Le Tour 2010 - Au Revoir Le Tour, Now What The Heck Do I Do? : Stages 19 and 20

Watching the peloton circulate up and down the Champs-Élysées on Stage 20 of Le Tour, it was the old familiar feeling which gripped me: what am I gonna do now! It's hard to let go of the anticipation and thrills one gets each night when you know the Tour is on and another stage is up and running. It's a real downshift when it's done and dusted for another year.

Firstly, to a thrilling and tense Stage 19, the long 52 km ITT from Bordeaux to Pauillac. On a dead flat, generally non-technical course, it was anticipated that Alberto Contador would extend his 8 second lead over Andy Schleck to something pushing 1 and a half to 2 minutes. Seemed perfectly reasonable to me, given the past history of Schleck re: ITTs, plus his rather lackluster Prologue performance where he lost 69 seconds to Alberto, and that in only 8.9 kms. True, that was over a more technical course and with water on the roads, but still...

What transpired was anything but that, with Schleck dishing it out in spades to Contador, slowly eating into his meager 8 second lead, and at one stage appearing to actually take the virtual maillot jaune briefly after around 20 km into the stage. For a long time it was very close, with Andy appearing to be riding much more smoothly on the bike, whilst Alberto was continually having to pull himself back on his seat, being forced to ride sur le rivet to keep a hold on Schleck's times.  Over the last 12 kms, Contador slowly began to eke out some time as Andy tired, but it was slow going, and Alberto was suffering whilst Andy remained stoic in face and body.

To his credit, Alberto pushed on in the last 6 km and it was only here where he made notable inroads over a slowing Schleck, eventually crossing the line 39 seconds ahead of Andy, and 35th back overall. (Make of that time differential what you will - as many have pointed out, that was the total time Alberto turned around on Andy when the Luxembourger had the chain loss on the Port de Balès: personally I think there were other time issues of more 'concern': including the neutralization of Stage 2 where Andy stood to lose significant time, and his poor performance in the prologue).

The relative slower performances of the latter third of the field was a generalised one amongst them: the wind came up and turned into a significant cross wind/headwind, so Alberto's 35th place didn't mean much in the scheme of things. The changing conditions certainly benefited the earlier riders, time trial world champion Fabian Cancellara amongst them. He ran in some 17 seconds ahead of second placed man Tony Martin (another nice ride), and 1 min 48 sec ahead of Bert Grabsch in 3rd. A great win, but it would have been interesting if he'd gone late in the day with the changed conditions maybe? Well, maybe not either - he looked very strong.

In a superb performance, Denis Menchov of Rabobank started 4th to last and rode the wheels of his bike in the changed conditions to run over the top of Samuel Sánchez and grab his 3rd spot off him by a decent margin: the 'Silent Assassin' had made podium! (I was particularly pleased as I'd picked Denis to go 3rd in this Tour).

And so, onto the final Stage 20: the jaunt from Longjumeau to Paris of 102.5km, the first 49 of which are, by tradition, a chance for the riders to loosen up, flit about and gasbag with each other, and generally ham it up for cameras. Alberto and his Astana team mates quaffed the usual celebratory champers, others played silly buggers, and Team Radio Shack put in motion what turned out to be a rather shabby and ill-advised stunt regarding changing jerseys after signing in in their usual garb (the message of jerseys numbered 28 for the 28-odd million cancer sufferers world-wide was admirable but the execution was not. I would've been more impressed if the jerseys weren't readily identifiable with the Radio Shack logo - I guess sponsors and the Livestrong cause are insatiable PR demons).

Arriving at the Place de la Concorde, Team Astana lead the peloton over the finish line for the first time, and then it was pretty much every rider for himself up the Champs-Élysées. As per usual, a breakaway soon formed, peaking out at around 11 riders and 30 seconds advantage with 4 laps remaining, but it was slowly wound in by the teams of the sprinters, although team Lampre-Farnese Vini, protecting their maillot vert man Alessandro Petacchi, were more than happy to site back until late in the stage, wanting to let the breakaway suck up all the intermediate sprint points on offer, as the points race would come down to placings on the line between the top 3 contenders Petacchi, Cavendish and Hushovd.

HTC-Columbia did most of the work and swallowed up the breakaway just before arriving at the Place de la Concorde on the last sweep heading for the tunnel. Arriving at the flamme rouge, it was the now traditional lead-out chaos, with teams scattered about the place and the main sprinters basically with each other in a group at the head of the race.  Arriving on the Champs-Élysées, Thor Hushovd was getting a tow from team mate Brett Lancaster, and he was first to launch, but he was quickly swamped by Mark Cavendish on his right, and Petacchi on his left, and it was game over for the God of Thunder and his green jersey aspirations.

It was game over for all those interested in the stage win too, as Cavendish blasted away and won cruising. Petacchi stayed strong for 2nd ahead of Julian Dean, and by virtue of this earned himself the maillot vert.

Contador rolled in with the pack for Tour win number 3, with Andy Schleck in close attendance cementing 2nd, and Denis Menchov soon thereafter confirming his 3rd.

So, final results:

• Alberto Contador the winner of Le Tour 2010 in 91:58:48;

• Andy Schleck, 2nd in GC and the winner of the white jersey at 39 sec back;

•  Denis Menchov, 3rd in GC at 2:01;

• Petacchi winning the points classification over Cavendish and Hushovd;

• Anthony Charteau picking up the mountains classification; and

•  Radioshack winning the teams classification by 9:15 over Caisse d'Epargne and Rabobank.

For me, a tour I thought was excellent: wearing and tough, with a bit of controversy, some douche-baggery and preciousness, interesting stages (hope they keep the cobbles!), and a nice historical bent to it. Roll on the Vuelta and the World Champs in Geelong. And please hurry up Le Tour 2011!

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Wake me up – I've got Sprinter's Stage Sleep Disorder : Stage 18

I admit it - I caught some drooping eyes watching this stage!

After the excitement and drama of the climbing, the 198km of Stage 18 fom Salies-de-Bearn to Bordeaux was a real snore-fest for me, and my mind and body sneakily crafted to eek out some snoozy-time whilst the tedium prevailed.

I'm not even certain that the breakaway, who escaped early and held out until the final participant Daniel Oss (Liquigas) succumbed at the 3.5 km mark, were anything other than resigned to their inevitable fate: I'm pretty sure a couple of the 4 escapees were catching some beauty sleep whilst pedalling on auto-pilot (something that should be absolutely ingrained after close to 3 weeks of riding). A pretty much pancake-flat stage across some less-than-breathtaking scenery, plus an escape closely monitored and given no latitude by the sprinter's teams all day, saw my adrenaline levels plummet to just above life-sustaining!

So, here's the summarized version: small escape groups goes, said group never gains more than 3.5 min and is left dangling like a dead fish, sprinter's teams ramp it up with 30 km to go, Oss provides the faux 'will he won't he be caught' tension, peloton control techniques gradually fall apart in the run in to the flamme rouge, most sprinters are left to kill their own food, Mark Cavendish pisses on them all for an easy slowing-down win (a muted 'Yay' begrudgingly crawls out of my lips), Julian Dean comes in fast over the top of Petacchi who (thanks to a badly misjudged effort from a fading Thor Hushovd sliding back to 14th), regains the maillot vert and sets up a 3-way scenario for disputation of that jersey on the Champs Elysées between himself, Hushovd (10 points in arrears) and Cavendish 6 more points back again (I'm betting on Cav. to win this now), Robbie McEwen claims yet another 4th - surely some type of award requires bestowing! - and no change in the top GC places.

So, it's on to Bordeaux and the Stage 19 ITT over 52 km from there to Pauillac. Methinks one for the TT specialists who still have some leg and lung power left: it's dead flat, non-technical and ready to be muscled into submission by the huge-quad-ed freaks! Maybe some rain or wind will spice up the equation, although the interest still centers chiefly on Schleck v Contador, and also to see whether Denis Menchov can wrest 3rd and the podium finish from a likely sore and bruised Samuel Sanchez.

For those riding just for the views, apparently there are some nice vineyards to eyeball: the thought of a glass or two of the old vin rouge plonk might entertain lesser mortals seeking survival rather than glory in the solo format.

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Tourmalet Round 2 - Let's Call it Even : Stage 17

From Pau to the Col du Tourmalet, a journey of 174 km on this the 'Queen' stage of the Tour, there was only ever one real battle of interest: the final 18.6 km battle up the Tourmalet, from the Adast side, between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck.

A lot went before, but this final slugfest between the two protagonists was eagerly anticipated. Considered by virtually all pundits to be the last chance for Schleck to gain any meaningful time advantage prior to the ITT and hence start last in that stage, with all the inherent advantages of that position, there was no chance that it wouldn't come down to these two.

