There’s no coasting at the Tour de France. There’s no soft-pedaling. There’s no sitting up and taking a break.
While riders may take the opportunity to do all three in the peloton, to make a mark at the Tour de France demands continual effort and attention.
Vincenzo Nibali and his Astana teammates have done a remarkable job over the first half of the race. The Italian is well-positioned with over two minutes lead on Richie Porte of Team Sky. Nibali has worn the yellow leader’s jersey for most of the tour so far. Any excitement and confidence Nibali may feel he tempers with the knowledge that a grand tour is rarely determined so early.
“I’m sure our rivals will try to attack but on the other hand, if I can gain some seconds, I’ll go for it,” said Nibali, following Thursday’s stage. “I’ll have to evaluate the strength of my adversaries and consider every race situation.”
Nibali did not scout the stages in the Alps prior to the start of the Tour, and will have to rely on his team to help manage rivals’ efforts.
Being at the ready on stage roads is just one way for a cyclist to excel at the Tour. The peloton has already travelled over 2,000 km of stages, covered in just over 50 hours of riding. Maintaining the pace and effort requires a careful balancing act. Sport science is so refined in cycling that every calorie, watt and kilogram is carefully indexed and monitored. Targets must be achieved and maintained to succeed.
A professional cyclist in the Tour de France peloton needs to eat as many as 8,000 calories a day just to replace what is burned during a day’s competition. In the balance, riders aim to maintain an exact weight, a goal especially important in the mountain passes.
“I’m happy with my weight now but, as my team doctor said, it’s been difficult to reach that weight,” said Nibali. “I’ve made it. I arrived at the Tour with the same weight I had for my big successes at the Giro and the Vuelta. Hypothetically, this weight is 64 kilos.”
Maintenance of a particular mass is no assurance of success, of course, though the knowledge of achieving that goal could be at least as important as a lucky jersey or playoff beard. For the moment, the Italian seems very confident in both his abilities and the real challenges he will face over the next week.
The coming few stages in the Alps will be telling for the riders in the top five of the general classification. Nibali’s rivals will know his key weaknesses, and will apply pressure where they hold the greatest advantage. None of the best riders have any opportunity to relax for even a moment. Each will have to watch their rivals, balancing the effort of chasing a break versus the losses if the escapees are allowed to build a lead.
Andrew Talansky of Garmin-Sharp has demonstrated the tenacity required to make a mark at the Tour, though not in a fashion he wanted. The American won the Critérium du Dauphiné earlier this summer, often viewed as an indicator of who to watch for at the Tour de France.
Instead, everything fell apart. Talansky crashed, over and over. The resulting injuries compounded pain and difficulty with each additional impact with the road surface. The American edged out the sweep van in a powerful show of determination not to be collected by race support and “swept” to the end of the stage.
Talansky kept pedalling. He expressed hopes that holding out to the rest day might give him enough recuperation time to salvage the strength and drive to carry on. Ultimately, the recovery time was insufficient, and after riding another day in competition, Talansky had to face facts.
While his tour may be over, Talansky earned a great deal of respect for his drive to keep going.
“It was an extraordinary lesson of courage,” said Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme. “I still believe that this is going to help him in his career. He showed an out of the ordinary strength of character.”
There’s no coasting at the Tour de France. There’s no taking it easy. There’s no relaxing in the peloton, not really.