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The Other End of the Race
Even as his teammate celebrate the victory he so narrowly missed in Nimes, Jack Bauer (Garmin Sharp) was picking himself back up off of the road. He was one of roughly thirty riders who went down just inside of the final 3 kilometers to go point on the approach into Bergerac. The three kilometer part of the story is critical. Riders who crash or have a mechanical inside of that point are given the same time on the stage as those whom they were with that make it to the finishing line. Bauer took longer to get back underway than most who went down, and was shaking out his left arm as he slowly pedal the remaining distance to join his jubilant teammate. Many others came up along his side as he rode in, but unlike the Garmin Sharp man, they had been dropped out on the course and their arrival time gaps were what would be recorded as their official times.