And so it did: as history will now read, it was Schleck who won the stage, and the battle, but it was Contador who may just have won the war of Le Tour 2010, plus a handy little lift in the popularity stakes courtesy of a gifting of the stage win to Andy.  Not that Schleck didn't deserve the win - his relentless charge up the final 10 km of the climb, bringing a shadowing Contador with him, and fighting back against a withering Alberto attack at 4 km to take over the front running again, plus doing the favour to Contador of gapping the 3rd, 4th and 5th riders on GC by handy margins, were all reasons for him deserving first past the line.

But equally, it was also a win for Alberto: having stalked Andy all the way, and having reminded him with that strong attack that he was capable of  pressing for a potential stage victory, Contador displayed admirable restraint and great poise to not contest the final meters to the line, half-wheeling Schleck in.  Perhaps there was an element of contrition for a previous faux pas, but clearly there is a great respect and friendship between the two: their post-finish embrace was touching and fitting.

Sure, some may rail against a 'manufactured finish', but I don't agree. Andy stormed up the climb, Alberto in tow, and although I am not privy to their thoughts, it seemed fair to assume that if Schleck had not been able to answer Alberto when he attacked , Contador may well have carried on to the win. That notwithstanding, from a strategic point of view, Alberto did indeed have a win: retaining his 8 sec gap to Schleck and, barring anything untoward occurring to either of them during Stage 18, giving him the final start in the ITT and knowing exactly Andy's performance across the timed points.

I thought it was pretty Epic - so 'Bravo'.

Other highlights for the day for me:

• Carlos Sastre's entertaining but ultimately futile escapade of 120 km or so to attempt to put himself in the breakaway and a chance at winning the stage. I also liked his post-race comments about his scampering off the front of the peloton whilst Contador tried to slow the race down to enable Samuel Sanchez, 3rd in the GC who'd taken a nasty tumble, to rejoin: something along the lines of 'spoiled brats' interspersed with comments that no-one had waited for him during this Tour!;
• The aforementioned Sanchez, who initially looked like he'd done some serious damage in his crash, gingerly hopping back on his bike, rejoining the bunch, and then gamely plowing up the Tourmalet to get 5th on the day and even put a few seconds into his main GC rival for the podium, Denis Menchov;
• The flock of sheep which crashed the peloton's party on the Soulor by scaling the low side of the mountain onto the road, and then generally creating woolly havoc and mayhem with their scattered-like-a-grenade-had-been-lobbed-in-theirs-midst antics: a few of them even ran up the climb alongside the riders a la their human spectator counterparts. Mind you, I'm guessing that compared to the antics of some of the human fans, the sheep possessed a collective IQ overwhelmingly exceeding that of  these cretins;
• Ryder Hesjedal kicking arse with an excellent 4th place, and Robert Gesink coming in 7th and offering some great support to his team mate Menchov; and
•  Jurgen Van Den Broeck, not so much for his 9th place effort, as for his dissing of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who slummed it all day in the Ref's car and whose presence culminated in the creation of a media scrum at the top of the climb which hindered rider's movements to doping controls, and to team buses. Van Den Broeck, whilst heading to doping control, apparently rode through a TV interview 'Le Prez' was giving, causing Sarkozy's bodyguards to have kittens (Jurgen sadly wasn't packing heat with murderous intent), and later dished out some vocal treatment to the pres' car when it blocked his way off the mountain. Fucking celebrity world leaders! Jurgen should have bitchslapped the prez, mooned his guards, and stole his wife for good measure! Now there's an ending to the day I would've payed to see!

Like I said - Epic!

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Barredo almost channels Merckx whilst GC leaders sit and ponder : Stage 16

I'm fairly certain the large majority of the peloton would rather have pulled the rug back over their head than arise, pull on their cycling apparel, and prepare for the monster day ahead.

With Stage 16 from Bagneres-de-Luchon to Pau (199.5 km) repeating the same peaks of a stage famously won in long breakaway fashion by Eddy Merckx on a day long ago in 1969, Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) almost channeled Merckx for the win, sadly falling agonizingly close. After considerable efforts to dislodge himself on the final climbs of the day (the Col du Soulor and the Col d'Aubisque) without success, he finally managed to get the flea off the dog with a scintillating burst away from the 8 strong break group at the 44 km mark and soloed to within 1 km of victory, only to be caught under the flamme rouge.

On a day featuring two Cat. 1 and two hors categorie climbs (the Col de Peyresourde only 11 km into the stage, the Col d'Aspin, the Col du Tourmalet, and the double whammy Col du Soulor and the Col d'Aubisque - OMGWTFBBQ!) those in the peloton not considering suicide as a tantalizing option would have been thinking GC time gains. In retrospect that was probably not going to happen, given the extreme nature of the day climb-wise, and the fact that getting over the summit of the final climb of the day still meant a 61 km trip to the finish line. And in actuality it didn't - the top 10 GC remained at status quo with carnage time wise only happening to lesser mortals.

Within 5km of the start of the race, and with the Col de Peyresourde looming (that'd make you hurl up your breakfast that early in the piece!) a bunch of 11 riders had gapped the bunch, and amazingly two of these riders - Lance Armstrong and Carlos Barredo - would remain a feature in the tete de la course for the rest of the day: clearly Lance was looking for a nice send off prize.  Just before hitting the slopes of the Peyresourde, the lead bunch had swollen to 20, amongst the add ons one Ryder Hesjedal of Garmin-Transitions, the number 10 GC contender.

Maybe the peloton had that in mind, because the lead bunch was never let much out of sight, and indeed a couple of additional riders (Alexandre Vinokourov and Carlos Sastre) made the shortish jump to them after the descent of the Peyresourde.

Ascending the Col d'Aspin, the break looked like being sucked up by the peloton under half a minute behind, so Sandy Casar let the cat out of the sack and scooted, with a bunch of riders following, whilst others cracked and went backwards into the loving arms of the main pack.

Climbing the Col du Tourmalet, the rider shuffle continued, with some faltering, and a few brave souls from the still close main group taking wing and joining: in all it was a fairly fluid time composition-wise for the escapees. It finalised at 10 members at the summit, mostly due to the fact that the main peloton had shut down somewhat, and the gap had gone out to over 3 minutes.

This gap continued to increase measurably over the journey to the Col du Soulor and, arriving at its base, the leaders were over 6 minutes in advance. Ascending, a number of squabbles broke out amongst the leaders on the road, with Armstrong being the initial antagonist with 2 runs, followed by Barredo and Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) asserting their importance, and for a while it was a bit of a raffle who'd survive (Sandy Casar and Ignatas Konovalovas of Cervélo didn't).

Running off the Soulor and heading towards the final climb of the day, the Col d'Aubisque, the lead bunch obviously made a collective decision that they'd dropped everyone who was going to be dropped, and set about being good little escapees, climbing the Aubisque in relative peace and harmony. The only excitement here was the battle between Christophe Moreau of Caisse d'Epargne and Pierrick Fedrigo for the KOM points, with Moreau trying to sneak closer to current polka-dot holder Anthony Charteau (BBox) and Fedrigo trying to protect team mate Charteau's lead: in the final push, Moreau won it rather easily.  

With the lead bunch descending to within 44 km of the finish line and the main peloton some 8 minutes distant and decidedly unlikely to win the gap back, Carlos Barredo made his jump for freedom from the group shackles, and sniffed solo glory. The remaining riders all seemed a little nonplussed (thoughts of "is this guy nuts?" likely ratcheting in their skulls) and took their sweet time about reacting, with the consequence that Barredo had skipped out to a 45 second gap after 14 km.

Although the gap slowly reduced from thereon in, at 5 km to go Barredo still had a little under 30 seconds, and he still believed, as did perhaps all we viewers too.  Coupled with this was the fact that a few riders started to miss turns on the pull - the chance still was there! Alas, with two representatives each from Radio Shack (Chris Horner doing the work for Lance Armstrong) and Caisse d'Epargne (Ruben Plaza pulling along Moreau) Barredo's lead was slowly whittled away, and passing through the flamme rouge poor old Carlos sat up and dejectedly watched his pursuers scoot by onto possible glory, with his dreams of emulating Merckx fluttering away in their passing breeze.

 Given the lack of credited sprinters in the group (what a surprise) the 8 riders huddled together like bait fish at a feeding frenzy, none game to go for broke, eyeing off each other whilst the line drew ever closer. Sitting at the back, Armstrong made a slow rush (hey is that a new oxymoron?) to the front at the 250 meter mark, which finally stirred the bunch, and those who had any gas left used it. Lance was pretty quickly overwhelmed and threw in the towel, whilst Pierrick Fedrigo, with most juice in the tank, came up the inside barrier for the win, followed by Casar and Plaza.

Carlos Barredo trickled in 28 seconds down, looking and no doubt feeling rather dejected: cheer up mate!, 'coz at least they awarded you the Days Most Aggressive ride.

In what was a massive effort, Thor Hushhovd had managed to drag himself over the lumps all day in the top GC contenders group, and so he found himself lining up for the final sprint home with nice green jersey points still available! Gerald Ciolek (Team Milram) was his only competition but any real showdown didn't eventuate, and Thor took 10th place and the maximum remaining 6 points to cap off a great day by regaining the maillot vert. All praise the God of Thunder!

