Tour's fastest stage a microcosm of cycling's supersonic 2020s

2017 marked the first time that every stage of the Tour de France was screened live from start to finish, but that landmark in broadcast history initially looked like something of an overreach. 

The sprint stages that year were dominated by Marcel Kittel, but the high-octane fare in the finishing straight was rarely preceded by high drama at the start of the day, when the early break tended to slip clear at kilometre zero with no resistance whatsoever. 

Typically, the escapees would then build a buffer of three or four minutes before breakaway killers like Julien Vermote dutifully set about reeling them back in. The template repeated itself day after day. Turn on, tune in, doze off – then wake up for the last 20km.

Cycling adhered to different rhythms back then. The Tour was still the fiefdom of Team Sky, but while Chris Froome annexed his fourth overall victory that year, their lone stage win came from Geraint Thomas in the opening time trial. Outside of those often-moribund sprint stages, the early break always had a fighting chance of going the distance.

Nine years on, the early break scarcely gets a chance to establish itself and average speeds are soaring. These days, the anticlimactic stage starts of 2017 are the exception rather than the rule.

In the supersonic Tour of the 2020s, there is scarcely a moment of respite and Wednesday’s trek from Vichy to Nevers hammered home the point by producing the fastest road stage in the history of the race.

In truth, the biggest surprise is that Mario Cipollini’s 1999 mark hadn’t been surpassed before now given how many records have been tumbling across cycling in recent seasons as a matter of routine. Every spring now brings higher and higher speeds in the Classics, every July sees records smashed on hallowed mountain passes. 

The eye-watering 50.910km/h average on stage 11 was simply of a piece with the overall tone of post-pandemic cycling. And it was certainly in keeping with the breathless nature of this year’s Tour, where there has scarcely been a moment’s respite from the speed, the heat and the overwhelming strength of Tadej Pogacar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad.

Ironically, Wednesday’s stage did finally see some let-up in the weather, with the peloton briefly doused by drops of rain, while the flat terrain also saw UAE temporarily release their grip on the race and hand the initiative to the sprinters’ teams.

That still had little material effect on the overall intensity of the day, and that was illustrated forcefully by the identity of the main pacesetter in the opening kilometres. Back in 2017, the early break was usually the preserve of underdogs from the wildcard teams, with Tour debutants Intermarché especially willing animators.

On Wednesday, the early attacking was led by Mathieu van der Poel, eight Monument victories and counting, and the Dutchman’s onslaught in the opening kilometres ensured a scorchingly fast start to proceedings.

The presence of an intermediate sprint after 27.5km also contributed to the soaring early speed, but it was striking that the pace scarcely dropped even after the break of four forged clear and even after the green jersey contenders had jousted for the remaining points.

Instead, the Tour settled into its familiar 2026 holding pattern, with the peloton refusing to hand the break any real leeway. Perhaps stung by Liam Slock’s near-upset in Bergerac, Soudal Quick-Step, XDS-Astana and NSN preferred to keep the advantage under 1:30, which meant cruising along at more than 50km/h for the entire stage.

There was no respite even for the yellow jersey himself. After the stage, Pogacar admitted that he had been put to the pin of his collar to chase back on after stopping for a natural break. “When we stopped to pee, it was crazy to come back, and then you’re like, ‘Oh, actually, today we will be fast to the finish line,’” Pogacar smiled, though it’s hard to imagine that Tour patrons of yesteryear would have been so sanguine about the situation. 

Bernard Hinault’s ‘no gifts’ mantra in the 1980s never stopped him from enforcing go-slows when he felt the circumstances demanded it. Pogacar and UAE are in complete command of this Tour, but it seems that even they were at the mercy of the relentless speed of the peloton on stage 11.

Then again, Pogacar knew that UAE had no grounds for complaint here. They helped to create the monster by maintaining a blisteringly high pace in the peloton in the first week even on days that seemed to be of little scope for the general classification. The sprinters’ teams were simply continuing in the same vein. Their combined efforts ensured the bunch finish, where Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) won a messy sprint. 

A range of theories have been proposed to explain the stratospheric speeds and the sheer intensity of 2020s racing, from the widespread adoption of aero bikes to nutritional breakthroughs that see riders taking on hourly quantities of carbohydrate that were unthinkable a decade ago. Live broadcasts from start to finish have surely played a part too.

As always in such scenarios, there is some truth in every one of those theories, but none of them tell the whole story. The only certainty is that the relentless intensity of 2020s cycling is here and it’s only likely to increase in the years ahead.

The relentless march was visible in the closing kilometres on Wednesday. Julian Alaphilippe was one of the harbingers of the so-called new cycling with his all-action 2019 season and his rainbow jerseys of 2020 and 2021, but nowadays the Frenchman has been reduced to something of an also-ran.

After struggling to make an impact in the opening phase of the Tour, the two-time world champion found himself in the break of the day here, even though he must have known it stood little to no chance of fending off the sprinters’ teams. 

Even if it had, Alaphilippe wouldn’t have benefited, as he was surprisingly dropped by his breakaway companions on the modest Côte de Billy Chavannes in the finale. It was hard not to think of the travails of another two-time world champion, Gianni Bugno, in the late 1990s. 

Like Bugno then, Alaphilippe is still capable of conjuring up a moment of magic, but more often than not, he gives the impression of a man chewed up by the feverishness of the cycling of his era.