2011 Tour de France – Stage 7 Wrap-up

Posted on July 8, 2011 by

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

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Today’s 218-kilometer Stage 7 from Le Mans to Chateauroux was expected to be relatively straightforward compared to what we’ve seen so far in the first week of the 2011 Tour de France. And while the stage result was what many were expecting, what happened on the way certainly was not. Here’s a quick rundown of what we saw:

1. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Marc Madiot once say that he likes to hold his riders back from breakaway during the Tour’s first week, keeping them fresh for second and third? With not one but two men in today’s long move, Madiot seems to have reconsidered his strategy. While you can’t fault the boys for trying, you have to wonder if the team will have any legs left after the race hits the Pyrenees.

2. Tom Boonen abandoned the race today due to the injuries he sustained from a crash during Stage 5. First, give Boonen credit for signing a new contract before the race. If hadn’t, such a disastrous Tour might have done to his asking price.

3. Quick Step’s entire tour is currently in jeopardy, with the loss of Boonen and the flagging fortunes of French Champion Sylvain Chavanel.  Chavanel appears visibly uncomfortable due to his dislocated shoulder, and while he’s making every effort to stay in the race, its clear he’s in significantly pain.  Can he hold in there long enough to attempt to save the tour for Quick Step in week two or three?  If he does abandon, will someone like Niki Terpstra be able to avoid another photographer-on-motorcycle attack to salvage their tour?

But the day’s biggest disaster struck the peloton later as a massive pile-up with 40km ruined the Tour de France of several major contenders.

By the time the dust settled, Bradley Wiggins had abandoned the race with a broken collarbone, and almost half of the race–including Radio Shack’s Levi Leipheimer–lost over 3 minutes after being held up by the melee. Even worse for the The Shack, Chris Horner was the day’s last rider to finish and was later diagnosed with a concussion and broken nose, two injuries that could force the American GC-hope to abandon the Tour as well. Then again, even if he remains, his GC hopes are effectively finished.

As it stands, here’s the virtual GC heading into’s tomorrow’s summit finish to Super Besse:

1. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:01
2. Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek 0:00:04
3. Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack 0:00:10
4. Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek
5. Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:20
6. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) Pro Team Astana 0:00:32
7. Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:00:39
8. Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale 0:01:03
9. Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:01:12
10. Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:01:42
11. Thomas Danielson (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:01:57
12. Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo
13. Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 0:02:36
14. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Team Garmin-Cervelo 0:04:28
15. Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack 0:04:29
16. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana 0:05:35
17. Christopher Horner (USA) Team RadioShack 0:12:59

As incredible as it sounds, some fairly large time gaps already exist. That said, don’t expect fireworks tomorrow. Super-Besse failed to provide major time gaps in 2008, when Stefen Shumaker lost the yellow jersey after crashing in the final sprint. That said, the run-in this year is different, with the Cat. 2 Col de la Croix Saint-Robert coming right before the final climb. I expect we’ll see a group of about 20-30 riders hit the line together, with Frank Schleck taking the stage and Cadel Evans the yellow jersey.

Who do you think will win tomorrow?  Will the fortunes of Quick Step improve?  Has Radio Shack finally been whittled down to one general contention rider?  Let us know in a comment below!

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The Sticky Bidon – July 7, 2011

Posted on July 7, 2011 by

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, July 7, 2011

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

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2011 Tour de France – Stage 6 Wrap-up

Posted on July 7, 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 crash-marred Stage 5, the peloton is left with a long injury list, including GC contender non-starter Janny Brajkovic, and injuries afflicting stars including Tom Boonen, Alberto Contador, Robert Gesink, Sylvain Chavanel, et al. Were the crashes avoidable? What should be done? Fingers are pointed at each other, but ultimately race director Jean Francois Pescheux decided to blame the “movement in the peloton“. Today’s stage did not bring the deserved relief – poor weather with strong winds, showers through the stage and rain in the finishing town. Topping that off with the traffic furniture and narrow roads of the final k’s, there are likely to be more complaints from the peloton.

Today is when the truer extent of injuries are revealed. Gesink’s injury may be worse than it appeared yesterday, as he changed his bike 3 times in as many kilometers it seemed. On the other hand, Sylvain Chavanel’s dislocated shoulder didn’t stop him from attempting a counter-attack. Could this be a day for a breakaway to succeed as the injured nurse their wounds in the peloton? Vacansoleil certainly thought so, placing strong puncheurs Lieuwe Westra and Johnny Hoogerland – along with Adriano Malori of Lampre-ISD and a few other – into a breakaway. This adventure paid off, netting Hoogerland the Polka-dot jersey today.

Team Saxo-Bank showed off their real-time inventory management skills by having Daniel Navarro swap bikes with Alberto Contador when the latter’s bike had issues, only to give Navarro the spare bike of Contador to pedal up to the pack and switch again. Talk about dedication to getting the right bike to the right leader!