Stage 17 - THE SHOWDOWN!

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Day of controversy, Day of Dreams: Stage 15

On a lumpy road from Pamiers to Bagneres-de-Luchon, topped out by the near-end-of-stage NC climb of the Port de Bales, there was drama and delight, as Alberto Contador gained the maillot jaune in a controversial move, and Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) gambled on a longish break and came up trumps.

In a day of dodgy moves, an even worse infraction occurred between AG2R team mates Nicolas Roche (team leader) and supposed team helper John Gadret. Roche punctured his front 6km from the top of the Port de Bales and, given the distance to the following team cars, asked Gadret for his wheel. Amazingly, Gadret refused and continued on! Now there's something to be pissed off about!

At the commencement of the 187 km day, the peloton was feeling decidedly stingy about whom should be let off the hook to run, and kept up a hot pace to nullify any glory seekers. It was over half race distance before a group finally escaped, much of the peloton no doubt cooked and no longer interested in keeping things together. This was evident when the break finally got away - they built up a commanding lead up around 11 min by the foot of the Port de Bales.

The break of 10 didn't feature any renowned climbers, perhaps lulling the main bunch into a false sense of security; although equally, there were no serious GC threats therein either.  The Port de Bales soon sorted the lead bunch out, with rider after rider shelling off the increasingly small group. Thomas Voeckler was the strongest, and set off alone with 10 km left to the summit, followed by Alessandro Ballan (BMC Racing) who tried gamely, but slowly bled seconds to Voeckler. Only these two, plus Aitor Perez (Footon-Servetto) were destined to make it to the finish line before the fast finishing top GC riders.

Some time earlier, reaching the bottom of the 19 km climb, it was Saxo Bank who had taken over the running, and they set a tough pace upwards, succeeding in shelling many riders, and catching and passing many of the initial escape artists. However, Astana remained largely intact initially, and more ominously, the hard working Saxo Riders were peeling off at regular intervals. So much so that with around 4 km to go (and over the increasingly steeper sections ramping up to 11%), the maillot jaune Andy Schleck found himself sans team mates and surrounded by the top 5 GC contenders, plus two of Contador's team mates. Schleck promptly attacked and took the top 5 GCers with him.  Now in a select little group, the pace slackened momentarily while all considered what to do, allowing several other riders, including Astana's Vinokourov to rejoin.

Whilst Voeckler, Ballan, Perez and the remaining few from the escape bunch had individually slipped over the summit on their flight to freedom, Schleck went again and this time picked up some handy meters, with only Vinokourov quick on the pursuit. Then disaster for Andy: he appeared to drop his chain due to chain-suck, and was left spinning with futility whilst Vino passed him, although the Astana rider clearly slowed as he saw what had happened. No such niceties for Contador, who bombed by on Schleck's left (clearly aware that something mechanical had occurred despite his later assurances to the contrary), and took off, followed by Vino, and then Menchov and Sanchez some meters back. Meanwhile Schleck struggled to re-chain, and after several attempts, did so, but he'd lost 15-20 seconds, and precious momentum. Contador continued on, joined by Vino, and then Menchov and Sanchez, and this group clearly decided they weren't hanging around, seeting sail for the summit.

To his credit, Schleck made inroads into their gap up the climb, and arrived at the top around 12 seconds behind, with the other GC biggie Jurgen Van Den Broeck in tow.  These two could not however make further time cuts, and over the final 21 kms (chiefly downhill) slowly gave up time to the hard charging group ahead.

Up in the distance, Thomas Voeckler was motoring on and cementing his dream win: Ballan trailing and go further adrift as the km fell away and being caught by Perez. In the end Voeckler, the French national road race champion, pulled across the line for a great win, 1:20 ahead of Ballan and Perez, and with two minutes to spare over the Contador group, who picked up the remaining breakaway riders in the run home.

Schleck ran in 39 seconds after this group, having towed Van Den Broeck most of the way, and thus out of the yellow by 8 seconds in the final tally.

Contador got some boos from the crowd when he collected the maillot jaune but it will remain a debated topic I'm sure.

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Schleck and Contador tango, Riblon flys the coop: Stage 14

Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador had a little track stand tango on the slopes of the Ax-3 Domaines today, whilst an initially bemused Denis Menchov and Samuel Sánchez looked on and then decided to sneak off for some small time gains over the two. Meanwhile, in a huge and brave effort, Christophe Riblon (AG2R-La Mondiale) had long flown the coop and scored a great win.

Stage 14 from Revel to Ax-3 Domaines was the first foray into the Pyrenees for this year's Tour, and it was nice little 184 km 'softener', with the juicy Port de Pailhères, a non-categorised climb of some 25 km at an average 7% starting at 130 km (but preceded by a false flat of the same distance), and the shorter 9 km Cat 1 of Ax-3 Domaines right on the finish.

Being gluttons for punishment (and this has been a punishing Tour) a bunch of nine riders headed off on the obligatory break at the 25km mark - the bunch had no GC threats but did include eventual winner Riblon, which demonstrates the magnitude of his ride.

Reaching a maximum of ten minutes advantage over the peloton, the breakaway must have pushed a few buttons in the Astana team, as they started to set a high pace in the main bunch well before Pailhères, whittling the lead bunch's advantage down to around 4 min at the foot of the climb proper. The fact that Astana was pulling the train seemed a little strange - whilst long, it seemed doubtful the Pailhères was the type of slope to break Schleck, and equally, it gave Team Saxo Bank a nice rest break from previous arduous days.

At the foot of the climb, Carlos Sastre (Cervelo) made a jump and left the peloton, attempting to emulate a previous win on the same route in 2003, whilst up ahead the leading group of nine had come apart, with Riblon making a similar move, and only Amaël Moinard (Cofidis) and Jurgen Van De Walle (Quick Step) able to follow, although Van De Walle exploded half way up.

On the climb, the Astana train continued to shed riders off the peloton, and Schleck kept a close eye on Contador.  At differing times, an additional three riders set off in pursuit of Riblon up the long climb: first off was Rafael Valls Ferri (Footon-Servetto),  followed by Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne) and then Damiano Cunego (Lampre).  Whilst these riders eventually merged together and caught Sastre, Riblon had  meanwhile crested the climb, having distanced Moinard a little. The AG2R rider then made a slightly messy descent to the foot of  Ax-3 Domaines, allowing Moinard to almost latch back on, but Riblin started the climb with some speed and that was the end of Moinard.

Meanwhile, arriving at the climb some 2:30 minutes behind the leader, Astana started to ramp it up, with Vinokourov prominent at the pointy end, and it was chiefly his efforts which saw all riders bar Riblon caught on the slopes.

Contador had been shadowed by Schleck the entire climb and had thrown in a few unsuccessful break attempts at various points, which Schleck was on to instantaneously. Then, in a moment of some surreality, Contador slowed to an almost complete stop and Schleck did likewise: it was a match race on a climb! Menchov and Sanchez, both close in attendance, did double takes, and one can only imagine what was going through their heads. Then, after another backward glance, they both decided they were out of there and hit the gas, with thoughts of time gains in their minds. Vinokourov didn't know what the hell to do, but wisely decided to hang around with his team leader, who snapped out of his trance, and pedaled off with Schleck again in close attendance. Truly weird!

Mind you, Christophe Riblon wouldn't have given a rat's arse if they were beating each other down with their bidons I'm sure - he was off with the fairies celebrating his win in the final km home: a great solo ride after a huge long day in the breakaway.

Menchov and Sanchez came in second and third locked together, having gained a small 14 sec gap over the tangoing pair of Schleck and Contador, who zoomed in with a group which also included Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto).

So hats off to Riblon for the win, and a big thanks to Alberto and Andy for the dance show!

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Vino: you lose one and then you win one! : Stages 12 and 13

Well, Stages 12 and 13 of Le Tour were basically the Alexandre Vinokourov show, with the Kazakh rider making powerful attempts to take a stage win: failing at the first on stage 12 but hitting the podium heights on stage 13.

Stage 12 was a 210 km journey from Bourg-de-Peage to Mende, a 'lumpy' traverse, with four categorised climbs from the start to the finish at Mende’s aerodrome on Montée Laurent Jalabert. The up and down nature of the course, plus the nasty little Jalabert climb (around 3 km at between 11-13% adding a real sting in the tail) served up an interesting stage.

With a few initial breaks attempted and failed, and a sizzling pace set by the peloton, a real break only formed about 50km into the race on the Col des Nonières. But it was a large break of some sixteen riders, and featuring relative heavyweights Alexandre Vinokourov, high placed GC contender Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin - Transitions), Andreas Klöden (Team Radio Shack) and the Green Jersey holder Thor Hushovd (Cervelo).
 
The presence of this break at the front saw team Saxo Bank of the yellow jersey leader Andy Schleck forced to do some hard work to keep this strong bunch within shooting range, a task they were only initially partly successful at, as the leading Hushovd engaged in some strong riding and battles for the sprint points on offer.

