When for years you’ve just had to accept that no matter what you do you’re essentially inferior to the best team, it’s normal that when the opportunity presents itself to turn the tables, to stick it to those who have been sticking it to you for seemingly ever, you freeze, panic, and come unstuck. You ask around for what to do. The status quo can’t be undone. A defeated peloton remains defeated.
We saw it first on stage four of this year’s Giro d’Italia, Jhonatan Narváez, expertly teed up by his Duracell Bunny teammate Jan Christen, teaching Movistar how to finish off a day’s hard work. A day later, despite crashing and going off-piste, Igor Arrieta got the better of Afonso Eulálio at the finish line in the most dramatic and scarcely-believable finishes. And then stage eight, a hat-trick of not exhibitions but the superior team simply being superior was complete: Narváez again winning, attacking in the final 10km to win by 32 seconds in Fermo. This was despite a huge breakaway of 30+ riders hovering just over a minute behind him, his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Mikkel Bjerg and Uno-X Mobility’s Andreas Leknessund for the final 50km.
If only the chasers were united, in agreement to work together for the common good to defeat the team who usually defeat them. But no, the escapees were disjointed, they couldn’t work sufficiently well together and despite their numerical advantage they failed to catch the two UAE riders (and one Uno-X member), thus permitting Narváez to win his second stage in just five days.
The backdrop to all of this, remember, is that UAE have only had five riders since stage two. 14 teams still have their full complement of eight riders. Teams not only have the firepower to restrict UAE and prevent them from winning stages, but they have the cards to play. Send riders up the road – force UAE to chase. When a UAE rider wants to escape – work together to prevent them. When they do slip away – do what it takes to cut their advantage.
For the past five years, as Tadej Pogačar especially has rewritten cycling’s conventions and rulebook, and the team as a whole has amassed dozens and dozens of victories – just three shy of 100 last year – the peloton has greeted their dominance with a subdued, dejected response. There’s no just way past UAE, they presume. But there is. Everyone knows their strengths, but they are beatable. It’s a matter of believing it.
“The first part was really difficult, but I think we played it well with my teammate,” Narváez said. “I think he was the man of the day, Mikkel Bjerg. Always you see him working for the team.” Bjerg was indeed exceptional, once again playing the ultimate role of willing sacrificer. His best move among many was when he and Narváez teamed up with a clever dig to distance Leknessund on the climb of Capodarco, and all Narváez had to do from then was to get over the remaining steep climb without being caught. There was no doubt he’d accomplish the task.
Two wins in five days for the Ecuadorian. Image: Zac Williams/SWPix.com.
It was a peculiar stage design with a flat parcours for the first 95km meaning anyone wanting to jump clear and form a breakaway – and there were many – was hamstrung by their being no natural launchpads. Only in the final 60km did the climbs begin, and a furious fight ensued. So many teams were so desperate to feature, to be in with a chance of winning, that proceedings were naturally tense and nervous. But to win a bike race you need to be brave, valiant and be courageous enough to work with your rivals to prevent the collective nemesis – in this case, as in most cases, UAE.
As mentioned, however, UAE played their tactics perfectly. As much as everyone else feels overwhelmed and already vanquished, UAE are fuelled by momentum and confidence. Even when they’ve been stripped of four of their best riders (including João Almeida who was meant to have been their GC man before illness prevented his participation), victory still feels like an inevitable occurrence. It’s just what they do.
“In the end it was about the legs,” the Ecuadorian Narváez continued. Half-right. It was, but it was also about the mind. “The first part was full of headwind, and riding the flat in the headwind for me was really hard, but we never gave up. With 60km to go we rode well, we rode smart, and then we had the opportunity to go for the stage.”
Leknessund’s teammate Martin Tjøtta finished third to cap out a very good team performance for Uno-X, but Leknessund pointed to the peloton’s general atmosphere and mood afterwards: “There was so much headwind in the start. I was active getting in the break but at some point I said to the guys I think I give up as there’s no way we’re going to get away with this headwind – it was not easy to follow.
“But somehow I got away with Bjerg and Narváez yet it was so hard to get the gap up to one minute. We corroborated well, but Narváez was stronger in the end, as expected. I cannot be disappointed. I cannot say I was close to winning, but that’s what I could do.” Second place is a good result for Leknessund – let’s not pretend it isn’t – but it’s notable that he didn’t really give himself much chance of being a protagonist, and then when he was of potentially winning. UAE control everything. It’s their rules. And everyone else has just accepted that.
“We are just five guys but we play well,” Narváez added. “We have a good atmosphere in the team so I think there can be some victories next week.” Look at the startlist and look at how outnumbered UAE are and there shouldn’t be. But the reality of racing in this era suggests there will be. Probably plenty more. Circumstances change, but the end result doesn’t.
Cover image: Luca Bettini/Getty Images
