Pierre couldn't help but gulp as hung up the phone. He felt it again: the pressure. His DS had told him the news: Andrew Talansky had crashed during the last stage of the Tour de Romandie and broke his hip. He was out for at least three months. Rigoberto Urán would take his place as a Giro leader.
Of course that meant that Pierre would have the sole leadership for the Tour. A gift for many other riders, Pierre took it as a burden. He attributed most of the success he had had this year to the easiness he felt since transferring to the US team. His head had always been more of a problem than his legs.
Pierre had to get out of the house for a while. He put on his Cannondale gear and went for a ride. He was currently training in the high mountains of Andorra, and after a while, his head was a bit clearer.
He remembered how good he had felt in late March, how confident he was. He had to keep that attitude, or else he himself would be his biggest opponent. But he wouldn't let that happen again, he thought. Not this time.
Three weeks can change a lot. Attitudes, perspectives, self-perception. The Giro d'Italia 2016 had been an amazing experience for Fabio Aru. He felt like it had furthered his development so much, both on and off the bike. And his team had been a major factor for that.
While Vincenzo had been training for the Tour with the likes of Fuglsang, Kangert and Rosa, Vinokourov had assembled a core of veterans around Fabio. Paolo Tiralongo, Michele Scarponi and Luis Leon Sanchez had provided him with the best support he could have hoped for and guided him towards a win that had never been contested.
But not only that. He had experienced a level of team spirit unbeknownst to him so far. It mostly started when Michele Scarponi rode himself into pink after a crazy breakaway win on stage 4. The whole team was over the moon, and despite the additional workload, they became dedicated to keeping their eldest in pink for as long as they could.
At first, Fabio was worried about the implications for the later stages. But their experience had made his team mates calm and confident, and their enthusiasm was contagious. Soon, Fabio found himself relaying every now and then himself.
And he got paid back tenfold. After he took pink with a commanding win of the mountain time trial on stage 11, a cyan armada controlled the Italian mountains. None of his opponents' attacks stuck and Fabio was able to score two more stage wins.
This Giro had opened up new vistas for Fabio, for the Tour de France as well. And while by now he was willing to help the team in any role, of course there was one role he preferred. The one he'd just shown to excel in.
Sylvain himself fell back into not doing much, but Thomas Voeckler suddenly stepped up his game with a few nice results in the Ardennes and later in Bavaria with a stage win. Bryan Coquard was still sprinting terribly bad, but since late April, the Giro del Trentino to be specific, Romain Sicard was doing quite well all of a sudden.
In late may, he got a call from his contact man at Direct Energie. The message was clear: They weren't too happy with the season so far. Their contract only included an option for another season, and at this point, they didn't seem very inclined to take it.
I haven't been too happy with the pacing of the story of late, so I've changed a few things that I had originally planned and cut a few posts that I felt were more or less useless fillers. That is also why there was no post yesterday.
Until the Tour starts, there's four more posts planned, one from each of the other protagonists, to set things up, and then we'll hopefully start with stage one simultaneously to the actual Tour.
Any feedback is still appreciated, if you especially liked or disliked something, let me know.
Bravissimo Aru. Comaderie and Dedication needs to be earned in a team, it's not a given. Well done.
Also it's good that Bernaudeau applies some pressure on his guys. But he can't allow to not have Coquard in Tour roster despite utter lack of performance.
Keep 'em coming, looking forward to le Tour
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
I liked what I've read but failing to keep the pace. Not that it's too fast but just that I'm missing some reports and can't find time to catch up properly. Will definitely have to get to it one of these days because it's real well written.
Maybe what I'm missing (just a bit, no criticism) is a clear way to see what piece belongs to what protagonist. Using colors or something could work.
But that's just a matter of opinion
Thanks, glad you like it. I thought about some indicator for who the protagonist is, but nothing really satisfied me. Also, I tried to make sure that it became clear at least in the first paragraph, and if someone is interested in the stories of only one or two, there's always the second post.
But I have a new idea that might be a good solution, it still needs a bit of work but maybe I'll try that in one of the next posts
In Switzerland, everything that could go wrong went wrong. He missed the right moves; at times he tried to ride his own pace, completely misjudged his efforts and crossed the finish line with a lot of energy left, other times he felt overconfident, attacked way too early and couldn't keep it up.
All that led to him finishing 13th in an at best modestly strong field. Worse, of course, was the loss of confidence. But at this point, he didn't feel as desperate. He knew himself, he had always been aware that this could happen again. But the season had made him a little more optimistic that this year, he could overcome it.
There was still some time to prepare. He had the full support of the team. As well as the burden of their expectations. To find the right balance would become his big challenge. His legs were ready. Would his head be, too?
