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Le Tour de FRANCE
Dynamic paintings from every stage of the Tour de France 2021
Swashbuckling!
Stage 1
France's very own swashbuckling musketeer bursts out from the pack of rivals to a spectacular solo triumph at summit of the Fossé aux Loups (translation: wolf ditch). What a way to start off the 108th edition of Le Grand Boucle - the sight of the host nation's World Champion rainbow jersey (+iconic swordsman’s facial hair) taking yellow on the opening stage.
France's very own swashbuckling musketeer bursts out from the pack of rivals to a spectacular solo triumph at summit of the Fossé aux Loups (translation: wolf ditch). What a way to start off the 108th edition of Le Grand Boucle - the sight of the host nation's World Champion rainbow jersey sporting his iconic swordsman’s facial statement taking yellow on the inaugural stage of the much fêted adventure across the country.
The Flying Dutchman
Stage 2
The imposing muscular frame of one flying Dutchman clutches the handlebars with fierce intention on the Mûr de Bretagne. Rocket-shipping himself into yellow with a searing attack 800 metres from the line, Mathieu Van Der Poel dedicates his victory to his Grandfather, the late, great, Raymond Poulidor.
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Chaos
Stage 3
The fastmen rip around the final bend and in the chaos that often accompanies a sprint finish, on what has already been a chaotic start to the race, two of the biggest names in the sprint stack collide in confusing circumstances, with Caleb Ewan clattering into Peter Sagan and them both hitting the deck. Relative unknown Merlier (Alpecin-Fenix) takes full advantage of the diminished field to take a second victory for the team.
The Phoenix
Stage 4
At the closing of the hour, it looks as if breakaway rider Van Moer might hold off the chasing peloton. A haze cloud of confusion hangs over the outcome of the fourth stage: will it be a breakaway rider or a group sprint for the finish? in the dying turns of Van Moer’s noble strain for glory, he is snatched up by the peloton, denying him his fairytale ending. With less than 200 metres to go, with no time to take stock of which names are competing, the race at this point has become a motoring mass of colour. It is from this fray that an unmistsakable silhouette reappears from the forgotten years of the Tour annals: bursting from the confusion, hunched over his machine, we behold the Manx Missile; Mark Cavendish. A rider widely deemed to have been past his best and unable to compete with the current strain of sprinters, it is on this day, 5 years since his last Tour victory that Mark Cavendish rises Phoenix-like from the ashes.
Mission Statement
Stage 5
It is man against the clock on the 27 km fifth stage from Changé to Laval. The 22 year-old Slovenian, Tadej Pogacar makes a massive statement not just by placing well among the GC contenders, but banks the fastest time overall, 27 seconds over second place. It is a dominant display and sends a clear statement to all competing for yellow.
Cemented Return
Stage 6
When Mark Cavendish came to this race as a last-minute replacement for injured fellow sprinter Sam Bennett, there was a lot of speculation as to whether he was up to the task of winning on the big stage. His first victory on stage 4 at this year’s Tour came as a big surprise to many watching who had cast him aside and tossed the empty husk of his sprinting hopes. Today we witness the sight of this small and speedy green man sailing over the finish line for a second time in this Tour. Notably, the finish in Chateauroux is where Cavendish won his very first Tour de France stage in 2008.
Tears behind the Oakleys
Stage 7
On the longest stage of the Tour for 21 years, weighing in at a hefty 249 km, young Slovenian rider Matej Mohoric rides to a solo victory over a minute ahead of second place Jasper Stuyven. This victory at the Tour means that he becomes a stage winner at all three of the Grand Tours: La Vuelta, the Giro and now the Tour de France. During the closing kilometre on the approach to the line it becomes clear that he is going to win and he no longer needs to fear being caught. This realisation brings about a visible transformation in the rider: the single-minded battling spirit that pushed him to suffer to victory metamorphoses into a man overcome with emotion. In the final stretch as he rolls to the finish he is unable to hide tears of relief and joy behind his Oakleys. A beautiful display of what it means to win at the Tour.
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Charge!
