Ineos lack of power exposed as attack by Thomas backfires
Bernal up to second but tactics raise questions Alaphilippe’s daring descent limits his losses
Team Ineos were not the only ones left scratching their heads last night. Cycling fans across the globe were also pondering the British team’s tactics after a fascinating first day in the Alps, which has left this Tour de France on a knife edge with just two stages remaining until the race reaches Paris.
Questions abound but, after another failed attempt to break longtime race leader Julian Alaphilippe yesterday, they keep coming back to Ineos, their strength this year and which of their “co-leaders”, Egan Bernal or Geraint Thomas, is their more likely winner. And whether, by hedging their bets, they might lose this race.
Yesterday, in an attempt to inject some pain into proceedings on the final climb up the Galibier, Bernal was given permission to attack the group of general classification contenders. The young Colombian, who began the day fifth on GC at 2min 02sec, swiftly opened up a 40-second advantage over the yellow jersey group as he neared the summit of the hors categorie climb, at 2,642metres one of the highest points of the race.
So far so good. It was an obvious tactic to send Bernal up the road in an attempt to shake things up. What then followed, though, was intriguing. With around two kilometres to go to the top, and with Bernal stretching his lead all the time, Thomas also decided to attack.
The Welshman immediately succeeded in putting Alaphilippe in trouble, the Deceuninck-quickstep rider losing contact at the back of the GC group. But the attack was too little, too late, succeeding only in injecting pace into the group as a whole, but proving insufficient to get rid of Alaphilippe definitively.
The Frenchman reached the summit 17sec in arrears, but made up that time with an incredible display of descending which was probably one of the highlights of this entire Tour. Weaving and swooping around bends with sheer drops to the side, Alaphilippe not only caught back up to Thomas and his friends, he flew past them.
“I took risks,” he later admitted. “When I regrouped I went to the front, because I love going downhill ... but I also wanted to show them I was fast.” The net result was hard to judge. Was it a win or a loss for Ineos overall?
Bernal finished eighth on the stage, 4min 46sec behind Movistar’s Nairo Quintana, who won from the day’s breakaway. But he only put 32 seconds into Alaphilippe, who eventually finished with all the other GC contenders. It was enough to lift the Colombian into second place overall, five seconds ahead of Thomas, but not enough to do much damage to Alaphilippe, who remains 1min 30sec clear.
And that only led to more questions. Should Thomas have attacked? Why did he attack? Was it because he was worried about losing his second place to Bernal? If Thomas had sat on, would Bernal have taken more time out of Alaphilippe? And with Bernal now ahead on GC, and showing good legs, is he now the de facto team leader?
The riders’ interviews after the stage did not shed too much light on these questions, although Thomas hinted at one major problem when he admitted that Ineos just do not have the same power they have enjoyed in recent years. The loss of Luke Rowe after his disqualification on Wednesday did not help yesterday, but even accounting for the absence of their road captain they looked underpowered.
“We wanted a hard pace and unfortunately we ran out of guys,” Thomas said of a stage which saw Ineos put Dylan van Baarle in the break so that he could drop back to help out later. “The call was made for Egan [Bernal] to go and that kicked it off,” he said. “I couldn’t do much than other than follow. I had a little dig just to see if anything was going to happen and the guys followed me over the top. It was a good day for Egan, gaining some time.”
Bernal, for his part, said the stage had been “really good” and that he was happy to have put time into Alaphilippe. “It was G’s decision,” he said of his attack. “He asked me how I was feeling. I said, ‘I’m feeling really good,’ so he asked me to attack to try to move the race. He tried to come with me but when he saw the other guys on his wheel he just stayed with them. We’re in a really good position.”
Bernal may be confident but Alaphilippe just will not go away. The Frenchman is enjoying more comebacks than Frank Sinatra. Yesterday, as with the summit finish in Foix on Sunday, was a day when he faltered but ultimately managed to limit his losses.
Alaphilippe’s rivals have two more days to break him. Today’s stage to Tignes and tomorrow’s to Val Thorens end in summit finishes, meaning he will not be able to use his descending skills to catch up.
There should be splits. But questions remain: who can make it hard enough to drop him? Who is leading Team Ineos? A fascinating race is nearing its conclusion and no one has the answers.