Remco Evenepoel’s yo-yo approach to this year’s Tour de France was almost hampered by an unexpected traffic jam on the Col du Haag on Saturday, the Belgian star revealing after the stage that he was briefly held up by the race organisers’ car and the Shimano neutral service vehicle on a particularly busy section of the packed climb.
Evenepoel has adopted a conservative, methodical style at the Tour so far, refusing to respond to the accelerations of the favourites before attempting to slowly winch his way back to the front.
That tactic paid dividends on stage 10 to Le Lioran, where the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider recovered dramatically to finish second, 32 seconds behind runaway race leader Tadej Pogačar.
And on the Col du Haag yesterday afternoon, Evenepoel was once again distanced early due to the sustained pressure applied by Visma-Lease a Bike’s two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard, the Belgian later admitting he was feeling the effects of the stage’s early wet and cold weather in the Vosges.
However, in the wake of Pogačar’s latest stage-winning attack, Evenepoel’s careful pacing strategy saw him close the gap to the rest of the GC contenders – only for his progress to be slowed by the sluggish progress of the leading race vehicles.
“I was a little blocked between the Shimano car and the organisation car,” Evenepoel told Sporza after the stage. “I think they slowed me down a bit, but in the end I didn’t lose much time to the riders I’m fighting for the podium with.”
While the television cameras cut away just before Evenepoel was impeded, it was clear that the packed nature of the stage’s final climb had caused the traffic jam just behind Vingegaard’s group.
Nevertheless, Evenepoel rallied once more to bridge across to Red Bull teammate Florian Lipowitz and Lidl-Trek’s Juan Ayuso by the top of the Col du Haag, located around 6km from the finish in Le Markstein.
Evenepoel then won the sprint for fifth, ceding just 10 seconds to podium rivals Isaac Del Toro and Paul Seixas, and crossing the line within four seconds of Vingegaard, retaining his place on the overall podium.
“I have to be honest, I suffered in the rain today,” the Belgian admitted. “I was quite cold, but in the end I did my own thing on the final climb. It was just a little too fast for me.
“I think I still managed it quite well because I didn’t lose much time. I felt I rode a strong final kilometre, or final kilometre and a half.”
He continued: “When I got to Lipo, I shouted straight away that we had to work together as hard as possible towards the line, I think that worked well. We managed to limit the damage.”
“Considering the unusual weather conditions, I think we held up well. Tomorrow is another day.”
Of course, Evenepoel isn’t the only Tour de France contender to have been held up by the race convoy in recent years.
On stage 14 of the 2023 Tour, a particularly chaotic edition for motor-based involvement, two motorbike riders briefly blocked the road on the Col de Joux Plane, preventing Tadej Pogačar from picking up vital bonus seconds at the top of the HC-rated climb – which, at the time anyway, appeared potentially crucial in deciding the outcome of that year’s race.
The Slovenian, who had briefly distanced yellow jersey Vingegaard on the Joux Plane before being caught by the Dane towards the summit, was abruptly stopped in his tracks by the two race motos, whose riders struggled to negotiate both the encroaching crowds and the speed of the attacking white jersey.
Following Pogačar’s aborted sprint, one France Télévisions motorbike and a photography motorbike belonging to L’Équipe were fined 500 Swiss Francs and excluded for one stage for their role in the controversial incident.
Just days later, chaos reigned once again on the Col de la Loze as the motorbike carrying French Tour hero Thomas Voeckler – working on the race as a pundit for France Télévisions – stalled on the steepest slopes of the Alpine climb, causing a traffic jam which held up several riders and forced Vingegaard to stop and briefly unclip.
The 44-year-old retired French pro – who enjoyed two lengthy spells in the yellow jersey during his career, as well as finishing fourth overall at the 2011 Tour – and his driver Joël Chary were also suspended for one day from the race and fined 500 Swiss Francs for the untimely stop, which occurred on a 24 percent bend near the summit of the Col de la Loze.
The ensuing chaos saw a number of riders who were trailing the leading duo of Felix Gall and Simon Yates, such as Pello Bilbao, David Gaudu, and Chris Harper, squeeze between the stalled motorbike, the race’s other traffic, and the swarming fans at the roadside.
However, after that group had managed to carefully pick their way through the chaos, Voeckler’s moto then blocked the path of the race commissaire’s red car – travelling in front of the yellow jersey group – which forced race leader Vingegaard and his teammate Wilco Kelderman to briefly unclip (with the Dane reacting angrily, understandably, to a fan pushing him as he made his way past the car).
Other riders, such as Thibaut Pinot, also had to momentarily stop behind the commissaire’s vehicle before the road finally cleared.
