There are different ways to win a bike race, but it is not often a Tour de France stage is won like this, by stealth, hiding in plain sight: a coup du kilometre, as the French say. Frenchman Victor Lafay attacked once in the final throes but was quickly reeled in, so perhaps no one believed him when he tried again – certainly no one did enough to stop him.
On arrival in San Sebastian, where thousands of fans had waited patiently in the rain, Lafay furiously pedalled clear of the elite group, who looked around at each other asking who would chase. By the time they’d made up their minds, Lafay had turned the final corner on the beachfront alone and was clinging on for dear life, carried along by adrenaline, and hope, and by the deafening drumbeat of hands against the hoardings. As he crawled to the line Wout van Aert hunted him like a wounded animal, but it was too late. Lafay threw his hands in the air; Van Aert punched his handlebars.
