tour reporter
Fabio Jakobsen sprints to victory in Nyborg, at the end of a stage where many things are different inside the peloton than on the outside.
Viewed from the outside, things often appear different than when you experience them on the inside. Cycling is no exception. And so, after the 2nd stage of the Tour de France from Roskilde to Nyborg, there were several events that looked different from different perspectives.
Jakobsen’s fairy tale at 70 km/h
There was the stage winner Fabio Jakobsen, whose comeback story after his life-threatening fall in the Tour of Poland to the celebrated sprint winner at the world’s most important cycling race is so unlikely that he himself described it as a “fairy tale” in Nyborg.
From the outside, it seems difficult to understand that someone who almost lost his life because of a bike sprint would ever dare again in such a group that races towards the finish line at 70 km/h. Which at the Tour de France, where a sprint victory means so much more than anywhere else, almost never happens without crashes.
That’s how it was in the first mass sprint of this year’s tour. 2.1 kilometers before the finish, carbon clattered onto the asphalt, professional cyclists lay on the road. “It will always be like that, that’s just cycling and the tour and everyone wants to be at the front,” said Lennard Kämna, who experienced the fall in the final close at hand, but escaped. “It’s not nice, but it is.”
“The winner takes it all”
Jakobsen was also spared, but clashed with three-time world champion Peter Sagan with 500 meters to go. “Cycling is sometimes a contact sport and that may be a different story with me. But you can’t let yourself be pushed out of position if you want to sprint for victory,” explained the Dutchman. From the outside, it often looks more dangerous than it actually is. “I was in full control.”
With the early stage win, Jakobsen withstood the great pressure that was on him. In the run-up, there had been heated discussions, especially in the Belgian media, that the Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl team had not taken 34-time stage winner Mark Cavendish to the tour.
After two stage wins in the first two days, the critics have now fallen silent. Team boss Patrick Lefevere couldn’t hide his satisfaction at all. “Do you know the ABBA song? The winner takes it all,” said Lefevere, explaining that the critics from the outside were clueless: “What do these people know about cycling, I’ve been there for 40 years.”
Van Aert feels like a winner and finds yellow consolation
The Belgian, who knows all about cycling, was able to cope with the fact that Yves Lampaert, the winner of the time trial at the start, had to hand over the yellow jersey to Wout Van Aert after just one day. Van Aert had sprinted to second at Nyborg, giving him six bonus seconds, turning five seconds behind Lampaert into a one second advantage.
From an inside perspective, Van Aert initially even felt like the winner of the day. “When I overtook Mads Pedersen, I thought I had won,” he said after having to live with second place like the day before. “But with the yellow jersey there’s no reason to complain.”
The Great Belt Bridge? “Boring”
Unlike before the start of the tour, there was no reason to complain about the route. Wind, narrow roads, many changes of direction and finally the 18 km long bridge over the Great Belt. All this promised a great spectacle. Not all drivers appreciated this because they were afraid of coming into uncomfortable contact with the asphalt.
But then the peloton, instead of breaking up into wind staggers, rode closed and using the entire width of the road over the gigantic structure in the direction of Nyborg. “It was boring,” said Van Aert later. And in this case, for once, the outside and inside views of the race coincided. “The headwind was so strong that after 180 kilometers of racing it felt like a training run,” added the 27-year-old. “But it was the final, so you couldn’t look around and enjoy it either.”
battle for positions
Already at the beginning of the stage, the race sorted itself out very quickly, the first four escapees found each other immediately after the sharp start and were allowed to be celebrated by the crowds along the street. Above all Magnus Cort Nielsen. The Dane was enthusiastically celebrated by his compatriots for the three mountain points he secured along the way and gave him the mountain jersey at the finish.
And so, viewed from the outside, it seemed to have been a quiet day, contrary to what I had expected. However, that was very different within the peloton. I know it doesn’t always come across that way on TV. It looks like it’s nothing,” explained John Degenkolb. “But it was really hard work to always stay in position there and to assert yourself in the positions to be ahead of the tricky situations .”
The Tour de France ends its trilogy in Denmark on Sunday before heading to France on Monday. Various reflections on what happened then remain. But at least there will be agreement that these three days in the north have been carried by a special enthusiasm.