Stage 10 : Tarbes to La Pierre-Saint-Martin - Second

Stage ten, with a big mountain finish.

Team Condor is up for it.

All that cabbage and mash they ate yesterday. All that bacon. All that gâteau à broche. All those little red nuts of King Henri.

They set off in high spirits.

Team Tinkoff-Saxo is sad. They have lost Ivan Basso.

He has gone home to get better. Alberto has vowed to ride hard.

Team Sky is confident that Chris Froome will be first up the mountain.

They are right. But who will be second?

Richie Porte composes an encouraging rhyme in his head.

Froomey beckoned
Porte came second

No, how about this?

Froomey has beckoned
Porte will come second

Yes, Porte has improved as a poet.

Bang. They are off.

......

Various positionings:

Sweezus rides beside Gaius.

Good picnic yesterday, says Sweezus.

Indeed, agrees Gaius. But did you notice that Farky ate nothing?

No, says Sweezus. I was kind of preoccupied.

Aha, says Gaius, as though he knows why, but he doesn't.

I think more glue is in order, says Gaius. If his teeth fall out, there goes our advantage.

You're the glue man, says Sweezus. Go for it.

Arthur and Pablo are riding with Arne-Doppelganger, who has overridden his Utrecht instructions.

Pablo: It's good that you stayed in the team.

Arne-Doppelganger: I hope I can get up the mountain. This bike is not good for climbing.

Arthur: That's Schopenhauer speaking. He tends to be negative.

Pablo: Not always. Remember he said Once you get over the hill you pick up speed.

Arne-Doppelganger: That is hardly helpful. The race ends at the top.

Arthur: He was talking metaphorically.

Arne-Doppelganger: That should give me hope then.

.......

Team Philosophe is not doing so well in the mountains.

Vello: I need to slow down.

David: No more than I.

Vello: As long as we finish.

David: That's all.

Vello: Up ahead. Is that Alberto?

David: My goodness. That's not like him. He's sitting down in his saddle.

.....

Froomey bobs like a cork on his way up La Pierre-Saint-Martin.

Nothing can stop him.

Richie Porte and Nairo Quintana are together but some way behind.

Richie thinks of his poem, beckoned, second.....

But Quintana is thinking of his poem also.

It goes like: Quintana banana.

Beckoned.. second... quintana... banana.

Bafloom.... the banana runs out of legs.

Richie comes second.