Stage 14 - Stalemate on the Plateau

Another day in the Pyrenees, and another day that generated more questions than answers. Thomas Voeckler’s ‘suitcase of courage’ still remains packed to the brim, as the Frenchman managed to hang onto the coattails of all of the big GC riders to hold onto the Yellow Jersey for yet another day. The unknown Belgian from two days ago, Jelle Vanendert, ensured his name would forever more be in the history books, by breaking away on the final climb to win the 168km stage from Saint Gaudens to the Plateau de Beille. In a reversal of Thursday night’s stage, he defeated Samuel Sanchez in second, while Andy Schleck filled the podium third, gaining a pair of precious seconds on the rest of the GC men.

The two main stories of the day were Vockler’s ability to stick with the world’s best climbers, and the fact that men at the top of the overall standings continue to neutralise each other. After Leopard Trek again set the place over the earlier climbs, it seemed to be every man for himself on the final climb to the summit finish. But the big fireworks that were expected again failed to materialise. Andy Schleck was the main protagonist, putting in a number of explosive attacks without reward. Each time he made the move either Voeckler or Cadel Evans was straight on his wheel, and the rest of the lead pack would eventually catch up. Basso also had a crack at riding his rivals off his wheel through the use of brute power but he never had that explosiveness need to shake off the other leaders. In the end, it was the young unknown Belgian who was left free to fly, and he took advantage to take the solo win at the top. The big names also gambled in letting Sanchez go, and while he left it too late to catch Vanendert, he did manage to gain another 25 seconds over the lead pack by the finish. Schleck’s attacking did pay off in the final 500m when he sprinted clear to pick up a couple of cheap seconds over the rest of the leaders. But he is going to need to do more than that to get his hands on the Yellow Jersey.

So all in all, that pretty much leaves us in the same position we were in after the climb to Luz Ardiden. Perhaps the only difference is that Voeckler must now be viewed as a genuine for the contender for the overall title. He looked in zero trouble on the stage and was actually the only man outside of Evans to chase down multiple attacks from Andy Schleck. He still has a lead of nearly 2 minutes over his nearest rival (Frank Schleck) and if he keeps this kind of form up, geez he will be tough to run down. It would be great to see him win the thing! Alberto Contador still looks like he lacks the form to overturn his 4 minute time deficit, while Ivan Basso and Evans are still ticking all the right boxes. We will have to wait for the next rendezvous in the Alps to see if anything changes.

There were a couple of changes in the prize classifications. Jelle Vanendert now has the Polka Dot jersey to go with his stage win, his first place finish at the summit enough to see him take a 2 point lead in the mountains classification from Sammy Sanchez. The lead in the youth classification also changes hands, with the White Jersey now sitting on the shoulders of Rigoberto Uran, who was the only under 25 to finish with the leaders on the stage.

Yellow Jersey – Thomas Voeckler
Green Jersey – Mark Cavendish
Polka Dot Jersey – Jelle Vanendert
White Jersey – Rigoberto Uran

Stage 13 - Championship Qualities

"Perhaps one day I will look back on this stage as a great effort, but at the moment I feel too disappointed to see it that way" – Jeremy Roy

What looked like being a hum drum day in the Pyrenees produced a stunning final 15km that resembled a three man pursuit race. In the end it was World Champion Thor Hushovd who took the win, from a pair of Frenchman, David Moncoutie, and the extremely brave Jeremy Roy, who led but all for the last 2 of the final 50 or so kilometres. Despite missing the win Roy did not go home empty handing, taking the lead in the Mountains classification by 5 points from Sammy Sanchez.

I’m sure Hushovd will get all the plaudits for his win, the only one of his 9 Tour stage victories to occur in the mountains, but for mine the hero of the day was Jeremy Roy. Roy climbed to the lead on the day’s major ascent of the Col d’Aubisque, and as such, had to ride the final 50km+ alone if he was to hold on for the winner. A lead of around 80 seconds at the top of the climb was gradually whittled down by Hushovd and Moncoutie (with the God of Thunder doing pretty much all the work), and with 15km to go all hope seemed lost for Roy as he led by only 15 seconds. Amazingly he dug deep and maintained that advantage for the next 10 kilometres. Despite the repeated urgings of team manager Marc Madiot, the distance proved just a few short kilometres too far. With around 3km to go Hushovd produced a final burst of acceleration to drop Moncoutier and Roy’s brave resistance ended as he was finally swept up by his two pursuers. With all his energy spent he drifted into third around half a minute behind Hushovd. Pointing to his heart as he crossed the line, I am sure most of world cycling wished he could have held on for the victory.

