tcs

And Ewan takes the Lanterne Rouge! He's now put a trail on Turgis by a relatively massive 12'17".

A miserable day on a smokin' Stage 14 after the painful crash yesterday, Ewan, accompanied by South African Van Rensburg (now in third place on your Lanterne trailer board), came across 13'35" after Turgis in last and second to last on the stage, respectively.

Lovely, brave way to honor the Tour, bike racing and the fans by gritting it out rather than climbing in the Broom. But...can he last 'til Paris?

tcs

Lanterne Rouge Caleb Ewan's Lotto-Soudal team rides the beautiful Ridley Noah Fast Disc with Shimano Dura Ace Di2.

tcs

We cheer for the Lanterne Rouge, but I must note Anthony Turgis' Tour so far. Clearly not having a stellar July, the Lanterne Rouge came for him early. He's hung tough, clung to the back of the autobus, stayed out of trouble, chiseled away at his deficit stage by stage and risen from last. Inspirational.

Shadco 

Proudly supporting the Lanterne Rouge on my fantasy team. So glad he hung in there.

.

gpsblake

Caleb Ewan. A good choice to win the Stage 21 Paris stage and win the red jersey on the same day. I wonder if that has ever happened before?

If Ewan would have to drop out, 1 SECOND between 2nd and 3rd currently in the standings.

tcs

Three more withdrawals at the start of stage 15, moving the Lanterne up to 154th place.

tcs

Tour live tracking reports with only 50km raced out of today's 202km stage, Danish rider Michael Mørkøv has dropped 12 minutes on Ewan, taking the virtual red jersey "on the road".

With the heat, Tour directors have relaxed the elimination time from +20% of the winner's time to +20% of the average time.

"It's lonely at the drop..."

tcs

The cutoff time was set a bit over 52 minutes with Mørkøw some 44 minutes behind the race leaders.

tcs

Brave ride honoring the Tour, but Mørkøw did NOT make the time limit! Ewan remains in the 'red jersey'.

Our early Tour Lanterne Rouge Turgis continues to see improving form and had a fine day aboard his Specialized Tarmac. He's no longer a contender for red.

Lotto Soudal now fills all three steps of the Lanterne podium.

njlonghorn

Wow! I went away with my family for a long weekend and came back to a radically changed leaderboard!

tcs captured the drama in his posts above, so I'll just drop the new leaderboard and get back to my job that actually pays. Position changes are as compared to two stages ago.

1. ---------- C. EWANLOTTO SOUDAL 64h 05' 22" (+1)
2. -12'36" R. JANSE VAN RENSBURGLOTTO SOUDAL 63h 52' 46" (+5)
3. -13'06" F. FRISONLOTTO SOUDAL63h 52' 16" (+5)
4. - 22'38" A. TORRES BARCELOMOVISTAR TEAM 63h 42' 44" (+1)
5. -29'30" A. JANSENTEAM BIKEEXCHANGE-JAYCO 63h 35' 52" (+4)
6. -30'05" C. JUUL JENSENTEAM BIKEEXCHANGE-JAYCO 63h 35' 17" (--)
7. -31'42" A. TURGISTOTALENERGIES 63h 33' 40" (-6)
8. 32'58" F. JAKOBSEN QUICK-STEP ALPHA VINYL TEAM 63h 32' 24" (+3)
9. -35'15" M. HIRSCHIUAE TEAM EMIRATES 63h 30' 07" (+1)
10. - 36'28" M. BJERGUAE TEAM EMIRATES 63h 28' 54" (-7)

Interestingly (or perhaps uninterestingly), having "J_NSE" in your name seems to guarantee LR success. Janse, Jansen, and Jensen are all in the top 6.

tcs

On this Tour rest day, I thought I'd share a favorite episode of Lanterne Rouge history:In 2005, Frenchman Jimmy Casper, an excellent sprinter and Tour stage winner, was Lanterne Rouge. By the 21st stage in 2006, he was second in Lanterne standing to Belgian Wim Vansevenant.

The peloton went off the line that morning, hamming for pictures, drinking champagne and generally having a good time, as is traditional on the parade/ride into Paris, where the last day's real racing starts. Vansevenant drifted up to the front and indicated to the tour elite he’d like to go up the road a bit. This is not unusual; guys do this on occasion at the start of stages sometimes to have a bit of time to relieve themselves or get a picture with their parents or kids or kiss their mistresses. The jersey men said, sure, go ahead, and besides, what the heck, it was the Lanterne Rouge, he was no threat.

As soon as Vansevenant got around a corner so the peloton couldn’t see him, he hit the afterburners, riding for all he was worth. The Red Lantern on a solo attack into Paris? Uh, huh? Well, it seems that day there were two time bonus sprints, and Vansevenant had secretly calculated that if he could catch them both he’d lower his time enough to make Casper the Red Lantern!

The odd occurrence of a Red Lantern up the road, riding hell bent for leather towards Paris, was obviously noted and reported on race radio. With the peloton in parade mode, the time gap really started to build up. The news filtered to the team directors. The Cofidis team director checks the course map, reviews the GC standings and figures out Vansevenant’s game. He doesn’t want his man Casper to be last on GC for the second year in a row, and tells his crew to go get Vansevenant.

Orders from the boss are orders from the boss. The Cofidis team shoves up through the peloton. They get to the front and explain to the yellow, green, white and polka-dot jerseys that they’re not trying to get to the Champs-Élysées advantageously, no, not at all…they’ve been ordered to chase down the Lanterne Rouge!

