THE RACE LIVE

The film of the stage

"Vai Lorenzo, Vai!"

Forget about their being a predictable formula for the flat stages of the Tour de France. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much work opportunists or the teams of the sprint specialists do, because chaos can ensue.
Today Lorenzo Bernucci was in the right place at the right time and his achieved the biggest win of his four year career. He may not have been the strongest rider but he was certainly the luckiest.
The 25-year-old Fassa Bortolo rider burst out of the peloton in the final three kilometers in pursuit of Alexandre Vinokourov. The champion of Kazakhstan had jumped ahead only moments earlier with the knowledge that the final kilometers of stage six were going to be treacherous. A tight right hand turn in the final 1,000m was illustrated in the race manual. Even on dry roads it had the potential to cause problems. But in the wet it proved to be chaotic.
While Bernucci raced ahead to claim a surprise victory, the hero of the day Christophe Mengin lay in the gutter bleeding from a wound sustained in a crash 900m from the finish.
His Francaise des Jeux team director Marc Madiot was in tears at the finish. “It’s a sad end,” he murmured. “To see the effort of Christophe come to an end in such unfortunate circumstances is awful. He demonstrated his courage all day but it ended in the worst possible way.”
Only a matter of seconds after Mengin lost control and slammed into the crowd control barricades, the peloton arrived at the same turn. Hordes of bunch sprint contenders ended their bid for honors in the same way as the main protagonist of the stage from Troyes to Nancy. As the stage leader and local star lay motionless after his crash, many other riders lost control at exactly the same place.
Look at the footage in slow motion and you see the story of the day. Bernucci had bolted and was on his way to victory but behind him Jaan Kirsipuu, Allan Davis, Stuart O’Grady, Baden Cooke, Robbie McEwen, Tom Boonen all came crashing down. Many also ended up on the ground. Those who didn’t were either held up or so relieved to still be upright that they didn’t have the energy to contest the sprint for minor places.
Amidst the carnage was Bernucci’s team-mate Fabian Cancellara. He quickly illustrated that he had escaped the smash unscathed by promptly standing, reaching for his radio microphone and screaming encouragement to his colleague.
“Vai! Vai! Vai!” You could see the words come from Cancellara’s mouth. Bernucci went. Lorenzo rode away from Vinokourov and the rest of the peloton which could do nothing but limp to the finish line.
Madiot let his emotions show because he’d planned the stage to perfection. Mengin was nominated early as the man who would animate the day. He did everything right. From his initial surge at the 23km mark, to the long cooperative effort with four escape companions, to his solo burst over the final climb which went right past his house in Villey-le-Sec only 25km before the end of the stage… it was an inspired effort.
“On est maudits!” Madiot declared. “He is cursed!” It ended a chorus of encouragement from the director. He could see the win in his mind’s eye and he called out to Mengin over the last 10km. The initial quest was a difficult one. Stay ahead of the peloton that’s being driven by the teams of Boonen and McEwen. But Mengin needed to do more than just ride fast. He had to be careful at the conclusion but he couldn’t take that chance. If he was to win the stage, he had to take risks. With one turn to go, it was over.
It’s better to try and fail than not bother at all. That’s something Bernucci now knows. We may not have seen much of him in the past but he is part of the Tour’s history after today. He’s no winner by default, but even Lorenzo knows that he was presented with a special opportunity. He grinned like a Cheshire Cat as he rolled across the line with nothing but carnage behind.
On an ordinary day - one without the events that transpired in London this morning - Mengin’s crash could have been seen as a curse, but hindsight and video footage will remind us that such an accident can almost be amusing so long as no serious injuries are sustained. It’s another thing which makes the Tour such a hypnotic and entertaining event. Winners can emerge from no where. Heroes can crash. Formidable stars can be taken out of the equation. And the racing will continue. Thank goodness that there’s a glimmer of good on an otherwise somber day. Vai Lorenzo, vai. Go hard and go strong and remind us that there’s hope for the future and trivial things to help us smile.

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