with a humble but flattered shrug and smile, ‘prego.’
‘Everyone is so lovely,’ Fen remarked to Pip as a vast Spanish family made room at the roadside for them, and an elderly German woman whose face was painted like her national flag offered them cold sausages.
‘It’s like a huge family,’ Pip agreed, thanking three young Spanish boys for sharing their orange juice. ‘I can’t believe you’re making me go home tonight.’
‘I have to go to work tomorrow,’ Fen bemoaned, wanting to stay in the Alps, stay on for the Time Trial, for Paris, rather than head home to trying times and impossible choices.
‘And Ben is going to drive us to the station in Grenoble,’ said Pip. ‘He’s lovely, isn’t he?’
‘It’s only about 70 k from Gilbertville,’ Fen retorted, wondering how on earth she had the space in her mind to be confused about Ben when she was dithering over two men of her own. ‘Wouldn’t you rather Alex drove us?’ Fen crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow at her sister who almost choked on her orange juice before brandishing a very wicked smile.
‘Naughty Philippa,’ Pip chastized herself with great pride.
‘And?’ Fen pressed.
‘Who would have thought the Tour de France was sex and drugs and rock and roll?’ Pip marvelled as a nearby Danish contingent danced terribly to terrible Europop and a Dutch posse enjoyed cake whose main ingredient was obviously far more mood-enhancing than just flour, butter, eggs and sugar.
In the Gilbertville salle de pressé, a large marquee by the Arly river, Cat sat on a rickety plastic chair as if it were a veritable throne.
Taverner didn’t cut a bloody word! she marvelled to herself and anyone else who chanced upon the Guardian, spread before her. If this doesn’t swing the favour of the Maillot office, what the fuck will?
‘Andy? This is Cat McCabe in Gilbertville.’
‘Hullo, Cat McCabe in Gilbertville,’ said Andy from offices in Pentonville.
‘Have you seen the Guardian?’ Cat said, trying hard not to squeak with excitement, nor sound deflated when Andy said he hadn’t. ‘Well, I gave Taverner twice as much as he’d asked for and he hasn’t cut a word.’
‘And Maillot would want to employ a girl who doesn’t do as she’s told?’ came the response, the tongue in cheek not being audible via mobile phone. Cat hung up and speed-read yesterday’s article to keep despondency at bay. ‘I need a break,’ she said quietly, ‘I deserve the chance.’
Fabian Ducasse wanted a break too, but the peloton were still bruised from the previous Stage, their bodies bewildered by the sudden heat, so they rode together in an unspoken ceasefire. Fabian’s team-mate Carlos Jesu Velasquez, the dethroned King of the Mountains, had conquered the first three narrow twisting mountain passes to bring him within spitting distance of the polka dot jersey Massimo Lipari had taken from him yesterday. No one went for broke on the penultimate climb, the Grand Cucheron, so there were no great time gaps as the riders raced in the still, dry, high heat along 40 kilometres of flat roads towards the Col de la Madeleine.
There, Fen was tanning nicely and Pip’s nose was starting to burn a little until she caught a souvenir baseball cap flung from the publicity caravan. The vibe of the approaching race could be felt from way off and the McCabe sisters were soon standing in anticipation with the excited hordes, ten people to every metre along the climb of the Madeleine. A whisper surged through the crowds that Fabian had launched a surprise attack in the lower reaches. Those further up could not witness it but ears were glued to radios and, in the salle de presse, eyes were stuck to the TV screens. What Cat saw she deemed to be nothing short of genius and she intended to tell her Guardian readers just that.
Fabian Ducasse read astutely not only the requirements of the 19.5 km climb of the Madeleine, but also the state of his rivals’ minds and bodies. As the 7.6 per cent ascent commenced, he appeared tired – continually dropping off the back of his small lead group and then labouring hard to claw his way back. Ultimately, he was calling their bluff. Suddenly he steamed from the back and headed off at speed, plucking Velasquez with him. Sitting deep and resolute in the saddle, his shoulders steady, his gear arrogantly huge, his body appeared to snub the gradient of the climb. His Spanish team-mate and grimpeur extraordinaire, stood on his pedals and danced alongside the Système Vipère leader. Zucca MV’s Jawlensky launched a counter-attack immediately, assisted by the heroic Gianni Fugallo – arguably the super domestique of the Tour. However, having offered Vasily his slipstream in the Pyrenees and the Alps, having worked tirelessly to bring Stefano Sassetta to the sprint finishes of the first week, today Fugallo only managed to haul his team leader two thirds of the way up the Madeleine before dropping back. It was enough, however, to keep the Russian strategically close to his Système Vipère adversaries and Fugallo’s efforts were instrumental in ensuring that the maillot jaune stays with Zucca MV tonight.
While Fen and Pip were too high up to see the super domestique at work, they would later see what Cat could not: how ravaged a state Fugallo was in. The pictures beamed in to the salle de pressé focused on the race lead, not the domestique struggling with the mountain in a body struggling to cope. Fen and Pip yelled and leapt as Fabian and Carlos, and soon enough Vasily, passed by.
‘I can’t believe I’ve been so self-centred with my Evian,’ Pip said in horror, watching the fans pour water over the riders as they passed. ‘You can have one last sip, Fen,’ she said.
‘Look at all these people,’ Fen marvelled, taking two sips less than she actually required, ‘they’re like an ever-converging corridor, stepping aside but a wheel away from the approaching riders.’
‘If you were a dog,’ Pip reasoned, scanning downhill for the cyclists, ‘you’d have to wag your tail up and down, it’s so narrow. Here they come!’
‘Two and a half minutes off the lead,’ said Fen, checking her watch and focusing on four specks of lycra approaching. ‘Look! Someone’s bolted off.’
‘Lipari! Lipari!’ sang neighbouring Italians who’d been most generous with their Amaretti biscuits and their Amaretto, and they burst into the Zucca MV climber’s Giro pop tune.
‘Will he catch them?’ Fen wondered. ‘Fabian and Carlos and Vasily?’
‘He’s Massimo,’ one Italian said to her, raising his hands as if her question bordered on blasphemy, ‘of course he catch them – he eat them!’
‘Indians,’ says Hunter to Luca in a group of twelve, 24 minutes behind the leaders.
‘What?’ says Luca, who feels surprisingly strong but is riding carefully.
‘Indians,’ Hunter repeats, nodding ahead. Luca follows his gaze and his heart drops.
‘Oh fuck,’ he gasps, ‘no way, man, no fuckin’ way.’
He’d thought the summit couldn’t possibly be much further off. But, as he looks ahead, he spies lines of fans in the distance, snaking up and around the mountain, a zig-zag of spectators demarcating horribly clearly the severity and length of the route to the summit.
‘You can do it,’ Hunter says, ‘we can both make it.’
‘We
