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!
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