Paul Seixas had zero recriminations after a punishing day at the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, blaming only himself for the hole that he somehow dug himself out of. However, one of his Decathlon CMA CGM teammates has questioned the actions of rival teams.
Léo Bisiaux was the rider who helped Seixas plug the final bit of what was once a four-minute gap on Saturday's stage, going on to guide him half-way up the final climb of the Grand Colombier.
At the summit, he made a striking comment.
Latest Videos From
"It was a bit of a shame for sporting fairness," said the 21-year-old Frenchman.
"Today, everyone wanted to ride, bizarrely," he added.
This was a reference to the repeat breakaway wins we've seen at this race, notably Friday's stage that brought a raft of new names into the GC fight, with a sense from the Decathlon team that rival teams have sat back in the peloton and placed responsibility on their shoulders.
Until Saturday, Bisiaux felt.
"Today everyone wanted the stage win, and yesterday no one," he added. "That's how it is."
Bisiaux had himself tried to get in the breakaway on Saturday's stage, but his comments would appear to relate to Seixas, and not to any personal grievances about not being able to get away. His comment followed directly on from talking about Seixas' wild chase and was made in response to the comment from the interviewer that 'it didn't slow down up front'.
The suggestion is that once the rival teams knew Seixas had crashed and was four minutes down, the rivals pushed on and rode, as Bisiaux saw it, in a way they hadn't up to this point in the race.
Visma-Lease a Bike, UAE Team Emirates, and Lidl-Trek were certainly all reported as being active at the head of the peloton through the middle of the stage. The insinuation from Bisiaux is that they took advantage unsportingly.
Rivals respond
"I actually had no idea Paul crashed until about 20km later when I heard a team behind me discussing it, and I was like 'ah, has something happened?'" said yellow jersey Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
"Our objective as a team was to try limit who got in the breakaway, then some other teams started to ride in the valley, which actually worked in our favour because we didn't have to do any work as a team."
The breakaway is key, as for much of Seixas' chase attacks were still flying off the front of the peloton, with the race far from settled, and when a move did go the gap had to be watched.
"We tried to manage the situation with the breakaway, after yesterday when we didn't do anything and it went like that," said the stage winner Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). "So we tried to keep more control with the guys."
Tobias Halland Johanessen (Uno-X Mobility), the day's third-place finisher, added: "We had to continue, of course, because there were people in front.
"He [Seixas] must be crazy strong because to close a gap like this is completely crazy."
My viewBisiaux and his team may well feel a sense of grievance in the context of how the week has played out, but that doesn't mean there was anything 'unfair' about the way the other teams rode on this day. For starters, it's very hard to organise a go-slow when the race is 'on', and it certainly seems the situation was alive and fast-paced with the breakaway still trying to form itself as Seixas mounted the early part of his chase. Secondly, it's only really good manners to wait if a key rider has suffered some sort of misfortune, whereas Seixas' crash was entirely of his own making, as he fully admitted. He only admitted that later on, but by the sounds of his comments on his 'idiotic' actions, plenty would have seen that he brought his predicament upon himself. Other teams may well have smelt some blood but I don't think you can say they crossed a line. It's one to take on the chin and use as fuel for the fire, rather than complain about in the media. Bisiaux would have done well to listen to Seixas' post-race interview – he noted there were 'no gifts' from the peloton but had zero complaints and took full accountability.
Subscribe to Cyclingnews for unlimited access to our Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Tour de Suisse coverage. Don't miss any of the breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight as the riders make their final preparations for Le Tour. Plus, access the Cyclingnews app to follow the action on the go! Join today.