Realizing that sprint points are few and far between, teams with Green Jersey ambitions seem to have done their algebra and decided to go full-on for every possible scrap of points on offer. It is not clear if this will translate to them chasing down breakaways, but the desire is there. Team HTC drove the peloton to catch the remnants of the breakaway; they also showed the depth of their sprinting options by dropping both Mark Cavendish and Mark Renshaw, setting up Matty Goss for the climbing finale. This year’s parcours may mean that a strong puncheur like Philippe Gilbert may have a good shot at Green Glory, having netted a stage win and good positions in intermediate and final sprints. Indeed, OmegaPharma-Lotto drove in the finale, which looks like a semi-classics race than a traditional stage race.

The picture for Radio Shack has become clearer as Leipheimer lost a minute on the GC today thanks to what seems like a careless crash just outside the final 3k. The fireworks in the finale came as expected with the usual suspects animating it: Thomas Voeckler, Alexandre Vinokourov, and a spent Malori.

Vanendert of OPL seemed to have had a good shot at it, when he was joined by Voeckler, but with a motivated Garmin team chasing, it was Edvald Boasson-Hagen who won it, netting the much (over?)hyped Sky team their first Tour victory and marking the potential resurgence of the EBH who took the world by storm in 2009. The second place for Matt Goss ahead of Thor Hushovd confirmed the tactic of Stapleton’s squad, but it may have been at the cost of Cavendish’s Green Jersey ambitions. For sure the depth of the Garmin-Cervelo squad is notable: they have been at the front for nearly every stage so far, and Hushovd’s podium today keeps him in contention for Green. Who will challenge him for the classification?

What did you think of today’s stage?

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The Sticky Bidon – July 6, 2011

Posted on July 6, 2011 by

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, July 6, 2011

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

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2011 Tour de France – Stage 5 Wrap-up

Posted on July 6, 2011 by and

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

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Short and sweet – with slighly lumpy finish – describes today’s Stage 5. Most sprinters must feel that they are running out of opportunities to shine in this year’s TdF. First of all there aren’t many stages designed for the sprinters, and most of them felt that their chance at glory was robbed in Stage 3‘s chaotic finale. I found it notable that most top sprinters tried to latch onto HTC’s well-drilled train, only to follow it off the rails and lose their chance. Did the hard TTT effort adversely affect the HTC train? Is it their usual slow start to the GT sprint gallery? For sure the Green jersey contenders are fighting for every single intermediate sprints, and the sprinters teams will not want to lose their chance again today. So it must be great relief for Mark Cavendish and his squad to finally earn that win today, even if it took a lot of effort and see-saw battle between escapees, last-gasp attackers, and chasers. Cav has his detractors but today – just like in Milan-Sanremo in 2009 – he won without a sprint train. Unabashedly, he admitted in the post-race interview that HTC is geared for sprinting glory in the TdF more than anything else, and that for sure both the organizers and other teams will want to keep a lid on their dominance.

One of the surprises is Philippe Gilbert mixing it up in the finale, netting second place. Does he have designs for the Green Jersey? Where was actual OmegaPharma-Lotto sprinting specialist Andre Greipel?

Say what you might about Tyler Farrar being lucky in Stage 3, but he and his team *made* their fortune, and in today’s Stage 5 they continued to drive at the front to stay out of trouble. Notably, Thor Hushovd was in the mix today, as the focus of the team may be switching to Green Jersey contention for Hushovd. With Cavendish likely to be relegated and losing some points in the TdF, Hushovd’s chances are actually quite good.

Speaking of fortune, every TdF is crash-marred, but has this edition been particularly brutal on the GC contenders? Alberto Contador seems to have met the pavement in unfortunate ways in every single stage so far (except for the TTT stage maybe). It is said that the fittest riders stay out of trouble by maintaining good focus and riding near the front, does this mean that Contador is showing up under-par? Some GC contenders have it worse: examples include Janny Brajkovic’s unfortunate tumble as the peloton sped towards an intermediate sprint point. The calamity is not limited to GC riders as Nicki Sorenson being hooked by a camera moto and having his bike dragged behind the moto as he slid across the grass. Incidentally, good on you Christian Prudhomme for sending that moto driver on his way without allowing them to finish the stage. Nor have the sprinters themselves been much luckier, with Tom Boonen taking a serious tumble just as he had the Great Expectation of winning a stage and salvaging his “doomed season.” After all, only he can be called a failure despite his Gent-Wevelgem win.

Has the design of this year’s TdF made things dangerous by offering so few opportunities for the sprinters? Or is it just a few persons’ fault? The moto driver who crashed out Nicky Sorensen was reportedly fired over the radio today by TdF director Christian Prudhomme. How’s that for real-time drama? Today’s breakaway seems to know they shall not succeed, and melted back to the peloton as if they had had enough play-time and TV-time and had to go home for dinner. Is this an argument for or against race radios?  Certainly we know who plays to win (Tommy Voeckler and Jeremy Roy), and who plays to get TV time. Several teams were notable for their ambition: Astana and Vacansoleil. Alexandre Vinokourov is sitting pretty at 32″ behind in GC – might he have ambitions to steal Yellow in tomorrow’s stage? The true GC contenders may not be taking as much risk as they did on Stage 3, what with so many sore bodies after today’s crash-fest.

What did you think of today’s Stage?

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The Sticky Bidon – July 5, 2011

Posted on July 6, 2011 by

Fotoreporter Sirotti

Interesting cycling items from across the Internet, July 5, 2011

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

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