tcs

Very impressed with Anthony Turgis, French rider on TotalEnergies. With today's Stage Seven 163rd place finish, now at the one-third mark of the Tour he sits comfortably in 172nd place with a commanding nine-minute and fifty-eight-second trail on the 171st place rider, Marc Hirschi.

Mr. Turgis has impressively held the "red jersey" since the second stage. Can he hold 'til Paris?



""Lanterne rouge is not a position you go for. It comes for you." - Wim Van Sevenant

gpsblake

Oh, I remember we used to do these threads every year here... Those were fun.

But as I remember, 9 minutes isn't anything, all they have ot do is finish at the line with the peloton for one stage and they will lose the red jersey real quick...

tcs

Yeah, on a big mountain stage, you can comfortably finish in the back of the autobus and lose the red jersey* to a rider who solos in many minutes later, just ahead of the elimination cut-off.

The real challenge, though, is the final individual time trial. The Lanterne Rouge goes off the line first, without knowing what the elimination time or the second-to-last place rider's time will be. Ride too fast or too slow and you'll kiss the red jersey goodbye the day before Paris.




*despite being mentioned in the occasional book and on some ToF websites, there's no actual red jersey

gpsblake

After stage 8, Turgis had a another monster day for the red jersey increasing to +12:59. Mikkel Bjerg is 2nd on the podium with Hirschi now 3rd. Hirschi created some chaos in the 2020 tour by winning a stage and coming close in several others...

79pmooney

This wasn't about the lanterne rouge but about making the time cut. Gripping footage I saw a few years ago; probably from the early '90s. The grupetto in full time trial mode to make the cut. Not all had anything to add but those who did were burning matches right and left to keep the group going and the on-time finish possible. They made it by about two minutes. And probably spent as much of their reserves as all but perhaps the top five of the day.

tcs

Several of the TotalEnergie boys went down in the stage 8 crash, but fortunately not l' héros Turgis.

Now Stage 9 is in the books and our Lanterne Rouge came across as the last of the 53-rider autobus, ~27 minutes after the stage winner. Marking his competition, he didn't gain any time on Mikkel Berg, our second-to-last place man.

Missing the time cut, getting sick, crashing: these take out more Lanternes than time-losing rival riders. With multiple abandonments, Turgis (rider number 187 - look for his bib in the peloton!) is looking solid, up to 165th place and very deserving of tomorrow's rest day. Allez!

gpsblake

UAE Team Emierates wants it all... 2 of the 3 on the Lanterne Rouge podium are Podacar's teammates. No change in the overall for the red going into the day off.

slcbob

I can't hear "red jersey" and not think of La Vuelta.

I think there was a tangible if unofficial maglia nera at the Giro.

I'm not tracking any such maillot in France.

A little history and a few tales here of the Lanterne Rouge. https://www.cyclist.co.uk/in-depth/1...tour-de-france

tcs

Our current Lanterne Rouge's bike, a spiffy Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7. Here's the civilian model; his is of course painted team TotalEnergie colors.



It's equipped with Roval wheels and Shimano Dura-Ace Di2. Sweet ride!

tcs

Stage 11 and the Lanterne finished comfortably in the autobus, some 26'22" after stage winner Magnus Cort Nielsen, but craftily right alongside Hirschi and Bjerg and with no one in contention for the 'red jersey' behind him.

Four abandonments, so Turgis outlasts them to move up to 161st place with Paris just the other side of the Alps. Uh, and the Pyrenees.

Three Two yuge Hors Catégorie climbs tomorrow - watch that elimination time, Tony!

njlonghorn

I haven't been keeping up with this like I did in years past. Here's to hoping this will be an exciting year for the Lanterne Rouge!

At first glance, there wasn't much of a change in the top 10 today. LaFay and Jansen swapped 6th and 7th, while Rensburg and Frison swapped 10th and 11th. All others kept their position.

