Bacon Ellis - Legends of the Tour: the Hottest, Toughest and Fastest Riders of this Decade

CONTENTS

Having covered every Tour de France since 1973, I waited a long time to call my first Australian and British winners. It was touch and go whether I would still be around for the greatest moments of my career!

This beautiful book brings the Tour history up to date, but from an interesting and different perspective, as the riders who often make the winners look as good as they are, get their deserved mention as the real heroes behind the champions.

The Tours final accolade, of course, goes to the individual winnera man of extreme talent, who has survived the most rigorous three weeks of his life. They are exceptional men with lungs we can only dream of, and a mental outlook that refuses to recognise defeat.

But to make these men like Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins and Vincenzo Nibali look so special, they need a team of talented riders behind them. These people are so often their legs, inspiration and mentors when the going gets tough.

The Tour de France is not just about the final champion in Paris, but about those who make him such along the way. The breakaway specialists, the climbers and the sprinters, are all winning their own Tour de France in the shadow of the one champion who rides proudly onto the Champs Elysees.

Every professional cyclist wants his chance to ride the greatest race of all. Those who can say they did when they are asked are immediately revered as athletes who achieved something very special.

Australians ten years ago began a journey with the Tour that pinnacled with the Cadel Evans victory in 2011. Now it is time for the next phase to begin. This book brings you right up to date with an understanding of La Grande Boucle like never before.

Hertford, UK

FIVE GREAT
BREAKAWAY SPECIALISTS

BREAKAWAYS: THEY ARE LONG, HARD, USUALLY FRUITLESS, MOSTLY THANKLESS ENDEAVOURS, AND GENERALLY LEAVE RIDERS DEPRIVED OF ENERGY FOR DAYS AFTERWARDS. SO IN THE MIDDLE OF THE LONGEST, HARDEST AND MOST IMPORTANT RACE OF THE YEAR, WHY WOULD ANY RIDER DARE TAKE ON SUCH A FEAT? AND WHO, OF THESE AMBITIOUS CRUSADERS, HAS MADE AN ART OF RIDING THE BREAKAWAY?

BREAKS CAN GO ON FLAT, UNDULATING OR MOUNTAINOUS STAGES AND THEY CAN OCCUR AT ANY POINT DURING THE RACE. HOWEVER, FOR US FANS TUNING IN TO TOUR DE FRANCE COVERAGE, WE USUALLY JOIN MID-RACE WHEN THE BREAK IS ESTABLISHED, AND ONE TEAM IS RIDING A STEADY TEMPO AT THE FRONT. THIS MEANS THAT WE HAVE MISSED WHAT IS GENERALLY AN EXHILARATING FLURRY OF ATTACKS EARLY IN THE PIECE.

AT THE START OF ANY TOUR DE FRANCE STAGE THE FORMULA IS THE SAME: THE ATTACKS START AS SOON AS THE FLAG DROPS, AND SOMETIME WITHIN THE FIRST HOUR THE BREAK WILL FORM. WHICHEVER TEAM IS HOLDING THE YELLOW JERSEYAND HAS RESPONSIBILITY FOR RIDING THE FRONTWILL THEN CALL FOR A NATURE BREAK. ALL THE TEAMS WILL LOAD UP ON FOOD AND DRINK, NEGOTIATE WHO ELSE WILL HELP SET THE PACE, AND THEN THE CHASE BEGINS. IT IS A RULE OF CYCLING THAT THE BREAK ONLY EVER WINS IF THE PELOTON LETS YOU. EITHER THE SPRINT TEAMS STUFFED IT UP ON A FLAT STAGE, OR THE TEAM LEADING GC ACTUALLY WANTED A BREAK TO GO AWAY ON A HILLY STAGE. BUT IT IS THIS RATHER HOPELESS NATURE THAT MAKES BREAKAWAYS SUCH HONOURABLE EXPLOITS.

AS A RIDER IN THE BREAK, YOURE HUNGRY, YOURE THIRSTY, YOUR BACK HURTS AND YOUVE PROBABLY GOT A SADDLE SORE BY NOW. AND YOU ARE DOING THIS ALL IN THE HOPE THAT THIS STAGE IS THE ONE WHERE THE BIG TEAMS MESS UP. IT IS THIS SMALL CHANCE AT GLORY THAT FUELS EVERY PEDAL STROKE.

