Neil Stephens analyses the Tour - Part II

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Photo ©: Bikestyle Tours

Tales from the Tour peloton, February 12, 2005

A veteran of seven Tours de France, Australian Neil Stephens has a very good idea of what it takes to complete La Grande Boucle. Now employed as a Tour guide and Professional Cycling Coordinator within the Australian Sports Commission, 'Stevo' provides Cyclingnews with his unique take on the 2005 race route, spiced with plenty of his own experiences of Tours gone by. The first part covers stages 1-11, while the second part covers stages 12-21.

On the positive side, the Pyrenees is a great place to ride a bike, both in the race and for tourists. Apart from the fact that it is a very scenic and bike friendly place, it is also the French-Spanish border. Maybe it is because it is close to my European base but the orange wave of the Euskaltel team and the rest of the Spanish and Basque supporters bring the Pyrenees alive. If you don't mind sitting in the traffic to and from the race, it is The place to be.

At the risk of being vulgar, this is the Tour's final kick in the guts before sending the riders on their way to Paris. That in itself is the riders' only saving grace. As this is the last week, the riders can see (or feel) Paris in the distance. The bulk of the GC will be pretty well decided and most riders will just want to hang on to what they have got. Most of the riders will limit themselves to helping out any teammate that they may have up in the GC battle and then limit themselves to getting to the finish within the time limit.

I was foolish enough to go after the 10,000 French Franc prize at the top of the second climb. With a rush of blood, I took out the prize but then foolishly soldiered on to stay away until the Riis/Dufaux bunch caught me on Col du Larau, a mean climb with some sections of 25%. Needless to say they blew straight by me and I just hung on to the coat tails of the Indurain/Olano bunch that came through a few minutes later.

a) It was the hardest day that I had in my seven years of riding the Tour.
b) How could I be so dumb to stay out there all day?
c) The dignity of Miguel Indurain as he rode in to his hometown, knowing that after a five year reign, he was not going to win the Tour de France. As I groveled my way over some relative molehills coming into Pamplona, he pulled up beside me and said, "Dig in Neil. It finishes just around the corner." With that he gave me a little push but I think it was the awe of the legend that helped me not lose contact with the group.

Unfortunately for them, there are also the opportunistic riders who need to attack and go for the long breakaway. What that means is that the leaders and their lieutenants, who have done battle through the mountains and have come out more rung out than grandma's washing, are about to be dragged around by the rest of the peloton. The teams with the riders in the top ten will try to let the race be controlled by the sprinters teams and only get on the front if they really have to. They will bide their time and wait for leaders to go head to head on Saturday's time trial.

On the way up the bunch, I noticed that Abdujaparov (Second to Jalabert at that stage in the green jersey competition) was in trouble and starting to go out the back. With the first PMU sprint (for points in the green jersey) only 20km away, I told Jalabert of the situation and he decided to attack. He went up the road on his own but as he was also fifth on GC, we (the ONCE Team) did not want to leave him out there by himself, so we began to attack. Eventually, fellow teammate Melchor Mauri got away with one other and joined Jalabert.

On the road to St Etienne we were given instructions by Manolo Saiz to "thin it down" as much as we could. One by one, my teammates gave it their all and Johan seemed to hold on tighter and tighter. Eventually it was up to me and I could not help but feel the pressure of the whole team on me, as it was only Laurent and myself left from the ONCE outfit. As if my prayers had been answered, Johan started to show signs of cracking. This gave Laurent and myself renewed energy and we lifted it another cog. By the time I was out of steam, there were about 25 of us left and Laurent did what he did best, attack!

But "Oh what a feeling!" I started the Tour seven times and made it to Paris on five occasions but nothing will replace the memories of the first time I rode on to the Place de la Concorde. The day always starts with a festive atmosphere. For years guys like Eros Poli, a 6'4" Italian, would find the smallest guy in the bunch and swap bikes. One day it started to rain and we refused to come out from under a bridge. Champagne toasts, etc.