Australian pro Brodie Chapman rides for UAE Team L’IMAD and had built up to race the Tour de France Femmes for a second time. Unfortunately it was an edition that ended early for her, with a DNS on stage 2 as illness intervened. It hadn’t been the easiest of runs to make it there in the first place either, as she went down hard in the Tour of Flanders in April, fracturing her pelvis and facing a tough recovery to get back for the Tour, which Chapman detailed in her pre-race column.
In her second of three columns, Chapman joins us while recuperating, rather than racing, to cast light on the pivotal stages. She takes us inside some of the plans and mindsets behind the unfolding action and also delivers some home truths about the simmering speculation on the dynamics within her own team.
I was sitting on my couch watching one of the greatest-ever cycling performances unfold before my eyes. Between pangs of envy for those riders experiencing the familiar slopes of Mont Ventoux first-hand, I was also brimming with joy and anticipation for what would follow. Friend and fan favourite Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney left no room for doubt as she flawlessly executed her ascent toward the stage win and yellow jersey. Teammate and good friend Elisa Longo-Borghini managed her own race to perfection, closing in to take third on the stage in the last few hundred meters thanks to measured teamwork with Paula Blasi.
Besides the time trial, an individual event that shook up the GC, Mont Ventoux was undoubtedly a stage that was always going to be an important battle. It was the stage that lingered amongst the minds of the riders, those trying to win it, and those trying to survive it. I had discussed this stage in length with riders on my team, with people outside the peloton and in depth with Kasia.
As mentioned in my previous column, entirely on the initiative of Kasia, a handful of us made a trip to Ventoux over a few days to learn the climb and understand its hefty list of demands. We did two ascents on the first day, and on the second day we did another ascent (much to my surprise). Kasia was feeling out the climb in real time. The heat was one thing, the steep corners another and the windy exposed sections something that could be volatile. What we couldn’t know was how the riders themselves would approach the climb. We had to speculate.
Personally, I had felt that based on my experience on these climbs, the peloton would approach the climb with an absolutely all-out furious pace, leaving only a handful of favourites isolated from the first left-hand corner onwards. A few teams were left with a slight numerical advantage but, with such a trying gradient ahead, it would come down to who applied their strengths in the right moment, who really had the legs and heart to get to the top first. Despite what appeared to be a gamble between Demi Vollering and Marlen Reusser, on a climb this long, I believe if you could win this race, you would.
Kasia Niewiadoma on the charge on Mont Ventoux (Image credit: Getty Images)
Demi and Marlen are two of the best in the world. Cycling is a game, a tactical game that takes superhuman power to execute the right moves and a mixture of planning and instinct to know when to move. Kasia was simply better that day. Her heart was deeply embedded in this climb and she increased her lead with each stroke of the pedal; no amount of hesitation behind allows a gap this big to form accidentally. Kasia was in a flow state, she knew exactly where to go and when.
Behind the yellow jersey and previous winner Demi, another race was quietly unfolding. My teammates, two-time Giro d’Italia winner Elisa Longo Borghini and Vuelta Feminina winner Paula Blasi, were managing their own race. They didn’t even try to respond to Demi’s first attack because they had a plan. The plan – conjured up by the performance team at UAE Team L’IMAD – had both riders following a pacing strategy. Strong and steady, Paula and Elisa didn’t flinch when the attacks kicked off. Instead, they continued to ride just shy of their limit for 11km.
They didn’t waste any energy on the lower slopes trying to respond. Their response would be collective and calculated. As the trees faded into the background, Paula and Elisa slowly reeled in the pursuers. According to Elisa, Paula’s final pull as they approached the closing kilometres was paramount in launching Elisa into action to narrowly grasp third on the stage. She used that big acceleration at the perfect moment. Paula Blasi, in her maiden Tour de France Femmes, finished in fifth on the stage. Polish national champion Dominika Wlodarczyk rode into a commendable eighth, keeping the team high up in the GC and affirming that Polish cycling is in a very good place.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
I hope this puts an end to the speculation around teamwork on UAE Team L’IMAD. Journalists also forget that riders eat together for every meal, for two weeks. We sit around the dinner table after the meal is done, laughing, discussing, and speculating. We sleep within centimetres of each other in pokey hotel rooms, share long transfers and hours at training camps together. To think there is room for scathing tension is ignorant.
I also want to mention the teams behind the wins, the ones who get the riders to this point. I sometimes squirm when I hear commentators question the absence of a particular rider, that they expected more from them …. They don’t see the work it entails and the energy these riders spend in order to spare their leaders. You come to a race with clear roles, even if on a good day you could gamble in a breakaway or win from a small group. If we all just raced to our hearts’ desire you wouldn’t see successful teamwork, where each ion of energy is purposeful and precious.
From kilometre one the domestiques are taking wind, going back to the very back of the peloton, dropping into the convoy, riding back through the fast, hectic peloton carrying a bag full of bidons and ice, with bidons in their jersey and carrying up to six kilograms or more.
hey position the team through the towns and the technical sections, to keep them safe and stay away from the back of the peloton where crashes are more likely to happen. They maintain a relentless pace heading into climbs like Ventoux, and then still have to ride up it themselves, very often after doing a maximal effort. If you have worked all day, the team also encourages you to take it easy after your job is done, in order to preserve energy to do it all again the next day.
Domestiques, such as Silvia Persico (UAE Team I’MAD) lined up along the front early on the Mont Ventoux stage (Image credit: Getty Images)
As the race situation changes throughout the stages, those roles can definitely change too. While I wrote this, I was watching Canyon-SRAM’s Zoe Bäckstedt take Kasia first wheel into a cat. 4 climb ahead of a finish line that, on another day, also suited her characteristics. Silvia Pérsico has taken on the tasks of two riders in my absence, along with Mavi Garcia, who herself won a stage last year. It pains me that I feel the need to explain this, but unfortunately sometimes I still get questioned over whether women’s cycling has domestiques. I guess those people don’t really watch women’s cycling.
The other thing to mention is that working for the team also doesn’t always mean taking wind and collecting bidons. Working for the team can also mean being a part of the overall strategy, using a rider’s specific strengths to play the game, make the race hard or go deep into a final alongside the leaders.
The next day of racing will see the GC battle continue, with a strong bid for bonus seconds is my guess. For every single rider getting to Nice in one piece will be an achievement in itself. Some will have expected more than they got and others will leave satisfied or surprised. As athletes, we do not dwell long on the disappointments or the setbacks because otherwise it would consume us and take us out of the present – a present that is always demanding more work, better rest and adjusted goal setting.