Le Tour goes on?

There are rumours in the Tour de France that the whole caravan- cyclists, team directors, team doctors, mechanics, helpers, all 600 of them, will be tests for covid19 over the weekend. Of course, its a no brainer that if a certain number positives will be recorded, the race could be stopped.

What is the implication if indeed the race will be stopped?

Well, there is a good chance that the current Yellow Jersey, Adam Yates of team Mitchelton-Scott, will be crowned as the winner. This rumour was heard last Friday, and. It was expected that the weekend stages were important to the contenders. The top 10 places are separated by exactly 1minute and with two mountain stages, its expected that the top 10 at least will go all out.

But last Saturday, the first of two mountain stages, it didn’t seem that way. The favourite tow in, Slovenian Primoz Roglic and his team, Jumbo-Visma, were just intent on following, instead Of forcing the race. However, there is still tonights (last night) second mountain stage and we’ll see how this will work out.

It would be a shame that Yates will be declared a winner since he’s not the strongest and he inherited the yellow jersey from a time deduction of erstwhile leader, Julian Alaphilippe. If you recall, Alaphilippe took a feeding bottle from a team personnel on the roadside in an illegal feedzone and was docked 20 seconds.

So lets keep our fingers crossed that everything will be alright.

Next topic is Peter Sagan. What is wrong with Peter? It seemed that no matter how heard he tried, he could not win, in fact, he couldn’t even get points for the green points jersey that he has owned for the last seven years.

Sagan’s last win was in 14 months ago, and for somebody like him, his stature as the biggest star in professional cycling, its an anomaly. Gone were the days when a win  a win would simply fall into his lap. Now, with stronger and younger riders to contend with, Sagan looks like a continental rider, not the super star that he is.

For instance, in stage 7, his team, BORA-Hansgrohe, worked hard to eliminate the sprinter by setting up a fierce pace. In fact, the current green jersey, Sam Bennett, was dropped and so where the other sprinters. But then, when you think that this stage was for Sagan, the cycling gods realigned the sprinting universe. During the sprint, Sagan dropped his chain and ended up in 13th spot, a spot that he didn’t expect after all the hard work the team did. The only silver lining was that he took back the green jersey. But how long could he hold on to this tunic?

But that’s sports, you can’t fight father time. Maybe Sagan can refocus his targets next year. Remember that Frenchman Gilbert Duclos-Lasalle would win two consecutive Paris-Roubaix’s past 40 years old.

Sagan has had seven years of good fortune. It would seem a shock that the guy is still 30 years old. Remember that Lance Armstrong won three more Tours after age 30.