Stage 8
As the race enters the Alps, the setting for the competition alters and where there were once picturesque summer scenes of long, winding roads flanked by expanses of fields, we now enter a setting of mythical magnitude: fog hangs low in the air, polka-dot ponchos line the ominous rain-darkened asphalt. The front runners are few, riding in a pack held in tension by the strain of the climbs. Davide Formolo (UAE) rides at the nose of the main group, his face mutating expressively under his efforts, articulating a fascinating vocabulary of pain. With 30km to go, Pogacar, wearing the best young rider’s white jersey unceremoniously gets up on the pedals and accelerates, moving himself clear of the group of favourites. Such is the surge of the attack that only Ineos’ Richard Carapaz ventures to follow. Once the two riders are clear of the other contenders, Pogacar, who is fronting the move, flicks his elbow, inviting Carapaz to work as a team. Carapaz does not or perhaps cannot answer the call, to which the young Slovenian responds with an acceleration that leaves Carapaz in his trail. Up the road he rides, forging a purposeful trail up the mountain. The attack is so strong he seems in a league of his own. Pogacar rides this way for the remainder of the stage, systematically reeling in countless riders up the road. Spectators and commentators alike are aghast at the display which is before us. Post-race, riders are asked by journalists: 'What was it like when Pogacar went by?'
Despite the famed attack, Pogacar does not take the stage victory, but his performance and its bearing on the overall trajectory of the race does take centre stage, unfortunately obscuring Dylan Teuns’ victory on stage 8. Teuns takes the stage and after this effort Pogacar sits with a four minute gap between himself and the next GC contender.
New Connortender
Stage 9
The unrelenting rain and fog in Tignes is a big presence on stage 9. Battling the climbs is one thing and to battle the elements on top of that is even more demanding. With 17km to go, AG2R Citroen rider Ben O’Connor makes his bid for glory and pulls away from his rival Higuita. Despite the chase, on this day, the man from Western Australia is too strong and his efforts do not relent. He rides solo up the climb to the finish to take his first ever victory at the Tour de France.
Number 3
Stage 10
Stage 9 from Cluses to Tignes was one that pushed Cavendish to the limit. As a sprinter, he is not configured to climb mountains. While the cameras focused on the GC contenders, out of view and out of mind of the rest of us, Cavendish was struggling awayon the hills trying to make it to the finish inside the cut-off time. (a late arrival resulting in an ejection from the race). His team sat with him to accompany him on the arduous, ascent-filled stage. Exhausted, he made it to the line in time, relieved to be able to keep his position in the race that means so much to him. Fittingly, the very same team-mates that helped him over the mountains lead him out against Van Aert, Bouhani, Sagan, Colbrelli in the hope of bringing home what would be Cavendish’s 33rd victory, just one behind the all-time record of 34 stages at the Tour, held by Eddy Merckx. The lead out train delivers him around the final bend with under 300 metres to go and the Manx Missile manages to squeeze over the line half a wheel in front of Van Aert. Cavendish, in his mature years, is humble in victory, crediting his team: “like you read in a cycling magazine… lead out train, textbook lead-out”.
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Van Aert Ven-two
Stage 11
Today is the first time in its history that the Tour has tackled the Ventoux twice in a day. The demands of the stage send Tony Martin out of the race as he has to abandon, but at the opposite end of fortune, Belgian National Champion, Van Aert, 24 hours after coming second to Cavendish in a bunch sprint, separates himself from his rivals on the slopes of the famed Ventoux. The Belgian colours of Van Aert’s kit shine magnificently against the moonscape greys and dulled clouds of the Ventoux skyline. Van Aert is part of a strain of your riders who breaks the mould of excelling exclusively in a single-discipline; hailing from a cyclo-cross background, he has won Classics, sprint stages and now we behold the bold Belgian colours against the legendary skyline of the Ventoux radio tower where he solos to a memorable stage win.
True Grit
Stage 12
The Tour de France is a multi-faceted machine with pulleys, levers and buttons - it is a complex inter-connected web of advertising, sponsorship, mechanics, medics, unfathomable logistics and God knows what else. With all the hoopla, it can go forgotten that at the soul of the race there lies a far less superficial commodity: the spirit of true grit. With Peter Sagan having to abandon the race due to a knee injury, Bora Hansgrohe’s domestique, Nils Politt has a rare opportunity to stretch his legs. The sight of the German rider giving everything to go for a stage win is deeply relatable - is it because suffering lies at the core of all human experience? Written all over Politt's face is the contorted majesty of effort. A man gasping for air sending all his life-essence to his burning legs, demanding them to continue. To be able to watch someone up close as they slog their guts out is a rare privilege and this is what we get to witness on stage 12. Politt, the habitual domestique steps from behind the scenes and into the limelight, giving us a chance to see true grit and behold a man possessed by the spirit of cycling.
34
Stage 13
On this scorching day, Cavendish was delivered by his lead-out train and under the expectations of many wishing him to equal Merckx's record, he delivers. Mark Cavendish rockets to the line to secure his 34th Tour de France stage, equalling Eddy Merckx's record for most stage wins at the Tour de France. From a 5 year drought of wins at the Tour, a retirement in 2020, and being a last-minute call-up for the Tour, Cavendish has now picked up four stages in the race. Chapeau, sir!
