The heat wave has hit France, and tempers are rising along with temperatures. After a fortnight of moderate summer weather, the Tour de France entered its final week with the mercury running into the triple digits听and听the tarmac approaching a .
That鈥檚 about the only excuse for Wednesday鈥檚 display of overheated temperaments听that saw two riders, Jumbo-Visma鈥檚 Tony Martin and Ineos鈥檚 Luke Rowe, for dangerous riding behavior. The disqualification听was not only controversial: it could potentially affect the outcome of the race, as both teams have riders in contention for the win. For Ineos, defending champion Geraint Thomas is in third overall, just behind Egan Bernal in second. Jumbo-Visma鈥檚 Steven Kruijswijk is in fourth.
The incident in question happened late in a long transitional stage, one of those filler days of the听Tour that听gets the race from one part of France to another听and turns riders鈥 already soft legs into pudding. A breakaway of 30-plus riders had established a huge gap (though if 20 percent of the field is up the road, is it even a break?), and the pack seemed gratefully resigned to letting riders within it听fight it out. (Italian Matteo Trentin took the top step on the podium with a bold attack.)听
As the pack neared the final climb, 鈥渆veryone wanted to be in the right position,鈥 said current race leader Julian Alaphilippe during听his . 鈥淏ut there were a couple of guys getting nervous, physical about it.鈥 The concern, apparently, was that Alaphilippe, an aggressive racer and ace descender who is fighting to hold on to an increasingly tenuous lead, might attack at the summit to try to pad his margin by a few seconds. So, Alaphilippe said, 鈥淚 went over and told them to calm it.鈥澨
He didn鈥檛 go soon enough. isn鈥檛 entirely clear on the sequence of events, but听at some point, Rowe seemed to interrupt a train of Jumbo-Visma teammates听and leaned on their leader, Kruijswijk. Manhandling a team leader like that is a serious party foul in bike racing, so Martin听aggressively blocked Rowe, possibly in retaliation,听and almost made him crash听at the edge of the road. Rowe then angrily pulled on Martin鈥檚 jersey. Boys, boys, boys!
At the finish, the race jury called in both riders and their teams, like a pair of sulky schoolchildren caught fighting at recess. After viewing evidence and hearing from each side, jurors summarily chucked both out of the race.
It鈥檚 the third disqualification听in as many Tours. In 2017, Peter Sagan was disqualified for Mark Cavendish in a sprint,听causing him to crash. Last year, Rowe鈥檚 teammate Gianni Moscon was at French racer 脡lie Gesbert.
This year鈥檚 disqualification听might have caught both teams by surprise. They likely expected stern words, possible time penalties, forfeiture of points in the sprint and climb competitions (meaningless to 茅辩耻颈辫颈别谤蝉 who aren鈥檛 riding for personal glory), and a large fine in Swiss francs, which is the UCI鈥檚 currency. (Of course, the principal punishment for the latter听is making the parties involved of finding a foreign-exchange听desk to get some Swiss francs. Seriously, UCI, you guys heard of Venmo?)
Summarily handed an unexpectedly harsh penalty, the teams responded by bringing the two riders together to make nice in what was essentially a of 鈥淚t鈥檚 a Small World.鈥澨齌here was discussion of a possible joint appeal. (Spoiler alert: it was not successful.) Race juries are as imperious as their reasoning is opaque, and they pretty much never revisit decisions, no matter how obtuse.听
But if this听jury hoped to have the final word, it is obviously unfamiliar with Twitter. Immediately,听 that the decision was actually a nefarious conspiracy to benefit French contenders like Alaphilippe and Thibaut Pinot by taking a rider each off their rivals鈥 teams. (The French have not won their home Tour in 34 years.) Never mind the in this baroque theory, which would have required the race jury to convince Martin and Rowe to get physical in the first place, or the fact that the Tour jury this year is composed of a Spaniard, a Belgian, a Canadian, and (yes) one Frenchman, all overseen by an Italian. (Aha! But he鈥檚 a French Canadian.)
Instead, focus on the practical effect: there are three real stages left in the 2019 Tour de France, and there are six men听separated by 2 minutes 14 seconds. All three stages are hideously difficult tests in the Alps, and two of them finish on summits. Beginning in 2018, the UCI changed its rules to cut the number of riders per team in a three-week Grand Tour from nine to eight, which makes it harder for single teams like Ineos to control the race.
Now听Ineos is down to seven riders, only five of whom are in support roles, because both Thomas and Bernal are coleaders. (Yes, the team that Bernal would support Thomas, but Bernal鈥檚 attack on Thursday鈥檚 stage, which bumped him up to second overall, ahead of Thomas, suggests that was all just a misdirection. But neither will Thomas likely work now for Bernal). Jumbo-Visma is in even worse shape, with just six riders left, having lost Wout van Aert to a gruesome crash injury in the Stage 13 time trial.
Neither Martin nor Rowe is a key climber, the kind of 鈥渓ast man鈥 who paces a leader late in a mountain stage. Instead, both are rouleurs, the steady, long-distance grinders who do massive amounts of yeoman鈥檚 work in the peloton. The trouble for both teams is familiar to anyone who works in an already-understaffed office and now faces yet another round of rightsizing听by the suits in the C suite. Without guys like Martin and Rowe, riders like Ineos鈥檚 Jonathan Castroviejo and Michal Kwiatkowski and Jumbo-Visma鈥檚 Laurens de Plus will be pressed into service earlier than their teams would like, leaving fewer resources for those crucial summit finishes. Sure enough, they were, and on Thursday鈥檚 grind up Col du听Galibier, Thomas and Bernal were isolated without teammates far earlier than they鈥檇 have听preferred.
Whether it鈥檚 Thomas, Kruiswijk, Bernal, Alaphilippe, or Pinot on the top step in Paris, I doubt you鈥檒l be able to trace the crucial fulcrum that put one man on top to which team had more midstage support. But it鈥檚 a factor, and it鈥檚 one both teams would like to have avoided. Ineos hasn鈥檛 been its usual dominant self in the Tour thus far, but it鈥檚 been pretty solid relative to the competition. Jumbo-Visma has been the strongest team in the race. The jury decision wasn鈥檛 intended to level the field, but it鈥檒l have that effect to some degree.
As he showed on Thursday鈥檚 stage, with an aggressive descent to Valloire, Alaphilippe may feel a little more willing to make those daring late-race attacks he held back today. (Personally, I think he鈥檚 cooked and heading for a ten-minute crack in the Alps, but I鈥檝e been known to be wrong roughly every year.)听
Pinot, with his own kick-ass climbing lieutenant, David Gaudu, may feel he can put Ineos, Jumbo-Visma, and Alaphilippe under pressure and then launch another devastating attack just so we can see听. Pinot鈥檚 kryptonite is听. And Emanuel Buchmann, the lightly regarded German in sixth, may just sit back while all these guys destroy each other and then nimbly step through the carnage to claim the prize (doubtful, but one can dream).
Whatever happens, it鈥檒l be fascinating to watch. I鈥檒l be glued to the screen with that old Inner Circle reggae song looping in my head like of Martin trying to flick Rowe into the rhubarb:
So why are you acting like a bloody fool?
If you get hot, then you must get cool.
Bad boys, bad boys. Whatcha gonna do?
Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?