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Inside the Tour – Marginalizing the Tourmalet?

by John Wilcockson

• July 11, 2009
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By John Wilcockson

The Tourmalet has a long history in the Tour de France. Will it matter this year?

Photo: Agence France Presse – file photo

This year’s Tour de France is laid out so strangely that even though two of the toughest Pyrenean climbs, the Aspin and Tourmalet, are included in Sunday’s stage 9 they will be virtually marginalized. That’s because from the top of the Tourmalet — the most difficult climb in the Tour’s first two weeks — to the finish in Tarbes is a yawningly long 70 kilometers. So any contenders who make a move on the hors-catégorie mountain and gain even as much as three minutes are sure to be caught — unless something extraordinary occurs.

Saturday’s stage 8 already showed that when the going gets tough there are fewer than a dozen riders who can answer the call. Those are the men who followed Andy Schleck’s acceleration on the Cat. 1 Col d’Agnès: his brother and Saxo Bank teammate Fränk Schleck; the four Astana strongmen Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden; the still-improving Garmin-Slipstream pair Christian Vande Velde and Brad Wiggins; Silence-Lotto’s Cadel Evans; Columbia-HTC’s “best young rider” Tony Martin; and Liquigas’ Vincenzo Nibali.

Even though Schleck’s aggression was not rewarded, it wasn’t wasted. Among those left behind (temporarily) by the move was Cervélo’s defending champ Carlos Sastre — who clearly is not going to repeat his 2008 victory. What we can also be sure of is that the winner of this Tour will come from the elite group that went with Schleck.

If Sunday’s stage 9 is played out in the same vein then none of those top riders will be expending any unnecessary energy over the Tourmalet. Just about the only scenario to change that expectation and cause something “extraordinary” would be, say, a dramatic attack by the impetuous Contador, dropping everyone and bridging up to an earlier break.

If that happened, the Spanish star might persuade others to work with him in a breakaway (especially if they are Spanish); but that would be open insurrection, even more so than his brief attack on Friday’s stage in Andorra. If Contador did make such a move, and invoke the wrath of his teammates, he would be marginalized by his team, just as the Tourmalet has been marginalized by this Tour.

There will still be huge crowds on the rugged slopes of the Tourmalet because it is so long (17km) and hard (the last 10km rarely drops below 9 percent grade) that the spectacle remains. The fans will be thrilled to see how Armstrong performs on the toughest climb he has faced thus far in his comeback — and to compare him with the men from a new generation that has emerged since he retired in 2005.

And the fans will never tire of cheering on the lesser climbers as they make their way to the Tourmalet’s 6,939-foot summit. But one wonders what the late race director Jacques Goddet — whose statue sits atop the Tourmalet — would think of a Tour that is spending three days in the Pyrenees with very little to show for it.

As many as 60 riders could get back together on the Tourmalet’s 20km descent and the 50km of flat roads that follow the Tourmalet, but not before those seeking the stage win make a successful counterattack out of the group. You’ll have to watch to find out their names.

Follow John’s twitter at twitter.com/johnwilcockson. His latest book, “Lance: The Making of the World’s Greatest Champion,” is available at www.velogear.com.