Outside of the final contest for victory the stage was an absolute fizzer despite the climb up the Aubisque. Europecar controlled the peleton to protect Voeckler’s lead and none of the big leaders were willing to make any moves with 40km of descending remaining from the summit to the finish. The leaders probably had at least one eye on tonight’s epic summit finish but it did look like another case of poor stage design by Tour director Christian Prudhomme. Philippe Gilbert made a strange tactical decision to ride off the front of the peleton on the descent to pick up a few green jersey points at the finish, but Mark Cavendish still holds a relatively comfortable lead in the points classification despite finishing in the autobus (Rojas made it over the Aubisque to lead the peleton home behind Gilbert).

Tonight sees the second of the big Pyrenean stages with three major climbs culminating in Plateau de Beille. Ominously, every rider who has won the stage finish at Plateau de Beille has gone on to win the Tour that same year. Given that, you would think the big favourites would come out to play tonight.

Yellow Jersey – Thomas Voeckler
Green Jersey – Mark Cavendish
Polka Dot Jersey – Jeremy Roy
White Jersey – Arnold Jeannesson

Photo courtesy of Cyclingnews.

Stage 12 - The King Is Dead

Alberto Contador cannot win this year’s Tour de France. I know it is always risky to write off a champion, but after Stage 12, a 209km trek through the Pyrenees from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden there can be no other conclusion. The Spaniard could only finish 8^th on the stage, with 6^th of his major GC rivals all gaining time on him. The stage win went to another Spaniard in the form of Olympic Champion Sammy Sanchez. He broke away from the field early on the days final climb and held on to win from little known Belgian and breakaway companion Jelle Vanedert. Frank Schleck, the only one of the major GC leaders to put in a major attack, filled the podium in third. Thomas Voeckler managed to hold onto the Yellow Jersey with a courageous display of climbing, to finish just 50 seconds behind the stage winner.

While the win of Sanchez and the brave performance of Voeckler were the highlights of the day. The big story was the shake up in the battle for the GC in the first real big rendezvous of this year’s tour. Here is a summary of how they went in their current order on GC:

Frank Schleck – 2^nd @ 1:49 – was the only one of the big GC guys to attack on the finish up to Luz Ardiden, or perhaps more accurately, he was the only one of the big 5 that the big favourites allowed to let go. Looked good when he did break clear and put 20 seconds into the favourites and now leads Evans by 17 seconds. The question is whether they let him go again and weather he can gain enough time to hang on in the final time trial.

Cadel Evans – 3^rd @ 2:06 – Look totally comfortable despite having limited support from his team mates and at no stage did he look to be in any real trouble at all. On that ride alone, his current time advantage over some of the other big names, and his time trial ability, you would think he would be the current favourite. But there is always the feeling his annual mental breakdown is just around the corner.

Andy Schleck – 4^th @ 2:17 – Outside Contador I reckon Andy looked the worst of the GC guys. Contador was really struggling and I just get the feeling that a fit Andy would have looked to put more time into him. He seemed to have the most difficulty in matching the surges of Basso and Evans and he will need to improve if he is going to gain enough time in the mountains to win the Tour.

Ivan Basso – 5^th @ 3:16 – This guy looked awesome! While he doesn’t have the accelerations of the Schlecks or Contador he has a massive engine that can power up climbs. He sent his Polish teammate Sylvester Szmyd to the front to set the pace on the final climb and destroyed most of the peleton in the process. He looked in no danger and had no problem following any of the attacks. The main negative is that he is already over a minute down over Evans and Frank and will have to hope they have a bad day somewhere to make up that time.

Damiano Cunego – 6^th @ 3:22 – It was great to see the little prince back in the form that saw him win the Giro in 2004. He stayed with the big boys for most of the stage and was just tailed off in the final kilometre or so. He has heaps of ability but doesn’t really have the engine to stay with the GC kings over the entire three weeks of a Grand Tour. He can’t win it but with more performances like that is definitely top 10 material.

