Mattéo Vercher was crying uncontrollably. Hordes of people, all people with a digicam, circled spherical him. His once more was pressed in opposition to the fencing, his toes dangled on the freeway, and his fingers lined his face. The tears continued to fall.
The 23-year-old TotalEnergies rider had merely accomplished second to Victor Campenaerts on stage 18 of the Tour de France, his first ever look throughout the race. In 2022 he was a membership bike proprietor, nevertheless proper right here he was now, just a few hundred centimetres from profitable a stage on the planet’s best bike race. Two bike lengths away from a win he would have dined out on for the rest of his life.
“I’m sorry,” he sobbed to his teammates, his fingers wiping however further tears away. “No! Don’t be sorry!” responded definitely one in every of his colleagues. “Did you see what you in all probability did! Come on! It’ll be super!” Vercher wasn’t listening; the tears endured. “You can be proud,” declared one different teammate. “What you in all probability did is giant. It’s large! Don’t worry, there may be others.”
Nonetheless what if there aren’t completely different alternate options? What if that was it? Vercher rides for a second-tier ProTeam solely throughout the Tour on invitation. He, not like Tadej Pogačar, Jonas Vingegaard and the other large players, can’t leisure simple determining that they’ll positively be once more at future Excursions. Vercher, though clearly proficient and with age on his facet, gained’t be. So many bike riders race one Tour de France and on no account return. What if this was his one and solely likelihood to develop to be a stage winner throughout the Tour de France?
“A competitor wishes to win so coming second is definite to suck,” Vercher said as quickly because the tears have been beneath administration. “Afterwards, within the occasion you check out all the day, it’s a incredible end result. In two to three hours, tomorrow, I’ll be snug, nevertheless now coming second sucks.”
That Vercher, unbeknown to a number of the general public sooner than the day, was even in rivalry for the win in Barcelonnette was a shock provided that he crashed throughout the day’s neutral zone. “I stupidly hit a barrier,” he said, “nevertheless hey, nothing too crucial, solely a rip in my bib shorts.”
He was definitely one in every of 4 TotalEnergies throughout the large breakaway, in all probability essentially the most represented crew trying to find their second win of the race after Anthony Turgis’s victory on the stage 9 gravel. In course of the tip of the day, Vercher found himself off the doorway with Campenaerts and Ineos Grenadiers’s Michał Kwiatkowski, and inside the final word kilometre, with it positive that one in every of many trio could be victorious, Vercher tried an audacious assault.
“After the flamme rouge we carried out the game and what occurred, occurred,” he mirrored. “I attacked because of they left me a spot nevertheless I didn’t primarily want to. I took the possibility and that’s it.” Campeanaerts prevailed, seven months of specific preparation just for this stage rewarded how he had hoped, nevertheless for Vercher it was second best, first loser. “That’s the way it’s, that’s the game,” he sighed.
