‘Given up!’ – Stefan Bissegger suffers mechanical, shares drink with rival during Tour de France time trial

Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) followed up a miserable opening day time trial at the Tour de France with a miserable penultimate day time trial.

“Oh no, no, no,” said Rob Hatch on Eurosport commentary.

“This man just cannot buy any luck in time trialling at this race, this year and unless he’s having the day of his life, it’s going to cost him.”

Dan Lloyd added that it would take a mental, as well as a physical, toll.

“It’s another huge mental blow that I think is going to affect him as much in his head as it is going to affect him physically.

“It’s just not what you need.”

Bissegger got back up to speed and was sixth at the third time check. However, the bike provided to him by his EF Education-EasyPost team did not have a water bottle, which, given the hot temperatures, was sub-optimal.

And having drawn level with Groupama–FDJ rider Olivier Le Gac, Bissegger, in fairly unprecedented scenes, asked his rival for a little gulp from his bottle. Le Gac duly obliged. The pair then appeared to sit up as Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) sauntered by.

“Bissegger, he just seems to have given up,” said Adam Blythe on commentary moments after the pair shared the bottle.

Eventually the Swiss time trial specialist threw in the towel on the final climb into Rocamadour, coming in 4’10” down on the then-leader, Filippo Ganna of Ineos Grenadiers.

After the finish, he spoke to Eurosport.

“From start to finish I couldn’t hear anything on the radio,” said Bissegger.

“The crash mode on my gear shifting kicked in so I had to change bikes. Not being able to hear anything, it was really dangerous on this course with all the twists and turns on the road.

“So I just decided to stop and pedal easy to the finish. It’s disappointing for sure.

“[Olivier Le Gac] was really kind and gave me a drink because on the spare bike I didn’t have a bottle. In this temperature it was way too hot – yeah, he was a really cool guy, thank you very much.”

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