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!