Another flat stage, one for the sprinters with no anticipated action from the big guns (as Paul Sherwen likes to call them). For the kind of stage, 'twas a fairly stock-standard beginning, middle and end, but it's always nice to see just how they play out. Sometimes, 'how' is every bit as important as 'what'.
When I said 'standard beginning', I meant a breakaway. And as usual for the breakaways, there was an FDJ rider in it. It must have been Jeremy Roy's day off, because it was Mickael Delage, seemingly Roy's 'back-up guy', up the front, along with riders from the small French teams (Saur-Sojasun and Cofidis) and the orange teams (Euskaltel-Euskadi and Rabobank), as well as blue-and-yellow Astana. But the breakaway is never popular, and while Europcar began the work to keep their lead at bay and protect Voeckler's yellow, HTC came up and lent a hand, clearly working for their Manxman Mark Cavendish.
The riders all had a little fun at the intermediate sprint point, the top points taken out by the six-man breakaway, but still leaving a max nine points for Cav to help him keep the lead over his rivals. They had a little more fun trying to navigate the category four climb of the Cote de Puylaure, GC teams trying to protect their leaders and green jersey teams trying to protect their sprinters on the wet roads of southern France.
HTC continued to work in the increasingly heavy rain, slowing reeling in the peloton in the massive amounts of 'wet' pouring from the sky. Despite the attack of Lars Boom at the peloton approached the breakaway the peloton was still too strong, and by four kilometres to go had caught the last of the riders. Now it was all down to the sprinters.
The riders all had a little fun at the intermediate sprint point, the top points taken out by the six-man breakaway, but still leaving a max nine points for Cav to help him keep the lead over his rivals. They had a little more fun trying to navigate the category four climb of the Cote de Puylaure, GC teams trying to protect their leaders and green jersey teams trying to protect their sprinters on the wet roads of southern France.
HTC continued to work in the increasingly heavy rain, slowing reeling in the peloton in the massive amounts of 'wet' pouring from the sky. Despite the attack of Lars Boom at the peloton approached the breakaway the peloton was still too strong, and by four kilometres to go had caught the last of the riders. Now it was all down to the sprinters.
I still fail to understand why anyone wants to go up against the HTC lead-out train. When nine guys line up in a row with the world's fastest man, Mark Cavendish, at the tail and the stage win in their sights, well, it's like a freight train bearing down on you. It's a-coming, it's gonna go right over the o-ye, and then it's gonna keep on going til it gets where it's going. With his team behind him (or in front of him, rather) Cav can literally do anything, and he did it yet again, sprinting across the line into Lavaur stalked by Andre Greipel, who had pipped Cav on the line the previous day and likely inspired him to victory.
On the GC front, naught to report but that naught has changed. On a flat stage like this, Cadel, Andy and the Numero Unos only had to stay safe and on the bike, and crossing the line in a group meant that the times haven't changed. The only difference is that we're down one more rider - AG2R La Mondiale's John Gadret failed to start, still tired from his effort in the Giro d'Italia, undoubtedly a blow for "Agr-2-R" (as I so unsophisicatedly call them). On to tomorrow!
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