A Tour according to tradition
But what tour will it be? Like all tours, quite “traditional”, in line with the previous ones. With only three uphill finishes, many stages that look like classics and two time trials that add up to 58 kilometers, divided between 27.2 on the first stage and 30.8 on the penultimate day. Here we see a change because in 2020 there was only one time trial with an uphill final at La Planche des Belles Filles, a 36-kilometer fraction that caused Roglic to be dethroned in favor of the young rival Pogacar, who won at only 22 the first tour of his career.
In total there are 21 stages, for 3414 km of route, starting from Brest, that is, from the heart of Brittany, with that infinite light of the Atlantic summer, to arrive in Paris on July 18. You go “clockwise”, that is, from the north you descend horizontally towards the Alps (two stages, with an uphill finish in Tignes) and then move on to the Pyrenees with the finishing lines at high altitude on Portet and Luz Ardiden. The Pyrenees will affect the race more, even if the stage of Mont Ventoux (11 July) should not be forgotten. Monte Calvo will be climbed twice with arrival in Malaucene. Usually, especially for the heat, this is a significant stage. It goes without saying that it was the scene of the tragic end in 1967 of Tony Simpson, the English racer killed by a deadly cocktail of alcohol and amphetamines. To stay in more recent and less dramatic times, Chris Froome’s unforgettable foot race after a crash with a motorcycle comes to mind in 2016.
Italians reduced to a flicker
Before talking about the favorites (Pogacar, Roglic, Thomas, Carapaz) we need a brief focus on the Italian expedition. Which does not shine in terms of the number of participants. Out of 184 riders at the start (8 for 23 teams) only nine are blue. Almost a record on the contrary: to go back to such a small number you have to go to 1984. It was the time that the Italians stayed away from the French race. Of that group we remember Roberto Visentini, Giovanni Battaglin, Bruno Leali and Giancarlo Perini. Only five of them arrived in Paris. The first of ours (Luciano Loro) finished with more than 50 minutes from the Laurent Fignon yellow jersey.
Four times – 1973, 1978, 1980 and 1981 – no Italian has come to the Tour. We will have to wait until the 90s, with Bugno and Chiappucci, to get back to being respected. The current numbers take us back, perhaps for the worse, to that period. We are few, and not so good. Apart from the tricolor Colbrelli and Nibali, the others are good followers (Ballerini, Cattaneo, Formolo, Guarinieri, Oss, Rota Sbaragli) who run for the captains of the great foreign teams. Another disturbing fact is that in 1984 there were 17 teams at the start, with the Italians all included in the Carrera. Today there are 23 formations on the Tour without any Italian team. These are bad signs. Which reflect the lack of interest of sponsors and our large companies in competitive cycling. However, there remains a deep-seated distrust of a stormy past that has left too many wounds.
We are missing a champion
The other problem is that we lack a champion for the big stage races. Fabio Aru, more and more adrift due to various physical problems and lack of results, has already given up. We therefore remain clinging to Nibali, but by now San Vincenzo has stopped working miracles. Seven years have passed since he arrived in Paris in 2014 with the yellow jersey. It was the pinnacle of his career. Now he will run in the running of the Olympics. If the results are good (and this will already be seen in the first two stages in Brittany) Nibali will leave the Tour to join Davide Cassani’s blues who will leave for Tokyo on Saturday 17 July.