The finish line was drawn between a gas station and a famous fast-food chain restaurant, an intriguing choice. While Denmark has other charms to offer, Christian Prudhomme wanted this fast track to Nyborg as the epilogue to the second stage of the Tour de France. "The Danes were thinking of a finish in Odense, 50 kilometers from here. But, from a sporting point of view, it would have lost its interest. We wanted to finish as close as possible to the bridge. Here, we will be less than three kilometers away," the event director said.
The Storebæltsbroen has connected Denmark's two main islands since 1998. On Saturday, July 2, trucks, buses and cars will give way to cyclists for the first time on the third largest suspension bridge in the world, which measures 18 kilometers (11.2 miles). "You have to be a country with a great love of cycling to cut off your main traffic route on a Saturday in July," said Copenhagen Mayor Sophie Haestorp Andersen.
Mountains are not plentiful in the land of King Hamlet, but the wind blows with impressive generosity. The perfect setting for a tragic stage. Indeed, some seeking victory in Paris are at risk of seeing their ambition and hopes fly away over the Baltic Sea. Guttering is the word on everyone's lips. The expected spectacle of this peloton scattered in small clusters battered by the side wind – with some teams more in harmony with the god Aeolus than others – is part of the organizers' master plan to animate the first week, which for too long only amounted to a dull crossing.
The memory of the Dutch polders in 2015
In recent years, Thierry Gouvenou has employed a wind gauge in his head to draw the course of the Tour and diffuse the increasingly less tolerated boredom during the races that are broadcast in full. "It's a strong desire on our part," the technical director of the event said, "We are looking for these gutters, but it's not an exact science." In 2015, the former racer was very eager to see what havoc would be caused by the Normandy stage from Abbeville (Somme) to Le Havre, drawn along the dramatic cliffs of Etretat, but the wind decided to take a day off.
According to the Danish locals, however, the chances of a dead calm are low on Saturday. "Normally, it's windy more than 300 days a year," said 2019 world champion Mads Pedersen, who trained in Roskilde, the stage's starting city. "But if it blows from the north to the south, there we may have a hell of a mess," predicted the Trek-Segafredo rider.
The mere possibility of needing to gutter can make a peloton nervous, in this case well before attacking the Storebæltsbroen, whose 252-meter high pylons are the highest point in the country. "It's a beautiful bridge," said another local of the stage, Michael Morkov, "but I don't see the peloton getting there in a group." The Quick-Step rider expected a "very nervous race" on roads that are exposed. Gouvenou has already predicted the peloton flying in pieces more than 60 kilometers before the finish line. "Even if it only blows between 15 and 20 km/h, it can be an extremely dense day, like in Zeeland in 2015."
In 2015, Thibault Pinot, Nairo Quintana and Romain Bardet experienced a nasty setback with a delay of 1 minute and 28 seconds on Christopher Froome's Team Sky at the maneuver along the Dutch polders, during the second stage. Three weeks later, the Briton won his second Tour with a margin of 1 minute and 12 seconds over Quintana. The Colombian knows all too well exactly where he lost the race.
Could others be fearing the same fate in the land of Hamlet? "Compared to 2015, this will be XXL," Mr. Prudhomme said. Teams that like the wind have a chance to eliminate some of the favorites." Cycling is never so much an individual sport practiced in a team as when it comes to setting up a gutter. It's all about scouting the terrain, moving up the peloton to change pace abruptly when the wind and the topography allow it, and then forming a first fan and first hearing about the damage in the Radio Tour earpiece.
'It's going to be war'
While the Tour requires extreme riding skills and a certain sense of placement, being in a team that is familiar with the Tour remains the best solution to have a good race day. "If you have two large riders as teammates in front of you to catch the wind after 80 kilometers of fighting, normally if you are rubbing [riding in contact with the other riders] at least a little, you have a good chance of doing quite good," explained the climber of Groupama-FDJ, David Gaudu. For example with Jumbo-Visma, Roglic has Van Aert, Laporte and Van Hooydonck to accompany him, so I'm not too worried about him."
What about Tadej Pogacar? Some see guttering as the Kryptonite of the UAE team's superman. In 2020, the Slovenian did drop a little time (1 minute 21) in Lavaur (Tarn), after being trapped by the Ineos team. But on the roads of Occitania, Pogacar was in a bad place because of a crash in front of him just before this part of the race. Since then, he has never been caught out. However, the two-time Tour winner is wary "about the risk of guttering and bad weather" and is also thinking about the cobblestone stage between Lille and Arenberg, four days later. "It will be a question of survival," he said.
This first week is as appetizing as it is frightening for the riders, including for Romain Bardet. "After three or four days, I expect to see some of the big names coming home," the DSM team leader said. "Between the wind, the guttering, the cobblestones, the nerves – I don't really know what to expect. It's going to be war." The first big battle is scheduled for Saturday.