No one ever said the Tour de France was meant to be easy. But Caja Rural-Seguros RGA are really getting a taste of just how cruel and brutal the world’s biggest bike race can be.
The Spanish wildcard team enjoyed a positive start to their debut Tour with Alex Molenaar claiming the polka dot jersey on stage two, only for the Dutch-Spaniard to crash out of the race just three days later.
A week on, and Caja have been reduced to six riders, with their sprinter Fernando Gaviria breaking his collarbone in the closing metres of stage 12 in Chalon-sur-Saône.
Gaviria touched the back wheel of Bahrain Victorious’s Robert Stannard just as the fast-men launched their sprints, bringing down a number of others with him, including stage 11 winner Soren Wærenskjold of Uno-X Mobility, Dorian Godon of Ineos Grenadiers, and Jenno Berckmoes of Lotto-Intermarché. The latter, like Gaviria, fractured his collarbone and has since abandoned the race.
“It’s bad luck,” Caja Rural manager Jose Manuel Hernández told Cycling Weekly. “We have lost two of the team’s most important riders.
“Alex was a really strong rider for the breakaways and if he could have arrived in a small group to a finish, he could have been a player [for the stage win].
“And now to lose our sprinter is really hard. We’re the smallest team in the Tour and to lose our two most important pieces it’s difficult.”
At the time of speaking, Hernández didn’t know if Gaviria was out of the race, but he admitted that “it looks really bad.”
He added: “We think this was the penultimate opportunity for Fernando and we came into it with a lot of desire to do well so it’s a shame.
“We had a lot of hopes for him. He’s a rider that everyone thought was lost but who we’ve helped return, and for him to be here in the Tour and fighting for stages was something really great for us, as was seeing him enjoying riding his bike bike again. Why couldn’t he have achieved a victory?”
The Tour had other ideas, though. Aged 31, and with Caja certainly not assured of a spot in the Tour next year, the Colombian who won two stages back in 2018, might possibly have ridden his last Tour stage.
Now Caja, short of their two best riders, have to switch their mentality in the latter half of the race. “We have to change our chip a little bit, and look at our other options including the climbers we have,” Hernández said.”
“We know it’ll be difficult to win a stage but we’re going to try. Why can’t we?”
As for Wærenskjold, his boss at Uno-X reported that the Norwegian had not broken any bones but was left banged up after being caught up in the crash.
“He’s hurt everywhere,” said Thor Hushovd. “Sliding on the road at nearly 80kmh, it’s painful. It’s a shame because he was in good shape, but it’s part of cycling.
“Half of the bunch got knocked down in a very fast final. Scary images, but it seems like more or less everybody could finish the race.”
