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In Stage 17 of the Tour de France, Mauro Schmid sprinted impressively to a second-place finish. However, we were left wondering why Jayco AlUla weren't able to choose riders who, on paper, were faster in the final stretch. Michael Matthews and Felix Engelhardt were in the leading group, but due to poor radio communication and a chaotic final stretch, it was a bit of a free-for-all.
For a long time, Jayco AlUla seemed to have things perfectly under control in the breakaway. With Ben O'Connor, Schmid, Engelhardt, and Matthews, the team had four riders in the breakaway. Engelhardt, wearing his German national champion’s jersey, was part of a group with Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) for quite some time. A group that led the race for quite a while.
When everything finally fell into place and we were able to prepare for a sprint, Schmid said Jayco AlUla still had a clear plan. “When Felix was in the lead, we rode in front of him for a long time and didn’t do anything in the group behind. When only Jasper Stuyven was left riding in front, we let Ben and Felix take the lead.”
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Schmid sprinted, but that wasn't the plan at Jayco AlUla
From there, things started to go a bit awry, according to Engelhardt, because, as he put it, the German wasn’t sure who they were actually riding for. “We wanted to go for the sprint with Michael, but there was another attack. I was right on Joshua Tarling’s (Netcompany INEOS, ed.) wheel, and at that point we were still 300 meters from the finish.”
"I just went for it then, even though that wasn't really the plan," said Schmid, who managed to secure second place that way. According to the Swiss rider, communication didn't really get going again. “I’ve already heard from many riders in this Tour de France that the radios aren’t working properly. That’s a problem for us, too, especially when the support car isn’t right behind us.”
"That makes it hard to keep track of everything," said Schmid, who also noted that it was a bizarre day, with attacks from start to finish. "We had braced ourselves for a tough day, but it was extremely tough right from the start. After that, the pace stayed at full throttle, and it was chaotic all day long."