Imagine what the fans along the road saw that morning: the Lanterne Rouge riding as if Didi Senft himself was after him, followed by the entire Cofidis squad in full-on team time trial mode, followed by the peloton, laughing their derailleurs off!

The Cofidis team would catch the Lantern just before the first time bonus, saving Casper from repeating as the last place finisher. Vansevenant would not only be the Lanterne Rouge that year, but would go on to Lanterne greatness as the only rider in the Tour’s 120-year history to finish last three times!

tcs

Tough day on Tour!

Another five riders did not make the start line. Marc Soler of UAE contracted a "stomach bug" (that's the medical term used by the Tour doctor) but rode the hot 179km - mostly solo - because some riders just won't give up. Sadly he did not make the cut off.

Our Lanterne Rouge did make the start and did make the cut off (finishing last on the stage and using up 31 of the allotted 44 minutes). He's double snake bit here: an excellent sprinter struggling on mountain stages, and he's recovering from that nasty crash. On the other hand, with all the withdrawals, he's up to 146th position.

The next two days are monsters, with multiple Cat 1 and HC climbs and mountain top finishes. Mon Dieu, Lanterne Rouge!

tcs

Drama yesterday on Stage 17 as Fabio Jakobsen made the time cut by 15 seconds! Fully half the field was within 10 minutes of the time cut - tough day! Our Red Lanterne Ewan finished in relatively fine form, coming across in 87th of 143, but maintains a commanding ~7-minute trail in the Lanterne Rouge standings over no. 2 and a 22-minute trail over Jakobsen.

tcs

Three more withdrawals to start the 18th stage. The Lanterne is now in 140th position, having outlasted 36 other riders!

tcs

Oh my. With the Beyond Category, Category 1 and Beyond Category climbs still to come, Berg and Boivin have lost contact with the peloton. With Ewan continuing to improve after his crash, could there be a challenge to the Lanterne Rouge today?

tcs

With just ten seven and a half minutes until the cut-off, over half the riders are still on course!

Edit: ...and race radio reports all riders made it in before the cut-off. Phew!

No change on the all-Lotto Lanterne Rouge podium today: Ewan still in the 'red jersey', followed by van Rensburg and Frison.

gpsblake

Caleb Ewan is in the drivers seat but tomorrow is the queen stage for the red. If Ewan and Lotto Soudal decides he wants to try to win stage 19, his +7:09 lead can dissolve just like that. (just dawned on me if Ewan does go for a stage win, his fellow podium teammates will also be at the front helping him)

Lotto Soudal controls the entire podium for the Lanterne Rouge, and their highest ranked rider for the GC is 70th.

Unlike the yellow, green, white and polka dot, this isn't over.

tcs

Lanterne Rouge Ewan, a sprint specialist, DID go for the stage 19 win and finished a credible 10th on the flat stage. With another withdrawal, he's moved up to 139th (still last) place.

Torres-Barcelo of the Movistar Team took ~11 minutes out of Ewan's GC time on the stage and has moved down to second place on the Red Lantern trailer board, just ~4 minutes ahead of Ewan.

It all comes down to the final time trial, a flat, downhill-ish route that should play to Ewan's strengths. OTOH, Torres-Barcelo finished second in the Spanish National Time Trial as an under-23 some years back.

As gpsblake sez, "This isn't over."

tcs

The riders leave the start house for the TT in reverse order, so Ewan will go off first, followed a minute later by Torres-Barcelo.

They'll be using the special time trial bikes. Ewan will be aboard the Ridley Dean FAST:



and Torres-Barcelo will head out on the Canyon Speedmax:



Fun fact: halfway through the time trial the racers will pass through the town of Gramat, home to le Musée Insolite du Coiffeur Barbier.

gpsblake

Looking at Stage 21 from last year, you can't lose the yellow in Paris but you can certainly can lose the red in Paris. Anthony Turgis who held the red for a while this year finished +12:33 in the Paris stage in 2021, so who knows....

slcbob

^ You *can* lose the yellow on the Champs. But it would be pretty bizarre.

Re:

In keeping with our upside down motif so diligently applied here, shouldn't it be Caleb *down* to 139th and Torres *up* to 2nd at 4 minutes *behind*?

🤔🥂🍾

Concur, the fat lady hasn't sung yet.

tcs

Ewan set the slowest time over the TT course of our Lanterne rouge contenders.

gpsblake

Ewan saving it all for tomorrow at a huge attempt for a stage win. Albert Torres Barcelo still has the hopes of his country of Spain, and as you probably know, the Red Jersey is held in high honor in Spain as the leader of the Vuelta wears the red jersey also. ALBERTTORRES BARCELO

tcs

Ewan set the fourth slowest time on the TT out of the remaining 138 riders. Sandbagging? After 20 stages, he has an almost five-minute trail on Torres-Barcelo.

Now, time for a...

F L A S H B A C K ! ! !

Ewan wins on the Champs Elysees in 2019:



Can he repeat in 2022?

tcs

Aaaaaand we have our Lanterne Rouge 2022! It would have been easy for him to quit after that nasty Stage 13 crash with the Pyrenees Moutain stages still to come, but he didn't. He outlasted 41 other riders to make the finish in Paris.

Bravo, Caleb Ewan!