So I guess medium mountain stages are better than flat stages, but they're still not nearly as fun or exciting as the high mountains. Well, not unless top-level-mountain-climbing-GC-contenders like Alberto Contador decide that an otherwise unremarkable stage is the perfect time to attack and try and gain time on the other GC contenders - and decide the outcome of the Tour de France in the process. Yes, as of today I'm staking my reputation, such as it is, and calling it. But I won't spoil the surprise yet.
Today's breakaway took quite a while to form, but the composition will surprise few. Several are familiar names from other breakaways: Thor Hushovd, of Garmin-Cervelo; Jeremy Roy, FDJ; Marco Marcato, from Vacansoleil; and other familiar names include Norwegian sprinter Eddie Boasson Hagen; and strong GC rider Tony Martin, of HTC-Highroad. Once released the riders flew ahead and gained huge amounts of time on the peloton, until they'd built up a lead of six minutes with 45 kilometres to go and the peloton stopped chasing after it realised they wouldn't be caught before the intermediate sprint point. First Katusha's Mikhail Ignatyev, followed by Quickstep's Dries Devenyns, tried to break from the group, but the breakaway soon caught their wheel and forced the 10 to stick together.
Canada's Ryder Hesjedal then took up the breakaway's pace-making, and finding the others unable to keep up, took off on his own. Sky's young sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen, who is showing himself to be reasonably adept at scaling mountains as well, soon decided to take up the chase, and was followed by Hesjedal's teammate, world champion Thor Hushovd, who marked Boasson Hagen's every move but refused to help in the chase of his co-equipier. Behind them the breakaway splintered, the remaining riders destined to drift across the finish line over a period of a few minutes.
With all eyes on the breakaway and the fierce competition between Hesjedal, Boasson Hagen and Hushovd for stage supremacy, of course it was in the peloton where the action was taking place. Feeling the gradient suddenly kick up on the bottom of the Col de Manse as the peloton rounded a bend, Alberto Contador suddenly jumped to the front of the peloton and attacked, and all of a sudden the race was on. The Schleck brothers of Team Leopard Trek, Cadel Evans (BMC) and yellow jersey of Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) all followed, trailed by Olympic champion, Euskaltel-Euskadi's Sammy Sanchez. Contador went again, and this time Andy Schleck struggled to keep up, not faring so well on the medium slope. Contador attacked a third time, and this time he was gone, and only after a few seconds could Cadel and Samuel Sanchez catch up, the Schlecks and Voeckler left behind. Sanchez quickly assumed the lead from Contador to try and put some distance between the three and their chasers, who were separated from the main peloton.
As the trio raced uphill, another trio was racing down. Nine kilometres from the end Boasson Hagen, usually described as a "sprinter", had caught sole Canadian pro-cyclist Hesjedal, Hushovd still sitting comfortably in his younger countryman's wake. Now both Garmin riders sat back, letting Boasson Hagen do the pace-making, the black-clad rider knowing all the time that the teammates on his back wheel were co-ordinating their attack against him. In truth it was very simple and not at all unexpected. With a couple of kilometres to go Hesjedal took up the pace-making again, Hushovd at the back, Boasson Hagen sitting in between checking constantly on the bigger sprinter behind to see when he would make his move. The three moved warily down to the flamme rouge of one kilometre to go, and then they went. Hesjedal increased the tempo to open up the sprint, and when Boasson Hagen wasn't expecting it Hushovd simply jumped out from behind and went ahead. The younger Norwegian sprinter was no match for the older Norwegian sprinter, and Hushovd took a second stage victory from his compatriot.
Meanwhile the fight was still very much alive behind them, and as Contador, Evans and Sanchez crested the climb they had around a minute over the other GC riders pursuing them. But the gap increased on the descent, for Cadel Evans, clearly a better descender than either of the Spaniards, rode downhill at his own pace, and at one point had nearly 30 seconds over his two followers. The pair managed to bring this down once they reached the flat section leading to the finish at Gap, finishing three seconds behind Evans and around 20 seconds ahead of the pursuers behind, who included Thomas Voeckler and Frank Schleck but not his brother, Andy.
So to finish my earlier comments, I'm now calling the yellow jersey of the 2011 Tour de France for Cadel Evans. Of the serious contenders for the maillot jaune who are left in the race, Cadel is the best time-trialler and will finish with at least 30 seconds over the nearest of them. He can keep pace with Andy and Alberto in the high mountains, those being the two known for their quick accelerations on steep ascents, and is quite comfortable in medium mountains, something which Andy Schleck (and possibly Frank) is definitely not. He is in brilliant form this year, looking much better than any of the other riders, and lastly his team this year is excellent. BMC's Tour de France team was chosen with direct input from Cadel Evans and with supporting Cadel to yellow in mind, and all of the team members have been visible doing exactly that, while Contador's Saxobank-Sungard side made mistakes from the word 'go' (beginning with the crash in the first stage where the team should have moved Contador up the front out of trouble like the other teams had done). Andy and Frank's team of Leopard Trek are all brilliant, but maybe their issue lies therein. Leopard truly is a 'team of champions', each one renowned and celebrated with several victories to their name, whereas by contrast BMC appears to be the proverbial 'champion team' - eight good, solid, unremarkable riders all focussed on the single goal of helping Cadel Evans win the Tour. With all this in his favour, I fail to see now how he can lose.
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