"I'm sorry, Dayer. This is what we've decided." Just like that, the dream was over. Dayer Quintana would not be part of Movistar's Tour de France team. Despite a strong season, and against the explicit wishes of his brother. This made no sense!
They said they weren't happy with his recent performance tests, that he had overdone his preparation, peaked too early, whatever. That they wanted to rely on the experience of Daniel Moreno and Imanol Erviti. The better punch of Carlos Betancur. Bullshit.
Later that day, Dayer tried to call his brother, but he didn't pick up. Eventually, he reached Ion Izagirre. The Basque hadn't been selected either, and together they indulged in their anger and self-pity for a while.
That night, he couldn't sleep. He thought about his future, tried to find a silver lining. He couldn't find one. He thought about watching his brother, tried to cheer himself up imagining him in yellow, but that only increased the pain of not being able to be by his side. In the back of his head, he knew that he would eventually be able to cope with this disappointment. But for the moment, there was nothing but anger and sadness.
Over the past few weeks, Joaquim Rodriguez had been training like a mad man. Not only on his body, but he had also inspected as much of the route as possible, trying to learn every corner of the most important climbs, every tricky spot, figuring out when he would have to be extra attentive to be in the right position.
It had taken him a while, but he had managed to regain his composure after briefly losing his nerves because of the week in the Ardennes. And he had drawn the right conclusions. Shifting his focus in training just a little bit, he had included some more mountain sprint sessions, working on his acceleration and top speed.
And it had paid off. He was not only crushing his teammates on every ascent he was training on, but his power output and his climbing times were better than ever as well. It felt great, and it had given him a calmness and confidence he had previously lacked.
Now, on the eve of the first stage, he was nervous again. But it was a different type of nervous than a few months before: He wasn't scared or unsure of himself. Because he was ready. He knew he was. And he wanted to prove everyone who was skeptic wrong. He just couldn't wait for the race to finally begin.
Fabio Aru spent the evening before the Tour browsing the internet. After a while, he came across the inrng Tour de France preview*. He had tried to stay away from any pre-race coverage, he didn't care too much for other people's opinion. But he was bored and had developed a liking for the site, so he thought, why not:
Route Summary: Before the contenders and pretenders, a quick reminder of the route. An opening start by the sea, bracing for the sea breeze and high stress for the riders as everyone fears losing time in the crosswinds. The race then heads south with a stage in the Massif Central mountain range to shake up the race. The Pyrenees come before the Alps but for a change the route uses more of wider, steadier roads in the Pyrenees while the Alps feature several novel roads that are steeper and more irregular. [...] There are several downhill finishes designed to disrupt the usual tactic of riders holding back until the final kilometre of a mountain stage. In short it’s mountainous but varied, we’re unlikely to get repeat episodes each day in the mountains and the race should be all the better for it.
Fabio had to agree with that. The route looked exciting. Possibilities to shine for all sorts of riders, and he had always been a fan of multi-dimensional mountain stages. That should suit Vincenzo as well.
At this point, Fabio almost closed the tab, but the final sentence conciliated him a little. A podium place was indeed the minimum goal of the team, and despite the doubts expressed about his form and his relation to Vincenzo, Fabio was still flattered to read that the author thought him capable of doing that as well. Fabio had straightened things out with Vincenzo weeks ago and his dedication to support him was not bogus. But should the occasion arise, he wouldn't stand idly by. He kept on reading:
After a few quick glances at the favorites and the startlist, Fabio decided to call it a day. All these predictions would be put to the test come tomorrow. And it would be a joy to watch!
