Tour de France: Tim Merlier wins amidst bitter disappointments

Before becoming an engineer, Émiland Gauthey, sitting in the Burgundian hills overlooking the meandering course of the River Saône, imagined a world in which the movement of goods would prompt people to move, and the movement of people would reduce the differences that people perceived and regarded as sufficient reason to take up arms. The young Émiland Gauthey was driven by an absolute sense of justice and universal peace, and an extraordinary faith in people. In his later years – he died at the age of seventy-four, though this was in 1806, ed. – he wrote that his youthful ideas had proved to be “a failure” and that “that faith in the goodness of the human spirit had turned out to be a sad illusion. ‘Nothing that appears to have been written can truly be rewritten; the imagined ending is the ending that will come to pass.’ He, however, had tried to do just that. He had designed navigable canals, harbours and land transport routes to facilitate the movement of carts; he had designed and built tracks that would allow animals to transport more materials to the canal harbours with less effort. He had tried to make his beloved Chalon-sur-Saône a major centre in a vast world thanks to the Canal du Centre. Some of his creations are still used by countless people today. He failed to change either his own ending or, even less so, that of humanity, in which he had placed enormous trust.

In its own small way – although the Tour de France is not exactly small – the road leading to Chalon-sur-Saône via the hamlet of Montagny-les-Buxy – and the road leading to the hamlet of Montagny-les-Buxy is still the one laid out by engineer Émiland Gauthey – attempted to deliver a finish different from what was widely expected: a sprint finish among the top sprinters in the peloton.

Amidst the Burgundian hills overlooking the meandering course of the River Saône, the Tour de France riders have roused a stage that had been dozing its way towards the finish line, following the most classic of patterns: a few brave souls at the front breaking away from a peloton that kept them in check, as if asking, ‘Where on earth do you think you’re going?’ Do you really believe it? Those who break away from the peloton on mostly flat stages never really believe it, but they cling to hope nonetheless. Hope that is always in vain.

And yet, amongst the Burgundian hills overlooking the meandering course of the River Saône, the group encountered a defiant animosity that one would have thought unlikely to see today. The road leading to the hamlet of Montagny-les-Buxy came alive with bursts of speed and long stretches, violent yet thrilling accelerations. Quinn Simmons, Toms Skujiņš, Kasper Asgreen and Mads Pedersen tried to rewrite what seemed already decided. They gave their all, clinging to a subtle illusion – as fragile as hope sometimes is. The sprinters’ domestiques were very adept at thwarting all this fervour. It’s always the adventurers who are feted, never those poor souls who are blameless yet find themselves defending interests that are never their own but always those of others.

Just like engineer Émiland Gauthey, Quinn Simmons, Toms Skujiņš, Kasper Asgreen and Mads Pedersen also did their utmost to try and change the outcome of their story – however small, lasting just a single day – even though a story at the Tour is never insignificant, even when it lasts just a single day. Mads Pedersen had already had his moment of glory in this Tour; the others will continue to give it a go.

The most logical finish was also the one that unfolded on the twelfth stage of the 2026 Tour de France. A high-speed sprint involving the best sprinters in the peloton. Yet with a slight twist that made it a real treat to watch.

A sprint finish that saw the four best sprinters line up – at least on paper, though not always on the road, at least in this Grande Boucle: Tim Merlier, Olav Kooij, Jasper Philipsen and Biniam Girmay. Not necessarily in that order, but today it was in that order. Victory for Tim Merlier, his third in this Tour.

A sprint finish that sent a shiver of fear and apprehension through the crowd following a crash that first involved Fernando Gaviria, then Søren Wærenskjold and finally around ten unfortunate riders who were ‘to blame’ for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.