The bunny hop over madness and method

In the first part of a wide-ranging interview, Ryan Gibbons, the South African champion, speaks to All Over The Bar Shouting from the Tour de France

There is method in the madness of the bunch sprint but there are, worryingly and increasingly, times at this Tour de France when the madness can feel like it is without method, when the berserker inside can take over.

Get the method to match the madness and glory awaits with a stage win. Get it wrong and gory is not far away. Ryan Gibbons, the South African champion on the Lidl-Trek team, has seen both sides of that from close up. On Friday, on the 13th stage into Pau, he was caught behind a big crash with 1km to go, hauling on the brakes to avoid joining the pile-on of Arkea-B&B Hotels riders brought down by a rider from Lotto-Dstny who had gone for a gap that didn’t exist.

On Tuesday, Biniam Girmay, the Eritrean on the cusp of history as the first black African to win a category jersey at a Grand Tour, came down hard with 1.5km left. He eventually rolled slowly over the line with his teammates, his green jersey scuffed and worse for wear, his lead in the race for the points competition still intact.

Gibbons took ninth on that stage, avoiding the mayhem as he tried, in vain sadly, to become just the third South African to win a stage at the Tour de France.  The madness of the sprint is the best fun you can have on a bike, said Gibbons.

“It is chaotic,” Gibbons said during a rest day at the Tour. “People have no understanding of what it is like. From the little bit you see on TV to being in that bunch…it’s real, you are in a different world. It is a lot more physical than people realise. There are hooters and whistles and you hear noises and then brakes, and then you hear crashes… all these things going on, but it’s an incredible feeling. It’s something I can’t put words to, and no one will understand it unless they have been in it themselves.

“The bunch sprints have been absolutely crazy this year. It’s the Tour de France and everyone wants to show themselves. The run-ins are generally not that simple. The early sprint stages have been quite easy in terms of the route and so everyone is arriving fresh, which ends up being more dangerous because instead of 40 guys, you have 170 guys. You also have GC riders not wanting to lose time…it’s very dangerous.”

The Lidl-Trek website describes Gibbons as the “consummate teammate, and he will be a key rider in the lead-out for Mads Pedersen in 2024. The former African Continental champion has serious speed, too, so don’t be surprised when he receives a green light for the win. Whenever the action is heating up at the end of a hard day, expect Ryan to be right in the mix.”

That green light came after Pedersen was forced to abandon the Tour after the Dane came down in the crash in the bunch sprint on Stage 5 into Saint Vulbas. Pedersen sustained injuries to his left shoulder and back after hitting the barriers. Axel Zingle, a lead-out man for Cofidis, had to bunny-hop over Pedersen as he slid, face down, into the road in front of him.

“It happened very quickly. I had finished my job for Bryan (teammate) Coquard, I had moved aside,” said Zingle. “For me, the race was already over even though I was still going at 60km/h. I didn’t expect to have a fall in front of me. I was coming too fast to brake and I didn’t want to fall. I had my hands in a snug fit, I was ready, so I tried (the bunny hop) and it went through. I felt that I had touched him, I hope I didn’t hurt him. But he has strong skin, I hope he’ll be in good shape tomorrow.”

But, he wasn’t . “Mads came to me personally and told me he believes in me and that I must take my opportunities,” said Gibbons of becoming the sprint hope for his team. This is just his second Tour. His first, with the now defunct South African NTT team, was delayed by the Covid pandemic and he came into that race in a bad way.

“That tour was tainted by Covid and my crash at the Tour de Wallonie just before that. Then my crash on the first day meant a race of survival. Lots of things were going on at NTT. We didn’t know if they were going to continue or not. I already knew I was going to UAE. It was quite a dark period.

“I didn’t really enjoy the race that much. It was more just about getting from point A to point B. It was still the Tour de France, the biggest race in the world, but there are some bitter memories about that one. This one is better. I’m glad I got to do another Tour de France to erase and replace the memories of the previous one.”

Those will be memories of madness and method, and the fine line between them.