Jhonatan Narváez has a way of hiding in plain sight. Nicknamed ‘El Lagarto’, translating to ‘The Lizard’ in English, the Ecuadorian rider can dart in and out of gaps in the peloton that many wouldn’t even know existed. He’s not at the front until he has to be, and when that moment comes, Narváez is always there. His podium finishes on stages four and five of the Tour Down Under were already proof of this, and his eventual victory on Willunga Hill (which puts him in the race lead with just one stage to go) cements it. The UAE Team Emirates man is a very canny bike rider – he works smarter, not harder.
If we want to look at those riding with almost the directly opposite approach to Narváez on stage six of the Tour Down Under, we can examine the tactics of the home-favourite team, Jayco-Alula. There was scarcely a moment throughout the entire day that their striking purple jerseys couldn’t be seen at the front of the peloton. They had a plan to make the first ascent of Willunga hard and they executed it, with Mauro Schmid and Chris Harper even attacking off the front in order to set Luke Plapp up for the final climb. The Australian squad threw the proverbial kitchen sink at trying to take the ochre jersey.
“We had an ambitious plan and we needed to go hard, try something different, be unpredictable. The guys were under pressure. It was a hard race and it’s hard not to be frustrated when it doesn’t pull off. But they were passionate today, wanted to win and go after it, that’s what we did,” Jayco-Alula sports director Mat Hayman commented after the stage.
“We’ve always come here with a rider that’s looking for time bonuses and trying to do what Narváez did, now the shoe is on the other foot and we’re the Richie Porte that is trying to win on Willunga. Maybe Plapp went a bit early, he’s keen to impress, keen to go. He’s not a 15 year seasoned professional, he went after it and you have to allow that. Hats off to the guys, they were here to race. I understand the tactics of Narváez and [Oscar] Onley – they went for the win and are never gonna ride with Plappy. That’s bike racing.”
All eyes were on Jayco-Alula ahead of the Tour Down Under, and they did very little in the way of adverting anyone’s gaze with their tactics on stage five of the race. As Hayman points out, credit is due to the team for their audacious and daring plan of attack, but professional cycling is about one, simple goal: winning.
Similarly to the Australian team, the ochre jersey wearer on stage five, Javier Romo of Movistar, took the offensive approach to Willunga Hill, rather than opting for a defensive strategy to keep his race lead. The Spanish rider made a surprise attack on the base of the climb, playing his cards early, rather than entering into a game of poker with his rivals. He was caught before the summit eventually and conceded the leader’s jersey to Narváez.
“Massive set of cojones, but absolute suicide,” Jayco-Alula’s Luke Plapp commented after the race when questioned about Romo’s move. “I thought he was either going to ride away and it was going to be one of the best Willunga’s we’ve ever seen or he’s going to lose the bike race. Fair on him for still being there at the end, he rode like a pretty big champion out there and took the race by the scruff of the neck.”
The list goes on: Ineos Grenadiers were another team who tried different tactics to win the Tour Down Under, aiming to split the race in the crosswinds between the two ascents of Willunga, rather than opting for a Narváez-style restrained and understated approach to the stage. Sports director Ian Stannard said that the team are planning to adapt “an aggressive racing style” in 2025, something that they showed with their performances.
But aiming to ride aggressively, or have the biggest cojones, or to put on a show for a home crowd, doesn’t always equate to standing on the top step of the podium, as the final outcome of the stage eventually proved. One man who was worried about nothing other than getting himself over the finish line first was Narváez himself. He didn’t panic when Ineos put him under pressure as he was isolated in the exposed, windy section of the race, he wasn’t tricked into going early on Willunga Hill when Romo made his surprise move. He stayed close to the ground. ‘El Lagarto’: bright, alert and reactive, emerging only when absolutely necessary.
“Romo is a strong guy, chapeau when he attacks from the bottom. I thought he was going to die one-kilometre later but then he showed he was strong because he took a while to get caught,” an ice-cool Narváez stated a few moments after taking his stage win. “I was really calm until I started the climb. You have to be smart in these situations.”
For those watching at home, Narváez may not have been the rider people were rooting for. He hadn’t worn his heart on his sleeve, or made it clear what his plan was to snatch the race lead, his tactics didn’t have us glued to our TV screens like Jayco-Alula’s might have, but none of that really matters. The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider is the one who is going into the race’s final flat stage with a nine second lead that is likely enough to give him his first WorldTour victory for his new team. And at the root of it, that is all that bike racing is really about.
