Kuss crashed, but then the story emerged of an eternal lead-out that made the impossible possible

Domestiques in cycling: they come in all shapes and sizes. Men like Sepp Kuss, Rafal Majka, Tim Declercq ... they all sacrificed themselves for leaders, while lead-outs like Michael Mørkøv often went somewhat under the radar as well. Much less known is the story of master lead-out Geoffrey Soupe, who for years led his sprinter to victories, but also really struck out of nowhere on an unprecedented day....

A little Geoffrey Soupe was born in Viriat on March 22, 1988, after which he soon jumps on his bike. The first noteworthy result in cycling came in 2010, when the youngster became French champion in the Under-23s. In terms of profile, it soon became clear that he had a very fast sprint and FDJ therefore gave him a contract for 2011.

He did win right away on his very first day of racing as a pro, in the Tour of Gabon, but winning was not going to be something the Frenchman would be on the bike for. Letting others win: that's something he was much better at. Soupe knew fairly quickly where he stood. A lead-out, or poisson-pilote as they say in French, is what he would become. And what a lead-out.

In his career, that would be mostly for Nacer Bouhanni. Both riders followed each other for years. From his early years with FDJ, Soupe rode with the French sprinter and when Bouhanni went to Cofidis in 2015, his lead-out went with him. When Bouhanni left the French team again in 2019, a new adventure awaited Soupe as well.

The sprinter moved to Arkéa, but his eternal lead-out moved to TotalEnergies. It would be the team where Soupe would ride the last years of his career. For that team, he returned to the Tour of Gabon in 2023, where, thanks to a win in the opening stage, he won the overall classification. Victories two and three were there for the rider who almost never won, but the big day was yet to come. Soupe was, after all, a super domestique and so he himself had not really counted on success anymore....

We go back to September 1st, 2023, when the peloton of the Vuelta was up for the seventh stage. It was anything but difficult beforehand, as the 200 kilometers between Utiel and Oliva were flat. In that Tour of Spain, Remco Evenepoel had lost time on the competition the day before, and so the Belgian had lost the red jersey to Lenny Martinez.

In stage seven, there would be nothing going on for the GC-riders and it was mostly the fast men who were gearing up for a sprint. So far, the sprints in this Vuelta had fallen to Kaden Groves, who had won on both day four and day five thanks to two powerful sprints. Other sprinters in that Vuelta were Orluis Aular, Marijn van den Berg, Lewis Askey, Edward Theuns, Juan Sebastian Molano and Hugo Page.

So those were the men to watch in stage seven. On a sunny day it would end up being a real slow stage, where a Spanish duo was in for a pointless day in the break. Alpecin-Deceuninck, which controlled in for day-favourite Groves, had to be careful not to catch the escapees too quickly.

That didn't happen and so at 41 kilometers from the finish we had a complete peloton. Not much later, Groves beat Van den Berg at the intermediate sprint, where Jonas Vingegaard also took two bonus seconds. And Soupe? He kept all aloof in this story, slowly waiting for the one opportunity that might present itself.

As quiet and boring as most of the stage was, the finale was chaotic and exciting. A first crash in the last ten kilometers disrupted the peloton, and not much later there was another crash. Thymen Arensman, DSM's team leader, crashed hard and his continuation in the Tour of Spain seemed highly uncertain. Sepp Kuss was also involved, but the eventual winner of the Vuelta was able to continue.

Soupe stayed out of trouble and with him most of the sprinters. Yet there was absolutely no control in the peloton and the Frenchman saw his chances grow bigger and bigger. In the absolute finale he launched his own sprint on the left and all the important sprinters of the Vuelta rode side by side. It would be a very tight sprint but...

Soupe won! Wow. The eternal lead-out, the eternal teammate: it was Soupe who, at 35, managed to win a stage of the Vuelta. There he was, with his iconic beard on the podium of the Vuelta. It would be by far the biggest win of his career. The Frenchman had pulled off a mega stunt, TotalEnergies was over the moon with its iconic rider.

"This is unbelievable," Soupe searched for the right words afterwards. How extremely improbable this win was soon became clear. "Normally I would never ride this Vuelta, but an injury to a teammate allowed me to go. But I never thought I could win." Even more impossible? Certainly, because it wasn't actually up to him that day. "I was actually supposed to lead-out Dries van Gestel, but he wasn't there anymore."

And so he did it himself. "I rode in the lead and I was surprised that nobody passed me," said the winner, who finally won by himself. "With Bouhanni I was able to win sprints before, as a lead-out. That's a skill in itself, but to finish that by myself now.... Unbelievable." How incredible that win was...

As an eternal lead-out, winning at the highest level is possible, and the Frenchman, at the age of 35, was living proof of that. Cheering on the podium, champagne bottle in hand, a big smile above his trademark beard: Geoffrey Soupe made the impossible possible when no one was expecting it.

In his last two years as a pro, no more thunderous results followed, but Soupe probably won't care much. September 1, 2023, is the day he will remember forever. And so will we, as loyal cycling fans. Bonne continuation pour la suite et merci pour tout, Geoffrey!