There was a lot of surprise when cobbles were reintroduced to the Tour last year, and even more so when they were included on the route again this year.
But it can’t be denied they add a lot of entertainment to the race, in their own way, and also lets us learn a hell of a lot about the Tour’s best riders.
Who knew, until two years ago, just how good Vincenzo Nibali was on the pave for example? And Chris Froome was no mug this year either.
Sure, as last year showed, big time differences can be carved out just through misfortune but the same can be said about most stages – what if Contador had punctured just as they started climbing the Mur de Huy on stage three for example?
And big time gaps are common place in the mountains, where the climbers thrive, or in long time trials, so why shouldn’t we get to see riders taking on the cobbles.
Roger Hammond, who knows his way around the pave, told RCUK the stages should be included, as the riders should be tested on all terrain.
And three-time former Tour de France winner Greg LeMond raised the very good point that if you’re not at the front of the peloton on any stage then you ‘are playing roulette’ and risking being caught behind crashes, or puncturing and having a big chase back on.
We saw both sides of it on stage four – Thibaut Pinot’s GC hopes were dealt a huge blow after he suffered a mechanical, with the close proximity of the neutral support bike not enough to help him.
As the Frenchman angrily berated his team-mates, however, Tony Martin showed the sort of instinctive reactions needed – a quick bike swap with Matteo Trentin and off he went with plenty of team-mates for support after his own mechanical.
Yes, they are hazardous, but if teams approach them properly – as all of the major GC teams did – they will only hold fear, as Hammond aptly put it, for the under-prepared.
For the rest of us, it was another excellent stage and full justification of the ASO’s decision to include cobbles again – here’s to many more cobbled stages in future!
