Tour de France - Carpe Diem

Stages 3 and 5

France loves a ‘Barradour’, an adventurer who seizes his opportunity and goes for glory. They like him even more if he happens to be French and in Nantes at the end of stage stage the home nation was treated a scrap between two native sons that they will be able to talk about for many years to come.

Having followed the lead of American Will Frishkorn (Garman-Chipotle) and Paolo Longo Borghini (Barloworld) at the kilometre zero point outside St.Malo and launched themselves into a breakaway, two of the smallest figures in race, Cofidis’ Samuel Dumoulin and Romain Feillu of Agritubel arrived alongside the docks at Nantes 185km later in the unexpected but welcome situation of being the men who stayed away.

What Dumoulin and Feillu lack in stature they certainly make up for in heart as first one and then the other sprinted for the line with well over a kilometre still to go. In the end the Cofidis man added a 12th and best victory to his career total and leaving Feillu overjoyed and rather shell-shocked in the yellow of overall leader of the Tour de France.

It almost happened again on stage five when French National Champion Nicolas Vogondy and his two escape partners came within a whisker of upsetting the sprinters big day on the pan flat finish at Chateauroux.

Most nationalities appreciate the warrior spirit of the barradour but here in France it’s almost a religion. 2 nights ago I sat down to dinner and found myself in the company of Jules, a man so in love with the cult of the adventurer, that he had written a song one such man, and had a moderate commercial success with it. The rider in question was Jacky Durand and the song was entitled ‘The man who didn’t like the peloton’. A catchy title from a chap who, even I could tell, is obviously as mad as a box of frogs but as good an indication as you get of how this race, despite its recent lows, enflames the passions of the French public.

And not just the general public either.,My regular riding partner here on the tour is not Sean Kelly by Eurosport cameraman Pierre-Henri Mentheour. In a previous life Mentheour was a stage winner into Rodez, a true man for the break if ever there was one. His career spanned a period that he himself labels as; ‘a time of legends and warriors’. Riders like Battaglin, Hinault, Zoetemelk, Maertens, Moser and Saroni. I can’t recall seeing him so in love with the Tour again as I have after the first 5 stages of this years tour.

There is even the opportunity that a swashbuckling attacker from the peloton may seize the day here on stage six in Super-Besse. Despite talk of this being the first mountain top finish it is light years away from what the riders will face in the Pyrennes in a few days time. In reality there is only 800m of stiff climb, coming within the last 1.5km. Not only that the peloton get a clear downhill run into the bottom of it. The secret will be for teams to take the race by the scruff of the neck and set a blistering pace on the relatively shallow 10km run into the town of Besse itself. Such a tactic will do immeasurable damage to the peloton but if you can stay close to the front, whoever you are, you have a chance to slip the noose and seek your day in the sun.