JRMY ROY (FDJ), RUI COSTA (LAMPRE-MERIDA), JENS VOIGT (TREK FACTORY RACINGRETIRED 2014), ADAM HANSEN (LOTTO SOUDAL) AND THOMAS VOECKLER (EUROPCAR) ARE FIVE OF THE BEST BREAKAWAY RIDERS OF RECENT TIMES, ALL SPURRED ON BY THE SLIM POSSIBILITY OF TRIUMPH THAT EACH BREAKAWAY OFFERS. A GREAT BREAKAWAY RIDER CAN ATTACK A LOT, AND ALMOST NEVER WIN, OR HE CAN ATTACK FEW TIMES, BUT CONVERT THOSE FEW ATTACKS CONSISTENTLY. ABOVE ALL, THE TWO ELEMENTS COMMON TO ALL GREAT BREAKAWAY RIDERS ARE THE ABILITY TO ENDURE SUFFERING, AND THE WILLINGNESS TO TAKE A RISK. AND ITS THE COMBINATION OF THOSE ELEMENTS THAT MAKE THE BEST BREAKAWAYS SO ENTERTAINING FOR US, THE FANS.

JRMY
ROY

Jrmy Roy has raced every Tour de France from 2010 to 2014 with French team FDJ (previously Francaise de Jeux). It should come as no shock that a French rider, on a French team, is one of the best breakaway riders in the world. Amateur racing in France is regarded as the most aggressive there is, with non-stop breakaway attempts the norm, and Roy upholds this reputation grandly.

In the 2011 Tour de France Roy spent nearly 700kmessentially a third of the raceoff the front of the peloton. He was awarded the dossard rouge, or red number, for the most aggressive rider on the Stages 4 and 13, and the overall most aggressive for the Tour. Roy spent so much time off the front collecting dribs and drabs from the mid-stage sprint points that he finished eleventh in the Green Jersey competition with 104 points, ahead of many actual sprinters.

Roy turned professional with FDJ back in 2004 and continued studying mechanical and automated engineering for the first three years of his career. In parallel, his cycling education required him to finish three Vueltas a Espaa before he was deemed eligible to race the Tour. In 2008 FDJ Directeur Sportif Marc Madiot deemed Roy ready for the demands of the Tour, he racedand finishedhis first that year and has finished every Tour since.

There are many reasons for riders or teams to want to get in a breakaway, for Jrmy Roy and FDJ, their reasons are twofold. Firstly, they want to get out in front so that when TV coverage starts, their sponsor gets maximum airtime. The riders are literally moving billboards, and the Tour de France is the biggest annual sporting event in the world. With the average WorldTour Team budget hovering around 20 million euros, riders and managers will do whatever they can to keep the sponsors happy.

Secondly, FDJ do not have a sprinter capable of winning a bunch sprint. In 2013 they had Nacer Bouhanni, but every other year from 2010 till now, their best shot of winning a stage was to roll their dice in the early break. And thats exactly what Jrmy Roy does best.

Roy is one of the best breakaway riders because he can actually get in a break. If this analysis sounds slightly inane, remember that we dont see on TV the sheer number of attacks launched just to establish a breakaway, we tend to underestimate the difficulty in simply getting there in the first place. Some riders try to go with every attack such that they have maximum chance of being in the break that eventually sticks. Or, they can save their attacks and wait patiently, hoping that they pick the one successful break. Owing to his French aggression, Roy belongs to the former group, and owing to his stamina and persistence, he is never so fatigued that he misses the crucial split.

On Stage 11 of the 2011 Tour de France, a mountainous 156km from Pau to Lourdes, Roy initiated an early break of ten riders that included then world champion Thor Hushovd (Team Garmin-Cervlo). Spending nearly the entire stage off the front with Geraint Thomas (Sky Procycling) the day before was clearly no limiter as Roy set about decimating the breakaway as they climbed the Col dAubisque. Roy took off from the group, passed Hushovd who had attacked earlier, and went about establishing a healthy lead.