"Bluff, psychology, tactics", an ode to the first hour of the race

A stage start on the Tour -

• Since the introduction in 2017 of TV broadcasting of all stages, the general public has discovered the beginnings of races, often super spectacular.

• Dive into this world long unknown to cycling.

“It does our sport a disservice to show everything”.

We are at the beginning of July 2017, the good old days when the whole world was not masked and the Tour de France was still run in July.

With, for the first time, stages disseminated in full.

Without it convincing many people at the time, and especially not therefore the consultant of Eurosport Jacky Durand, in the columns of the

.

"We lose some of the magic," he continued.

Understand that already that the bike can be incredibly boring every other step when you take the antenna at 3 p.m., why should we add 100 terminals and three more hours of antenna before that?

Perhaps also understand that this dear Jacky was being robbed of a juice of an infinite flavor, reserved for runners and relentless followers: the first hour of racing.

Back in 2020. To honor the most beautiful region in the world, crossed on this Friday, September 11, the peloton is watering.

We drive at more than 50 km / h from kilometer 0 between Châtel-Guyon and Clermont on the roads of Puy-de-Dôme, it's attacking, it's against, it's loose, it's distance, it's a treat.

Up to the top of the Col de Ceyssat, it is everywhere, as they say.

The spectacle is total.

As it was at the start of the next day's stage, towards Lyon, or the one leading to Lavaur the previous week.

With the broadcast in full, the general public has therefore discovered a new race: the battle for the breakaway.

"And it sometimes harsher and more exciting than the end of the race" launches the adventurer of Cofidis, Pierre-Luc Périchon.

"It can last 20 minutes, an hour, two hours or more, it is a period of uncertainty where you never know what will happen, and the runners either, continues Guillaume Di Grazia, comments for Eurosport.

The peloton can decide to let go or to drive the race completely crazy when a lot of individual interests come into play. At that point, it doesn't turn off.

"

"Even we, sometimes, we don't understand"

Before, the TV was on the air at 2 or 3 p.m., with this group of 5, 10 or 15 scouts who are fighting against the return of the peloton and hope to go to the end.

Without knowing very well why and how these masos got there.

Willing victims?

Unless it's a draw?

“We say to ourselves vulgarly that to be in the breakaway, it is enough to pedal more, summarizes Pierre-Luc Périchon.

It is not the case at all.

We try to aim right, to follow the right shot or vice versa, to see the runners who were there in the days before and who will probably not have the legs.

But each team sets up its strategy and everything is important, everyone is involved.

There is bluff, psychology, tactics depending on the interests of each.

It's a very complex mechanism to understand… Even us, sometimes, we don't understand what's going on.

Sunday the Lotto-Soudal started to ride at the head of the peloton while they were not aiming for the stage.

In fact, it was to get to the passes as quickly as possible so as to lengthen the delays - calculated on the average speed of the stage - to allow their sprinter Caleb Ewan to finish on time.

"

Pierre-Luc Périchon escaped on the Tour, in 2019 - Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP

In the Tour de France, there are no small issues.

Peter Sagan sent his team to the wind and condemned all breakaways over two full stages just to try to grab some points in the race for the green jersey and give himself a small chance of stage victory.

We are fighting for the stage, for the green, for the peas, for the general, for the team classification ...

So sometimes the peloton can take a long time to validate a breakaway, because it isn't for everyone.

Or even not to leave any at all, as during the stage leading to Privas.

“After a while everyone stopped trying to take the breakaway, we were exhausted.

The big teams neutralized each other and we marched in procession, ”laughs Périchon.

The advertising escape "is no longer enough"

In short, a whole world that the general public discovered a little overnight.

As if he had deprived himself of the first half until then.

“It has undoubtedly changed the perception of the public, pushes Di Grazia.

And that redefined our job.

We know when we are in the

from the start of the broadcast, but it's easier to comment when there is a race than the soft underbelly of the stage where we are forced to create discussion.

There, we are in the description, in the intensity.

"

For runners, too.

Guillaume Di Grazia recalls a time, in the 80s, when runners waited for TV to race.

More recently, Pierre-Luc Périchon remembers that we were driving “faster but much shorter” a few years ago to go to war at the start of the stage.

Proof all the same that the breakaway still has a value.

In a Tour that is said to be padlocked by the teams of the great leaders and those of the sprinters, we always try to fight to be at the front - even if it hardly wins anymore.

Because we are in a sponsorship sport, and therefore visibility.

But not only.

"The advertising break, today that is not enough, cut Pierre-Luc Périchon.

You have to win stages or have a leader overall, even for the smallest teams.

The breakaway has value on difficult stages, because we know that if there are only riders far in the overall standings, it can go to the end.

"

And that this one, it should not be missed.

Guillaume Di Grazia sums it up: “You never really know if it will go to the end, but you know you have to be there.

Because you never know, that would be too stupid… ”

So we fight even before the 1pm of France 2. And we love it.

This week in the Alps, we should still experience the beginnings of grandiose stages.

Pierre-Luc Périchon, live from the peloton: “The first thing when you want to be in the breakaway is that you have to be placed on the starting line.

Even initially fictitious.

If it's not tight in the peloton, it's because it will go off easily, it will probably be a publicity breakout.

If we see that it rubs immediately behind the opening car, it is because a lot of riders are interested.

»And there we go for a nice explanation.

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