LAURENS TEN DAM
Laurens recognises something different in the new generation of young riders
Instinct, pure instinct is what I saw in the last kilometre of stage 18, which finished in the Pyrenean ski station of Luz Ardiden. There was no reason to hit hard. Tadej Pogacar’s lead was comfortable with more than five minutes over the surprise of this Tour de France, Jonas Vingegaard. The day before, Pogacar had won the stage on the Col du Portet. His team worked hard for this one and winning the queen stage in the yellow jersey was the finishing touch on his Tour, at least that was what I thought.
Now it was time to divide and conquer. That’s what I learned growing up watching the Indurain Tours, and later the Lance Armstrong era. Even in the Tours I’ve ridden, things worked mostly like this. The race leader would build up a gap over his rivals in the first half of the Tour, like Pogacar did, and then defend it. The final week of the race was a week of presents for their rivals, who would happily accept the mountain stage wins. There was just one proud exception - remember Marco Pantani, who made a fight out of his Ventoux present from Lance Armstrong in 2000. But dividing and conquering, that’s how you can reign for years and I thought watching Luz Ardiden, that was what Tadej Pogacar was about to do.
But oh, I was wrong. This new generation of bike racers is not a calculating one. Actually they are far from that. They race with their hearts instead of their heads. There was just one provocation by Movistar’s Enric Mas, who attacked towards the top of Luz Ardiden, and like a bull following a red rag, the man in yellow just crushed poor Enric while blasting past him on his way to victory. Boom, there it was, the yellow jersey winning his second stage in a row. It’s something rare we have to go way back in Tour history to find. Discounting the Armstrong years, in 1979 Bernard Hinault won the last stage of the Tour after winning the day before, by beating number two in the general Joop Zoetemelk in a two-man sprint on the Champs-Élysées.
How about that, Miguel? Le Blaireau showed no mercy with his rivals, just like Pogacar in the two last Alpine stages of the 2021 Tour.
A generation that races to win stood up in this Tour. Remember Mathieu van der Poel’s attack on the first ascent at Mûr-de-Bretagne on stage 2? Me with my old cycling mind thought he was doing a suicide attack to show himself. A guy who has good legs is not attacking this early in a final where everybody waits until the last climb, not even Mathieu van der Poel. And boy oh boy, again I was proved wrong. This was all part of a plan only he knew of. He knew that in order to wear the yellow jersey the next day he needed the bonus seconds at the top of the climb at the first passage. So he attacked the first time. Instinct.
And have I talked about Wout van Aert already? Winning over the Ventoux, and like Hinault in 1979 producing backto-back wins in the final weekend. The triple crown of a mountain stage, a time trial and the queen of sprints on the Champs-Élyées was realised by one man himself. It was unbelievable.
I really enjoyed this Tour and the races we saw. It is far from the calculated racing I am used to. I love those three young guys, all racing on instinct.
Laurens ten Dam is an ex pro cyclist. He lives by his motto, ‘live slow, ride fast’, while doing podcasts, organising gravel events and running a coffee brand and clothing label. 2021 goals? Back to gravel racing!
Movistar’s Enric Mas attacked towards the top of Luz Ardiden, and like a bull following a red rag, the man in yellow just crushed poor Enric while blasting past him on his way to victory. Boom!