Voeckler’s Defense: A Roche Retrospective

Posted on July 21, 2011 by

Pavé would like to thank Handspun, Clément, and Laekhouse for supporting our coverage of the 2011 Tour de France

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Thomas Voeckler’s teeth-gritting defense of his Yellow Jersey in today’s Stage 18 of the 2011 Tour de France came at a price. Upon crossing the finish line and realizing that he had not allowed Andy Schleck to pry the Yellow Jersey from his shoulders, he raised his fist, but wobbled and nearly collapsed. For several minutes he straddled his bike, being attended to, ignoring the microphones that were stuck in his face. He had truly left it all on the road.

In our Stage 18 Wrap-Up, we compared it to Stephen Roche’s performance in the 1987 Tour de France, on the climb to la Plagne.

 

 

The backstory is terrific. Roche was trying to make up time on Pedro Delgado, and so had launched an attack with 100km to go in the stage. He even called upon potential future teammates for aid.

Delgado’s PDM team reeled in the move, though, and on the final climb Delgado distanced Roche. Roche’s story about his defense to limit his losses is terrific. Watch how he describes his chase of Delgado – “I just et the road,” as well as his reaction upon crossing the finish line. Next time you hear somebody mention “leaving it all on the road,” consider Roche’s performance.

 

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2011 Tour de France – Stage 18 Wrap-Up

Posted on July 21, 2011 by

Pavé would like to thank Handspun, Clément, and Laekhouse for supporting our coverage of the 2011 Tour de France.

Fotoreporter Sirotti

 

Stage 18, the Queen Stage of this year’s Tour de France, was a 6+-hour slugfest over 3 Hors Categorie climbs in the Alps–the Agnel, the Izoard, and finally, the monstrous Galibier.

1. Andy Schleck’s attacked on the Izoard with about 60km to go, gaining 2 minutes over the yellow jersey group by the top of the climb and extending it to 4:25 on the descent and the early slopes of the Galibier. Schleck’s move seemed to catch everyone off guard, as there was little to no effort to join or haul back the man who many seemed to have written off as an overall contender.

2. It’s a shame other men in the yellow jersey group didn’t find Andy’s “all or nothing” attack enticing, as men like Ivan Basso, Damiano Cunego, and Tom Danielson all would have benefitted—and perhaps dragged themselves into podium contention—had they tried to follow the acceleration.

3. Andy’s attack confounded many. Was it too early? Would he lose his advantage on the descent? Was he going for the win or was he setting it up for Frank? But as confusing as it was, this was clearly a well-planned attack: Leopard-Trek had both Maxime Monfort and Joost Posthuma in the day’s big break, and Posthuma shelled the teammates of Andy’s rivals up the Izoard, while Monfort saved energy to work with Andy between the Izoard and the Galibier, maximizing Andy’s advantage before the headwind set in.

4. And perhaps most impressive—especially for someone so criticized for his lack of tactical nous in the days prior—was the timing of the move. Andy’s attack gave him an advantage before the head winds of the final 35 kilometers. No matter how hard they tried, these winds prevented the already-tired yellow jersey group from making any serious headway.

5. Might we see a similar move tomorrow, only with Frank going on the offensive? Andy will certainly be depleted following his efforts today (he barely made it across the line); an attack from Frank might crack the few remaining contenders while giving Andy a free ride to the finish. While perhaps putting Frank into yellow over Andy, such a move just might give Leopard Trek the first two spots on the podium in Paris—and significant buffers heading into Saturday’s time trial.

6. Behind Schleck, BMC’s Cadel Evans took the reigns with 10km to go, as the yellow jersey group stared at one another. Evans’ move looked risky at first, but despite the presence of Europcar’s Voeckler and Rolland and Liquigas’ Basso and Szmyd, it was the isolated Australian who brought the gap down from 4 minutes to less than 3 by the end of the stage. Clearly Evans is the man Leopard Trek needs to fear the most over the next two days.