But closer inspection reveals major changes that could impact the race in later stages. What there was of an autobus broke up before the finish, and most riders crossed the line alone or in small groups. Nine of the top 10 finished in a 3'17" window between 4h54'53" and 4h58'10, but Turgis finished 5+ before that window, losing between 5 and 8 minutes on all other LR competitors. His overall lead is less than half of what it was yesterday. Instead of 3 riders within 20 minutes, there are now 7.

Standings after stage 11:

1. --------- A. TURGIS TOTALENERGIES 44h 13' 51"
2. - 4' 52" M. BJERG UAE TEAM EMIRATES 44h 08' 59"
3. - 6' 28" M. HIRSCHI UAE TEAM EMIRATES 44h 07' 23"
4. -14' 27" C. EWAN LOTTO SOUDAL 43h 59' 24"
5. -17' 14" A. TORRES BARCELO MOVISTAR TEAM 43h 56' 37"
6. -18' 05" V. LAFAY COFIDIS 43h 55' 46"
7. -18' 31" A. JANSEN TEAM BIKEEXCHANGE-JAYCO 43h 55' 20"
8. -18' 33" M. MØRKØV QUICK-STEP ALPHA VINYL TEAM 43h 55' 18"
9. -22' 43" C. JUUL JENSEN TEAM BIKEEXCHANGE-JAYCO 43h 51' 08"
10. -25' 46" R. JANSE VAN RENSBURG LOTTO SOUDAL 43h 48' 05"

Tomorrow should be another good day in the Race for Red!

tcs

Turgis outlasts two more riders on the road to Paris, now in 159th place!

The Lanterne comes for all kinds of riders: sprinters who struggle to haul their massive fast-twitch thighs over the mountains, riders who get sick or injured, fellows who are there to haul water and burn themselves up in chase-downs, sprint stage lead-out specialists, even the occasional rider who is mad at his team director or angry about his contract. Turgis is easy to root for as a classic Lanterne Rouge - the number seven rider on a special-invitation Continental team who, this year, has made the big show.

gpsblake

We appreciate the race for the Red Jersey as these guys love to spend extra time on their bikes. Why ride for only 4 hours when you can ride for 4 1/2 hours???

Anthony Turgis gained over 8 minutes on his competitors (which is bad for retaining the red jersey) and his lead is now down to +4:52 from +12.59 with Bjerg and Hirschi still on the podium.

njlonghorn

For the second straight day, the autobus was blown apart. The largest group consisted of 17 riders who came in together at 5h 24' 22". Marc Hirschi was in that group, and it cost him his podium position in the Lanterne Rouge standings. The remaining LR competitors all came unhitched from the autobus and found themselves scattered in clusters of 6 or smaller, even if you ignore gaps under 10 seconds. Only one pair from the leaderboard (Lafay and Morkov) shared the same time and one other (Bjerg and Jansen) had a time gap of 3 seconds. Everyone else was spread across a range of over 11 minutes.

The end result of the chaos was that, for the second straight day, Anthony Turgis lost over half of his lead, which is now down to just 2'14" over Mikkel Bjerg. Caleb Ewan climbed into 3rd by finishing almost 9 minutes after Hirschi. And bringing up the rear on the stage enabled Victor Lafay and Michael Morkov to gain 1 and 2 spots on the LR leaderboard, both passing Albert Barcelo (who fell 3 spots).