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Jangling
Stage 14
Mollema catches his breakaway napping during a descent 43 km from the line when the Dutchman takes his opportunity to attack on a twist-turning downhill. His co-escapees miss the opportunity to chase, and the rangy Dutchman commits fully, riding like a diesel, insectile frame crouched over his bike, arms leveraging the handlebars against his pistons, he jangles away to the line on his own. Despite a chasing group of four riders, he motors to the stage win to end a three year drought at the Tour for Trek Segafredo.
Super Sepp
Stage 15
After the loss of team leader Primož Roglič, team Jumbo-Visma's super-domestique Sepp Kuss rode as part of a breakaway that went up the road early on stage 15 from Céret to Andorre-La-Vieille. Taking his chances on the steep slopes of the Col de Beixalis, he attacked and successfully held off a pursuing Alejandro Valverde until the line. This victory at the first big mountain stage in the Pyrenees is the second stage win for Jumbo-Visma and the first win for an American rider in the Tour for 10-years.
Breakaway payoff
Stage 16
Patrick Konrad has ridden in the a handful of breaks during this year’s Tour, none of which has paid off with a stage win. He was part of the group that got caught napping when Mollema attacked off a downhill on stage 14 and today he features in the breakaway again. Having watched more long solo attacks paying off in the year’s Tour compared to most and with the amount of stages running out, he decides to take his chances with 37 km to the line. Talking about Mohoric and Mollema (who have taken long solo stages), the Austrian rider said "They always went really early while I was waiting for the final. So, I said to myself ‘this time I will be the first guy to make a decision to go for it’. I knew I had the legs to try.” He believed in himself and dared to gamble and today it pays off.
Trio in tension
Stage 17
Stage 17 is a crowning test for the GC contenders, who battle up the mountainside in a group of riders whittled down to just three: Pogacar, Vingegaard and Carapaz (1,2 & 3 respectively on GC). The trio are locked in battle, pushing up the climb through clouds of fog that pass across their GC showdown. The mountain stage concluding on the Col du Portet (2,215m) was widely expected to be a display of dominance by the defending champion in yellow; Pogacar. However, this is not the case. Jumbo-Visma's Jonas Vingegaard, who temporarily managed to ride away from Pogacar on the Ventoux stage matches Pogacar blow for blow. The biggest drama on the day, though, is the irksome presence of Richard Carapaz, who glues himself to Pogacar and Vingegaard without sharing the front-running, a move deemed sneaky by his two adversaries, who, in response, make multiple attempts to shake the Ecuadorian rider. The two take turns to increase the pace in an attempt to drop their passenger, but resilient and tenacious, he lingers on third wheel, poking in and out of sight, teeth permanently gritted. Wearing the look of a rider on the brink of cracking, with 1.4km to go, Carapaz does the unthinkable and launches his own attack!
Carapaz digs deep in his bid for stage victory to redeem a lacklustre Tour for Ineos. As the attack opens up, Vingegaard is not able to follow and 10 or so bike lengths open up in the road. It looks like he might drop Vingegaard and you wouldn't be blamed for dreaming of an unthinkable victory for Carapaz. The metres to the finish line have now gone from kms to hundreds of metres (600m to go, 500m to go…). In an agonising finale, Vingegaard claws his way back and as Carapaz's attack loses its initial gusto, Pogacar uphill sprints to victory, followed 3 seconds behind by the recovered Vingegaard, who has quelled the Ineos man's enthusiasm, and put him back to third on the road.
It was not the dominant one-sided display by the defending champion many thought was a given, but a gritty and tense day spent in suspense, watching the three biggest contenders in the race pushing each other to breaking point and grinding to fight out a tense finale.
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Back-to-back
Stage 18
The final mountain stage of the 2021 Tour de France takes the riders over the hors-categorie Tourmalet and finishes on Luz Ardiden. As the action heats up, UAE came to the front with Rafal Majka, upping the pace and dropping riders who are unable to keep up. With the end in sight there are only five riders in the lead pack containing the yellow jersey: Pogacar, Vingegaard, Carapaz, Enrique Mas and Sepp Kuss. With under a kilometre to go, Mas launches an attack, coming past the favourites but alas, his time at the front only lasts moments. Inevitably, the three favourites come steaming by, spearheaded by Pogacar’s formidable presence, followed closely by the familiar duo of Vingegaard and Carapaz. There will have been some hopes that Pogacar’s superiority at this year’s race could be questioned, but the closing metres of the race put pay to that possibility. The man in yellow is undoubtedly the strongest in the race and he looks comfortable sprinting uphill to take a second win in a row while wearing yellow. Where others are jostling for position, Pogacar has the wind in his sails and seems to be racing under different conditions: “It’s crazy. It’s a game for me since I started, and I’m enjoying playing it.” While wearing yellow, Pogacar takes his second back-to-back stage win.
