HAUTACAM: Luke Durbridge, like many riders still in this year’s Tour de France, had good reason to smile on Thursday as he crossed the finish line of the 18th stage.
The 145.5km stage from Pau to Hautacam, won by Tour leader Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) in a solo break, was the last mountain of this year’s Tour that began on July 5 and included passages through the Vosges, Alps and Pyrenees.
And what that meant for all but those still vying for top overall place – other than first which Nibali has all but stitched up – or a win in one of the last stages, was that the finish line to the world’s biggest bike race in Paris was metaphorically in sight.
For Tour rookies like Durbridge (Orica-GreenEDGE), or any rider, reaching Paris will be a huge feat.
“Everybody is getting that little excitement of Paris and maybe finishing their first Tour, but you can’t count your chickens before they hatch,” said Durbridge who finished Thursday’s stage in 127th place at 31m 1s to Nibali (Astana).
Nibali won by 1m 10s over Frenchman Thibaut Pinot (FDJ.fr), 1m 12s over Poland’s Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), and 1m 15s over France’s Jean-Christophe Peraud (Ag2r) and American Tejay van Garderen (BMC) to extend his overall lead again.
The result left Nibali going into Friday’s 208.5km 19th stage from Maubourguet Pays du Val d’Adour to Bergerac with an overall advantage of 7m 10s on second placed Pinot.
In third at 7m 23s was Peraud, while fourth at 7m 25s on Spaniard Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) who slipped two places with his 10th on the stage at 1m 59s to the Italian Tour yellow jersey wearer.
However, Durbridge knows that before he can start thinking of his long-awaited Tour celebrations in Paris on Sunday, he will be called on for one last and painful effort.
That is Saturday’s stage 20 time trial, a 54km race against the clock from Bergerac to Perigueux on an undulating course that should suit his time trialling prowess well.
Although, in a three week tour, it is not always the best time trialist who shines in the discipline at the end of the third week; but often those with something left in the tank.
“All you can do in these time trials is go out and suffer as much as possible,” Durbridge said.
“It could be a top 50 [place] or top five. You really don’t know what you are going to get because you don’t know how you will pull up from almost three weeks of racing,
“You just have to go out there and suffer like hell and hopefully that is a good result.”
One added bonus exists for Durbridge racing in a time trial, rather in the mountains
“It’s the first time in this Tour where I get to dictate my own pain in my legs, not everybody else dictating the pain in my legs,” he said, laughing.
“I’m sick of bloody everybody else hurting me, so I’m going to go out there and hurt me for myself – on my terms.”
One experience Durbridge had not bargained for in the mountains was in Wednesday’s 17th stage in the Pyrenees from Saint Gaudens to Saint Lary Pla d’Adet when he collided with a Movistar soigneur on the first of four categorised climbs.
Durbridge said the incident, in which he fell and sustained grazing to his back, was on the Col du Portillon. It was captured in a photo posted on Twitter.
“We went up the climb so fast and I was happy to be at the front there,” he said.
“Then head down I went straight into the Movistar soigneur who was handing out bidons [drink bottles] in the middle of the bunch.
“My initial reaction was, ‘Well if you are going to knock me down I am going to knock you down.’
“So I got straight back up, and had a run at him – but as you can see [in the photo on Twitter] I ran at him, then I had to sort of restrain myself.”
After expressing his displeasure, Durbridge remounted his bike, refocused and rejoined the race; putting the episode down by Thursday to one that simply reflected the craziness of the Tour.
