Searching for the perfect break
STAGE 17
After the first climb of the day I went back for bottles for the guys still in the peloton and rode right to the front, and to my surprise both Pello Bilbao and Jack Haig weren’t there. Turned out they’d made the break of 30 guys. I did think the bunch looked small. Once again a perfect start to the stage for us, I thought I could go easy to the finish.
With the Col de la Loze, it turned out it wouldn’t be so easy. Having done it in the Tour de l’Avenir I knew what was coming, but man is that one of the worst climbs in the world. Just for the gruppetto to get up there it felt like we were going as hard as we could. Lots of unhappy faces around me.
STAGE 18
This was meant to be a sprint, but I was hoping for some attacks as Jasper Philipsen has been so dominant so far. Unfortunately no one was as optimistic – in the start only three guys went.
The gap stayed close at around a minute for the whole stage, Alpecin-Deceuninck knew they were still three strong guys. There were still some climbs with around 60km to go and it seemed Lotto-Dstny were keen today and a few guys started attacking. I countered over the top of the cat-four and got a gap, the break was only 35 seconds away. I turned around and saw Alpecin chasing and doubted my chances and sat up.
Oh, what could have been. I definitely had the legs in the moment to bridge to the front, but it didn’t seem worth it. Everyone was convinced we could catch them. Turned out everyone was wrong.
Today was the first day of the Tour that I finished pretty disappointed. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing, but it really felt like today was the first day I could have had a shot at a stage. Up until this point I didn’t think I could have done anything more, but today there was an actual chance. That’s bike racing.
ST AGE 19
Stage 19 was the last opportunity for most of the bunch to get something out of the Tour, and, oh boy, did that make it one of the hardest bike races ever. It’s crazy how much everyone pushes themselves even at this point in a Grand Tour. Me and Matej Mohorič did a great job in the start covering moves and making sure one of us was in everything.
As has been typical of these breakaway days it took much longer than we thought to form. Ridiculously long. In the end both of us cooked ourselves a bit and it was Jack [Haig] who made it.
I had really hit a wall and just staying in the bunch was difficult. The teams who didn’t make it into the nine were riding such a furious tempo in the bunch, everyone was on their knees. The gap to the break stayed at a minute until the intermediate sprint, when all of a sudden there were s