Alberto Contador – 7^th @ 4:00 – G O N E. GONE! El Pistelero was already 90 seconds behind the likes of Cadel Evans before this stage and with only 4 summit finishes at the tour this year had to make his move to try and start making time back on the likes of Evans and Andy. He didn’t even try to attack and at times could barely follow the moves of his rivals. In the end, the elastic finally snapped in the closing kilometre and he lost another 13 seconds to Evans, Andy and Basso. Whether it is knee, the energy exerted at the Giro, or the mental drain from his upcoming doping case before the CAS, he just does not seem to have it this year. For the first time in 7 events, he will not win a three week grand tour that he has started.

Samuel Sanchez – 8^th @ 4:11 – I love this guy but I just think (a bit like Cadel) that he is a little too brilliant to win the Tour and is more of a classics man. He has also been hampered by some really poor luck, getting caught up in crashes early in the first week and losing unncesscary time. If he wasn’t already 2 minutes behind the likes of Evans and the Schlecks he would be a definite chance of winning but I just don’t think he will get any more leeway now and won’t be able to make up enough of that lost time.

So what does that all sum up to? The answer is I have NFI! With Contador seemingly collapsing before our very eyes the race is now an absolute lottery. A fit Andy Schleck would be hot favourite now but to my eyes his form looks ordinary. Frank looks in great form but has proven he is an atrocious time trialist at the end of three week races. The man that ticks all the boxes is (wait for it...) Cadel “Don’t Touch My Dog” Evans, but he always seems to be just one day away from a complete collapse in the mountains. That leaves me with Basso, who can be a decent time trialler on his day, but lacks the explosiveness to gain back the time he is already lost in the mountains. If I was dead honest the Tour is now really Cadel Evan’s to lose – which usually means tonight will be the stage where he completely explodes and loses 2-3 minutes. One thing is for sure – the way the race has opened right up we are in for a roller coaster ride all the way to Paris!

While Thomas Voeckler held onto his jersey two prize competitions did see changes. With this the first big day in the mountains, the Tour’s latest sweetheart Johnny Hoogerland gave up his polka dot jersey to Sammy Sanchez, who now leads the competition by 8 points from the Belgian that helped him up Luz Ardiden, Jelle Vanedert. The other change was in the youth classification with Robert Gesink (christ this guy is overrated!) completely collapsing on the Tourmalet to lose his white Jersey. While the jersey was feted to go to young Estonian Rein Taaramae, he wilted on the climb up to Luz Ardiden and the jersey instead passed to little known Frenchman Arnold Jeannesson, who will have been delighted to capture the jersey on Bastille Day. Mark Cavendish extended his lead in the points competition by leading the peleton over the line at the intermediate sprint, situated just before the start of the day’s three massive passes.

Yellow Jersey – Thomas Voeckler
Polka Dot Jersey – Samuel Sanhez
Green Jesrey – Mark Cavendish
White Jesrey – Arnold Jeannesson

Stage 11 - Order Restored

Stage 11 of this year’s Tour, a 168km wet ride from Blayes-les-Mines to Lavaur, was pretty much ho hum and went to the usual script. Peleton lets break go, peleton catches break, races ends in sprint finish. Cavendish wins. Textbook Le Tour. Mark Cavendish got some payback for yesterday’s defeat when he easily held of Stage 10 winner Andre Greipel for the win. Stage 2 winner Tyler Farrar completed the podium in third.

In taking the win Cavendish grabbed his first lead in this years points competition, and will wear the Green Jersey into first major mountains stage tonight. Cavendish now has a 16 point lead over former jersey wearer Jose Joaquin Rojas, who could only manage 7^th on the stage. Philippe Gilbert was unsighted at the finish and slipped from first to third in this competition. Now that Cavendish has the jersey, you would back him to hold it all the way to Paris (although he has been in this position before and lost it). The new points system seems to suit him, as aswell as getting a bigger points advantage for winning stages, he can also pick up a few points over his rivals in intermediate sprints. That trend continued today, with Cavendish easily leading the main group over the line at the intermediate sprint point ahead of Rojas.

