From Garmin where he won the Giro with Hesjedal to BMC for six years and then to UAE Team Emirates of the first Tour won with Pogacar. Then Allan Peiper had to face the battle with cancer. And now a new challenge brings him to Red Bull. It's strange to follow the Australian, who has been based in Belgium for years, in his migrations. Most of the time, it was a desire for new challenges that drew him, but the world's number one team probably no longer had the same space for him. On the contrary, the Germans' offer to make him their behind-the-scenes strategist, by putting into play his ability to shape the group, he stimulated it.
“I’m very excited,” he said as soon as the news became official, “to be part of this project. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe did impressive progress in recent years and I see great potential to further strengthen this structureIt's about living a clear sporting vision and turning it into daily performance: that's what motivates me. Winning the Tour with Tadej was definitely the best moment of my lifeI knew him when he was just a kid, but he was always very level-headed. Even today, he wakes up in the morning with a smile and is always happy. He says "thank you" and "bye" and never yells. He doesn't feel the pressure of being the leader, yet he has the right attitudeIf I think back to that morning on the Planche des Belles Filles, on the eve of the time trial in which he would win his first Tour, I think he already knew he would finish in yellow, but he never talks about it."
Two kids in Haute-Saône
That day was magical, but there was really nothing improvised or unexpected about it, except Roglic's collapse. In the village of Plancher les Mines, in the Haute-Saône, they still remember when One day in July, in front of a guesthouse at the foot of the hill, the flagship of the UAE EmiratesThe Grande Boucle would have been raced at the end of August, in the confusing and electrifying calendar of the year of Covid that at the end of the season would have proposed the Giro in October.
Peiper himself got out and asked the elderly owner if the two riders who had just attempted the climb of the Planche des Belles Filles could take a shower in her facility. They were two 21-year-old boys: Pogacar and BjergThat climb would have been the finishing line of the penultimate stage of the Tour, at the head of a 36,2 kilometer time trial starting from LureIt was useful to try it out and simulate a series of racing situations, starting with changing bikes.
Peiper's Journey
Peiper had already been there in June, immediately after the end of the lockdown. He had left Belgium and travelled almost 600 kilometres. It was pouring with rain, and the windshield wipers had never stopped. And if at first he had doubted the wisdom of the initiative, seeing the climb he realised that the Tour would be decided there. No doubt about it.
He stayed in that area for two days. He made the climb more than once, taking note of the curves, the changes in gradient, walking the last few meters where the gradient reaches 20 percent. And then, not content, he also climbed it by bicycle, finally realizing that this stage would change history. After so many days on the big climbs, moving back into the time trial position would have been an unknown..
The observation he had taken away with him, carefully guarding it, concerned the point where you change your bike. It was clear in fact that it was not possible to reach the top with the time trial one. On the altimetry he had identified the right point at kilometer 31,1: just over 5 kilometers from the finish lineAt that point where the speed would drop to 15 miles per hour and the time trial bike would become difficult to handle. He reported it to Gouvenou, the Tour's technical director, and thanks to his reports the barriers in that transition area were placed in the exact spot he had identified.
Bike gear change and sprocket set
Managing a bike change like that is not easy, nor would it have been easy to choose the right bike. The intuition was again Peiper's, who proposed fit a junior cassette, a 19-25 six-speed, to Pogacar's bike, which would have allowed only one tooth to be changed at a time, compared to the two of normal cassettes.
The climb was very steep, with sections at 15 and even 20 percent, and to manage it you couldn't change gears abruptly. The gear shifting had to be smooth to maintain the same cadence and not put too much pressure on the legsOn the first of two days spent in the Vosges with Bjerg, Pogacar made three reconnaissances of the route. For the flat section, however, he would use a 58-tooth single chainring without a derailleur.
We were talking about the management of the bike gear change, tested at least ten times by the two riders. It was the intuition of the mechanic Vasile Morari to make the turning pointPogacar would have carried the time trial bike to the team car, while he would have passed him the road bike taken from the roof of the team car. This would have saved them the time of the mechanic passing twice. It is not common to witness such tests and It was Peiper himself who led the operations, aiming for absolute perfection.
In tears in the parking lot
During the race, everything went perfectly, and we all know how the story ended. There was even time to witness Roglic's collapse. Jumbo Visma was plunged into almost total chaos. They did not change bikes at the change in gradient indicated by Peiper, but further ahead among the people, so much so that for a while it was believed that the yellow jersey was aiming to reach the summit with the Cervélo time trial bike. And it was the subsequent admission of a technician that revealed the truth about that disheveled helmet on his head: a model used that day for the first time, heavier than the previous one, because of which Roglic lost ground and confidence.
After joking with Pogacar in the morning, while the mechanics were preparing the white bike for the next day's stage, about the fact that the team did not believe in his possibility of winning the Tour, Peiper found himself crying in the flagship parking lotHe was incredulous. He needed time to understand, so he sat for a few minutes and then he went to the Jumbo-Visma car to express his solidarity.
The Evenepoel challenge
Pogacar's Tour de France story began in that unforgettable way, with a victory in his first participation. Peiper was not yet aware of the health problems he would have to face in a few months. and that would have prevented him from following his protégé's second Tour. Red Bull, which is currently stockpiling technicians after dismissing its already successful in-house team, simply knew he was healthy enough to offer him a very important role. Will work alongside Zak Dempster, taken by Ineos Grenadiers, and Sven Vanthourenhout, the former coach of the Belgian national team who achieved the most beautiful victories with Evenepoel. Peiper's next challenge will be precisely RemcoAnd a bit of curiosity, we must admit, is starting to creep in.
