Nicholas Dlamini’s Tour de France dream ends in icy Alps

The first two major mountain stages of the 2021 Tour de France decimated the field as pre-race favourites, former champions and rank-and-file team riders suffered in freezing, wet conditions.

Nicholas Dlamini, the first black South African to ride the Tour de France, was one of the casualties during Sunday’s 144.9km stage nine from Cluses in the northern Alps to the mountain-top finish at Tignes. Dlamini finished the stage, but failed to do it in the cut-off time.

Not noted as a specialist climber, Dlamini – along with the Tour’s leading sprinters such as green jersey holder Mark Cavendish and 11-time stage winner Andre Greipel – rode in a grupetto at the back of the field.

This group of riders’ only objective was to finish within the cut-off time, which is calculated as a percentage of the stage winner’s overall time. It’s a complicated formula that takes the winner’s time, calculates the average speed and then uses a predetermined coefficient based on the stage profile (mountain stages being the hardest) to come up with a time differential.

On Sunday’s stage nine the time allowed between stage winner Ben O’Connor and the cut-off was 37 minutes and 20 seconds. The idea is to ensure that even riders, mainly sprinting specialists, do not cruise the course and conserve energy for the next day. They are still required to race.

Struggling riders on mountain stages form a grupetto, or small group, at the back of the race and pace each other to ensure they reach the end within the cut-off limit.

But on Sunday, with pouring rain and temperatures dropping to 10 degrees Celsius at the top of passes, it was always a struggle. Dlamini fell on one of the descents and lost contact with the grupetto and there was just no way back for the 25-year-old.

He continued to ride and refused to abandon the race, finally crossing the line one hour, 24 minutes behind O’Connor’s winning time, and was therefore eliminated from the race.

“It was a hard stage and there were some honest climbs; the nature of the stage and the weather didn’t make it easy,” an exhausted and upset Dlamini said after the stage.

“It was just a bad day to have a bad day. I was already unlucky to also crash and lose contact and after that I was on my own, so it was really difficult to just ride a good pace and get to the guys on my own.

“I would have loved to finish the race because it is sad to finish this way. But for me the most important thing was not to stop and ride until the finish regardless of being out of the time limit.

Nicholas Dlamini during the third stage of the 84th Tour de Suisse UCI ProTour cycling race from Lachen to Pfaffnau, Switzerland, on 8 June 2021. (Photo: EPA-EFE/Gian Ehrenzeller)