2016 Tour de France: Tom Dumoulin Wins Somber Stage 13 Time Trial

After yet another tragic terrorist attack in France, cycling was the furthest thing from the minds of a cycling-mad country. But the Tour de France rolled on nonetheless, mindful of the somber mood in which it operated, and eschewed its podium presentations in favor of a moment of silence for the 84 dead and hundreds injured in Nice after a truck deliberately drove through a crowd during Bastille Day celebrations. With this cloud hovering over the bike race, it was fitting that Stage 13 provided competition against a clock rather than fellow human beings.

Time trials have long been a staple of the Tour de France, extricating each rider from the protection of fellow teammates and pitting them against a ribbon of road. No test provides a purer representation of the relative gaps in quality between competitors, eliminating the ability to draft in another’s slipstream or to mitigate the impact of crosswinds. For cyclists contending for the general classification, the Tour de France can be both won and lost in the race against the clock.

Coming off the slopes of a wild and controversial trip up Mont Ventoux, the peloton set off one by one on the undulating 37.5-kilometer solo journey from Bourg-Saint-Andeol to Vallon-Pont-d’Arc. Riders set off in reverse order of their position in the general classification, immediately encountered a climb over the first fifth of the course, and then settled in for 15 kilometers on a plateau before descending toward and then climbing back up to the finish line.

Usually time trials don’t really begin to matter until later in the stage, when the favorites high up in the race for the yellow jersey begin wheeling out of the start gate and spinning down the road. But sometimes a strong time-trial specialist will find himself down in the general classification, and will set the bar so high that the fun becomes wondering whether anyone can pass the mark. This year that man was Tom Dumoulin, the Dutch national time-trial champion, who had already shown his form by winning Stage 9 on the climb into Andorra.

Dumoulin set a blistering pace, topping the list at each time check on the route. By the end of his ride, he had an advantage of 91 seconds on his nearest rival for the stage win. But the other hard part of a time trial is the waiting afterward, and Dumoulin had two full hours to sit back and see if his time would hold. One after another, riders continued to cross the finish line behind the Dutchman, none coming within even a minute of his winning margin. The last man on the road, yellow jersey Chris Froome, came closest to Dumoulin yet still finished 63 seconds behind the stage winner.

While he waited, to see if anybody was going to pass his time, Dumoulin talked with reporters about the incident in Nice the previous day. He continued to focus in on the tragedy that had occurred 250 kilometers away for the next two hours, the subject still his focus of attention even after learning he had won the stage. He joined the current jersey holders on the podium not in celebration but in memorialization, bowing their heads and laying flowers in tribute to the victims after a moment of silence on stage.

“It was a just question whether we should race or not today,” Dumoulin said at the end of the day. “In the end, it was a just decision to race because we can’t let terrorists rule our lives in our society. It’s terrible what happened and overshadows the day a lot. So you’re speaking to a man with two sides to his face today. Of course I’m happy with the win, but at the same time my thoughts are with everyone involved in the horrific attacks in Nice.”

Stage Results and Standings after Stage 13

Stage Results

General Classification (yellow jersey)

Points Classification (green jersey)

King of the Mountains (polka-dot jersey)

Best Young Rider (white jersey)