'It'll never go to plan' – Netcompany-Ineos begin Tour de France with bittersweet second in team time trial
Geraint Thomas praises team for improvising after Kévin Vauquelin puncture
Second on the stage, Egan Bernal in the green jersey, and still there was a feeling that Netcompany-Ineos had started the Tour de France with a dash of bad luck.
In the race’s opening team time trial in Barcelona, Filippo Ganna steered the team to within eight seconds of the stage win, and the race’s first yellow jersey, won instead by Jonas Vingegaard and Visma-Lease a Bike.
It seemed like a plan almost perfectly executed. Except Ganna was never meant to lead the charge to the line, Netcompany-Ineos director of racing Geraint Thomas said. It was supposed to be Kévin Vauquelin, who punctured with 7km remaining of the 19.6km course, and finished a minute back.
“It was a tough one, really, with Kévin puncturing,” Thomas told Cycling Weekly. “He was our guy to finish it off. He was the one that was going to, well, he was sitting on to sort of save the legs really for that last effort.”
Due to the new timing system, whereby riders received individual times across the line for the general classification, a stage win would have put the Frenchman in the yellow jersey.
That dream quickly fell away, but in the face of potential disaster, the team improvised, and Ganna took on the baton himself.
“Everyone stepped up and did their bit,” Thomas said. “The way the boys responded to [the puncture] and adapted to the plan was really good to see. Pippo, fair play to him, we wanted him to empty the tank by the top of the first climb and he had to finish it off [on the second].
“As I said earlier today, you have your plan and it'll never go to plan. It's how you adapt to it. It's just a shame to lose Kévin with that puncture. I feel for him, because he hasn't had much luck this year, but it's the way it is, and I think everyone did what they could in the moment.”
Netcompany-Ineos have two riders in the top 10 after stage one: Ganna in second at eight seconds, and Tobias Foss in ninth at 38.
Vauquelin, who placed seventh overall last year with Arkéa-B&B Hotels, is 26th, one minute and 14 seconds behind the leader Vingegaard.
Thomas assured the Frenchman's time loss is not a catastrophe: “[Vauquelin] was coming here to not worry about the GC and just go after the stages,” he said, adding that the team plans to treat the race like “21 one-day races”.
As a final, unexpected treat after the stage, Egan Bernal was called to the podium, where he was presented with the green jersey, as leader of the points classification. The 2019 race winner earned the honour by being the fastest to the first time check 5km into the stage.
Asked by Cycling Weekly if it was the plan to go for green, Bernal said: “No, for sure not. The objective was to ride as fast as we can for the stage.”
Like Thomas, the Colombian's take on the day struck a bittersweet tone. “I think it was good. We came second,” he said. “Of course, you always want to win, but this is cycling, we’re in the highest level in the world, and I think the others deserve the victory.”
