Every return of the Tour de France to Orcières-Merlette brings back memories of that afternoon in 1971 when Luis Ocaña made history. For many, that remains the most important feat in modern cycling. Due to the magnitude of the stage, the differences created, and above all, the defeated rivals, fundamentally the insurmountable Eddie Merckx. Ocaña rode away when there was still an eternity ahead (60 km) and the minutes fell one after another until the definitive 8m40s. Not even when he was hinted from the car that it was enough to wear yellow did he give up continuing to increase his lead. The Spanish champion, a genius with his own ghosts, showed that even the most dominant rider could be defeated, even humiliated. “Luis Ocaña has killed us all today, like El Cordobés kills his bulls,” Eddy Merckx acknowledged after the stage, in a phrase reported the next day by La Vanguardia and which perhaps remains the best way to explain what happened in Orcières-Merlette. “A great feat, which Spanish cycling greatly needed,” said Federico Martín Bahamontes for this newspaper that same day.
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Ocaña’s feat has never been repeated. And it is unlikely to happen again today, because there is no answer to the modern Merckx personified by Pogacar. As an example, what happened in the eighteenth stage of this Tour, where with the Slovenian clearly exposed due to half his team being in the pits for unclear medical reasons, no one was able to put him in trouble. Adam Yates’ gastroenteritis, which forced him to ask for several Coca-Colas during the stage, and Del Toro’s mysterious drop-out were joined yesterday by the collapses of Brandon McNulty, who eventually abandoned, and Tim Wellens on the first serious climbs of the stage. The identity of the day’s winner, the Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz, did not disappoint, confirming that in this Tour, no nobodies win.
The Alpine triptych began on its gentler, endurance-focused side, 185.2 kilometers between Voiron and Orcières-Merlette. Before the two finishes at Alpe d’Huez, the peloton faced five climbs and a final ascent of 7.1 kilometers at an average gradient of 6.7%. A day that offered terrain for breakaways, with the initial climb to the Cota de Engins (11.4 kilometers at 5.4%). That’s when the first skirmishes began. A group of 15 and a peloton of 25 rode ahead. The trail of riders distributed among groups was uncontrollable.
Richard Carapaz (EF), the most combative rider of this Tour, dominated the stage, arriving alongside Jorgenson (Visma), Paret-Peintre (Soudal), Schmid (Jayco), Johannessen (Uno-X), and Raúl García Pierna (Movistar) at the foot of the last climb. Behind, the peloton was more than 6 minutes back.
The winner of the 2019 Giro d’Italia, also an Olympic champion, attacked with 4 kilometers to go. The Frenchman Paret-Peintre responded to his wheel, but faltered the second time the Carchi locomotive opened the throttle in search of a well-deserved prize. Second victory for him in the Tour, he has four in the Giro and three in the Vuelta. No Hispanic American has accumulated more stage victories than him in the Grand Tours.
Behind, alarms had gone off at UAE right at the start of the stage. And that’s despite both Gianetti and Matxín confidently boasting at the start about Adam Yates’ recovery. The leader was actually exposed. An ideal context to cause a commotion. Or at least to try. But neither Evenepoel, who sees second place as a triumph, nor Seixas, probably because Alpe d’Huez was so close, wanted to put up a fight. Pogacar had his calmest day, and if there really was any strength issue in his team, he gained time to recover soldiers. The Tour will now experience two superlative days for cycling, with the spotlight on that climb where winning is, almost always, making history.
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