss Marc Hirschi, of UAE Emirates.