7. In the final kilometer, the yellow jersey group splintered as Frank Schleck attacked to gain a few seconds on Cadel Evans. Behind, Voeckler’s face was a curtain of pain. He crossed the line with a fist-punch when he saw that he held the yellow jersey by :16. He all but collapsed after the finish, reminiscent of Stephen Roche’s incredible climb up La Plagne to keep his advantage in 1987. Expect Tommy V. to not go down without a fight tomorrow.

8. As for Saxo Bank’s Alberto Contador, he just didn’t have it today. After a few failed turns out the front brought little results, the Spaniard was content to hang at the back of the yellow jersey, doing his best to keep pace before finally giving in. While many love to hate on Contador, he and Voeckler are really the only overall contenders in this year’s Tour to have a significant number of days thus far this season. At least he’ll have one less race to worry about being disqualified from once the WADA/UCI appeal is heard.

9. Italian’s Ivan Basso and Damiano Cunego once again finished at the top of the day’s results. At this point, both looked destined for unexciting top-10 finishes. Close enough to the top to still be considered outside contenders, neither looks to be a favorite for tomorrow’s stage to Alpe d’Huez.

10. In addition to Tom Danielson’s 9th-place finish today ( a result that keeps him firmly inside the top-10 for now),Garmin-Cervelo’s Ryder Hesjedal and Christian Vande Velde finished 10th and 12th, putting the squad in the driver’s seat for the Tour’s 50,000 Euro team prize.

11. Moving to the green jersey competition, Movistar’s JJ Rojas expressed his team’s intentions to attack Mark Cavendish in the mountains, hoping to put him outside the time cut and Rojas into the green jersey. Today, they were successful—sorta. Rojas finished within the time cut, while many riders did not it including Cavendish, Sylvain Chavanel, Philippe Gilbert, Tyler Farrar and enough important names that the race jury decided to allow the riders to continue, but docking them points. As a result, Cavendish still holds green but by only 15 points over Rojas. Look for tomorrow’s intermediate sprint and Sunday’s final stage to keep this competition going right to the wire.

12. Sky’s Rigoberto Uran started the stage in the white jersey as the Tour’s Best Young Rider, and Sky mounted a strong defense of his position, covering him well in the mountains, and pacing him back on when he fell off the pace. Unfortunately, the Galibier was one climb too much for Colombian; Pierre Rolland—a more than deserving recipient—took over the lead in the competition.

13. Looking over the GC quickly, Cadel Evans is outside of the top-3 for the first time this Tour, but is in a strong place as the best time trialist among the top-4. The top ten is as follows:

    1. Thomas Voeckler

    2. Andy Schleck at :15

    3. Frank Schleck at 1:08

    4. Cadel Evans at 1:12

    5. Damiano Cunego 3:46

    6. Ivan Basso s.t.

    7. Alberto Contador at 4:44

    8. Samuel Sanchez at 5:20

    9. Tom Danielson at 7:08

    10. Jean-Christophe Perraud at 9:27

14. Tomorrow’s stage brings another ascent of the Galibier followed by Alpe d’Huez. The last chance for time to be gained and lost before Saturday’s time trial, expect to see Leopard Trek do it’s best to put Cadel Evans into difficulty—if they don’t burn themselves out in the process. As for the stage win, Sylvester Szmyd, Robert Gesink, and Alberto Contador are all men to watch, while Lotto’s Jelle Vanendert and Samuel Sanchez will do their best to hold off Andy Schleck for the polka dot jersey.

Share your comments below–and don’t forget to join Whit over at Bicycling.com’s Live Blog. Live blogging begins at 8:30est. Keep an eye on our Twitter Feed for the exact location.

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Pavé/Laekhouse Galibier Contest

Posted on July 21, 2011 by

The folks over at Laekhouse have been nice enough to be one of our sponsors for coverage of this month’s Tour de France. We’re big fans of their work, and figured there’s nothing like a contest to give a lucky (or perhaps race-savvy) reader an opportunity to win one of their T-Shirts

The challenge: pick the winner of the climb over the Galibier during Friday’s (7/22) stage 19 between Modane Valfréjus and Alpe-d’Huez. Topping out at 2,556 after climbing close to 17k at an average of 6.8 on the route, for its centenary appearance (first ascent: 1911) its making its two appearances in this year’s Tour! If you’re the only one to correctly pick the first person reach the Galibier’s summit on Friday, you’ll win your choice of a Laekhouse T-Shirt from the Icons or Classics series!