The task for Saxo Bank became even more intense when a split in the lead group, initiated by Andreas Kloden, saw Vinokourov, Kyrienka and significant GC contender Hesjedal go with him. With the gap getting upwards of 4 minutes at one point late in the race, Hesjedal was getting a little closer to maillot jaune virtual than anyone an Saxo Bank would've liked.

So, Saxo Bank dug in, and with the help of Cervelo and Lampre, slowly pegged back this group, and had wound it back to 45 seconds when the leaders hit the nasty Jalabert slopes.  Vinokourov then wound up the pressure and, one by one, dropped his 3 followers, and set off for victory.

Alas for Vino, Joaquin Rodriguez of Team Katusha set off in pursuit with 2 km left on the climb and Alberto Contador, seeing his main rival Andy Schleck a little inattentive, also blasted off, quickly leaving Schleck 10 seconds behind and unable to bridge the gap. Rodriquez and Contador kept the pressure on, and wound in and then swept past the Kazakh rider, who attempted to stay on the wheel, but never quite made it back.

Atop the climb, Contador lead the longish sprint to the line with Rodriquez poised on his wheel. The Katusha rider sat, and then with 150 m to go passed Alberto and sprinted in for the stage victory, Contador right on his heels.  Vino had struggled manfully in dogged pursuit and came in only 4 seconds down, with maillot jaune Schleck arriving in a group containing Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Denis Menchov of Rabobank and Jurgen Van Den Broeck  of Omega Pharma-Lotto (3rd, 4th and 5th respectively in GC) at ten seconds down.

So, close but no cigar Vino!

With this in mind, and potential stage glory burning a hole in his gut, Stage 13 (from Rodez to Revel over a continually undulating but trending-downhill 196km) saw act 2 of the Vino show unveiled. On this occasion, sensing perhaps that his heroics of yesterday from a long way out might have tweaked the interests of many GC riders (and possibly even Contador's) too early, Vino bided his time.

The early break of Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky), former yellow jersey Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) and Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) was a strong one, but these three never really got let off the leash, even despite their co-operation and very brave efforts: the peloton had adjudged them too tough a break to let slip.

So, after battling manfully all day up and down energy-sapping rises, never being afforded much latitude by peloton chases spread around amongst the chief GC and sprint teams, they were reeled in to within a minute in the last 45 minutes of the stage.

HTC-Columbia had signaled their intentions to attempt to make this a sprint stage for their main man Mark Cavendish, despite the presence of a climb of some significance (the Côte de St-Ferréol at around 2 km in length and 5-6% gradient topping out only 8km from the line) suggesting it wasn't likely, and it was their efforts that saw the breakaway absorbed on its base and early slopes.

Heading up the climb, Alessandro Ballan (BMC) made a powerful dig to break clear, and hovered on the brink of success for some minutes, before finally redlining. Vinokourov, who'd followed Ballan out from the pack a little in arrears, didn't crack, passed the BMC rider, and put 15 seconds into the hard-chasing but disorganised looking peloton, a brief period of hesitation amongst them ultimately insuring a Vino victory.

So, Vino powered down the long final straight to the line, ending up with the win by 13 seconds over a fast finishing Mark Cavendish (with a great individual effort to make it over the climb in contention and set himself up for the sprint) and a strong Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-Farnese Vini (another great climb and sprint which rewarded him with the reclaiming of the points jersey over a fading Hushovd).  The top GC contenders all cruised in right behind this sprint, claiming the same time as Cavendish and hence no change in GC fortunes.

Tomorrow - the Pyrenees!

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - GC Status Quo : Stages 10 and 11

With the 'massacre of Madeleine' behind the Tour, the following two stages were transitional, and a chance for the long-break gamblers and sprint teams to come out to play.

First up, the 179 km stage from Chambery to Gap. With a few decent climbs in it - the nasty little Cat 1 Laffrey of 7km at 9%, the longer and more strategic Col de Nuyer at around 130 km into the stage, and the final bump of Le Fare-en-Champsaur starting at 158.5 in - the race was very much a chance for the glory hunters to set out on long breaks. It was also Bastille Day, so it was inevitable that one or more Frenchmen would have a dig at the show.

Strangely enough, after a significant 36 km long squabble over who exactly would be allowed into the break, there was no-one from France present: it looked like the putative "Let them eat cake" was back in vogue! The initial break of four comprised Mario Aerts (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Dries Devenyns (QuickStep), Sergio Paulinho (Radio Shack) and Caisse d'Epargne's Vasili Kiryienka. Perhaps understanding the enormity of the crime of not having a native of France in the picture, two of them decided to step up and bridge to that breakaway (now a fair way up the road): Maxime Bouet (AG2R-La Mondiale) and Pierre Rolland (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) set sail for the group and France's honour! After a hard slog of some 20 km - mission accomplished (although the effort eventually took it's toll on Bouet much further down the road).

From that point onward, the break initially continued to increase their lead considerably, and then held onto the gap, which had climbed to over 11 minutes with 110km traveled,  for the rest of the day. With the peloton in cruise control, and the breakaway tight and non-combative, the action centered around the KOM battle back in the main peloton, with Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step) and Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) bopping it out over the Cote de Laffrey (the only climb of the day with any points on offer, with the breakaway negating the KOM struggle by sucking all other points available on the stage). In a spirited duel, Pineau took the line ahead of Charteau and broke the deadlock between them, inheriting the polka-dots by a single point.

After some game efforts to stay with the break (including some impressive re-gains after snapping the band on several climbs) Bouet finally cracked with 15 km to go, as first Aerts and then Devenyns tired to run away with a long solo. With both of these efforts failing, Paulinho decided to chance his arm and this time the push worked, with only Kiryienka able to push up and tag on. So, these two set off to the line with a re-grouped Aerts, Deveyns and Rolland trailing.

In the final run home, Kiriyienka (a track points racer of note) took the lead under the red kite and played track shadowing with Paulinho. Unfortunately for Kiriyienka he forgot one vital tactic - don't turn your head away from your opponent. As soon as he did, at the 150 m mark, Paulinho took of like the proverbial scalded cat, and Kiriyienka reacted late, as the Radio Shack rider gained enough of a gap to squeeze over the line a half-wheel ahead of the fast finishing Russian. I'm sure this will be a nightmare to haunt Kiriyienka for many a night: he was the faster sprinter but got foxed.

The chasing three pulled in around 1:30 later, and the main group some 14+ minutes in arrears, with Mark Cavendish winning the small-points sprint to the line over Petacchi and Hushovd, thus closing up the race for the Green.

Onto Stage 13 (how come they don't display the stage number upside down?), a 184.5 km jaunt from Sisteron to Bourg-les-Valence. The profile followed a long slow Cat 3 climb up Col de Cabre, at the 53 km mark, and then a gradual descent to the line at Bourg-les-Valence.  So, a day engineered for the sprinters.

Thus ensued a day of fruitless toil for any breakaway as Anthony Geslin (Française des Jeux), Stephane Augé (Cofidis) and Jose-Alberto Benitez (Footon-Servetto) discovered.  Whilst content to cruise, the peloton was never going to let the break gain a substantial distance. The maximum time achieved was 4:15 early into the race, and after that it was slowly whittled down until a very long way out from the line (84km) it was down to a minute, at which time the peloton kept the hapless prey dangling for fear of a too-early catch.

Even then, the final catch at 25 km posed some potential issues for the peloton, as it seemed to encourage the attempt at another getaway. However, Saxo Bank soon put payed to any such thoughts - with the final long run into home now into a potentially dangerous crosswind, the usual suspects of Cancellara, Voigt et al ramped up the pace at the front to seriously high levels, and it became a matter of hanging on (which many did not and the group started shedding riders like dog hairs in a breeze). It looked like Saxo Bank was attempting to break Alberto Contador, but the second placed GC contender stuck to Andy Schleck like a sucker fish, and with all the major GC contenders in tow,  the final run-in control was passed over to the sprinter's teams at the 10 km banner.

From there, HTC-Columbia was the chief influence, although once again other teams tried to gatecrash their party in spoiling maneuvers. Under the red kite, it was HTC-Columbia represented by Eisel, Renshaw and Cavendish in that order, and once again it was this lead out that proved successful, with Cavendish launching from a gap 400 m out and taking a long sprint over Petacchi and a somewhat unlucky Farrar, who had looked good until badly baulked by what looked like a fairly cynical spoiling move from a slowing Renshaw.

So Cavendish gets win  number 3 for the Tour, and stage win number 13 for Le Tour in his career thus far, making him the most successful sprinter in the History of the event! Petacchi's 2nd saw him get the Green Jersey after Hushovd faded to seventh across the line.

