'I think the dream is dead this year' – Lewis Askey rode too well at the Tour de France to be lanterne rouge
The NSN Cycling rider flirted with last place, but is now comfortably not
As I beckoned Lewis Askey over to talk to me ahead of stage 17 of the Tour de France in Chambéry, he already knew what I wanted to talk to him about.
The NSN Cycling rider has had a solid Tour, the second time he has been here, now part of the team behind Biniam Girmay's challenge in sprints and the green jersey competition, but that's not what I was interested in. When we spoke on Wednesday lunchtime, Askey sat 163rd overall, 4:38:18 behind race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and only 21 seconds ahead of the man in dead last, Kamil Gradek (Bahrain Victorious). It meant he was almost lanterne rouge, the mythical position of finishing last at the Tour.
He cut a relaxed figure in Chambéry, revelling in his status as the second-slowest man at the race. It reassured me that he was taking the battle for last place seriously, potentially even that it was something he was aiming for, should the stars align. There was no sigh, or resignation at being asked about being four hours behind the yellow jersey.
"I'm made for going fast over short periods of time, not for doing five or six hours going up a hill," the 25-year-old explained to Cycling Weekly. "Because of that, my goal is to use the least energy possible. If I'm not there to do a job or to go for the win, I'm going to take it as easy as I can, and it's easier if I'm in a group, because if you drop off earlier you end up struggling and using more energy.
"Any of the climbs we've been OK for the time cut, then I go as easy as I can all the way to the line."
"I can't play with it," he said of his status on the general classification. "I would have played with it a little bit more, but the days to come will be a fight all the way to the line for the time cut. I don't think there will be any playing now."
Finishing last is something that four British riders have ever achieved: Tony Hoar, John Clarey, Luke Rowe and Mark Cavendish.
Askey has been working at this race for Girmay, his team's sprinter, who has finished sixth, third, second, sixth and fourth in the five bunch sprints at the Tour, as well as being a presence in the battle for the green jersey. Being lanterne rouge does not imply being the worst rider in the race, far from it, perhaps instead just showing a mastery of energy levels and timing.
As a result, Askey has put in a lot of work for intermediate sprints and for bunch finishes, and has concentrated less on the hillier and mountainous days, hence the loss of time. That does not mean he has been putting in any less effort, though.
"I've had one day, maybe two where I've been able to go relatively easy to the line, maybe two," Askey explains. "The day before the rest day, it was full gas at the start to be in the group that ended up becoming the peloton, and because we started the final two climbs with them, it meant the time cut was quite long. We were at zero minutes back when we started the climb, so it allowed us to go at training pace up the climb. All the other climbs, I'm pretty much close to my limit, I couldn't go very much faster if I had to.
"On the Markstein day, we had the sprint just before the first climb, every climb we rode on our limit. Every 5km we were chopping off doing 60kph, trying to make it, and we made it there with three minutes to spare. It's not easy."
Asked if he'd like to finish dead last, Askey said: "Why not? It's cool, no? It's better to be properly last rather than second last. You're talking about it, aren't you? It has a bit of history, so it's a nice thing to do.
"I wouldn't go out of my way specifically, but now I'm thinking I should have lost a bit of time the other day when I went easy to the line."
Just over four hours later, it turned out that finishing last was not the priority for the man from Staffordshire. On a chaotic stage 17, Askey worked hard to get into the day's break, then was part of the action as it forced its way to the front of the race, a key protagonist, and he ended up finishing fourth. It was his best result not just at the Tour, but at any Grand Tour, and his second-best WorldTour finish.
It was the kind of performance Askey is capable of, but it showed a real lack of commitment to the lanterne rouge goal. It disappointed me, too.
"It was a good day, it was nice, the first opportunity I've been given at this Tour, so it was nice to get something out of it," he said before stage 18. "I would have like to come second in that sprint instead of fourth, but I think I rode a pretty good race. I didn't have any regrets in that final. I think I did pretty well to get there, to be honest."
What of the great fight to finish last? "I think the dream is dead this year, unfortunately. I did actually think about that, 40km to go we jumped across, we were this big group, I saw the time gap out and I was like ah, I think that's the lanterne rouge gone now. I'll go for it again, there's still plenty of years to go."
My dream too might be dead, but such is the wheel of fortune at the Tour de France. Stage 18 was back to business for Askey, as he finished 160th, 34:49 behind stage winner Richard Carapaz, but it's probably too little, too late – he's now up to the dizzying heights of 157th overall, 8:10 ahead of the new lanterne rouge, Cees Bol (Decathlon CMA CGM). I suppose if it's not now, there's always next season.
You can read Lewis Askey's thoughts on the Tour de France in Cycling Weekly. Subscribe now.
