SUPERSTITION AIN’T THE PELOTON’S WAY

If Friday 13th spells bad luck, it could be why the peloton took it so slowly on the way to Chartres, trundling at a leisurely pace perhaps for fear of what the universe could throw at them. The longest day of the race, at 231km, stage 8’s Friday 13th came with a double jinx: it was also the 13th time the Tour had featured a Friday 13th.

The peloton, however, didn’t appear fazed by the possible increase in paranormal activity. Super good, super happy, super proud are all regular feelings for Tour de France riders, but superstitious? It turns out, not so much.

“No, not at all,” was Richie Porte’s short, succinct response, when asked if he was at all superstitious about Friday 13th, as he relaxed over his handlebars waiting to sign on for the stage start. Jack Bauer similarly brushed o!f the suggestion – although he did say, with a wry smile, that he would “keep my eyes a little more open” when the racing began. Serge Pauwels admitted that while Friday 13th doesn’t give him the heebiejeebies, he has other superstitions, including placing the salt down on the team dinner table instead of passing it around directly from person to person.

Perhaps one of the most philosophical riders in the bunch, Taylor Phinney was also sceptical. “I’m not superstitious at all. Not really, I get paranoid sometimes but it’s not really related to the day of the month of the year. I mean we invented the calendar, we also invented the names of the days so it’s like… I don’t know. The deeper you go…” he explained to Procycling, before trailing o!f into the distance and riding back to his bus.

Phinney and all the other doubters were surely proved right at the !inish, as the stage passed without major cause for alarm or incident. But in maybe the strangest twists of fate, the Tour’s race number 13 happened to be one of the riders who had endured the unluckiest of !irst weeks: Lawson Craddock. And believer or not, the American still followed tradition by sticking his number on upside down each day. Superstitious? Maybe. Some things clearly you can never be too careful about.