In a post-race decision by the jury, Mark Renshaw (the primo lead-out man for Cavendish) was ejected from the Tour after some strong interactions with Garmin-Transition's Julian Dean in the final sprint (including some vigorous head-butting).  Personally I thought the initial butt was fine - Dean moved visibly into Renshaw whilst he was attempting to pilot Cavendish into the lead - but Renshaw did carry it on a little more than necessary.  I think it was his seemingly deliberate cutting off of Tyler Farrar that was more objectionable - Farrar was in a good position and had a head of steam: although not likely to catch  Cav, second was a definite chance.  Still, ejection? - I suspect Renshaw is paying for some rash moves by Cavendish in the recent past prior to the Tour, and some incidents in it. It's tough being a lead out! Clearly he should've waited until post-race, taken a wheel to Dean's helmet, got in a fist-fight, and then been fined a pissy 300 Euros and allowed to stay! The Jury apparently loves this type of aggression.

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - The Massacre on la Madeleine : Stage 9

Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador dished out the pain like dungeon masters in what turned into a punishing stage, both physically and time-wise, for all but a handful of the riders in this year's Tour.

Stage 9 from Morzine-Avoriaz to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne turned into a bruising, battering 204.5 km affair, with the 25 km Col de la Madeleine representing the final of four climbs en-route to the finish line, and even a 30 km downhill/flat after it's tortured ascent presented little chance for re-capture of lost time.

Again, a day of much action and drama - too much to follow at times - so here were the stand out events:

• Like Lance Armstrong on the previous stage, yellow jersey holder Cadel Evans cracked on the 'Madeleine', losing a little over 10 minutes on new maillot jaune Andy Schleck and race favourite Alberto Contador in the race to the top, and in all probability losing any hope of a Tour victory or podium.  To his strong credit, he plugged on, and with the aid of a supreme effort by teammate Mauro Santambrogio (whom he had earlier dropped on the climb) regained some two minutes on the final descent and run into the line.  To his even greater credit, his first thought after crossing the line was to thank Santambrogio.  This year has seen a different Cadel, and he's done the World Champion jersey proud.

• Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador were a breed apart today - barring meltdowns (still a possibility - it's been a tour of them so far and the Pyrenees awaits) they are the top two: it's likely just the order to be disputed. Schleck made repeated efforts to bust open Contador on the last 8km of the Madeleine, but Alberto was resolute. After repeated Schleck moves, they called a truce, and set about working together to distance all their rivals. Their effort was so strong that they caught the seemingly home-and-hosed breakaway group of four with 800m to the line (dragging Luis León Sánchez with them) and put the cat amongst the pigeons. Anthony Charteau (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) did a quite lovely double take as Schleck and Contador cruised past the jockeying quartet of himself, Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux), Christophe Moreau (Caisse d'Epargne) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini) before this bunch got it together and battled for the win ahead of the tired two.

•  Sandy Casar ended up taking the stage from Sánchez and Cunego (a little disappointing in the run home I thought).

•  Levi Leipheimer (Radio Shack) lost a little time on Schleck and Contador, but was the best of the main GC contenders (6th now in the GC table), whilst, in relative finishing order, Denis Menchov and Robert Gesink (Rabobank) are 4th and 7th respectively, Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) is 10th and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto) 5th.  Courtesy of today's good performances, Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Euskaltel - Euskadi) moves to 3rd, and Luis León Sánchez of Caisse d'Epargne (8th) and Joaquin Rodriguez (Team Katusha) (9th) round out the Top 10.

• Lance Armstrong also rode well after a disaster stage, coming in with one of the earliest bunches at 2:50 back.

Highlights of the day for me (in a day of happenings):

• Mauro Santambrogio's gutsy effort to help Cadel to pull back time after Madeleine, and their emotional embrace post-race;

• Cadel himself plowing on with huge resolve and clawing back some lost time;

• Jens Voigt getting in a prior breakaway group, and then turning himself inside out to help Schleck put the hurt on when he was picked up by Schleck and Contador around 5km from the top of the Madeleine.  He literally rode his eyeballs out to consolidate Andy's gains on all GC contenders bar Alberto. When he cracked within 500m of the top, he basically slowed to a crawl, and it wasn't exactly clear whether or not he'd actually come to a dead stop. Then, some 2:07 after the first rider past the finish line, big Jens cruised in with a small group, only some 2:07 in arrears! Strong, strong, strong!

Tomorrow sees a stage with a couple of nice climbs in the Cat 1 and 2 class and around 10km downhill to the finish.  With Saxo Bank in charge of the peloton, we'll most likely see a breakaway of very non-GC-threatening riders being allowed to go for glory and maybe some strongish climbers with sprint ability take the win if the breakaway doesn't stay away.


Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Au Revoir Armstrong as Le Tour gets Real interesting : Stage 8

Wow - what a day. The 189 km Stage 7 from Station des Rousses to the 1796 metre heights of Morzine-Avoriaz had it all:

• Cadel Evans (BMC) inheriting the maillot jaune after a strong effort and Chavanel's expected slowdown on the significant slopes to Morzine;
• Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) taking his first ever Tour stage win in emphatic style and sending out a significant message to all other GC contenders, moving up into 2nd in the GC classification;
• Lance Armstrong (Radio Shack) imploding after a series of offs (including the most significant self-induced one - a bad fall, hitting the deck and losing skin, energy and time), losing nearly 12 minutes, and any title chance;
• Alberto Contador (Astana) apparently not having the best of days, unable to go with Schleck, but with his team also demonstrating their strength in the climbs - his boys single handedly destroying all but a select few of the peloton;
• Denis Menchov (Rabobank) executing a polished, under-the-radar, and seemingly untroubled ride with the select group;
• Roman Kreuziger and Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) and Carlos Sastre (Cervelo) also doing likewise;
• Levi Leipheimer (Radio Shack) finishing in the select bunch and surely stamping his ownership as the Radio Shack GC primo contender, and presumably now being in charge of Lance's future efforts in the Tour,
• Michael Rogers (HTC - Columbia) pulling out a gutsy effort and staying with the biggies for all but the last 500 metres to crack a top 10 GC place;
• Bradley Wiggins (Sky) popping on the last climb and losing 1:45 to drop out of the GC top 10;
• Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto) going top 4 GC with a great ride. 

I'm not going to get into ride specifics on this stage as there was just so much to see and take in, and at one point, here in Oz the entire SBS network went off air for around 15-20 minutes. Overall, just a really fascinating and historic day, what with Schleck's first stage win (why does it seem he must have won before?) and Armstrong's implosion.

So, a big sorting out day leading into the rest day, and with another tough, tough stage immediately following, there will be further shake ups.

Le Tour is getting le engrossing!

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Chapeau! Chavanel: Stage 7

Watched the Tour last night with a bunch of rider friends, and had a great time. Having a group of people who know about racing observe the race makes it all the more interesting.

So, Chapeau! to Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step: a gutsy, gritty and flair-filled win deserving of the maillot jaune.

Stage 7 from Tournus to Station des Rousses seemed, at 165.5 km, to be on the short side, but with a Cat 4, two Cat 3, and three Cat 2 climbs (the Cat 2s all coming in the last 55 km of the race) it was anything but.  Expectation was for a stage of considerable toughness and 'sorting out', and that's exactly what occurred.

With the start of the first climb of the day (the Cat 3 L'Aubepin) arriving at 41 km into the stage, the current KOM leader Jérôme Pineau (Quickstep) made his intentions obvious immediately, and broke away from the start, intent on racking up the polka jersey points.  He was joined in the day's breakaway by Christian Knees (Milram), Danilo Hondo (Lampre), Ruben Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Samuel Dumoulin of Cofidis (who is, as Paul Sherwin incessantly reminds us, the shortest rider in the race. WTF, why is this important Paul - does he get a medal?).

By the top of  L'Aubepin, the group had amassed a lead of over 8 and a half minutes, with Pineau setting the tone for the day by taking the KOM points, something he'd continue to do for all but one of the KOM lines.

Over the Cat 4 Granges and Cat 3 Arinthod climbs, the status quo remained, although some powerful work by the Bbox Bouygues Telecom boys was eating into the break's gap, and putting some hurt into sections of the peloton.  Bbox's motivation for leading the charge at the front of the main peloton was that they were the only French team with no representation in the break!

Arriving at the first Cat 2 climb of the day, the aptly named Côte du barrage de Vouglans, Bbox's driving tactics started to splinter the main group, with the major sprinters being shelled, and then, more surprisingly, the yellow jerseyed Fabian Cancellara started to yo-yo noticeably, with Tony Martin also wilting a little. A sizeable counterattack group of Thomas Voeckler and Cyril Gautier (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Mathieu Perget (Caisse d'Epargne) took that queue to depart the main group in chase of the breakaway, and soon after the Lampre rider Damiano Cunego set off in pursuit of them, attempting to backup his earlier pronunciations that he'd lost time deliberately thus far to win stages.  Whilst all this was happening, the major GC contenders, still with sizeable support from team members, remained at the front of the main peloton looking fairly 'tranquilo'.

Arriving at the top,  Pineau and Hondo had scuttled away from their companions, who had been more or less absorbed by the counterattack group led by Voeckler, which had been joined by Cunego.

