The race jury got here to a uncommon and distinctive choice. On stage eight of the Tour de France, there could be not one, however two winners of the combativity award: TotalEnergies pair Mattéo Vercher and Mathieu Burgaudeau.
The French duo broke away from the peloton with 80km to enter Laval. It was a day billed for the sprinters, and whereas everybody else resigned themselves to that truth, Vercher and Burgaudeau dared to consider a distinct outcome was attainable. Staff-mates in unison, their white jerseys clear with sweat, they took off away from the bunch, and ploughed in tandem by way of the countryside for an hour and a half.
The hassle, in the long run, was fruitless; Vercher was swallowed up by the dash trains with 13km to go, and Burgaudeau succumbed just a few kilometres later. Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan gained the bunch dash. The TotalEnergies duo positioned 157th and 167th, two minnows within the shoal of the peloton, however minnows that dreamed nonetheless.
“It’s not on a regular basis that you just get to flee up the street together with your mate,” Vercher stated afterwards. “It’s superb to have been capable of share that with Mathieu.”
(Picture credit score: Getty Pictures)
Solely 3 times prior within the historical past of the Tour had a stage’s combativity award been given to 2 riders. The primary got here in 1978, when it was shared by Yves Hézard and Raymond Martin. In 2011, Juan Antonio Flecha and Johnny Hoogerland did the identical, and 5 years later, honours had been cut up by Fast-Step team-mates Julian Alaphilippe and Tony Martin.
The hope, for Vercher and Burgaudeau, was a stage win. The house followers willed their daring adventurers forwards, alongside the roads of western France. To the impartial, their plight all the time appeared doomed, however watching on from the workforce automotive, TotalEnergies normal supervisor Jean-René Bernaudeau sat in awe of their “panache”.
“I’m very pleased with them,” he instructed reporters by the workforce bus after the stage. “We’re not an enormous workforce – we’re a workforce constructed on dedication, a bit of affection, and we do what we do.
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“I’d have appreciated it if two or three different groups had been concerned [in the breakaway], but it surely’s like that,” Bernaudeau continued. “What’s vital within the Tour, and in all of sport, is to not get annoyed or aggravated. There are 21 victories and 23 groups – sure ones win loads – so we hold the religion to try to win one.”
They might not have gained, however beneath the solar in Laval, Vercher and Burgaudeau stood arm in arm on the rostrum, grinning to the crowds.
“It wasn’t simple,” Burgaudeau stated. “I used to be very pleased to not be on their lonesome, and even when it was exhausting, we had a extremely good time. It’s not a victory, however it’ll stay a really, very good reminiscence.”
The stage outcomes will bear in mind them as back-of-the-pack finishers. Their achievement, inevitably, shall be forgotten within the swell of this 12 months’s race. However for 70-odd kilometres, on a sleepy transition stage, Vercher and Burgaudeau had been the point of interest of the Tour de France. Their joint trophy shall be cherished.
