Dutch rider Annemiek Van Vleuten won yesterday’s first stage of La Course with a convincing solo attack and victory on the Izoard climb. It was a rare opportunity for men and women to race over the same terrain, which allowed Strava spectators to see some impressive comparisons.
Van Vleuten’s pace over the final five kilometres was so high that only a few riders in the men’s field went faster over the same portion. Of the 41 men in the Tour who uploaded their Stage 18 rides to Strava, just two (stage winner Warren Barguil and Romain Bardet) were faster up the final part of the climb. And Van Vleuten’s time on the full Strava segment—27:16—was actually 24 seconds faster than Barguil’s.
Van Vleuten finished a full 43 seconds clear of second-place Lizzie Deignan of the powerhouse Boels-Dolmans team.
It seems long ago and far away, but three weeks ago on Stage 1, the biggest stories of the day were the crash-DNF of hopeful Alejandro Valverde and the controversy over Sky’s skinsuits, which featured drag-reducing dimples on the front of the arms and shoulders.
In the intervening weeks, the UCI has not reversed itself on the legality, despite rules about “non-essential items designed to reduce air resistance” that seem to clearly suggest that the tech isn’t legal. So, Sky naturally plans to use them on Saturday for the 22km time trial in Marseille. One rider who won’t be, however? Chris Froome. As leader of the Tour, he’ll race in a skinsuit from the Tour’s official clothing provider, le Coq Sportif, instead of the controversial kit from Sky sponsor Castelli.
It will also be interesting to see what other teams do in response. Teams have in the past attempted to push boundaries with skinsuits, including the Pearl Izumi skinsuits that Garmin ran in 2010 that featured a flap of fabric in the armpit that stretched into a flying-squirrel-like wing before the UCI told them the suits weren’t legal. With Sky given an effective green light in Stage 1, teams have now had three weeks to work with their apparel sponsors to mimic the tech, so we’ll see what’s in place on the start line.
Don’t be too surprised if some—or all—of the designs are disallowed, however. UCI rules are sometimes vague and other times inconsistently interpreted, as third-place Rigoberto Uran discovered on Stage 1 when his time trial bike’s cockpit, which had been cleared as legal by one commissaire two hours before the start, was disallowed by a second commissaire just five minutes before Uran was due to roll out of the start house. The team blames that incident for at least some of Uran’s 51-second loss to Froome in that opening TT. Given that Uran is just 29 seconds down now, it’s easy to see how consequential rules decisions can be.
While Chris Froome will almost certainly win his fourth Tour de France in five years, he’s not a stage-win machine in the mold of past champions like Eddy Merckx. He’s won seven stages total across six Tours.
And while he’s certainly a favourite to take the win today, he’ll face stiff competition from a number of riders including his own teammate, ex-World Time Trial Champion Vasil Kiryienka, multiple-time World Champion Tony Martin of Katusha and Stage 17 winner Primoz Roglic of LottoNL-Jumbo, among others.
Should Froome not get the win today in the TT but still win the tour, it will make the first of his four Tour titles that did not feature at least one stage win. It’ll also be the first time since at least 2010 that a Tour winner won the overall without winning a stage. (We say “at least” because it’s complicated: Alberto Contador won the 2010 Tour without a stage victory but the title was later stripped and awarded to Andy Schleck, who won two stages.)