Bardet and Pinot PHOTO / LIONEL BONAVENTURE
That is my question. Both want to be considered great cyclists, not great French cyclists. It is a cruel and heavy burden to be an excellent French cyclist. When are you going to win the Tour de France? Bernard Hinaults don’t come around very often, maybe never again. Hinault was the French Merckx; winning was everything. If he was not a cyclist he should have been a professional fighter. Fignon was called the professor because he was from Paris and wore glasses, not because he was an intellectual. He managed to win some Tours and not be a badger. He was not out happily slugging protesters. If Hinault had lost to Lemond by eight seconds…one, it wouldn’t have happened. Hinault would have burst his own heart to finish nine seconds faster. Two, if he had lost by eight seconds, he would have slugged Lemond so damn hard it would have put him back in the hospital.
I hope the French are happy they have any prospective Tour winners. The Americans have none. Most countries do not because it takes a special genetic freak in a sport of genetic freaks to be one. The English had to sweep their post-colonial, high altitude Kenyan supply system to come up with one. Of this French pair I have a bias toward Romain Bardet partially because he rides for AG2R and on Keepers Tour 2012 we met directeur Vincent Lavenu. VL seemed a good sort and for inexplicable, Rule ignoring reasons, I sort of like their kit, but I digress.
Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet: both 24 years old, both stage winners in the 2015 Tour, both prodigious climbers, both saddled with the “next French hope” mantle.
Judging from this edition’s Alpe d’Huez stage, Pinot actually may be be the stronger climber. If you can ride everyone off your wheel on Alpe d’Huez, you are a badass. For climbing style points, Romain wins. He is solid and smooth to Pinot’s lack of. Going downhill, if you try to pedal through a corner and catch your inside pedal (and crash) doing so, points off. Bardet descends like Philippe Gilbert, that is to say, avec grande vitesse et les grand testicules.
Being the best climber or best descender does not make a grand tour winner. A grand tour winner does not have to be the best at anything, just very capable at everything. And not sucking at anything, like descending or time trialing and not having a jour sans.
Can either of these guys time trial? If Pinot can he should, by all rights, be one podium step closer in Paris than Andy Schleck* ever got. There is a large leap between a top ten Tour finish and a podium finish. It might be a larger leap from the third podium step to the top. Pinot and Bardet are in this mix.
Neither of these guys seem like punch throwing firebrands like Hinault, which may be good. Then who can better handle the pressure of being the next Fignon?
*I can still make fun of Andy Schleck even though he retired, yes?
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curvy abomination?? yowza!
@Gianni
This is Froome's problem.
Reactions to him even in the UK are mostly indifference, beating out antipathy because of the him v Wiggo thing. If you like(d) Wiggins how can you like Froome, the thinking goes. And his bitchy girlfriend doesn't help either.
Third is probably a grudging respect, which is sort of where I am.
And actually liking him is a distant last place.
He won't win the BBC Sports Personality award ever. Certainly not this year after they won some game called cricket (not sure, never heard of it before). He could win five Tours and he still won't get it.
@wilburrox
Ooosh! I would love a Specialissima. If only I wasn't a. poor as fuck and b. heavy as fuck. Fuck.
@ChrisO
That's very insensitive. I'm sure there are some Australians around these parts who are probably in deep depression at the moment.
I would agree that Froome isn't much a 'personality' in the traditional sense, but he does seem to have all the character traits you need to race Grand Tours (stubbornness and complete single minded determination) in spades. And the not British thing...well it looked even weirder when he was racing for Kenya.
@RobSandy
Why do people always think I'm English? Should I say "Strewth stone the crows digger, no worries, she'll be right" and drop casually racist comments into my posts so people know I'm Australian?
At least we don't have to put up with any shit from bandwagon-jumping Kiwis today. Shame I can't give a toss about Rugby, or at least the Union variety.
@Gianni
We are too busy celebrating stuffing the Ozzies and regaining the Ashes. Try in a week.
@wiscot
Still not convinced. Contador in a similar situation on a later stage simply got on a team mate's bike and got on with it and back into the yellow jersey group. Hopefully he will have learned from the experience.
You could argue (in all the wrong ways) that Barguil was especially exiting when he got close to GT.
Sorry Gianni, forgot to answer your question. My pick is Bardet by a badgers whisker. Pinot is a great rider but somehow Bardet is more complete. Peloton did a nice feature on him pre-Tour and he's certainly got a balanced approach. I like his team more too. FDJ giving millions to Bouhanni is idiotic.
@PT
It is not the color of the bike - Bianchi and so many others have lost their souls to carbon! Give me sleek modern steel construction for that true two wheel zen.
And yellow on celeste is as inexcusable today as it was in 1998. I don't care if Pantani rode it, it's just not right.