The Tour de France was overtaken by lizard heat on Tuesday on the roads of Auvergne where Pello Bilbao brought Spain its first victory in five years which he dedicated to Gino Mäder, his teammate who died a year ago. month.
“I wanted to win for Gino, to achieve the biggest goal for him”, underlined the Basque at the end of the 10e stage which he won in Issoire by sprinting a small group of breakaways.
At 33, Pello Bilbao had been running for years after this first victory in the Tour, just like Spain, which had been empty-handed for 100 stages and the success of Oscar Fraile in Mende in 2018.
It comes the year when the Grande Boucle started from his native Basque Country and arrives a month after the death of Gino Mäder, his teammate in Bahrain, in a descent from a mountain pass on the Tour de Suisse.
“I wanted to do something for him in this Tour. I wanted to do it from the first week which was also very important for me. It hadn’t worked. I was a bit overwhelmed with emotion. But today I had a clear head. It’s very special, ”he said, tears in his eye.
Even before the start, the Basque had announced that he would donate one euro every day – double in case of victory – to an environmental association for each runner finishing behind him, following the example of Gino Mäder who had taken this initiative. in the Tour of Spain in 2021.
Heat stroke for Gaudu and Bardet
“I continue his work. We wanted a victory for Gino in this Tour and it is an honor for me to have done it”, insisted Bilbao who was more than delighted on Tuesday that this 10e stage will cost him dearly in euros.
Especially since it allows him to move up to fifth place in the general classification where he is only 4:34 behind the yellow jersey Jonas Vingegaard. He finished with all the favorites in the peloton, nearly three minutes from the winner after a very turbulent stage.
With a temperature exceeding 35 degrees, the riders suffered martyrdom the day after the rest day on a very demanding course which did not deter the peloton from going in all directions.
Several leaders like David Gaudu and Romain Bardet suffered a terrible heat stroke during a completely crazy start to the stage where half of the riders tried to break away, including… Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.
Normally, a stage like Tuesday should be a simple transition day for the favorites to final victory. But 2023 is definitely not a normal year with these two ogres thrown into a battle of ragpickers in all weathers and on all terrains.
“Rest was a long time ago”
A few kilometers after the start from Vulcania, we therefore found the Slovenian and the Dane in a small group launched in a potato hunt behind the first breakaway of the day. Among them, Romain Bardet, on his land.
But the Frenchman was going to pay the bill by exploding completely on the first ascent of the day, swallowed up at breakneck speed by the peloton, as if he had trampled on a hornet’s nest.
“It feels like the rest day was a long time ago,” joked Pogacar, never so happy as when a race turns into a big mess.
When things finally calmed down after fifty chaotic kilometers, a breakaway was able to leave and the Gaudu / Bardet group returned to the peloton.
In front, about fifteen riders, including the French Julian Alaphilippe and Warren Barguil, then played for the win in small groups chasing each other according to the climbs.
30 km from the goal, the Latvian Krists Neilands embarked on a courageous solo raid, before being caught in the final by a group of four runners. Including Bilbao who won ahead of the German Georg Zimmermann and the Australian Ben O’Connor to clinch the biggest victory of his career.