The race jury came to a rare and exceptional decision. On stage eight of the Tour de France, there would be not one, but two winners of the combativity award: TotalEnergies pair Mattéo Vercher and Mathieu Burgaudeau.
The French duo broke away from the peloton with 80km to go into Laval. It was a day billed for the sprinters, and while everyone else resigned themselves to that fact, Vercher and Burgaudeau dared to believe a different result was possible. Team-mates in tandem, their white jerseys transparent with sweat, they took off away from the bunch, and ploughed through the countryside for an hour and a half.
The effort, in the end, was fruitless; Vercher was swallowed up by the sprint trains with 13km to go, and Burgaudeau succumbed a few kilometres later. Lidl-Trek’s Jonathan Milan won the bunch sprint. The TotalEnergies duo placed 157th and 167th, two minnows in the shoal of the peloton, but minnows that dreamed nonetheless.
“It’s not everyday that you get to escape up the road with your mate,” Vercher said afterwards. “It’s amazing to have been able to share that with Mathieu.”
Only three times prior in the history of the Tour had a stage’s combativity award been given to two riders. The first came in 1978, when it was shared by Yves Hézard and Raymond Martin. In 2011, Juan Antonio Flecha and Johnny Hoogerland did the same, and five years later, honours were split by Quick-Step team-mates Julian Alaphilippe and Tony Martin.
The hope, for Vercher and Burgaudeau, was a stage win. The home fans willed their bold adventurers forwards, along the roads of western France. To the neutral, their plight always seemed doomed, but watching on from the team car, TotalEnergies general manager Jean-René Bernaudeau sat in awe of their “panache”.
“I’m very proud of them,” he told reporters by the team bus after the stage. “We’re not a big team – we’re a team built on dedication, a bit of love, and we do what we do.
“I’d have liked it if two or three other teams were involved [in the breakaway], but it’s like that,” Bernaudeau continued. “What’s important in the Tour, and in all of sport, is to not get frustrated or annoyed. There are 21 victories and 23 teams – certain ones win a lot – so we keep the faith to try and win one.”
They may not have won, but under the sun in Laval, Vercher and Burgaudeau stood arm in arm on the podium, grinning to the crowds.
“It wasn’t easy,” Burgaudeau said. “I was very happy to not be all alone, and even if it was hard, we had a really good time. It’s not a victory, but it will remain a very, very nice memory.”
The stage results will remember them as back-of-the-pack finishers. Their achievement, inevitably, will be forgotten in the swell of this year’s race. But for 70-odd kilometres, on a sleepy transition stage, Vercher and Burgaudeau were the focal point of the Tour de France. Their joint trophy will be cherished.