The current leaderboard:

120 5h 28' 25" 1. --------- A. TURGISTOTALENERGIES 49h 42' 16"
139 5h 31' 03" 2. - 2' 14" M. BJERGUAE TEAM EMIRATES 49h 40' 02"
154 5h 33' 39" 3. - 9' 03" C. EWANLOTTO SOUDAL 49h 33' 13" (+1)
104 5h 24' 22" 4. - 10' 31" M. HIRSCHIUAE TEAM EMIRATES 49h 31' 45" (-1)
159 5h 35' 27" 5. -11' 03" V. LAFAYCOFIDIS 49h 31' 13" (+1)
157 5h 35' 27" 6. -11' 31" M. MØRKØVQUICK-STEP ALPHA VINYL TEAM 49h 30' 45" (+2)
140 5h 31' 06" 7. -15' 50" A. JANSENTEAM BIKEEXCHANGE-JAYCO 49h 26' 26"
132 5h 29' 23" 8. -16' 16" A. TORRES BARCELOMOVISTAR TEAM 49h 26' 00" (-3)
136 5h 30' 59" 9. -20' 09" C. JUUL JENSENTEAM BIKEEXCHANGE-JAYCO 49h 22' 07"
155 5h 33' 50" 10. -20' 21" R. JANSE VAN RENSBURGLOTTO SOUDAL 49h 21' 55"

As we move forward, there are three battles taking shape. (1) There is a close battle at the top between Turgis and Bjerg. (2) There are 3 riders less than 3 minutes behind Ewan for the 3rd podium spot. And (3) there are three riders competing for the last 2 spots in the top 10 -- including Frederik Frison, who missed today's leaderboard by just 14".

Of course, all of this can change in the blink of an eye, so stay tuned!

tcs

At the top of the race, I'm not expecting any major shake-ups until the stages (&mountains) next Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday.

It's different for the Lanterne. Even on a relatively unchallenging stage, anyone towards the bottom of the GC list can 'blow up', start pedaling squares and ride to the finish just ahead of the broom wagon.

Chapeau to Turgis, who seems to be racing his heart out and is not going for the Lanterne, but had the Lanterne come for him.

tcs

Bjerg's Team UAE/Emirates is riding Colnago V3Rs with Campagnolo Super Record 12-speed electronic (<- the only team in the peloton to fit Campagnolo this year). UAE had some unknown issue the first few days that engendered several bike changes, but all seem well for the past week.

gpsblake

A few notes from last year etc

2021 Latnerne Rouge winner was Tim Declerq of Quick Step winning by a whopping 24 minutes 30 seconds. he was unable to defend his jersey due to a positive COVID test prior to the tour.

AnthonyTurgis finished 73rd at last years tour finishing over 2 hours behind both the red and yellow jerseys. He seems to be getting stronger which of course is bad news at this end of the GC.

Mark Cavendish also made the podium last year by finishing 139th out of 141 riders and yet winning 3 stages of the tour. I'll have to see how many stages he finished dead last in. He wasn't chosen for this year's TDF (probably a good thing considering this is not a sprinters tour this year). He could have been the favorite for the Lanterne Rouge.

In 107 editions of the tour, France has won the Lanterne Rouge 53 times, while the rest of the world combined has won 54. However France hasn't taken the red since 2015 when Sébastien Chavanel took the honors. So France has a good chance to make it even again.

njlonghorn

Or, anyone towards the bottom of the GC list can make it into a breakaway that stays ahead to the finish.

tcs

The race tightens! Bold move on Stage 13 by Lotto-Soudal rider Caleb Ewan to drop within 1'18" of the Lanterne!

Edit: Ah, so that's the story (see below).

njlonghorn

Today's flatter stage looked completely different from the last 2 epic mountain stages. Almost all of the riders finished in 4 large groups.

• 6 riders from the breakaway made it to the end. None were Lanterne Rouge contenders, so they don't matter for this thread (but it was exciting drama nonetheless).

• the main peloton of 98 riders came in 5+ minutes later. Michael Hirschi was the only Lanterne Rouge contender in that group, costing him dearly in the standings. He fell from 4th to 10th.

• 32 riders finished in a grupetto over 13 minutes after the stage winners and 7+ minutes after the main peloton. This group included Turgis, Bjerg, and Jansen. Smartly, Turgis was the last rider in this group and left a tiny gap, resulting in a 7-second LR bonus. Could that end up being the difference??? (There were three riders who lost contact with the main peloton but didn't make it back to grupetto #1 before the finish line. None were LR competitors.)

