The Tour de France is full of stories. Every day we highlight a historical moment that can be linked to the upcoming stage. This time stage 20: Erik Dekker’s stage win, who broke a post-war record after a monster flight in dog weather.
In the eighth stage in 2001, the Tour peloton has to cover no less than 222 kilometers from Colmar to Pontarlier, but few riders are in the mood for this stage. The weather is beastly: the rain is pouring down from the sky and it is quite chilly for midsummer.
After a while, fourteen riders go on an adventure. This group includes Dekker, his Rabobank teammate Marc Wauters, Servais Knaven and attackers Ludo Dierckxsens and Jacky Durand. The peloton does not feel like chasing them and takes a day off.
In no time, the lead of the escapees becomes increasingly larger: from five minutes it becomes more than half an hour. In the final, Dekker, Knaven, Wauters and Aitor González break away from the rest. For Wauters, this is the perfect time to do something in return for Dekker. The Belgian previously won the second stage of that Tour after a team time trial with Dekker and took the yellow jersey.
Wauters does hard labor and steps off the front a few hundred meters from the finish line. Dekker then has to pull out all the stops, but ultimately just leaves González behind him. The peloton finishes outside the time limit at 35 minutes and 54 seconds. Only fourteen riders finish on time. But the jury takes it easy and does not kick anyone out of the Tour.
Dekker not only achieves his fourth stage win in the Tour, but also breaks a post-war record. The Dutchman is the stage winner with the largest time difference to the peloton after the Second World War. He takes over the record from the Spaniard José Luis Viejo, who won in 1976 after a solo flight with a lead of 22 minutes and 50 seconds over the peloton.
