Friday, March 29, 2024

Le Tour de France 2016 – Stage 17; Berne – Finhaut-Emosson. Ilnur Zakarin Goes Solo

-

HomeDiariesLe Tour de France 2016 - Stage 17; Berne - Finhaut-Emosson. Ilnur...

Mont-Saint-MichelHow are the mighty fallen?

We had to double check the number – but ‘yes’ it was Tejay, way off the back and just ‘riding in’ on the Col de la Forclaz – well, we got that one right, we said he do nothing in this race.

But we did also say that Quintana would win it – but that was more out of hope than anything else.

It was a hot one again, blue skies, fans out in force – the real Tour de France dream.

Ilnur Zakarin
Tejay lost a lot of time. Photo©Ed Hood
Ilnur Zakarin
Photo©Ed Hood

We paid our first call to the Tour village today and schmoozed with the ViP’s, PR girls, media types and general hangers-on.

Nice coffee and cookies in there, Viktor!

Ilnur Zakarin
The UCI have carried out thousands of bike checks in this race. Photo©Callum MacGregor
Ilnur Zakarin
Dual-pivot callipers on the front of the Movistar rigs. Photo©Ed Hood

After that there has to be a little ‘tech’ – aside from the UCI guy checking the Movistar Canyons for motors we noticed that most of the team have Campag dual pivot brakes on the front.

Generally these only go on the rear because they have such savage stopping capabilities but the pros obviously need that extra braking power – especially on carbon rims – as the drop off the cols.

Ilnur Zakarin
Adam Yates’ Scott. Photo©Ed Hood

Yates bike runs a monster 32 cog at the rear with a Shimano Ultegra electronic rear mech to handle the huge jump in sprocket size.

Ilnur Zakarin
Rodriguez is happy to spend time with his fans. Photo©Ed Hood
Ilnur Zakarin
Michael Schär. Photo©Ed Hood
Schär
Tom Dumoulin. Photo©Ed Hood

The weather had brought out the stars and the Bigs were happy to pose for pictures, shake hands, sign autographs and generally be nice to their fans – good to see.

Ilnur Zakarin
Beautiful old Corvette. Photo©Ed Hood

Switzerland drips with affluence, whether it’s the houses or the cars parked roadside you can tell there’s an awful lot of dosh in these parts.

Ilnur Zakarin
One great camper setup. Photo©Ed Hood

Last weekend I read piece by Richard Williams, I can’t remember if it was the Guardian or Observer but part of his solution to the ‘Froome Ventoux Polemica’ was to ban ‘unsightly’ camper vans from the roadside.

Get a grip man!

Ilnur Zakarin
Alexey Lutsenko. Photo©Ed Hood

We embedded on the second last climb, the Forclaz – to get on to the finish climb was a big production with shuttle busses and the traffic coming off a ‘dead end’ climb is horrific.

We decided the Forclaz would do us just fine.

Lutsenko was first up – way ahead of the race itinerary – but you could tell he was in borrowed time.

Alexey Lutsenko
Stef Clement leads Thomas Voeckler. Photo©Ed Hood

In hot pursuit was Dutch ‘chronoman’ Stef Clement – he’s won a Worlds time trial medal in the past – with Tommy V right on his tail.

Clement was driving for team mate, Pantano but it would be tall, skinny Russian Zakarin who would take the day, eventually.

Alexey Lutsenko
Julian Alaphilippe. Photo©Ed Hood

Etixx’s classy young Frenchman, Julian Alaphilippe had been tailed off, carrying the red ‘most aggressive’ number – jointly with Tony Martin – for their epic break on the road to Bern, the day before the rest day.

Alexey Lutsenko
Geraint Thomas. Photo©Ed Hood

Thomas was doing the “US Postal Thing” for Froome with Poels, Landa and Henao all in attendance.

Alexey Lutsenko
Chris Froome. Photo©Ed Hood

The maillot jaune was his usual model of style – elbows and knees sticking out and looking down at his stem.

You’re never gonna take down your Felice Gimondi poster to replace it with one of Christopher…

Alexey Lutsenko
Peter Sagan. Photo©Ed Hood

The remarkable Sagan was right there, if starting to slide backwards, he’s going to win the points competition by a huge margin now that Cav has ‘left the building.’

The Manxman – and team GB – will be hoping he’s pulled out in time to get sharp for Rio – but he’ll watch Stage 21 on TV with mixed emotions.

Alexey Lutsenko
Jasper Steven. Photo©Ed Hood

Our interview subject from yesterday, Jasper Stuyven looked like he had things under control – there were many, many riders behind him.

Ilnur Zakarin
Shane Archbold. Photo©Ed Hood

We wondered why it was such a ‘production’ for Shane Archbold to saddle up again after his puncture – it transpires his pelvis is broken.

One tough young man.

