After Stage V there was Stage 9, where the World TT champion earned the dotty jumper. In case you missed it, Stage 9 was a trip into the Vosges mountains, 170km with six categorized climbs. This was a stage for a breakaway to stay away. A large group did escape and with 152km remaining to the finish Alessandro De Marchi of Cannondale bolted off the front…followed by Tony Martin. What happened over the next few climbs was awe-inspiring and awful. Awe-inspiring because this break of two kept gaining time over the large group of hard working escapers; awful because poor Alessandro was getting worked over like no cyclist should ever get worked over. He killed himself at the front, just trying to keep Martin behind him and he killed himself again when he deserved to be resting on Tony Martin’s wheel. Alessandro was in the saddle, out of the saddle, fighting just to stay in contact. It was equally fun and painful to watch.
Tony Martin learned very early about making a successful escape. As a youth he escaped East Germany with his family. He does not fuck around when escaping. A bee stung the Cannondale rider on the hand; a welcome distraction from the beating he was taking trying to survive a ride with Martin. Besides putting De Marchi in a spot of bother on the climbs, Martin is a demon on descents and obviously horrendous on the flats. It was Mr Martin’s wild ride.
With 59km to go, as they climbed the biggest mountain of the day, Martin decided it was time to take it up a notch. One could see De Marchi’s thought bubble when it happened, “oh FFS, thank you, you broke me, are you happy now?” As they crested each climb Tony had let Alessandro collect the KOM points, yet guess who ended up in the Jersey? I’ve looked in vain for a post-race interview with De Marchi. At least he earned the the Most Combative jersey in Paris. One of Quick-Step’s directors quipped De Marchi was going to need a therapist after that ride.
How awesome is Tony “Whale Shark” Martin? He leads out Cav like a good team player. He is the World Time Trial Champion. He is hot to attempt the Hour Record, whatever the rules are. He can crush a 58 tooth chainring. He can also win a climbing stage in the Tour and pull on the dotty jumper wearing his Panzerwagen old-school cap on the podium.
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You all catch his latest TT saddle modification idea and subsequent results? There's a photo floating around I think was tweeted. Not pretty. Just something about sandpaper, saddles and contact points that makes me think, not really a good idea. But hey... What do I know? I don't crush a bike so badly that I need to be better attached to the machine. But sandpaper?? And my bottom ? I wouldn't have figured that was good idea. Cheers all.
@wilburrox
Here it is:
@wilburrox
The result is not pretty.
@Sparty
The other side of the equation, talk about suffering for your art:
I'm kinda speechless on this. Was this set-up not tested beforehand? I understand the need for something with grip, but something that shreds your shorts and possibly your scrotum cannot be wise.
It should be a rule: never use anything for the first time in an event that matters. That's what casual/training rides are for - working out if something works/is positioned correctly/fits/is adjusted right.
@wiscot
Frank - I propose an addendum to either Rule #8, #48, or #61: No grip tape. :-)
@chuckp
It seems to suggest a real lack of common sense. Surely it would have been wiser to attach the sandpaper to the outside of his skin suit, facing down so that the sacrificial item was the saddle rather than his 'rse and sack.
On the other hand it could be the start of a Chuck Norris style meme
"Even sandpaper uses chamois creme when it rides with Tony Martin"
Martin has been running sandpaper or grip tape on his TT saddle for years. This was definitely not a new set up. Seems that the problem was the skin suit the German team had made. You can see above that his team skinsuit did rip, but not clean through the chamois.