Starting another Tour
Editor’s note: Every day during the 95th Tour de France, VeloNews editorial director John Wilcockson will be writing his “Inside the Tour” column. It will have a more personal slant than most of the pieces he writes. There will be comments on each day’s tactics, insights on what to look for the next day, and stories he has witnessed in the 40 years he has been reporting the race. This first column includes thoughts on the opening stage and what to looking for on the wild roads of Brittany over this first weekend.
Whenever I tell people I’m about to start reporting my 40th Tour de France, some have kindly said, “You must have started when you were 10!” Well, not exactly. When I was 10, I remember celebrating the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (and getting a special edition coronation mug at my hometown fête in southeast England); and that same day a British-led expedition conquered Everest for the first time.
The first time I actually saw the Tour was a decade later, in 1963, on my first trip outside the British Isles. I went by bike, of course, and my first sight of the Tour peloton was in Normandy; an Irishman, Shay Elliott, was in the yellow jersey. Elliott’s team leader was Jacques Anquetil, who won that Tour, his fourth out of five victories. I still have a clear image of him after he defeated his last rival, Federico Bahamontes, in a two-man sprint at the end of a mountain stage into Chamonix. It was raining hard, and when Anquetil walked back to the finish line to get the maillot jaune, he was just an arm’s length away when he walked past me (I was behind the crowd barriers). He took a comb from the back pocket of his wool jersey and drew it through his wet, blond hair to be ready for the photographers. Maître Jacques was always immaculate!
Seeing those two legends battle in the Alps and Pyrénées inspired me want to take up racing and become a climber. I had the build (still do), but in my two seasons of racing in the French province of Brittany I realized that I would make a better living writing about the sport than riding it. But I do have strong memories of those days in the amateur ranks in Brittany. One of them is training and racing up the hill between Cadoudal and Plumelec, just north of my base in Vannes. This is the same hill where the opening stage of the 2008 Tour de France is ending on Saturday.
The climb — 1.7km with some nasty 8-percent pitches — is not that tough, but at the end of stage that will be nervous, fast and particularly hilly, mostly on narrow roads, the Côte de Cadoudal should provide a spectacular finale for the tens of thousands of fans lining it. When the Tour had its only road stage finish here in 1997, there were a couple of big pileups in the twisting roads before the final climb, with pre-race favorite Tony Rominger crashing out with a broken collarbone. From the couple dozen that contested the finish, a youthful Erik Zabel used his (then) sharp acceleration (and a good lead-out) to take an easy win.
The excellent Zabel is surely going to try to repeat that stage victory but, 11 years on, there are younger, faster legs in the peloton. The finish reminds me a little of the stage finish atop a similar climb at nearby Quimper four years ago. I remember trying to interview Kim Kirchen right after the finish, but the Luxembourger was so out of breath after attacking on the climb and being relegated to second place by Thor Hushovd that he could barely lift his head let alone give lucid thoughts on his fine effort. Third across the line that day was Zabel, while Robbie McEwen was in fourth after completely mistiming his effort.
Expect all of these men to be in the action Saturday at Plumelec, but the stage winner could well be a rider like Fabian Cancellara, who won last year’s prologue time trial in London and held the yellow jersey for a week. Why do I say Cancellara? Well, it’s because I believe in fate. Not only is the athletic Swiss wearing race number 13 (unlucky for some), but his name begins with the letter C. Why’s that important? I’ll tell you.
There is no prologue time trial in this Tour. The previous times that was the case were in 1966 and 1988. The very first Tour prologue was in 1967, and has been held every year except 1988 — when an exhibition 1km “prelude” was held, contested by just one rider from each of the 22 teams. In ’66, the first stage was won in a solo break by German strongman Rudi Altig who kept the yellow jersey for the first nine stages. In ’88, another strong solo was made on stage 1, this time by Canadian Steve Bauer, who held off the whole peloton by only eight seconds in the final straightaway. Bauer lost the yellow jersey in a team time trial, but won it back and was still wearing it when the race reached L’Alpe d’Huez 10 days later.
Both Altig and Bauer were powerful riders with a strong finishing kick, just like Cancellara; and as their initials are the serial A-B-C, it only makes sense that Cancellara will win at Plumelec. If not, there are three other “Cs” that could take it: German sprinter Gerald Ciolek, French all-arounder Sylvain Chavanel and Italian GC contender Damiano Cunego. But I like Cance. The big Swiss is on superb form, his CSC-Saxo Bank team is all fired up, and that Cadoudal hill is not that tough. I still remember racing up it four decades ago.