It was at this point that Chavanel made the decision to bridge to the Voeckler/Cunego group from the peloton, and he set off in pursuit and reached them in double-quick time on the run down into the penultimate climb of the day, the Cat 2 Col de la Croix de la Serra. This longish climb saw a little respite, as the riders maintained their relative stations mostly, although many continued to be shelled off the main peloton, and Cancellara, accompanied by Martin and Jens Voigt, was battling gamely to hang on.

Arriving at the final climb of the day, the Cat 2 Lamoura up to Station des Rousses, Chavanel decided to fly, and with a smooth effort, dropped the Voeckler/Cunego group in a flash and set off after Pineau and Hondo a little way up the climb.  Meanwhile, Pineau had the same inspiration and vaulted past a bemused Hondo like a bullet. Hondo kept his station, aware that his team mate Cunego was behind and may need some help - well, that's the kind interpretation: basically he was stuffed after a good day's work!

Chavanel soon caught and passed a desperately tired Pineau, who attempted to pull his teammate for all of around 5 meters and then sensibly gave up, his work to keep the KOM jersey done.  As the main peloton containing all the GC favourites started to gain ground on everyone, sweeping them up on the ascent, Tour newcomer Rafael Valls Ferri of team Footon-Servetto (with the discarded chocolate-wrapper apparel design) put in a stirling effort off the main group, gobbled up all those in front of him and set off in pursuit of Chavanel.  Although he was to never seriously challenge Sylvain (who put a little time into him) it was a nice effort, marking him as one to watch out for in later stages.

But it was Chavanel who looked the part, sweeping along the upper slopes of the Lamoura, over the top and into the final undulating 4 km pushing some really impressive gears on his way to a stirring and rather magnificent victory, with the joy of a stage win and the greater triumph of the maillot jaune again being his.

Valls Ferri cruised in for second, followed by Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank) and the trio of Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Mathieu Perget (Caisse d'Epargne) and Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Omega Pharma-Lotto), at 1:40 down.

The remnants of the main peloton, 36 riders strong, quickly followed at 1:47 down, with all main GC contenders present and accounted for. Cancellara, after losing the yellow on the road to Chavanel, had clearly decided to save himself for future days and current white jersey holder Andy Schleck (who inherited it after Geraint Thomas of Team Sky wilted a little on the final climb), and shut down to cruise in over 14 minutes adrift.

A superb day's racing, and excellent spectacle, and perhaps a portent of some more carnage tomorrow on the first of the Alpine stages and the first Cat 1 of Col de la Ramez.

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Deja Vu: Cav wins again in replica stage: Stage 6

Watching the telecast last night, I wasn't sure whether I was looking at a replay of Stage 5 or not: early breakaway of three, trundling peloton, late-ish catch mainly orchestrated by HTC-Columbia, disorganised run into the line, and a Mark Cavendish victory courtesy of Mark Renshaw savy. But then, the fact that it was Stage 6 was confirmed - Cav. wasn't having a snivel on the podium! Not that I begrudge him after the Stage 5 win - but a weep-peat could've been on the cards.

So, Stage 6 from Montargis to Gueugnon was on the menu - a rolling journey of 227.5km with four Cat 4 climbs in the mix, the last two being towards the end of the stage, and the last (Croix de l'Arbe), being situated only some 23km before the finish, perhaps a chance for a few to try and sneak off.

Another early breakaway, this time featuring Mathieu Perget (Caisse d'Epargne), Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Spanish rider Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel-Euskadi).  As per yesterday, the breakaway motored early on, and the peloton allowed the gap to build to over 8 minutes within the relatively short distance of 23 km. Once again, Saxo Bank took up the early running to whittle the lead down, with Stuart O'Grady and Nicki Sorensen prominent in the task to protect Fabian Cancellara's yellow jersey.

With around 100km to go, the roles then switched to the sprint teams to make the capture, and HTC-Columbia predictably took up the running from there. After a power of work on the previous 2 days, Konstantin Siutsou of HTC-Columbia was given a deserved rest, and Bert Grabsch and Maxime Monfort were tasked with the chase, which they duly carried out with metronome-efficient precision.

Approaching the last climb of the day, the Croix de l'Arbe, the gap was down to a minute and on the climb, Dmitri Champion (Ag2R-La Mondiale) and Anthony Charteau (BBox Bouygues Telecom) decided to have a little dig, skipping away from the peloton and soon reeling in Perez and Lang. Perget had also tried a little move on his own on the downhill, and had scooted away to a slender lead but with the chasing pack growing to four, he too was soon brought back into the fold.

The lead pack's days were very much numbered as a variety of teams came to the front to up the pace and make the catch, including at various points, the GC contenders teams of Radio Shack, Astana, and BMC. It was decidedly strange to see the likes of Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, and George Hincapie shadowed by Cadel Evans actually on the point of the arrow! Maybe it was in fulfillment of some contractual obligation e.g.

...clause 6, paragraph 5, sub-paragraph 3:  Team (insert team name here), hereinafter know as "The Team", will agree to provide verified TV exposure featuring one or more Riders, hereinafter known as "Indentured Slaves", of "The Team" leading the 2010 Tour De France (hereinafter know as "The Tour") for a guaranteed minimum designated period of not less than 5 seconds and a maximum designated period of  n-1 seconds (where 'n' is the total elapsed time in seconds of "The Tour" at any given point during "The Tour") by the conclusion of Stage 6 of "The Tour".

I've been wrong before but...

Still, these were mere cameos, and with the chief sprint teams taking up the running, the lead pack of 5 was well caught with around 10 km to go.

Following the pattern of the sprint stages at this year's Tour, the likes of Garmin-Transitions, Lampre-Farnese Vini and Cervélo Test Team all took turns to try and disrupt the HTC-Columbia train, and again, it was partially successful, with HTC arriving at the flamme rouge with only Mark Renshaw and Mark Cavendish in attendance, and Garmin-Transitions looking fairly well setup with Julian Dean and Robbie Hunter towing Tyler Farrar, with the usual suspects of Petacchi, McEwen, Ciolek, Turgot, Boasson Hagen and Hushovd thereabouts.

The Garmin-Transitions three lead thru' the final right-hander into the long 750 meter finishing straight, but it proved indeed to be the finish of them as well as the other contenders as with 600 to go, Renshaw laid down a very strong run with Cav in tow, cleared out by 4 or 5 bike lengths, and released the Cav-meister who then lit the wick and accelerated away to his second win in as many days.  Farrar blew home to a good second over a tiring Petacchi, with McEwen proving he likes 4th by acquiring it again (I think that's a three-peat of 4ths for him this tour). Points leader Hushovd faded somewhat back to 10th.

Another great sprint spectacle ending a fairly routine day, but good stuff nonetheless.  After the sprint finish, probably the most excitement was a reported stoush between Spaniard Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) and Rui Costa (Caisse d'Epargne) of Portugal (Barredo armed himself with a wheel and bopped Costa on the helmet a few times post-race in apparent displeasure at Costa's manhandling of him in the sprint home, after which it descended into a little pugilism), and Robbie McEwen having a somewhat clueless TV camerman wander into him in the run-off area as he was still more-than-ambling along, with the resulting collision seeing Robbie make a cautionary visit to the hospital.

So, victory number two for Cav, and yet another round of drinks he owes to the HTC boys.

And now for the slopes, where the mountain goats and GCs come out to play!

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - The 'Manx Missile' sheds a tear - and his rivals: Stage 5

Well, a day of routine leading up to an exciting finish full of argy-bargy, and a bit of podium waterworks as well!

Stage 5 of Le Tour saw the riders tootling their way from Epernay along picturesque roads and countryside towards their date with the line in Montargis some 187.5km removed.  As an aside, I will be seriously glad when the Tour turns away from the abundant visual riches of the French North - Paul Sherwin's notebook is fast running out of descriptives for the views, and he's now repeating his travelogue specifics during the race, rather than on successive days: I'm warning you Paul - don't test me!

Anyway, back to racing, After a few goes at getting the breakaway mix right, Caisse d'Epargne's José Ivan Gutierrez got the OK after taking Jurgen van de Walle (Quick Step) and Julian El Fares (Cofidis) with him, and thus was the day's intrepid little group released.  Makes you wonder what goes thru' these dudes minds when they hook up and speed off - what possible chance does a breakaway of 3 have on a stage like this? Still, it's all part of the sweeping drama that is Le Tour.

The breakaway got off to a real 'scalded cat' start and within 28 klicks had distanced the peloton to the tune of near-on 8 minutes - the bunch looked like they'd OD'ed on Restoril the night before.  After that, the NoDoz kicked in (these crazy cycling kids and their wacky legal drug regimens) and they began the inevitable and inexorable reel-in of the miscreants.

For the second day in a row, Konstantin Siutsou of HTC-Columbia was getting plenty of face time on the tele, doing a power of work to bring back the breakaway, with Maxime Monfort and Bert Grabsch also throwing in, and later still joined by various riders from Lampre-Farnese Vini and Cervelo Test Team.

