With wind at the Copenhagen exit, pavés, fear of covid and the usual mountain, the gala round will begin its 109th edition tomorrow
The Tour departing from Bilbao in 2023 will depart from Copenhagen tomorrow. Denmark sets the first time trial (13 kilometers) and, already in the second stage, the wind over the 16 kilometers of the Great Belt Bridge, hanging over the cold and rough Baltic Sea. “The wind blows from everywhere here,” warns Kasper Asgreen, a local cyclist.
With this fear of air, an edition that will start in the fifth stage on eleven sections of pavés that together form almost 20 kilometers of cobblestones. Added to that fear of losing everything almost before the battle for victory begins is a microscopic enemy, Covid. Tadej Pogacar, the big favorite, lost Matteo Trentin, his guide on the pavés, to contamination yesterday. Everyone sweats in those long seconds it takes an antigen test to give or not to give the green light. Relief. And on top of that is the mountain, the Planche des Belles Filles (7th), the great Col de Granon (11th), the famous Alpe d’Huez (12th), Peyragudes (17th) and Hautacam (18th). If with all that is not solved this edition, the last time trial of 41 kilometers and finish will remain in the postcard of Rocamadour, the holy city.
Ten Danish riders will ride with Asgreen in this Tour. For nine Spanish songs. There has not been such a low Spanish participation since 1972. Denmark has less than six million inhabitants; 47 in Spain. Without Mikel Landa and Pello Bilbao, who were in the Giro and will be in the Vuelta, the Spanish peloton’s options are focused on Enric Mas.
From another era comes Eduardo Chozas, who opened the history of the Col de Granon with his victory in 1986: the giant of 2,413 meters (11.3 kilometers at 9.2%) will again be the finish in the eleventh stage, which , as advance will have passed the top of Galibier. When this Tour gets there, it will already have passed La Planche des Belles Filles on day seven, where Pogacar ran Roglic in the final time trial of the 2020 Tour and won his first Grande Boucle. The young Slovenian, still 23 years old, is now looking for the third.
The Granon is waiting for you. To him, to Roglic, to Vingegaard, to Vlasov, to Dani Martínez, to Enric Mas, to Geraint Thomas… Chozas remembers that mineral mass well. In 1986 I was young and brave. Good combination. He dared to carry a leak of more than 150 kilometers and with ports that exhaust by simply calling them: the Vars and the Izoard. Behind them the Granon, unprecedented for that time. Chozas was chased by a broken race, fueled by the sinking of the leader, by Bernard Hinault, who wore his last yellow jersey that day. At the top it would go to Greg LeMond.
The French television cameras focused on that duel for the lead. They have forgotten the fugitive. No one saw his penance. He says: «With three kilometers to go, my body said enough, it couldn’t take it anymore, I had no energy, I started to feel that cold sweat that precedes the breakdown… After two endless kilometers of suffering , bordering at the edge of the torment, feeling the powerlessness of not even being able to stand on my bicycle, I wanted to cry. The meters didn’t go through!». He rode in a 39×24 gear on his carbon Alan bike. In slow motion. I arrive. He raised his arms and nearly lost his balance. “I just felt tired and hungry.”
Behind it Urs Zimmermann and LeMond buried Hinault. The Frenchman had to keep his word to LeMond a year earlier, when the American came to his service in 1986 with a promise to become leader. Only reality forced Hinault to keep his promise. He didn’t stop harassing his partner LeMond until the very end. In the end, the American won his first Tour and Hinault earned a farewell race. He landed on his feet, biting to the last mile. So they choose to lose the best.
Once the Granon is left behind, the Tour heads towards Alpe d’Huez, the great natural amphitheater. Top of the crowd. The Galibier and the long Croix de Fer also await in this twelfth stage. Classics. Then, in transit between the Alps and the Pyrenees, the French round will tangle on the hot roads of the Massif Central on the way to Mende, where Omar Fraile took the last Spanish victory in 2018. In the Pyrenees, there are two finishes on the summit, Peyragudes (after conquering Val Louron) and Hautacam, which will arrive preceded by Aubisque and Col de Spandelles. The icing on the cake awaits on the walls of Rocamadour, the scene of a 41-kilometer time trial before the final stage on July 24 through Paris, where Bilbao will receive the baton to raise the flag in 2023.
Source: La Verdad
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