In terms of the other competitions there was no change in the standings. Thomas Voeckler again held the Yellow Jersey with ease, and it will be very interesting to see if he can hold onto it tomorrow as the race sees its first summit finish at Luz Ardiden. The same can be said for everyones new favourite rider Johnny Hoogerland. The Dutchman has put on a brave face since being thrown into a barbed-wire fence in the ‘cargate’ incident, but with so many mountain points on offer tonight you would think it would take an herculean effort for him to hold the jersey. Robert Gesink still leads in the youth classification.

But after all the shadow-boxing the real stuff starts tonight. 200+km, a cat-1 to warm up, and then the Tourmalet and Luz Ardiden to finish. There will be nowhere to hide. With Contador needing to make up time whenever he can he will have to make his move at some stage. Anyone wanting to stand on the top podium in Paris this year will have to go with him. Can’t wait!

Yellow Jersey – Thomas Voeckler
Polka Dot Jersey – Johnny Hoogerland
Green Jesrey – Mark Cavendish
White Jesrey – Robert Gesink

Stage 10 - Greipel's Revenge

Geez German’s annoy me. If they are not starting wars, committing genocide, or building walls right down the middle of their capital, then they are beating the world at sport. This was no better exemplified than in Stage 10 of this years Tour, a 161km flat stage from Aurillac to Carmaux when German Andre Greipel took his first ever Tour de France stage win. In the process, he beat fierce and bitter rival Mark Cavendish into second. Green jersey candidate Jose Joaquin Rojas completed the podium in third, just ahead of World Champion Thor Hushovd in 4^th.

Credit must go to Greipel who was out powered by both Cavendish and Alessandro Pettachi on the most recent sprint finish (Stage 7). That day he went early and faded late, but this time he got his sprint absolutely right. The HTC-High Road team of Cavendish had destroyed themselves chasing down Phillipe Gilbert and Thomas Voeckler in the final 3km as the Green and Yellow jersey wearers made last ditch attempts at would have been a famous victory. But they were reeled in by the sprint hungry HTC machine, in the process leaving Cavendish isolated with only one lead out man. That left the Manxman exposed, and Greipel took full advantage. This time it was Cav who went too early. Greipel got into his slipstream – pulled out at the right moment – and powered over the top of the missile to win in a photo finish. It was a brilliant ride and good luck to him. But I still don’t like the guy.

There was no change in the overall classification race with Thomas Voeckler retaining his grip on the yellow jersey with relative ease – Johnny Hoogerland did likewise with the polka dot jersey as did Robert Gesink with the White. Philippe Gilbert maintained his hold over the Green jersey, although his ill advised attempted at a breakaway victory allowed Rojas to close the gap at the top of this competition.

Apart from that, little else happened on what was pretty much a regulation sprint stage. None of the GC contenders lost any time and Alberto Contador showed no real ill effects of his supposed knee injury.

Yellow Jersey – Thomas Voeckler
Polka Dot Jersey – Johnny Hoogerland
Green Jesrey – Jose Joaquin Rojas
White Jesrey – Robert Gesink

Stage 9 - Descent Into Hell

It would be fair to say it has been the year of the crash in cycling. And the 2011 Tour certainly hasn’t let us down in that department. But the race may have saved its best for Stage 9, a 208km spiky route between Issoire and Saint-Flour. A series of monumental crashes forced no less than 7 abandonments, while previous Vontoux winner Juan Manuel Garate failed to even make the start – finally succumbing to the toll of his crashes earlier in the race. Outside of the crashes the story of the day was Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, who turned back the clock to 2004 and grabbed the yellow jersey off the shoulder of Thor Hushovd after getting into the day’s break. With the peleton delayed by the carnage, the day’s break was succsseful for the second day in succession, with Luis Leon Sanchez taking the win ahead of Voeckler and Sandy Casar.

The big crash of the day came on the dsecent off the Pas de Peyrol. The abandonments weren’t minor riders with minor injuries either. GC hope Jurgen Van den Broeck broke his collarbone and had to abandon, again thinning out the field of potential rivals to what looks to be this years big three (Contador, A Schleck, Evans). Convicted doper Alexander Vinokourov finished his final Tour de France in the back of an ambulance (karma?) after breaking his elbow and his femur (fair effort). Former prologue winner David Zabriskie also had to withdraw after breaking a wrist in the pile up.

