Mont Ventoux was the illusion that the Tour de France was waiting for

When, fourteen kilometers from the summit of Mont Ventoux, Enric Mas turned to see if anyone was still following him, he saw the years he had left behind, filled with great hopes and countless dashed illusions. They were all there, next to the silhouettes of Julian Alaphilippe and Thymen Arensman.

The trees still cast shadows on the Provençal asphalt, patched haphazardly with bitumen. Shadows that looked like those that had followed the cyclist's progress, the climber who was supposed to bring the Spanish flag back to the top step of the podium of a major stage race.

Mont Ventoux is a mountain that at a certain point loses its vegetation, transforming into a vast expanse of stones, the shadows disappear, and only the sun remains, beating down on the heads and backs of the riders. And so Enric Mas found himself without anything to escape . He was swallowed up by his own shadows. Ben Healy and Valentin Paret-Peintre first caught up with him and then dropped him, leaving him alone with his unfulfilled dreams.

Ben Healy and Valentin Paret-Peintre accelerated up the climb. The former set off, the latter pursued; the latter set off, and the former caught up. They looked at each other, studied each other, seeking a solitude they were struggling to find. They searched for it for a long time, risking being snuck away by the determined and aggressive comeback of Santiago Buitrago and Ilan van Wilder. However, they reclaimed the spotlight under the astronomical observatory. A very long sprint, won by Valentin Paret-Peintre, dancing on the pedals .

It wasn't a day for ascetic explorations today at the Tour de France . On the other hand, the towns at the foot of Mont Ventoux discourage solitude when climbing the Provençal giant; they'd rather impose company. Because it's an extreme mountain, capable of pushing the body to the limits of endurance. Because, as has been the case for centuries, at the summit you risk being dazzled; the voice of Ventoux can lead you to perceive things that don't exist. Or push those who know how to listen to it to seek the improbable.

In 2000, climbing towards the astronomical observatory , the voice of Ventoux managed to make Marco Pantani rediscover the appearance of his better days.

Today, Jonas Vingegaard tried to do the same. The Dane added bursts of speed, accelerations, and attempts to rebel and break out of Tadej Pogačar's cycling regime.

But that voice wasn't just pushing the Dane. Tadej Pogačar could hear it too. The yellow jersey rider stuck to Jonas Vingegaard's wheel and never let go. He let him delude himself, made him believe that by multiplying his attacks, he could break away. He waited for the right moment, the toughest section among the rocks. And there he attacked. However, he couldn't impose his will. The Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike responded, didn't lose a meter, and tried to attack again.

Their symbiotic cycling has returned to what it had been until two years ago on the roads of Provence. And it was what the Tour de France hoped to rediscover, what all cycling fans, the hundreds of thousands who climbed the Ventoux (and that's a conservative estimate: a million?, more?), were waiting to see . Because that duel was what Hautacam had missed . Because that duel , which had reappeared towards the summit of Superbagnères , seemed to have been a theatrical pause between one absolutism and another.

Maybe it wasn't like that. Maybe. Maybe it's just an illusion, an illusion we want to believe. Because it's good for us to believe.

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