With 10km to go (trust me - it didn't go that quickly on TV), Tony Martin notched it up and the 3 leaders were doomed. At around the 6 km mark, Gutierrez decided to ditch his former partners in crime and attempt an ITT to the line, but that effort evaporated in a puff of exhaled air some 2 kms down the track.

With 4 km to travel, the sprint teams got rolling, and it turned into a real mash-up, with HTC-Columbia, Lampre-Farnese Vini and Garmin-Slipstream prominent in the fight to gain lead-out ascendancy.  Coming under the red kite, there was still no super-organised team, but Garmin-Slipstream had the most numbers and it looked like Farrar was in with a go. But in the rolling and rocking final run to the line (featuring some nice shoulder work between Mark Renshaw and Thor Hushovd), it was Renshaw who dove into a gap left by one of the Garmin-Slipstream rider's peel-off, powered up with Mark Cavendish in tow, and then let him loose with 200 to go. Cav didn't dissapoint his teammates and recorded a going-away win in fine style, followed up by Gerald Ciolek (Milram) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), following on with another good showing from the previous day.

Good stuff overall and Cav was suitable elated, having a little blubber on the podium.  Bernard Hinault was doing his stuff on the podium: not sure what 'Le Blaireau' would've thought of the Cav's sniffles, but I was half expecting him to launch a short right cross at Mark's prominent jawline.  That's what this Tour needs - another protestor to clamber up on stage so Bernard can demonstrate his amiable nature!

Oh and Cav. - you need to start giving Renshaw big gobs of cash for his work mate!

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Short in more ways than one: Stage 4

Stage 4 of Le Tour 2010 from Cambrai to Reims was a shorty of a stage at 153.5km, and short on a few other things as well: like excitement! Sometimes the sprinter stages can be real snore-fests for the majority of the time.

With beautiful weather, a little cross/head wind and some very nice rural northern France scenery, the stage tootled off to the usual scenario with a bunch of escaping hares clearing out pretty much straight away and a peloton clearly not interested in doing any high-speed stuff today.  Not overly surprising, given the pounding they experienced yesterday.  Mind you, one would've thought that some of them had been subject to passage through the bowels of the earth given the moaning and complaining emanating from their persons. Fair enough, F. Schleck took a serious tumble, but Jens Voight (one of my most admired tuff guys) looked like he was gonna have a cry as he shouted to the heavens (well, the journo's actually) in self-righteous rage and horror about how the organisers had 'robbed Frankie'. ('Frankie' - hasn't he got a better handle than that?: 'Frank', 'The Frank', 'Der Frank-Meister' are all suitably more grave and grand).

With Cancellara back in yellow (impressing upon us via the scribes that karma is indeed a bitch, especially for Chavanel) the main bunch dawdled along at spectator speeds for nigh-on the entire race with little to report.  Meanwhile, the initial breakaway bunch of Dmitri Champion (AG2R-La Mondiale), Iban Mayoz (Footon-Servetto), Nicolas Vogondy (Bbox-Bouygues Telecom), Francis De Greef (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Inaki Isasi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) also took to snoozing once they gained their initial advantage, albeit at a slightly shallower level than the peloton: they still gained time even at their snail pace, up to a max of 3:13.

Perhaps snoozing was the reason little Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel - Euskadi) got a taste of asphalt - didn't see the prang, but he didn't look keen at all off his bike waiting for the team car: close ups later revealed why as he had a nice bit of skin off, and a hematoma mouse the size of an egg on his right elbow. Still, he got back in the saddle and persevered for the rest off the day, coming in last-bar-one at 4:37 down.

Once the breakaway maxed out at 3:13 ahead, the peloton began a long, slow, laborious, DULL reel-in to just over a minute out with 40 km to travel. The heli duly trotted off every minute or so during this period  to intercept and circulate around yet another point-of-interest in the friggin' countryside, thus allowing Paul Sherwin to punish we the viewing audience with his travelogue-ish blather.  The interest in this aspect only jumped when they circled the public hanging of a witch off one of the inumerable church spires populating the region. Oh, hang on -  I imagined that to liven things up!

Then of course, having reeled in the 5 hares at 40km to within a minute, they couldn't actually make the catch (too early in the piece) so it was another eye-gougingly incremental chase right down to around 3 klicks to go: the sort of faux excitement which isn't that at all, akin to a vanilla ice cream with a surprise exactly-the-same-vanilla centre.

So, with around 3km to go (the spot they should've actually started the race - I'm sure Txurruka would agree) the sprinter's teams popped up and started riffing for position. HTC-Columbia put on their usual 'we are here now and organised so keep out the fuckin' way' show, but then a marvellous thing happened: Lampre-Farnese Vini decided to run a little interference via their rider Danilo Hondo and all of a sudden, HTC were a bit all over the place.

HTC gathered it back to a degree with just under 1 km to go, but Hondo's move seemed to give the sprinter pack a sniff of something. With the reliable Mark Renshaw again providing the slipstream for Cavendish, it looked to be Manx man for the win, but then 'Ale-Jet' Alessandro Petacchi hit the afterburners from a long way out, with Robbie McEwen (Team Katusha) in tow, and powered away for the win, followed by a fast finishing Julian Dean (Garmin - Transitions) over an also running-on Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) and a tiring Robbie.

Cavendish?  After being swamped by the above mentioned, plus a few more, he stopped pedaling and coasted in 12th - rather a poor show I thought.  Still, all that crashing can stuff a guy out...

So, Ale-Jet breathes a whole bunch of interest into the sprint comp. and also the battle for the Green jersey, currently still with Thor Hushovd. Another sprint likely coming up on Stage 5, so tune in to the last 3km...

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Solidarity and Pave Thrills: Stages 2 and 3

Wow! - I'm abuzz after a scintillating Stage 3 of the tour: man, that's what GT racing is all about!

First off, Stage 2 from Brussels to Spa, an undulating 201km course which more than a few commentators suggested was potentially a lot more tricky than it looked.

Starting off in fairly clear weather, Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step was the chief proponent of an eventual breakaway following a number of attempts to detach himself from the peloton: at km 17 the group decided that he'd gathered together an acceptable 'non-threatening' entourage of 8 riders and let them off the hook. If only they'd known...

Within 34 km the little group of adventurers had managed to build themselves an advantage of close to 4:30 which the peloton then pegged for a considerable distance.  With a few mountains points on offer the next 100km or so saw Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step), Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) and Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto) squabble over the meagre offerings with pretty much the same result each time: Pineau, Taaramae and then Lloyd. Pineau was definitely keen on building up points for the red-spots and did so thru' most of the journey.

This little tete a tete ended when the group arrived at the start of the Cat 3 Côte de Aissomont, with first Turgot and then Lloyd throwing out the anchors and sliding back to the advancing main peloton, who'd closed to within 2:40.  Going down the other side towards the Cat 3 Côte de Stockeu in increasingly wet and slippery conditions, drizzle having set in, the leading 6 splintered with Jürgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing) gaining some distance over the others, including a somewhat circumspect Chavanel: not surprising for the latter as he'd taken a severe fall earlier in the year in this neck of the woods and had done some nasty damage, including a skull fracture.

However, Chavanel soon rallied as the roads again turned upward on the Côte de Stockeu, and he cruised past Roelandts for the final time, never to be headed again and destined for a famous victory. This chance was handed to him by a following peloton which, descending the Stockeu, suddenly appeared to be riding on soap wheels as first Francesco Gavazzi of Lampre-Farnese Vini (one of the initial escapees) had a front end wash out (and was nearly run over by a following camera motorbike), followed by a bunch of others who went out in apparent sympathy, with Andy Schleck, Christian Vande Velde and Alessandro Petacchi looking most damaged (Vande Velde suffered broken ribs and didn't take his place in Stage 3). Frank Schleck had also joined the involuntary dismount party.
 
From then Cancellara and Saxo Bank appeared to take the decision to slow down the peloton and let the Schlecks rejoin, which they did after some superman impressions by their legendary teammate Jens Voigt (what a guy!) who dragged them back and then dropped dead (well, slowed dramatically). Apparently everyone else racing agreed with the go-slow and the outcome of the race was sealed at this point, as Chavanel scooted away - mind you, even if he'd heard the news he wasn't stopping unless his legs fell off!

So, Chavanel crossed the line for a brave and memorable win, whilst the main peloton 'solidarity-ed' in near on 4 mins behind, with Cancellara sacrificing the yellow jersey for brothers Schleck.

A stage of relative carnage led into a possible other: Stage 3 from Wanze to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut. At 213km, a reasonable distance, but in the last 78 km of those, a little over 13km of the dreaded cobbles in best 'Hell of the North' fashion!  The general consensus amongst those in the know was that this stage had potential to turn in a bloodbath, and so it was!

The usual early breakaway did their best hare impression across a fairly uneventful lead up to the pave sections, and even the first two cobbles didn't change the complexion of the race: the initial pave sections were short and relatively clean and wide.

