Raiders Of The Lost Art

The Tour de France returns to Limoges today and the city has a small niche in the race’s history as the last place where a long distance solo breakaway triumphed, 16 years ago with the victory of Christophe Agnolutto.

Definition: A solo breakaway is just that, a full solo raid by one lone rider, as opposed to a late flyer; or someone jumping out of a breakaway to take a solo win. For example Floyd Landis’s deleted ride to Morzine saw him attack with others, then he rode across to an existing breakaway and benefited from their help before going solo later on: his escape was partly in the company of others. The same for Tony Martin’s Vosges rampage in 2014 et cetera, it’s not about a solo win but a solo escape from the moment of the attack to the finish line.

Christophe Agnolutto won a 200.5km stage from Tours to Limoges and was solo for 128km. “It was like a three hour time trial” said Agnolutto, a lanky rider who’d won the Tour de Suisse in 1997 thanks to a solo raid which gifted him the overall lead that he defended for the rest of the week. Come Stage 7 of the Tour in 2000 and early attacks from others had not worked, including by his Ag2r team mate Jacky Durand, a breakaway specialist and now Eurosport commentator. A tired Durand whispered to Agnolutto that maybe he ought to try and off he went. It was Erik Zabel’s 30th birthday and everyone expected the powerful Telekom team to deliver him a sprint finish but US Postal were riding on the front and it seems Telekom didn’t want take over. Heavy rain showers disrupted things further as workers were tasked with fetching rain gear. Agnolutto’s lead never went beyond seven minutes but the chase never came.

Bourlon’s record

The record for a solo attack belongs to the late Albert Bourlon and his 1947 filibuster from Carcassonne to Luchon when he covered 253km by himself. On a roasting hot day he took off solo but said he never meant to stay away, he just wanted a 100,000 franc prize offered early on the stage:

“I was not thinking of winning the stage. I would have been happy to take the prime which was double my monthly income… …After 20 kilometres I was told I had ten minutes’ lead. So I continued.“

Bourlon’s feat will stand in the history books forever because stages are shorter today but if he’s become synonymous with a record-breaking ride there’s much more to his story than counting kilometres.

A card-carrying communist he said he was blocked from selection in the French national team because of his militant ways, that commercial sponsors of teams and races were wary of him and so he could only ride for regional teams invited to the Tour de France. He was captured by the Nazis in 1940 and attempted several escapes from prisoner of war camps, each failure saw him placed in more secure camps. In November 1943 he broke out of the Stalag III-B camp and made his way across Poland, Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary to Romania, all during winter including a swim across the part-frozen Tisa river which puts a day’s bicycle ride into context. Once in Bucharest he resumed racing, even winning the Bucharest-Ploiești-Bucharest race before returning to France and resuming his pro career in peacetime.

A lone breakaway is rare. For starters it’s hard to get away solo, such are the commercial imperatives that many want to have a go, if one rider attacks others follow. Many want their shot at glory and if it fails there’s time on TV and maybe the day’s combativitity prize and a trip to the podium too. Yesterday’s solo move by Armindo Fonseca was rare, odd even given he had nobody to accompany him but he never had a chance and he knew it. In 2007 Bradley Wiggins came close when he was away for 190km of the 199km stage. It was whispered the peloton, or at least sections of it, was annoyed with his comments against doping, and let him dangle in the wind for as long as possible just to tire him out.

Le peloton décide

There’s no Rambo scenario of a rider attacking and staying away by brute force alone, the peloton is always stronger. Like a prisoner on day release or a mouse briefly released by a cat, the lone rider is only away with the permission of the peloton. “Le peloton décide” is the French saying and it doesn’t need much translation. An escapee can only daydream and try to tilt the odds. They must pace themselves, easier said than done on an effort that is going to last hours. One ruse is to vary the effort, especially later on. Once the sprinters’ teams start pulling the lone rider doesn’t redouble their efforts to stay away, instead they ease up a little to give the impression that the chase behind is working. The peloton sees the gap is falling and eases up as they think they don’t need to work so hard to reel in the spent rider. Only our lone fugitive has been able to keep a little energy in reserve and accelerates during the final 20km to confound the peloton who discover they’ve miscalculated their chase. This is all Breakaway Basics but variations on this bluff and double-bluff can help.

These considerations can be at the margin, luck is better. A crash in the peloton during the chase, a downpour to dampen the peloton or perhaps or a misunderstanding among teams where one squad doesn’t want to work so neither to the others causing a stalemate. It’s harder today thanks to increased information, race radios are the obvious villain of the piece but there’s more to it, live TV inside the team car allows team directors to monitor the time gap in real time too and radio course keeps everyone more informed, it was probably easier back in the days before all of this. When Bourlon won his stage the first thing he did was ask the commissaires if they’d noticed him crossing the line. They did but his sarcasm was because they’d left him of the results before during the race, back then it was possible to race and go missing at times.

The stuff of legends

Lone breakaways hold a special place in cycling’s mythology. Fausto Coppi as un uomo solo al comando, a “lone man in the lead” in the 1949 Giro and prior to this he’d won Milan-Sanremo by such a margin that he stopped for coffee along the way and once he’d crossed the finish line the live radio coverage went to play some music to bide the time until the others arrived. Eddy Merckx’s ride in the 1969 Tour de France on the Pau-Mourenx stage was a sign of the The Cannibal’s huge appetite, he was already in the yellow jersey but decided to take off solo for 140km. Yet the solo breakaway can equally be the story of the little guy beating the system.

What is striking is just how rare the solitary raid is, we have to go back to 2000 for the last real one but they were not that common before. Jacky Durand was famous for his many breakaways but typically ditched breakaway companions en route to a stage win. Genuine solo rides in the Tour de France are so rare it’s hard to find a record of them. In 1991 prologue specialist Thierry Marie was alone for 234km from Arras to Le Havre (pictured), proof perhaps that the solo move isn’t just something for the sepia age; Marie even whiled away the time by singing to the TV cameras.

In 1966 Pierre Beuffeuil won a stage from Montluçon to Orleans after being away for 205km, solo of course. Along the way he passed through the town of Nohant, once home to the writer George Sand. Sand died long before the Tour de France ever started but some of her words come to mind:

Let me escape the deceitful and criminal illusion of happiness! Give me work, tiredness, pain and some enthusiasm.

Is there a better motto for a breakaway specialist?