It’s not an easy challenge! The race-within-a-race is always tough to predict. Much like in the race itself, making bold moves rewards the risk taker. Make an educated guess, or throw a name out on a lark – you never can tell.

Entries must be submitted before the start of the stage on Friday. You can place your pick in a comment, or email us at contest@pavepavepave.com. Only 1 entry per person please! Make sure to use a real email address so we can contact you if you win. In the event of multiple people picking the first rider to reach the summit, the winner will be selected based on who they pick as the overall stage winner – so make sure to put that in your entry as well. If no one gets it right, we’ll go down the list to determine who got it closest*. Good luck!

*and if we’re still tied then, we’ll go to random selection

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The Sticky Bidon – July 20, 2011

Posted on July 20, 2011 by

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, July 20, 2011

Seen any cool links we missed? Share ’em in the comments below!

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Discuss: Are the GC cards on the table?

Posted on July 20, 2011 by

Pavé would like to thank Handspun, Clément, and Laekhouse for supporting our coverage of the 2011 Tour de France

Fotoreporter Sirotti

With two big mountain stages (18 and 19) and a 42.5km individual time trial all that remains to determine the General Classification of this year’s Tour de France, have we seen all we need to in order to speculate about the composition of the final podium?

  • Thomas Voeckler, though gritty, may be showing signs of faltering
  • Alberto Contador’s uphill attacks are getting stronger, but are still ineffective
  • Cadel Evans has been climbing very strongly, and among the GC contenders, is best-suited to make considerable gains in the Grenoble Time Trial.
  • The Schlecks are unable to distance Contador or gain time on Evans.

If these hold true, some key questions arise:

  • Where will Alberto Contador gain the 1:57 he needs to overtake Cadel Evans?
  • Will Andy Schleck, 1:14 behind his brother, work for Frank, who is only 1:22 behind Voeckler and :04 behind Evans?
  • Will either Schleck be able to gain the minutes they will need to overtake Evans and hold off Evans and Contador in the Grenoble Time Trial?

Which, finally, leads to one final question: What will the final podium be, given where everyone stands today?

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2011 Tour de France – Stage 17 Wrap-up

Posted on July 20, 2011 by and

Pavé would like to thank Handspun, Clément, and Laekhouse for supporting our coverage of the 2011 Tour de France.

Fotoreporter Sirotti

After yesterday’s debacle on the Col de Manse, one has to imagine that Andy Schleck was happy to see sunny skies when he awoke this morning for Stage 17 of the Tour de France. After all, the younger Schleck was one of the peloton’s most outspoken critics of the descent from the day’s final climb, the Category 2 Cote de Pramartino, so the sunny, dry conditions were certainly a welcome sight. That said, with five categorized climbs on the day including the Cat. 1 climb to Sestriere, the first of three Alpine days was nothing to look forward to.

Here’s what we noticed:

1. Like yesterday, the day’s big break was slow to form as the peloton proved finicky in who it would and would not allow to be represented. It took a bit less than two fast hours of racing before 14 men were given the leash they needed to escape. Looking strong were Rabobank and Vacansoleil, with two riders each, as well as Sky’s Edvald Boasson Hagen, Quick-Step’s Sylvain Chavanel, and FDJ’s Sandy Casar. With such a large group, it was clear that not everybody would put in his fair share.

2. True to form, Casar won the race’s intermediate sprint for FDJ, with Mark Cavendish breaking away from the field to claim the day’s final point.

3. Having missed the day;s big move, Ag2r’s Nicholas Roche, Vacansoleil’s Johnny Hoogerland, and Quick-Step’s Kevin DeWeert escaped to try and join the 14 men ahead. That said, with such a sizeable gap to overcome, it’s more likely that both men were hoping to sneak their way to higher places on GC–much like Roche did last year when he attacked a sleeping peloton on the descent into Gap. At one time, De Weert was in 5th-overall on the road. One has to question the wisdom of such a move on the eve of two huge Alpine stages.

