Pierre Latour has ridden to second on Puy de Dôme proving that he is in position to win a stage at the Tour de France, but he faces a serious problem. His fear of descending has seen him lose contact with the winning break on stage 13, which has left him very upset.
"I can't let go of my fear in the descents. I drop to the tail of the pack and have to make futile attempts to get back to the front. It's all in my head, but it's stronger than me," Latour admitted in an interview with Le Parisien. “I fell hard during the Tour of Oman in 2019, where I suffered two fractures. However, I can't control it during a descent, which makes me tense and relapse into my fear. It's like I can't feel the ground under my feet anymore."
Not an unfamiliar scenario, the Frenchman continues to struggle due to the fear of past crashes, struggling in the descents which are ridden at extraordinary speed at the Tour. Last afternoon he jumped across to the breakaway but on the single descent of the day he lost the train, and then could not return to the front group. Michal Kwiatkowski won from the front group, leaving Latour wondering what could have been if he had held on during those nervous kilometers.
"It's a vicious circle. The others pass me, but that only makes me more scared and tense. I feel completely paralyzed," he admits. "In recent years I have tried everything to get rid of it, but as soon as it goes downhill everything explodes in my head. It feels like an alcoholic enjoying a drink. I want to see if I can take the lines well there and get used to the speeds in the corners."
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