The Roar
The Roar

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Can't quit: Cycling's addiction to Le Tour

The Tour de France is approaching Stage 10. (Photo by Joe Frost)
Expert
16th July, 2014
13
1014 Reads

Yesterday I suggested that the sheer size of and focus on the Tour de France was becoming so big, it had fundamentally changed cycling.

Aussie veteran Michael Rogers believes the Tour is 98 per cent of cycling now and the rest of the races are only 2 per cent.

He told me “something has changed in the bunch” and it’s not for the best.

Essentially, he feels the Tour is too big.

Today we saw confirmation of that but it had nothing to do with winning.

It was all about surviving.

This morning Andrew Talansky woke with a sore back, just another thing to add to the list of crash-related injuries the young American has had to deal with since the Tour started.

Less than two hours into the race it was clear that the winner of last month’s Dauphine was struggling. Talansky was off the back and the peloton hadn’t even hit the first climb of the day.

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He spent time at the team car. With around 115 kilometres raced, he was already five minutes down on the day’s breakaway.

As the race clock ticked past three hours, Talansky was sitting on the road next his team car, a doctor and Garmin staff at his side.

Twitter erupted with news of Tour de France “abandonment.” This brutal race had claimed victim number 20, in less than 11 stages. This was well above the average of 17 in 10 stages for the past five Tours.

I was just writing my tribute tweet to Talansky when TV pictures showed him back on his bike and riding.

Shortly afterwards, he was seen having an emotional conversation with his team car shouting words to the effect, “I just want to finish.”

Andrew Talansky came into the Tour de France with hopes of riding into a high place on the General Classification.

Historically the winner of The Criterium du Dauphine does well in July, but that’s not the case in 2014.

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Talansky went into Stage 11 in 26th position, 14:44 behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali.

Two thirds of the way through Stage 11 and he was another six or seven minutes behind and losing more time, fast. And while it was an even-money-bet whether Talansky would finish the stage, you couldn’t be sure at all that he would do it inside the time limit.

Adding to the intrigue, Talansky’s team had not sent anyone back to help pace him into the race. Instead, they were at the front chasing the break.

It was clear that Team Garmin wasn’t prepared to risk more riders missing the time cut, to help someone who may not even start the next stage.

If Talansky was going to survive, he was going to have to do it alone and in pain.

But if the time cut was looking like being a bridge too far for Talansky, then no one told him.

He was certainly getting encouragement from sport directors Charly Wegelius and Robbie Hunter, and despite riding with tears in his eyes, Talansky pressed on.

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The educated guess was the cut-off time would be around 33 minutes after the winner crossed the line, but some in the pressroom believed it could be as much as 37 minutes. ‘Hors delai’ is calculated as a percentage of the winner’s time and will vary depending on the terrain and the race speed.

Coming into the final three kilometres, Talansky had five minutes to make the cut-off.

When he did cross the line Talansky was 32:05 down on Tony Gallopin’s time, and was safe for another day.

It was an act of pure bravery from someone who respects just how big the Tour de France is. Talansky saw honour in risking elimination by the clock instead of unpinning his race number and climbing into the back of a team car.

Talansky didn’t want to let down his team or himself, such is his pride in competing in the world’s biggest bike race.

It’s too big to let go without a real big fight and Talansky lived right up to his ‘pit- bull’ nickname in beating the odds.

It’s a shame that Orica-GreenEDGE’s Matthew Hayman couldn’t find the same willpower.

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He had to abandon on Monday’s epic stage to La Planche des Belles Filles when all hope of finishing inside the time limit had vanished.

A race that Hayman had worked towards for his entire career was over because he picked the wrong day to have a bad day.

Hayman still had two big climbs to go as Vincenzo Nibali claimed victory and the Orica-GreenEDGE veteran just couldn’t go on. He climbed off his bike and the dream was over.

Adding to the pain, there’s no guarantee Hayman will be given another chance next year. He’s contracted to OGE in 2015 but if the team make an assessment that Hayman wasn’t sick or injured, but just couldn’t cope, they may not want to risk him again.

Sad but true. The Tour is too big to take risks with riders.

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