If there were any new cycling fans tuning into the Tour de France this year after watching the crashes and smashes of Netflix’s Tour de France: Unchained series, the sport would have lost them as quickly as they won them after the events (or lack of them) in stage 16. There was none of the excitement, intrigue or drama that is sensationalised in the TV programme. Instead it was four hours of literally nothing happening in the bike race at all.
There’s normally always time for a quick nap during a Tour stage for those of us watching at home – the race usually reaches its natural lull in between the fight to establish the breakaway and the chase to bring them back to the peloton before the line. Stage 16, however, was a totally different kettle of fish. Apart from one sad, lonely attack by Thomas Gachignard of TotalEnergies (which at least won him the prize for the stage’s most combative rider), the peloton rolled along the flatlands from Gruissan to Nîmes with no urgency whatsoever. There was no need for viewers to tune into what was happening until within the final 10 kilometres of the 188km stage. It was, in simple terms, an extremely boring day to watch cycling.
In the past, the chance to get a team’s jersey on show in the world’s biggest bike race would have been enough to incentivise at least the smaller teams to go up the road. However unlikely it was that they would stay away, there used to be more belief in the slim possibility of it happening. It was always worth a try just in case the sprint teams got it wrong. In 2024, there’s a significant shift in the peloton. Why has the belief in the break gone?
“It is difficult as every single team is a big team that has a sprinter that they want to fight for or that they believe in. Even teams like us are wildcard teams but we are not interested in the break as we have [Alexander] Kristoff who we believe in,'' prolific breakaway rider Magnus Cort of Uno-X Mobility explained after the stage. The Dane's new bright blue moustache was one of the biggest talking points of the day.
Matej Mohorič of Bahrain-Victorious added that the extreme heat in today’s stage was also a crucial factor in many riders opting to avoid getting in the breakaway.
“Today was the last stage for the sprinters that sat in between the mountains. My computer also tells me it was 41 degrees celsius which means the warm air is effectively warming your core body temperature and not cooling you down as it is supposed to,” Mohorič said.
“If you go in the breakaway you’re going to cook yourself and not be able to sustain a very high power output for very long which limits your chances. It’s a lot of tired legs out there also in the peloton but still I think everybody is also well aware that tomorrow and the day after on Thursday are two stages where the breakaway is likely to contest for the stage win. These are two best stages for the riders who want to go on the break – tomorrow more for the climbers and the day after more for the heavier guys. Everyone is thinking about those two stages.”
Cort also pointed out that the peloton gets assistance from TV camera motorbikes during stages, which has a serious impact on the effort riders on the front of the bunch are having to exert compared to those in the break.
“One thing that could be changed actually that would make a huge difference is that you get a lot more draft from the cars and motorbikes in front of the peloton compared to being in the breakaway,” Cort said. “I would guess that would have a disadvantage of one to two kilometres every hour. If they swapped that around and purely filmed the peloton from behind – I know it’s not going to be good pictures – and added them in front of the peloton then it would be really hard to catch the breakaway. It’s a crazy plan. Right now it’s suicide to go in the breakaway because the peloton sits behind the cameras and you have no chance.”
Even teams with a protected sprinter in their ranks agreed with Cort that the in-race motorbikes have an impact on the race outcome. Matt White, Jayco-Alula team boss, believes that it’s too challenging to get in the breakaway now because of these factors.
“There are a lot of teams here who want to make sure that it is a sprint stage. If you go through the lists of teams here they either have a GC team, a sprinter or both. There’s not too many teams who haven’t got either, apart from a couple of the small teams,” White said. “They are the ones interested in getting that publicity. Unless it’s a quality breakaway, the chances are very slim on these flat stages. Motorbikes and television cameras have also come into it in the past.”
So, is there any solution to encouraging riders to get in a breakaway that is likely doomed before it even begins? Mohorič offers some radical ideas about what the Tour de France organisers could do to spice things up on dull days.
“There are two solutions to the problem. One could be that on the flat days when a sprint is expected you can have four or five intermediate sprints rather than one, all carrying five or 10 points, similar points for the green jersey as the stage win itself,” the Bahrain-Victorious rider said. “This would speed things up, make it more exciting and make it easier to create a potential disturbing breakaway after one of those sprints. Another change is to do the same as they do in the Giro and have a combination or intermediate sprint jersey just for that competition.”
Cort argues that with cycling’s current relegation system, however, UCI points will always be held in the highest regards by teams.
“I think it could work to have another jersey but UCI points are very important, most of all for smaller teams like ours. If there’s no UCI points on it then it doesn’t offer much value. Just a jersey competition is maybe not enough,” the Danish rider explained.
The strength of sprint teams in the current peloton is always going to make it challenging for opportunistic breakaway men to succeed, but all riders and team managers who Rouleur spoke to were adamant that the next few days of the Tour de France will offer more chances for brave riders who go out front on the attack. They also pointed out that what may look dull on television isn’t always boring in the peloton.
“If there’s enough sprint teams then it can be easily controlled as teams can bring two or three guys for that role. In the last couple of years, teams have been caught out with breakaways being very strong towards the final. If a break does go away now, the old rule used to be to give them around three minutes and reel them back in later, but sprint teams have been caught out so it’s not happening anymore,” White said.
“They’re not giving any leeway. We have a sprinter so we want that to happen. It might look a bit boring on television but these finals are not boring for the guys, it is wall-to-wall stress. Sometimes the easier these stages look on TV there’s a lot more guys getting to the finish line fresher which makes it tricker. It’s hot, it’s the back end of the Tour and you could see from the start it was pretty negative with the sprint teams ruling over it. No one wanted to get out there and give it a go.”
Whether it was the scorching heat, the stage placement in the race, the strength of sprint teams or the drafting off TV motorbikes, it’s fair to say that watching stage 16 of the Tour de France wasn’t much fun until Jasper Philipsen and his sprinting rivals took to the front in the final five minutes. It might be that stages like this are just part of Grand Tour racing, but perhaps organisers also need to make considerations when it comes to fan engagement. There will be no racing if no one is watching.
