Mauro’s stage win was old-school GreenEDGE, and it’s been like a pressure valve release for the whole team – Luke Plapp’s Tour de France diary

A lot has happened since my last diary: we’ve got a week more racing in the legs, we’ve crossed to the other side of France, and the team has a stage win thanks to Mauro Schmid! For every team, there’s always so much pressure to get something out of the Tour de France, so having that win has been like a bit of a pressure valve release for the whole team. We still want more, but we can take on each stage now knowing that this year’s race has already been a success and that everything else from here on in is a bonus.

It was an amazing day all around and such a bloody awesome team effort from all of the boys. Mauro was the first of us to get in the big break at the start, but we knew that we needed more of us in there if we wanted to make it work. Bling [Michael Matthews], Ben [O’Connor], and I managed to get into a chase group further into the stage. It was a big group, but the boys at the front were going fast, so it was a proper job to get across the gap.

More Tour columns & opinion

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Once we were there with Mauro, it was a case of getting ourselves over that category-one climb in the best position possible. I thought the way we rode as a team was amazing, and for Mauro to finish it off was impressive. He’s had such an incredible season, so it was great to see him continue that form, especially after losing out on stage 11 in Toulouse last year.

When we got back to the hotel, we had a beautiful dinner with the whole team, staff and riders, with a bit of a toast. It was a really nice gathering, and we were able to reflect on how special it was to win as a team, and how old-school GreenEDGE it was in the way we won the stage. With that victory in the bank now, we’ve been able to race with a bit more freedom and with even more confidence. Not many teams will finish this Tour de France with a win, so to have already done it is pretty sweet. It was a special week.

Now we’re heading into the final week, and it feels like Paris is within touching distance. I really maxed out on the ‘rest’ part of the second rest day, basically doing as little as possible before we got back to racing. I’m writing this diary after the stage 16 individual time trial. I haven’t been feeling great the last couple of days, but I was still hopeful of what I could do.

Plapp in TT mode earlier today during stage 16 of the Tour (Image credit: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)

Very early on, though, I knew that it wasn’t going to be a day for me, so I parked it up and decided to focus on the days to come. It was a bit of a shame not to have the legs I was hoping for today, but there’s still a week of racing to go and some stages that suit us.

Mauro’s win was a bit early for our team owner Gerry Ryan to see; he arrived at the race the day after, so we’re hoping that we can give him a win while he’s here. He’s done so much for GreenEDGE over the years, so it’s always special when we can pay him back with a victory. Needless to say, the boys are super motivated.

Looking at where my teammates and I can target during this final week, I feel that stage 17 is really good for Bling with that climb at the end. Stage 18 is another good opportunity for the breakaway, hopefully, and obviously Paris is another chance for Pascal [Ackermann].

It will be interesting to see how the final week plays out, especially with Jonas [Vingegaard] out of the race. It was a shame to see him go like that. Hopefully, the breakaways will be given some opportunities to have a go. The weather is cooling down, which is good; the feistiness of the peloton has definitely simmered down too, but everyone is getting tired.