• 19 riders came in together at the end, 7 minutes after grupetto #1. This grupetto #2 included Ewan, Morkov, Torres, Jensen, and Van Rensburg, as well as previous 11th place Frederik Frison. All 6 of them vaulted up the leaderboard.

Also of note -- Victor Lafay took ill and did not finish ... yet another way the LR leaderboard can get shaken up.

The current leaderboard (including Stage 13 place and time, LR position, cumulative LR gap, name, team, and cumulative time):

138 4h 26' 23" 1. --------- A. TURGIS TOTALENERGIES54h 08' 39''
156 4h 33' 08" 2. - 1' 18" C. EWAN LOTTO SOUDAL54h 07' 21'' (+1)
124 4h 26' 16" 3. - 2' 21" M. BJERG UAE TEAM EMIRATES54h 06' 18" (-1)
155 4h 33' 08" 4. - 4' 46" M. MØRKØV QUICK-STEP ALPHA VINYL TEAM54h 03' 53" (+2)
145 4h 33' 08" 5. - 9' 31" A. TORRES BARCELOMOVISTAR TEAM53h 59' 08" (+3)
150 4h 33' 08" 6. -13' 24" C. JUUL JENSEN TEAM BIKEEXCHANGE-JAYCO53h 55' 15" (+3)
152 4h 33' 08" 7. -13' 36" R. JANSE VAN RENSBURG LOTTO SOUDAL53h 55' 03" (+3)
144 4h 33' 08" 8. -14' 06" F. FRISON LOTTO SOUDAL 53h 54' 33'' (+3)
121 4h 26' 16" 9. -15' 57" A. JANSEN TEAM BIKEEXCHANGE-JAYCO53h 52' 42'' (-2)
94 4h 19' 20" 10. -17' 34" M. HIRSCHI UAE TEAM EMIRATES53h 51' 05'' (-6)

As you can see, the race tightened up considerably today. We went from 3 to 5 racers within 10 minutes of the lead -- and 4 of them are within 5 minutes. And Fabio Jakobsen is waiting in the wings for any of the other competitors to falter.

gpsblake

I guess Andrew Turgis is glad he built up such a big lead a few days earlier. He went from 12 minutes in the lead to 1:18 over the past 3 days.

DonkeyShow

Thanks for this thread, had no idea about the lanterne Rouge. Kinda fascinating tbh. I've noticed the commentators on the world stream seem to name drop it once a day.

tcs

And just like that...

Your fourth appearance in the big show. You've won five stages in past Tours. You're named the number one rider on your squad.
There's a break; they're up the road by two minutes. You're team director orders all hands to the head of the peloton to close the gap.
You lap wheels with a teammate in a corner.



The team director sends the rest of the boys on. It really hurts, but you're at The. Tour. de. France. You get back on a fresh bike and head off, alone.



With apologies to Phil Ligget, "Poor old Caleb Ewan."

njlonghorn

Welcome to the thread!

I discovered the Lanterne Rouge the hard way.

About 15 years ago, I signed up for a three-day charity ride. The first day was 88 miles with 6600 feet of climbing, which would have been my hardest ride to that date even without the 45°F rain and swirling winds. Around 80% of the 250 or so riders abandoned at some point. Of the 50 or so who finished the course, I came in dead last. I literally had to tell the broom wagon to f@ck off, because I. Was. Not. Stopping.

That night at the dinner banquet, the Tournament Director presented me with a picture of a red lantern. I have been enamored with the lore of this unofficial award ever since.

By the way, the hardest 5 miles of my cycling “career“ were not on that day. They were the first 5 miles of the next day.

tcs

Le Tour reports two abandons yesterday - but neither one was Ewan, who made the start for Stage 14. Chapeau!

The Lanterne has outlasted 19 other riders and starts today in 157th place.