Luke Rowe confirmed after stage 2 of the Tour de France that Decathlon-CMA CGM deliberately left Paul Seixas (Decathlon-CMA CGM) without teammates during his chase back to the peloton following a puncture and double bike change on the road to Barcelona. The former pro-turned-sports director said his fear was that dropping riders back would prompt commissaires to impose a barrage, a hold on vehicle movement in the convoy, making the 19-year-old's return harder rather than easier.
Even with the issues, Seixas managed to ride to a strong ninth on the stage losing just three seconds to Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), and moved up four places in the general classification to sixth overall, 42 seconds behind Vingegaard in yellow. But Rowe said the effort to get back "took the edge off him" before the Montjuïc finale.
As to why Rowe didn't send riders back to help Seixas return to the peloton, which confused commentators such as the TNT Sports team in the UK, the former Ineos rider explained: "My concern there, if you stop one or two guys with Paul, then they're going to create a barrage," he said. "I said, listen, just wait. The cars will come in 30 seconds. You'll have a convoy in 30 seconds. Just wait."
A barrage is a commissaire-enforced blockade that prevents team cars from advancing through the race convoy to reach a dropped rider. In Rowe's reading, teammates alongside Seixas would have made the group look like a separate entity on the road, triggering the hold and slowing the car-assisted return he was banking on.
"Sure enough, the convoy will come and you can use the convoy," he said. "And he just kind of made his way through."
What the disruption cost
It all started going wrong for Decathlon-CMA CGM when Olav Kooij punctured, followed seconds later by Seixas himself. In the scramble, Seixas first took Aurélien Paret-Peintre's bike before switching again to his own spare just before the finishing circuit alongside Paret-Peintre. Tight roads, near misses and a close call between the TotalEnergies team car and a jury vehicle added stress to the return and also meant that Paret-Peintre was distanced from his leader.
Rowe said that it was hard to tell what the physical cost was from this. "At this level in this game, if you have to expose yourself to any degree prior to a big effort like it was, took the few percent off," he said.
He still managed to finish in the top 10 losing just 3 seconds to his biggest rivals, which raises the question: what could have been? Rowe remained controlled on that, adding: "I'm not going to come out with any junk saying if you didn't have that, you'd have done this or that or the other," he said.
It was a shame for a team that had seemed primed to race aggressively. They even put Tiesj Benoot onto the front of the peloton as they headed onto the final climb despite Seixas' issues. Rowe said they wanted to treat the day as a one-day race, likening the Montjuïc circuit to a small Amstel Gold Race and targeting the best possible stage result rather than simply protecting position.
"It seems strange to say on stage 2, but if you come into it conservative or cautious, then I think it's all going to go wrong," Rowe said. "Race it like a one-day race was the message."
Seixas sits sixth overall heading into stage 3 of the Tour de France.
Cover image credit: Thomas Maheux