4. Everything stayed fairly reasonable over Sestriere. Euskaltel’s Ruben Perez put more than a minute into the breakaway, but that gap closed fast on the Cote de Pramartino. Sylvain Chavanel put in a great attack when Perez was reeled in, but it was Boasson Hagen who countered once he and Chavanel were reeled in, striking out alone for what would be a convincing stage win.

5. Overall, the 2011 Tour has seen an impressive performance for Norway: two riders, four stage wins, and a week in yellow.

6. Behind the day’s escape, on the ascent of the Cote de Pramartino, all eyes were on the GC contenders where everyone knew someone–likely Contador–would try and put the Schleck’s into difficulty. As expected, Contador was the first to attack, but as the climb proved not hard enough to create serious separation, he did the dance of the 2011 Tour, sitting up and looking around when his attacks didn’t have the effect he had hoped. Andy Schleck and Rein Taaramae did much of the same, failing to force serious gaps, but stretching out the yellow jersey group for the descent.

7. As we’ve seen over the past few days, a climber’s Tour can easily become a descender’s Tour if the riders in contention trust their skills going up a much as down. We saw this today as several men went to the limit to try and gain time (Saur-Sojasun’s Jonathan Hivert–desperate for a stage win–rode off the road three times, for example). Over the top, Contador and Sanchez pushed the pace, while, Andy Schleck pushed a dropped Hivert out of the way so that he could descend at the front before being overtaken. Even Samuel Sanchez–a rider known to be one of the peloton’s most fearless descenders, nearly endo’ed in his attempt to slow for a corner. And perhaps most importantly, helicopter camera caught Thomas Voeckler overcooking a turn and winding up in the same driveway that provided a refuge to Hivert minutes earlier.

8. At the base of the descent, Sanchez and Contador fell into time trial mode with a relatively big gap over a group containing Evans and the Schlecks. Their alliance was a smart move–they both need to gain time and for now stand to gain more together than separately. We saw the beginning of this new “armada” yesterday, and will likely see more of it tomorrow–especially as Sanchez sits only 2 point behind Lotto’s Jelle Vanendert in the race for the polka dot jersey.

9. But in the end, after an incredible ride that was completely missed by the cameras, Evans, “Frandy”, and some others caught the two Spaniards inside the final kilometer, rendering their efforts moot, and sparing Andy and Frank from yet another night of worrying.

10. The day was not without its losers however, as Voeckler, Basso, and Tommy Danielson all lost some time. Their places in the top-10 remain intact, but in a race that looks to go down to the wire, every second counts.

11. Even though we didn’t see it, we suspect Evans had a lot to do with Frandy staying in contention on the descent and closing the gap to Contador and Sanchez on the flatter, open roads. His confidence must be growing each day–if he can avoid a bad day in the high Alps, it could his Tour to lose.

12. Or is it? Thomas Voeckler and his Europcar team rode another impressive race, keeping their man out of trouble. Voeckler was also quick to respond to the various accelerations on the Pramartino, and had it not been for that one bad corner, would surely have been with the rest at the finish. Things are a bit more straightforward from here on out–it’s getting harder and harder to overlook the Frenchman.

13. So what’s to come? With two days featuring five HC ascents (and a Cat. 1 for good measure) and two summit finishes, there will be no place to hide for any man hoping to win the 2011 Tour de France. Tomorrow, the race will likely come down to Voeckler vs. Evans vs. Frandy vs. Contachez. Friday, there can be no alliances as Contador and Sanchez will have to ride for themselves and Leopard Trek must choose one Schleck over the other (we’d choose Frank if we were them, although Andy might be peaking). And don’t rule out Basso or the quiet, but lurking Damiano Cunego. Basso’s much more suited to the longer, gradual climbs in the Alps and Cunego’s done nothing but follow wheels.

All in all, with only four days left to race, it’s beginning to seem as if the battle to win 2011 Tour de France is just getting started.

Share your comments below–and don’t forget to join Whit over at Bicycling.com’s Live Blog. Live blogging begins at 8:00est. Keep an eye on our Twitter Feed for the exact location.

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