The Eagle of Toledo by Alasdair Fotheringham

Author:Alasdair Fotheringham [Fotheringham, Alasdair]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781781310373
Publisher: Aurum Press

While the Spaniards were never experts in racing over cobbles and had enough trouble staying upright, the battle for the overall continued and the classification had changed considerably. Fortunately for Bahamontes, though, they were not important in the long-term. The biggest change had come after an opportunist ten-man move, not containing any top favourites, had broken away early on the Grammont ‘Wall’ in Belgium, which had caused Bahamontes such grief in 1957. Since none of the riders was considered to be any real threat, the break was allowed to gain more than eleven minutes on the main peloton. The French were particularly happy to see it go, gambling that their one representative in it, Robert Cazala, would be fastest on home soil in the velodrome. The gamble paid off. Cazala, who was only in his second year as a professional, not only won the stage but found himself leading the biggest bike race in the world. He would stay in the yellow jersey for a further six days, the highpoint of his career.

For the next week the race wound its way first westwards to the Atlantic, then southwards to the foot of the Pyrenees at Bayonne. Bahamontes concentrated on staying out of trouble. ‘There is a midweek time-trial, which though it’s short, is where I would like to make my presence known,’ Bahamontes told reporters early on in the Tour. ‘But essentially I’m riding with the same kind of strategy that Gaul did in 1958: lay low and wait for the mountains.’ Cunningly, he even opted to shadow Gaul, who had a much stronger team to back him up. Though not particularly great mountain riders, they were experts at sheltering their climber against attacks by the French and Belgian squads. Where one climber could shelter, Bahamontes reasoned, so could two.

If Bahamontes’ spirits were rising ‘the further away we get from those pavés and the horrible weather in the north’, the race itself suffered a major tragedy en route when a five-year-old child was hit and killed by a vehicle from the Tour’s publicity caravan on the stage to Rennes.

The time-trial on stage six was won by Roger Rivière, though it had little long-term significance. However, during the race against the clock Bahamontes felt he had been the victim of yet another French ‘conspiracy’, and he made sure the world knew it, too. This time Bahamontes’ opportunity to accuse his rivals revolved around the starting order for the riders, something usually decided by their position in the overall classification. Bahamontes, being twelve places better placed than Jacques Anquetil, should have started the time-trial later than the Frenchman. Instead he found at the start-line that Anquetil was starting immediately after him, not before. The disadvantage for Bahamontes was that Anquetil would be able to use him as a ‘moving target’ and adjust his pace accordingly. On top of that, given Anquetil’s position as one of the world’s top time-triallists, Bahamontes was sure to be overtaken. Being ‘caught’ is always a huge blow to any rider’s morale and even more so for a rider with a fragile ego like Bahamontes.

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