Today’s stage from Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier can be
summed up in the words of Paul Sherwin as windy and nervous. These were about
the only things on his mind today. For some such as Bouhanni (from French team
All the Way with FDJ) it was all too much forcing an abandon of the great race.
It’s been five days of hard slog. You can forgive the riders
for starting to find it just that little bit harder getting out of the cot in
the morning. There’s nothing like a corpse-reviving-double-shot-strength espresso
for petit déjeuner to get you going for the day.
All that coffee may explain (or perhaps the lack of butter in
Gabriel Gate’s Salade de Cerises au Marc de Languedoc or cherry fruit salad
with Languedoc brandy) all that nervous energy in the peloton as they took to a
blustery parcours that skirts the Camargue which, as Phil Liggett loves to point
out, is famous for its wild horses and pink flamingos.
A famous pink flamingo
The peloton gallantly fought the cross winds employing the
oldest survival tactic in the book, the echelon. The Dutch and Belgians are
very good at this riding technique coming from the flat empty wind swept lands of the
north. What the wind was cross about was never determined. Did it get up on the
wrong side of the bed? Or perhaps it was just nervous and nervous wind is the
worst kind of wind.
But the nervousness didn’t end there. The fields and
limestone outcrops looked nervous. Even the acrobatic Camargue bulls, smaller
than their Spanish cousins, looked nervous.
We finally put the finger on the cause of this universal
state of nervousness. It was Paul’s endless descriptions of nervousness that
got on everyone’s nerves in the end.
However, the nerves soon evaporated at dash for the finish line in
Montpellier. I suspect some riders may have discarded the cherries from
Gabriel's special treat and stashed the brandy in their bidons for the run home.
The finish saw Greipel and Sagan skittle Kittel. Lady luck
continues to smile for Orica-GreenWEDGE with the team's Daryl Impey becoming
the first African to slip on yellow. We won’t hear the end of it from the Ps
now...
Now that we are at the gateway to le weekend, I’ll leave you
with a Friday fun fact; Did you know there’s a large urban habitation dedicated
to making energy drinks for riders? It’s called the For Bidon City.
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