Three days ago Pello Bilboa (Bahrain Victorious) crashed on the road to Limoges. Today on stage ten he won his first stage of the Tour de France. The Cycling Gods always appreciate a man who never gives up. It’s like Stallone in the boxing movie — and he’s Rocky Bilboa.
That’s quite a turnaround and a tribute to his perseverence. From the very start of Le Tour, the Basque rider has been looking for a victory to honor teammate Gino Mader, who died in the recent Tour de Suisse.
As Bilboa said post-stage “It was hard to prepare the last two weeks with him in mind. I put all my positive energy to do something nice in the Tour.” Despite the sizzling heat, today was indeed a perfect opprtunity to do something nice.
Bilboa worked himself into a chase group with Georg Zimmerman (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) and Esteban Chavez (EF Education First). Their target up the road was Israel Premier-Tech’s Krists Neilands, who’d escaped and built out a gap of 30 seconds with 25 kilometers to go.
Neilands looked strong — he’d put in two big attacks to distance himself from the others. Back in 2019 he’d won the overall in the Tour of Hungary but this prize would change his professional career. He bend himself down into a time trial position and tried to keep the wattage high.
“Neilands did an impressive attack. I think he was the strongest one but he spent a lot of energy with a hard wind in the face,” said Bilbao. “In the back group, we collaborated and in the last 3km I knew I was probably the fastest man in the group.”
The gap continued to shrink until it disappeared. They nailed Neilands back with three kilometers to go and that’s when each rider in the group started scheming. It was a day for les puncheurs and it was time to start swinging.
At the one kilometer mark, it’s Zimmer, a stage winner in the recent Dauphine who slingshots from the back, with O’Connor right on his wheel. Then they play silly games until Bilboa decides it’s time to land the knock-out punch.
“I closed the gap to O’Connor first, then with cold blood let Zimmermann make his sprint and got on the wheel and then went full in the last 200 meters without thinking of nothing.” Bilboa was in a lighter gear when he launched while the German looked over-geared. Game over, c’est fini.
“A first victory in the Tour after 13 years, it’s such a special moment for me,” said Bilbao. “It’s a special one for Gino.
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