Ilnur Zakarin
Dan McLay and chums. Photo©Ed Hood

Stone last was Dan McLay with two of his team mates.

He was suffering, badly; jersey open, out of the saddle, rocking, rolling – painful to watch.

For all the early ‘sportiv’ stages, when you get into the mountains you’re reminded just how brutal this race is.

And tomorrow they have get up and ride a savagely short mountain time trial with that merciless time cut ever in their mind.

Froome has the Tour won, barring disasters but further down the GC it’s a more interesting race and one which involves just as much suffering as the ‘Bigs’ do.

Dan will get a BIG shout from us in the chrono.

Ilnur Zakarin
Ilnur Zakarin enjoyed the win. Photo©ASO/A.Broadway
Ed Hood
Ed Hood
Ed's been involved in cycling for over 50 years. In that time he's been a successful time triallist, a team manager and a sponsor of several teams and clubs. He's also a respected and successful coach and during the winter months was often working in the cabins at the Six Days for some of the world's top riders. Ed remains a massive fan of the sport and couples his extensive contacts with an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the minutiae and the history of our sport. In February 2023 however, our dear friend and beloved colleague Ed suffered a devastating stroke and faces an uncertain future; Ed has lost his ability to speak, to read, and has lost movement on the right side of his body. He's working with speech and physical therapists on rehabilitation, but all strokes are different and each patient responds differently, so unfortunately recovery is one day at a time. Ed ran his own business installing windows, and will probably not be able to work again. Please consider joining us to make a contribution to Ed's GoFundMe page to help stabilise and secure his future.

Related Articles

Ride London 2016 Goes to Tom Boonen

The worst thing about going to the Tour? Coming back. ‘Cold turkey’ is tough – Dave and I used to go to a kermis on the Monday after the Tour finished to ease our ‘crash.’ And last year Callum and I went to the post Tour crit in Aalst. Not this year however because we flew home from Geneva. But our man Callum found another solution; he got himself down to the ‘Ride London’ race; whilst we had to watch it on TV – with no coverage of the crucial last few K. But Callum let us have some pictures - we hope you like them.

Giro d’Italia 2013 – Stage 18: Mori – Polsa (ITT) 20.6km. Vincenzo Nibali Supreme

The original plan for the stage 18 mountain time trial was to do a 'tech' piece on the bikes the top ten would be riding for the 'chronoscalata.'But with the number of Tifosi around the buses and the fact that the 'Bigs' kept themselves out of the way 'til the last gasp, we shelved that one. So we decided to do a piece on the aspects you need to make a time trial - percorso, hardware, fans . . .

Le Tour de France 2017 – Stage 18: Briançon – Izoard, 179.5km. Barguil conquers the Izoard

As James Bond might say; ‘there musht be shom mishtake!’ Louis and Rigo doing a spell? Steady boys! In fairness to the UAE man from the RSA his pull didn’t last long. And neither did the Cannondale Colombian’s - but the former National Time Trial Champion and Giro TT winner had real power in his spell to close Froome down on the Izoard.

Le Tour de France 2010, Stage 17: Pau – Col du Tourmalet; Top Two Ahead, Big Gaps Behind

'Andy talks tough !' say the headlines, he did try his best yesterday, his men used whatever was left to drive up the lower part of the Col du Tourmalet - then he went for it. However, not for one moment did it look like Alberto Contador was under pressure.

At Random

Katie Archibald – Scotland’s Newest World Champion!

It’s not along since we interviewed Katie Archibald – as a member of the GB team which took the world record for the ladies four kilometre team pursuit at the World Cup in Mexico at the end of last year. We make no apology for speaking to her again – but this time we speak to her as world champion in the discipline.

The VeloVeritas Years – 2017: Bastille Day at Le Tour!

We've been covering the Tour de France for many years, and like most people who love cycle racing, it's one of the highlights of the year. Bastille Day at Le Tour is special, and the pressure on the French riders to perform is intense - we were lucky to be on the race when Warren Barguil took a fantastic win ahead of Nairo Quintana and Bert Contador. Fantastic weather, great racing, a change to catch up with old pals Adam Hansen and Jack Bauer, meant July 14th was a memorable day for both of us and is our pick for a highlight for 2017.

Le Tour de France 2013 – Stage 2: Bastia > Ajaccio, 154km. Jan Bakelants by a Second!

Jan Bakelants today, but they couldn't resist it; "Tour de Farce" trumpets the headline in the Sunday Times. I'm not really a Times man, my dad wouldn't have approved. But I wanted to see what David Walsh had to say about Stage One.

Gordon Arms Mountain Time Trial 2010

Alan Thomson (Glasgow Couriers) was run pretty close by his teammate Barry McGurk for the win in the Gordon Arms Mountain Time Trial, a hilly time trial run by the Gala CC near Melrose in the Scottish borders. With Euan Pope backing them up in fourth place, the team prize was never going anywhere else.