tour reporter
The Spaniard Ion Izagirre wins the 12th stage of the Tour de France in Belleville-en-Beaujolais in a solo. But the hardest fight is the jump into the breakaway group.
Ion Izagirre had time to get ready for the finish line. His lead at the kilometer mark was around one minute Belleville en Beaujolais, the destination of the 12th stage of the Tour de France. Shortly thereafter, he clenched his fist for the first time. This was followed by air kisses, four fingers stretched upwards and at the end the outstretched arms when crossing the finish line.
120 riders with the same goal
The four fingers were for his daughter, Izagirre reported. She celebrated her fourth birthday that day when her father won the second tour stage of his career. “As professional cyclists, we travel a lot and miss out on important family moments.”said the Basque, “That’s why I tried to show her in this way that I’m with her.”
If little Maddi Izagirre actually realized what her father was doing for her at home, she could count herself lucky. Because apart from the 34-year-old professional cyclist from the team Cofidis many riders had lined up at Roanne in the morning with the intention of competing for victory on this stage.
“There must have been 120 riders in the group today”guessed Izagirre’s teammate Simon Geschke: “When the neutralization is driven almost like a bunch sprint to be on the front row, then you know what it’s going to be like for a day.” It was a fast-paced day that took around an hour and a half for the race to consolidate in the classic sense: a breakaway in front and the field behind with the overall leader Jonas Vingegaard in the yellow jersey.
The chances are getting smaller
The moment tour director Christian Prudhomme released the race with his yellow flag, the attacks began, in which groups formed, did not get away, new constellations formed, while the sprinters at the back were already losing the connection and the peloton at some point in two pieces broke. He did at some point “completely lost track”admitted Geschke and was probably not alone.
The tour is now more than half of the stages behind it. The chances of teams returning home from France with a win will dwindle. The sprints have so far been dominated by Jasper Philipsen from the Alpecin-Deceuninck team, the fight for the yellow jersey has long since turned into a duel between Vinegaard and the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar, who will probably also decide about stage wins in the high mountains in the coming days.
For all other teams and those riders who are neither sprinters nor climbers, this means they have to occupy the breakaways on days when the overall classification is not at stake and a bunch sprint is not expected. Sport directors whose teams are not represented at the front ask their drivers to follow. And the teams with a classification driver in their ranks must also be careful not to overlook anyone who can inadvertently make up time because they were allowed to go into the group.
Van Aert tries, van der Poel succeeds
There are also tactical reasons why one of the top teams wants to be represented at the front. “It was our plan to have a driver at the front of the group, as a satellite in case something happens. But he can also go for his own result.”explained Vingegaard in Belleville-en-Beaujolias.
With his team Jumbo Visma this is usually the job of Wout van Aert, who as a classic driver on terrain like Thursday can not only act as a relay station for his captain, but also has chances to win. Van Aert had tried several times at the beginning of the stage, but in the end it was Tiesj Benootwho represented the colors of Jumbo-Visma at the front and finally finished fourth.
Van Aert’s alter ego on the bike, Mathieu van der Poel, also managed to get into the group. But van der Poel had been ill in the past few days, but still dared to try to start as a soloist with 50 kilometers to go – a kind of “Signature move” of the Dutchman. In vain. “My body didn’t want what I wanted” said van der Poel in a clearly hoarse voice.
So this time it was Izagirre who made the decisive attack for his solo with 30 kilometers to go. After that it was just a matter of putting your head down and pedaling. “I’ve been trying to get into the group for the whole tour. Today it finally happened.”said Izagirre, who had the luck that so many other drivers had hoped for that morning.