But the silliness was not confined to the main bunch either. Normally one advantage of being in the breakaway is that you can avoid the major pile ups that occur in the pack. But not today. As class professionals Johnny Hoogerland and Juan Antonio Flecha were minding their own business in the day’s break, out of nowhere a car from French TV swerved back onto the road clipping Flecha. Flecha tumbled onto the road right in front of Hoogerland, who hit him, and was sent flying off his bike and into a patch of barbed wire on the side of the road in a scene reminiscent of Steve McQueens’ capture in The Great Escape! At least Hoogerland ended up inherting the Polka Dot Jersey (and 30 stitches!) for his pains. Quite humoursly the two riders shared the Most Aggressive rider award on the stage – although I’m sure the driver in the French TV automobile will have been disappointed not to be nominated.

There was a race on up ahead though. And with the peleton cracking the sads about the crashes it was down to the breakaway to fight for the glory. Realising he pretty much only had to stay upright to get the yellow jersey, Voeckler worked tirelessly on the front of the escape to ensure it maintained its advantage. It did so, by over 4 minutes, but Voeckler had given it his all to do so. Sanchez was the freshman and dashed away over the final 200m to take the stage with ease. Philippe Gilbert led the bunch home to increase his lead in the points competition. Voeckler now has 1:49 lead at the top of the general classification from Sanchez. Cadel Evans remains of the best of the GC candidates, in 3rd, 2:26 behind Voeckler. Thor Hushovd’s brave defence of the yellow jersey ended – and he conceded over 2 minutes to the main men in the peleton on the day.

Yellow Jersey – Thomas Voeckler
Green Jersey – Philippe Gilbert
Polka Dot Jersey – Johnny Hoogerland
White Jersey – Robert Gesink

Stage 8 - Thunderstorm

Norway’s God of Thunder continues to roar! World Champion Thor Hushovd yet again held on to his yellow jersey following Stage 8, a 190km slog from Aigurande to Super Besse Sancy. The Norwegian finished in the main group, reduced to little more than 25 riders, and as such managed to maintain his 1 second lead in the General Classification over Cadel Evans. The day’s stage saw the first breakaway win in this years Tour, with Portugal’s Rui Costa taking his first ever stage victory. Costa was the sole survivor of the day’s break, and hold off the heads of state of this year’s Tour to take the win ahead of Philippe Gilbert and Cadel Evans. While Gilbert clearly had the form to win the stage had Cotsa been caught, he can console himself with retaking the lead in the Green Jersey competition. There is also a new leader for the Polka Dot Jersey, with phenom American Tejay Van Garderen now leading the mountains classification after being the main protagonist in the day’s break.

While almost all the big GC contenders finished in the main bunch with little difficulty, the big loser on the day was Dutchman, and White Jersey wearer Robert Gesink. Gesink lost over a minute to his main GC rivals and was clearly suffering the effects of a big crash in the previous day’s stage. Given this was a relatively easy finishing climb by the standards of the mountain men, this was a terrible display of form by Gesink, and it would be fair to say he is the first of the major podium chances to show signs of weakness. You would have to think he is no chance of him finishing on the podium now, and the Dutchman is becoming a massive Tour disappointment. He has raced three times, and each time entered the race with a fair degree of hype. In 2009 he crashed out early, while last year, when again seen as a podium threat he finished 6th. Sure that is a credible finish, but he pretty much sucked wheels the entire trip around France and never even looked like threatening any of the riders who finished in front of him.

The other highlight of the stage for me was seeing Alexander Vinokourov potentially blow his last chance at a Yellow Jersey. At one stage it looked like this former doper had been given his head by the peleton, and he charged clear in search of the stage win and the maillot jaune. And I have to say at the foot of the climb I thought he had it. Thankfully he compounded over the final few k’s and ended up being sucked back into the main group by the finish. Go back to Kazakhstan!

However, all the plaudits on the day must go to Hushovd, who I would say defied most pundits to hold onto his Yellow Jersey for another day. Given the groupetto containing all the major sprinters finished the stage almost 20 minutes down, Hushovd did a marvellous job to dig deep enough to hold onto the golden fleece. The jersey certainly can make one man ride with the strength of twenty, but it will be interesting to see how much energy the World Champ has left in the tank for tomorrow’s difficult route.

Yellow Jersey – Thor Husvhod
Green Jersey – Philippe Gilbert
Polka Dot Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen
White Jersey – Robert Gesink