While the sight of Benjamin Thomas (Cofidis) coming within barely a few hundred metres of taking a Tour de France stage win on Sunday was enough to have French commentators all but swooning in delight at the chance of the host nation finally securing their first triumph in this year's race, spare a thought for another major cycling nation: Spain, currently in their fourth July of a complete drought on Tour stages.
The last victory for Spain came courtesy of Omar Fraile (Ineos Grenadiers) ahead of no less a figure than Julian Alaphilippe (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) in the recently-visited summit finish of Mende, way back in 2018. On top of that, although Enric Mas (Movistar) has taken fifth overall place in 2020 and Mikel Landa finished fourth both in 2017 and in 2020, Spain has not had a podium finish in the Tour since Alejandro Valverde finished third in 2015.
Looking at the results so far in 2022, the closest chance of taking a win came courtesy of Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos Grenadiers) on stage 9 at Châtel. However, his second place on the unclassified summit finish on the French-Swiss border was only secured long after Bob Jungels (AG2R-Citröen) had sailed through the window of opportunity to claim the day's victory.
The lack of Spanish success is partly due, surely, to the lack of Spanish participants. For all Spain has a WorldTour team in the race, unlike, say, Italy, the country is fielding a mere nine riders this year, its lowest total since the 1972 Tour, when there were only two.
What few riders are there in the Tour aren't sitting on their laurels. But the two most active, Luis León Sanchez (Bahrain Victorious) and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) are the only ones to have won Tour stages previously: in Sánchez’ case, four, albeit the most recent being in 2012, while Izagirre in Spain’s second-most recent winner, in Morzine following a nerve-wracking rain-soaked descent back in 2016.
To judge by the results of 2022, that past experience shows - Izagirre was in the breaks on stages 9, 10 and 11, and Sánchez briefly looked like a man en route to possible victory on the summit finish of stage 10, too, prior to being back in the mix on stage 13 to Mende.
Yet talk to Ion Izagirre himself and rather than pinpoint a particular cause for the zero wins since 2018, “it's more the way the cards have fallen," Izagirre tells Cyclingnews at the start of stage 15. "Maybe another year things will be different, and we'll be winning loads."
"It's true we have not won for years, and that's hard to accept," Izagirre says.
“But lots of our riders are playing a team role so they can't fight for a win for themselves. Plus we don't have a top sprinter right now, or a specialist in time trials. But the day will come when we win, for sure.”
Enric Mas (Movistar), currently lying 10th overall, is obviously another option for stage wins. But while Mas will be looking for success in set-piece GC battles, as a breakaway specialist, including a notable win in the Alps five years ago, Izagirre's options are more about seizing chances as and when he can.
"Megève didn't work out because there were lots of riders in the break, the climb wasn't hard enough, and Benjamin Thomas, my teammate, was there too and had good legs," Izagirre said. "Basically it just wasn't my day, so now I'm waiting for the Pyrenees."
Riding his eighth Tour de France, Izagirre said that overall, "I'm doing well, it's just there are some days when I think I'm going better than I really am and then the peloton reminds me I'm not.
“That was very much the case yesterday [stage 14]. It was a very explosive start, [Tadej] Pogačar [UAE Team Emirates] was bouncing around here there and everywhere and breaking the peloton apart.
"Maybe it wasn't the best day for me, anyway, but in other stages I have felt good, so that’s encouraging. We just have to wait for the right day."
The same goes for Spain in general, of course. Yet with only six days’ racing left before the curtain falls on the 2022 Tour, their chances of ending a four-year drought on stage wins are shrinking fast.