Approaching pave Section 3 near Hollain saw Saxo Bank, leading the main peloton, hit the gas and the shit hit the fan, as a series of incidents saw a number of riders touch dirt, first off the mark being Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and David Zabriskie (Garmin-Transitions), and mechanicals ripple through the field.

Another brutal Pave section at Sars-et-Rosières saw many riders bit the dust, including Frank Schleck who appeared to lose control of his own accord and go in hard: outcome was a broken collarbone and the end of Le Tour for him.

Unlike the previous day, Cancellara, still at the head of a dwindling peloton and with Andy Schleck in tow, this time decided, or was directed, to gas it. In doing so, his efforts split the straggled peloton and left him with a core group of Andy Schleck, Geraint Thomas (Sky), Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) and Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team) with some 25 or so km left to the finish. The next group on the road, which included Lance Armstrong, struggled to keep pace and slowly lost time, whilst further back Alberto Contador (Astana), who with teammate Alexander Vinokourov had dropped off in the chaos, pedaled frantically to regain the Armstrong group. As Contador regained, Armstrong punctured and dropped back, never to get back on terms with Alberto despite a valiant lone effort to do so once his tire was replaced.

The Cancellara group was intent on pressing on as all had great motivations: with yellow-jerseyed Chavanel experiencing a horror run of three punctures, Fabian had the maillot jaune in his sights, Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and Geraint Thomas had significant time gains over other GC favs in theirs, and big Thor Hushovd was licking his lips at the prospect of a stage win, with the bunch around him clearly easy pickings for him in bunch sprint. Well, as long as they could pick off the stragglers remaining ahead from the breakaway group.

At the 10km mark, initial escapee Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions)  had around 25 seconds on this chasing bunch, but Fabian put the nail in his coffin with an attempt at a solo dig at 9km, clearly thinking that his only chance for a win was to clear out from the God of Thunder. However, Thor wasn't having any of it and reigned that in with the help of Evans who, being an excellent TT rider, clearly wanted to put some more seconds into following GC favourites, Contador and Armstrong included. Andy Schleck came along for the ride.

With the final cobbled section done and 6km to go, the Cancellara group caught poor old Hesjedal (who, to his credit, stuck with them) and continued on at full tilt, with Cancellara, Evans and Schleck chiefly pushing whilst Thor sat back, enjoyed the tow and sharpened his knives for the final cut.

Back down the road, Contador, accompanied by Vinokourov, rolled on in a smallish group not too far back, but slowly bleeding time. Further back still, Armstrong's lone effort had run out of steam and he resigned himself to whatever losses ensued as he joined another group and stayed there.    

Arriving at the last kilometre, there was none of the cat and mouse usually associated with a sprint finish - having Thor in the bunch likely rendered it a foregone conclusion. And so it was - Thor opened up the taps in the last 100 and cruised to the victory, followed closely by Thomas and Evans, with the two Saxo Bank teamates Cancellara and Schleck completing the scene.  A nice victory for Thor - no doubt after his disappointment of the previous neutralised stage one he deserved in his mind - and excellent potential GC time gains for Evans and Schleck. These gains were set in stone when Contador rolled in some 73 seconds adrift, and Armstrong an even more distant 2:08 in arrears.

And in a final episode of drama, and one which will be sure to set tongues wagging and minds ticking, Vinokourov, who up until close to the finish had been sticking with team mate and team LEADER Alberto, managed to drag a group including Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Denis Menchov (Rabobank) across the line some 20 seconds ahead of Contador! It appears that Contador had broken a spoke and had brake drag for some time, but even if this wasn't a deliberate act by Vino, it was a very careless and inattentive mistake, and one sure to cause some consternation at the Astana dinner table. 

Stage 3 'Cobble Carnage' - I salute you!

Ride Safe!

Le Tour 2010 - Sleepless nights arrive!: Prologue and Stage 1

So, time to suffer the annual self-determined sleep deprivation schedule, also known as Le Tour!

Interesting Prologue I thought, with a short 8.9 km power-biased course around Rotterdam rendered more tricky by its technicality and some variable weather throughout the run.  The guys who nominated to go off early generally seemed to be on the short side of that decision, although Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) turned in a blinder to head the table for the best time for near two hours until the penultimate dig by Fabian 'Spartacus' Cancellara (Saxo Bank).

Fabian bruised and bashed the course for the win and the maillot jaune by 10 seconds.  Helped undoubtedly a little by the easing of the showers and the drying out of the course, he nevertheless grabbed the race by the scruff of the neck and shook it a little. He also displayed a little caution in some of the tighter sweepers, slowing noteably compared to a few of the others, so clearly it was a thinking race from him.

Other performances of note for me? Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) for a real stinker 69 secs off the pace, Lance Armstrong (Radioshack) for a thought-provoking 4th, Alberto Contador (Astana) for a strong performance overshadowed by who he didn't beat, Tyler Farrar (Garmin - Transitions) whom I thought was excellent, Cadel Evans (BMC) who looked a little cautious and unconfident at times and hence possibly down a little more than expected, and Bradley Wiggins (Sky) who really sucked.  Guess I should also acknowledge David Millar (Garmin - Transitions) for third but I find the guy really grating, with his 'anti-drug' stance when he still can't fully acknowledge the fact he was intentionally doped to the gills and caught at it. Still, guess he's no exception...

Then, Stage 1 from Rotterdam - Brussels, a longish 223.5km in total. What was seen as a potentially tricky and dangerous course with the potential to create a little havoc did indeed turn out that way, but not for the initial reasons outlined.

With sunny skies and little wind, the peloton set off in the best of conditions, and a bunch of 3 hares, which included Quick Step's Maarten Wynants, immediately scuttled off to provide the day's carrot.

For the vast majority of the journey it remained that way with the three leaders going out to a quite sizeable 7+ minutes at one stage whilst the peloton fluffed about with road furniture, a big ponderous bunch, and a few crashes. One included poor old aussie Adam Hansen (HTC-Columbia) who broke his collar bone - again! - and a second involving yet another dog wandering out onto the course. FFS - who brings their dog to these things?

The footage of the poor mutt was particularly poignant - slinking out in front of the group, most likely after deciding to go for a wander and have its owner scream at it to get back, the beast then did a comic double take checking out the impending doom of the advancing bunch, followed by a half-hearted metre dash each way sideways, and finally throwing in the towel mentally and dropping to the ground with tail between its legs waiting for the inevitable train wreck. Actually turned out OK for the mutt, as it didn't seem to get tossed about too bad, and only Ivan Basso (Liquigas) and David Millar actually exited their seats to gentle landings.

 As per usual, the hares up front slowly got pulled back by the pack, but good old Maarten Wynants decided he hadn't had enough punishment for one day and, arriving at a broken section of cobble with around 30 or so kms to go, scurried off with dreams of grandeur in his head whilst the remaining two (Lars Boom (Rabobank) and Alan Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi)) called it a day with more practical dreams of hot showers and food sometime in their near future.

Alexander Pliuschin (Katusha), the current champ of Moldova, decided to get his team some air time and his country some fame (not surprisingly - where the fuck is Moldova?) and scooted after Wynants with a view to forming a two man cruise missile all the way to the finish. Unfortunately, when he got up to Maarten, he found a rider very much in cruise mode (not doubt pretty much stuffed after being at the pointy end all day) and ended up pulling him along until their capture about 7kms from the finish. Still, he got his fame and a good workout for 23 or so kms!

From then on, the big-name sprinter's teams jostled and bustled for position at high speeds until a sharp right hand bend at around 2.5km delivered a blow to HTC-Columbia, with Mark Cavendish forgetting how to steer a bike around a corner, leaning into someone else thus creating the conditions for the crash and being dumped on his arse (wow - that'd be new to him - NOT!) along with a couple of others, Oscar Freire of Rabobank included.

That was just the start of the chaos. Following an extremely busy and hectic lead-out-swapping pelt into the 800 metre mark, a massive crash corked up the entire peloton bar the 25-30 front riders. Whilst the hung-up bunch watched on in non-participatory gloom, the left overs fought out the finish, with Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) again doing a magic act avoiding the carnage and running out to a strong win over Mark Renshaw of HTC-Columbia (clearly confused because Cavendish wasn't behind him sucking up his air) and 'God of Thunder' Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team).  Poor old Tyler Farrar, in a good position with support at 300 metres to go, got rear-ended and ended up dragging a bike (hooked on his RD) 100 metres down the road before he hopped off, disentangled it, flung it ceremoniously into the side barrier and trundled into the finish. Tragi-comic is the expression I think.

So, in the shake-up, no shake-up from the Prologue, with Spartacus still in the maillot jaune, followed by Martin, Millar, the Uni-Baller, Thomas and Contadorrrrrrrrrr.

So, a fun first stage, with plenty of suffering in more ways than one - Wynants went on to win the 'Most Combative' award (although someone should remind him there is actually a few kms to still traverse in the race!) - some douche-baggery, some lovely scenery, and a standout cameo by a kamikaze dog. Bravo Belgian Mutt!

Ride Safe!