As the post-mortem began outside the Astana team bus, general manager Alexandre Vinokourov’s voice was so low that it was barely picked up by the microphones dangling two inches from his face. Then again, he was scarcely more audible when feting victory on the Champs-Élysées a year ago. A man who treats triumph and disaster just the same; Kipling would approve.
“It’s sure that we’re not going to win the Tour de France this year,” Vinokourov said, his soft voice in keeping with the sombre tone around him after stage 10 to the summit of La Pierre-Saint-Martin. While Vincenzo Nibali showered aboard the Astana team bus after losing 4:25 to Chris Froome and all hopes of a second successive Tour win, the search for the black box was already underway.
“I don’t want anyone to think that Vincenzo came to Tour without being in good condition,” directeur sportif Giuseppe Martinelli told another group of reporters. “That’s not the case, because otherwise there wouldn’t be so many other riders in the same position. We saw some important collapses today: [Alberto] Contador, [Joaquim] Rodriguez and many others. And I wouldn’t think they’ve come to the Tour badly prepared either.”
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After a trying first week, Nibali arrived at the first Pyrenean stage of this Tour with a metaphorical mountain of his own to climb in addition to the 15km haul to La Pierre-Saint-Martin. Already 2:22 down on Froome as the day began, Nibali’s chances were dwindling even before Movistar began their forcing at the base of the climb.
As anticipated, the early selection came from the back, with rider after rider relenting, yielding to the pace, to the gradient, to their own fatigue. After barely 4km of climbing, Nibali found himself among their number, dropped along with Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-QuickStep) when the yellow jersey group was still more than 30 riders strong.
Astana’s Tanel Kangert and Jakob Fuglsang waited for Nibali, but at that point the gradient was 9 per cent and their slipstream was of little benefit. Their presence was to cajole rather than to pace. At one point, Nibali lifted a hand, almost in apology, to ask them to reduce their speed. Kangert would ultimately lead his captain across the summit in 21st place on the stage, head bowed.
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