Chris Froome, Nairo Quintana Alberto Contador, Vincenzo Nibali Van Garderen, Pierre Rolland, Thibaut Pinot Romain Bardet, Fabio Aru, Joaquim Rodriguez Warren Barguil, Wilco Kelderman, Bauke Mollema
Astana Pro Team
Alexey Lutsenko
Dario Cataldo
Diego Rosa
Dmitriy Gruzdev
Fabio Aru
Jakob Fuglsang
Lars Boom
Tanel Kangert
Vincenzo Nibali
BMC Racing Team
Alessandro De Marchi
Amael Moinard
Darwin Atapuma
Greg Van Avermaet
Philippe Gilbert
Roman Dennis
Samu Sánchez
Taylor Phinney
Tijay Van Garderen
Cannondale Pro Cycling Team
Joe Dombrowski
Kristijan Koren
Lawson Craddock
Matti Breschel
Michael Woods
Pierre Rolland
Ramunas Navardauskas
Sebastian Langeveld
Tom Jelte Slagter
Dimension Data
Bernhard Eisel
Cameron Meyer
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Kanstantsin Siutsou
Mark Cavendish
Mark Renshaw
Merhawi Kudus
Natnael Berhane
Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg
Direct Energie
Adrien Petit
Alexandre Pichot
Antoine Duchesne
Bryan Coquard
Fabrice Jeandesboz
Romain Sicard
Sylvain Chavanel
Thomas Voeckler
Yohann Gène
Etixx - Quick-step
Bob Jungels
Daniel Martin
Fernando Gaviria
Julian Alaphilippe
Marcel Kittel
Maximiliano Richeze
Niki Terpstra
Tom Boonen
Tony Martin
Team Giant - Alpecin
Albert Timmer
John Degenkolb
Koen De Kort
Laurens Ten Dam
Nikias Arndt
Sam Oomen
Simon Geschke
Tom Dumoulin
Warren Barguil
Team Katusha
Alexander Kristoff
Ilnur Zakarin
Joaquim Rodriguez
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Michael Mørkøv
Rein Taaramae
Simon Spilak
Tiago Machado
Team LottoNL - Jumbo
Alexey Vermeulen
George Bennett
Jos Van Emden
Maarten Tjallingii
Moreno Hofland
Primoz Roglic
Robert Gesink
Sep Vanmarcke
Wilco Kelderman
Team Sky
Benat Intxausti
Christian Froome
Gerraint Thomas
Michal Kwiatkowski
Mikel Nieve
Nicolas Roche
Peter Kennaugh
Sergio Luis Henao
Vasil Kiryienka
Tinkoff
Alberto Contador
Daniele Bennati
Michael Rogers
Michael Valgren
Oscar Gatto
Peter Sagan
Robert Kiserlovski
Roman Kreuziger
Yury Trofimov
Stage 1 - Part I
Mont-Saint-Michel - Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont
[img-r]https://i.imgur.com/2SChMwL.png[/img-r]It was a messy affair, this year's start of the Tour de France. It had been cloudy all morning and just as the neutralized start was about to begin, it began to pour. Hectically, everyone was trying to get their rain overcoats, the start got delayed a little.
Christian Prudhomme evidently was not willing to let the rain get him down, he stuck his head out of the top window of the iconic red car the whole time. And eventually, he could wave his flag and declare the 2016 Tour de France officially departed.
So as you can see, the stage reports will be split in several parts. As I think I mentioned earlier, the initial plan is to post all parts on the day of the stage. That should be alright for the flat stages which should have no more than 2-3 parts, we'll see how it goes once we hit the mountains. Also, I will probably not be able to upload at different times each day, so maybe I'll upload all parts of a stage at once. If you prefer that anyway to be able to read them at once, I might end up packing them in one post. Let me know what you think.
Also, as you can see, I'm going to put a small portrait in the top right corner to make it easier to see who's currently the protagonist. I hope you like it
Stage 1 - Part II
Mont-Saint-Michel - Utah Beach Sainte-Marie-du-Mont
[img-r]https://i.imgur.com/NkmosC8.png[/img-r]It felt good to be riding, and that alone was enough to make Pierre Rolland happy at this point. Which was good, because it was also the only thinking making him happy. The first couple of kilometers were ridiculous.
The pace was high, that had been expected. Everyone wanted to be in the first breakaway group of the race. His team mate Kristijan Koren was among the ones that tried, too. But it was all to no avail. Everyone was pulled back before the first mountain sprint - which then strangely went uncontested. Paul Voss of Bora crossed the line first.
It looked like many riders still had to get into the right mindset, all throughout the peloton. The rain had subsided after a while, but the roads were still wet and a few moments of abstraction brought the first crashes. One of the riders to go down was Nairo Quintana. Pierre could only narrowly avoid going down.
The crashes had a good thing, though. Quite a few teams had to get their leaders or protected riders back to the pack and the pace consequently slowed down. A trio finally was allowed to go clear, and everything settled down a bit.
Unfortunately, Sylvain hadn't won the second mountain sprint, so no podium appearance today for Direct Energie. But there were still enough opportunities left. If only Bryan Coquard would finally get his shit together ...
Fernando Gaviria had just started his acceleration as the final part of Marcel Kittel's lead out, but the German looked like he lost his balance for a moment. He stopped pedaling for a few strokes.
All of a sudden, the Colombian had 10, 20, 30 meters of advance. After a few seconds, he looked back and slowed down a little when he saw his captain not in his wheel. But as Greipel came around and charged towards the line, Gaviria accelerated again to get a sensational stage win and the yellow jersey.
SCNR! 
Fernando Gaviria
André Greipel
Mark Cavendish
Alexander Kristoff
Nacer Bouhanni
Sam Bennett
Peter Sagan
Maarten Tjallingii
Caleb Ewan
