Hunter’s ugly-pretty Tour affair during King Blem’s rule
In 2007, the most famous South African at the Tour de France was a mechanic. Gary Blem was sitting in the back of the Team Barloworld car, his head out of the window, his blond ponytail flapping in the wind like a happy Labrador. As they left the joys of London and headed to Canterbury for the first stage of the Tour, a shout went up: “Hey! Gary Blem!”
It was not the last time the team management, sitting in the front two seats of the car, would hear his name as they rolled along in the convoy behind the riders. King Blem has many friends. He has paid his dues in South African cycling. I met him about 15 years ago when he owned a bike shop in Boksburg. He ran spinning classes out of it. His hairstyle was the same. I remember he had a Trek Y-Foil frame for sale. It was uglybeautiful, just like his hair.
Robbie Hunter’s affair with the Tour de France in 2007 was ugly-beautiful. He was desperate for a win. He’d taken the step down from the top tier of teams to ride for Barloworld, then at Pro Continental level, the second level. South Africansponsored but British registered, South Africans embraced them as their own.
Hunter finished 21st on the first stage. Then came fourth, fifth and second places on the next three stages. The frustration was immense. He was eighth on the sixth stage.
The 11th stage from Marseille to Montpellier was on July 19. The bunch had been split up by Astana. Hunter got into the front group. As they came towards the finish line, Hunter drove hard to hold off Fabian Cancellara, the time trial world champion.
SA had a winner on the grandest cycle race of them all.
Hunter was not yet done. He was close to Tom Boonen in the push for the green jersey. He wanted it. He had worn the white jersey for under-25 riders in his first Tour in 2001, but as a proxy because the leader of the competition was leading another competition.
He was third in the next stage. Then came a sixth and a fourth on the Champs Elysees. He was second in the green jersey. With his 10th, third and seventh place finishes in 2001, Hunter has the full hand of places from one to 10 in stages at the Tour de France. A small thing. In 2008, I was in Tuscany for a Team Barloworld training camp. During it, Hunter finished third in a local race to Alessandro Petacchi. He and the Italian had had their spats, with Hunter grabbing him in a headlock and twisting his ear after Petacchi accused him of switching in the sprint.
Hunter, myself, Geraint Thomas and Steve Cummings sat down for a postrace beer. Thomas had been the youngest rider to take part in the Tour in 2007, ending a hollow shell of a man in Paris, but having finished nevertheless.
Cummings had ridden for Discovery Channel. Like Thomas, he was a product of the British track system. He was a world champion and Olympic silver medallist.
On Thursday in Dusseldorf before the start of the Tour de France, Cummings was pictured sitting with Douglas Ryder, his boss at Team Dimension Data, Africa’s team at the Tour. Ryder, in a picture taken by his wife, Nicki, is smiling at the camera as he holds some papers. Cummings is laughing. I suggested Ryder was trying to give Cummings a detailed set of race tactics.
Cummings does not ride by rote. He will be all over the bunch, sitting at the back, then the front, before kicking on just when he needs to.
He did that in 2015, when he won on Mandela Day. He did it in 2016 on the seventh stage, time-trialling over rolling hills for his second stage win. Both times he hugged Ryder and apologised for giving him so “much trouble”, or Scouse words to that effect.
On Team Sky, Thomas will ride in support of Chris Froome, the British-Kenyan-South African in search of his fourth Tour de France win. Froome was another on that 2008 Barloworld team.
On Saturday, 10 years after he was the most famous South African at the Tour de France, Blem will be in the Team Sky car, his head out of the window, his ponytail still recovering from being shorn after a lost bet. It will be ugly-beautiful, just like the Tour.