Zip it!
Stage 19
Stage 19 features a big breakaway who go up the road and perhaps due to fatigue or lack of foresight, become unreachable to a peloton containing the sprinters that this stage seemed made for. A break of 12 riders gaps the peloton handsomely, and Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) makes a move with 25 km. He opens up a gap and sticks with his effort, and the chasing group just seem too tired and disorganised to catch him. As Mohoric comes over the line to take an impressive second solo-breakaway victory at this Tour, he gives a double gesture of ‘shush’ (index finger to lips) followed by a mouth-zipper mime. Rewind a couple of days and Team Bahrain Victorious are undergoing a police raid on their hotel rooms under suspicion of doping. Given the drug scandals that haunt the history of professional cycling and under the circumstances of the police raid, the gesture's meaning is not altogether clear and as such, in the tense climate of doping, doing anything seems risky. In particular it conjours up associations of the omertà that sealed those doping in mutually agreed secrecy: the ‘shush’ gesture could easily be interpreted as ‘my mouth is sealed - I won’t say anything’. However, this would be so wildly brazen to gesture this to a global audience while crossing the finish line that it has to be interpreted differently... AKA: shut up. A reasonable interpretation is that Mohoric is aiming his ‘shut your mouth’ celebration at the authorities and those who suspect their team of cheating. The victory also stands as a uniting protest of strength by the rider whose team who feel attacked by the implications and pressure that the police raid brings with it. The gestures and the timing are refreshingly un-PR-friendly which stands out as being heartfelt, if a bit careless.
Ventoux to Time Trial
Stage 20
In 2020, Primoz Roglic was dominant throughout the Tour and headed into the time trial on the penultimate day wearing yellow. He had one stage more to hold off his rivals, but Tadej Pogacar had other ideas, and with his all-out performance on the course he leap-frogged Roglic to win the overall at the last possible moment. The Tour's decision to stage a time trial on the penultimate day does so with that 2020 drama in mind. However, in terms of the fight for yellow, Pogacar leads Vingegaard (second place) by over five minutes meaning that so long as he stays upright, there is a negligible possibility of upset. Consequently Pogacar rides conservatively, coming in 8th and without a shadow of a doubt, wins the Tour. The fight between Carapaz, who starts the stage six seconds behind Vingegaard on the overall, is a possible sight of drama, but the young Dane, who is riding his first Tour, puts in a performance that extends his lead on 3rd. There are no position changes in the top ten. The performance of the day belongs to Jumbo-Visma’s Wout Van Aert. The Belgian rider manages to clock the fastest times at both intermediate time checks, crossing the finish line in 35 minutes and 53 seconds to take the stage win. The versatile young rider is showing fantastic strength after the three-week test and has now won a mountain stage and a time trial at the Tour.
Two in a row
Stage 21
I remember watching Cavendish rocket along the Champs Elysees in his ‘unstoppable’ years and the four sprint stages victories had me thinking that the final stage would be a case of Cavendish in green hitting the line first to take the stage along with Merckx’s Tour de France stage win record. Winding up to the final straight on 18th July 2021, the battle-tested Deceuninck Quickstep lead-out train were present in numbers, but something isn't quite right and Cavendish loses the wheel of his train, finding himself having to ride alone. Boxed-in under cramped conditions, he misses a beat at the opportune moment, having to stop pedalling to prevent a collision. The line came in too fast and he didn’t manage to find an opening to kick his sprint off properly. It is Wout Van Aert who singles himself out once again, riding fantastically purposefully in the sprint even with his ‘three weeks’ legs. The prestigious closing stage of the 2021 Tour goes to the Jumbo-Visma rider, Wout Van Aert.
Days previously, when Merckx was asked about Cavendish possibly overtaking his stage record, he highlighted that Cavendish’s wins are exclusively from sprint stages, whereas his 34 wins came from downhill attacks, time trials, mountains stages and breakaways. Notably, Wout Van Aert is a Belgian, just like Merckx and also notably, in this Tour he has won a mountain stage, a time trial and now a sprint to his decorated Tour Palmarès. Are we witnessing the second coming...?!
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