“I do.”
His voice is calm and quiet, but there is no hint of doubt in his tone. His whole demeanour affirms what he says. Cadel Evans knows he can still win the Tour de France.
“Do you think you’re losing the edge? Do you think you’re getting older?”
“No, I don’t.”
This is the world of Cadel Evans, the first Australian winner of the Tour de France. The 35-year-old radiates a quiet confidence that matches his voice. He doesn’t have to speak loudly for you to want to listen, and with his words you imbibe a little of his conviction that leaves you convinced too. Despite being among the oldest in the peloton, the 2009 Road World Champion is not to be dismissed lightly. He wants to win, and he knows he can.
But after a season marred by ill health, Cadel’s first priority is not the race podium.
“The first thing for me is to come back healthy and from what we can tell everything’s coming back towards normal,” he says with that same calm confidence. “When that comes back, of course, everything else comes with it.” He quotes the old adage as he talks. “The most important thing in our life is actually our health. You certainly realise that when you don’t have it.”
He’s very matter-of-fact with the details. “It seems that when I went to Ethiopia I contracted some kind of low-level virus and we didn’t find out about it until August,” he says simply. This is followed by a few moments of silence. No-one expected a straight answer about the ‘health issues’ that dogged the Australian favourite throughout last year, but that’s Cadel. It just is how it is. He doesn’t let it stop him.
“One thing that comes from missing out on not being at the front though is it fuels your motivation, you become hungrier and you want more, and certainly I’m not by any means the youngest rider in the peloton but I think I’m amongst the most motivated still.”
Motivation aside, even with a career as long and varied as Cadel’s, he has one or two regrets. “I think it’s my 19th full season as a professional rider,” Cadel reflects. “There’s a lot of races that I haven’t even been able to compete in which I’d like to be able to ride in. Don’t know if I’ll be able to get to all of them,” he says almost wistfully. But his trademark practicality soon kicks in. “But at the moment, focus on the Tour and of course the stage races leading on, and maybe in the years following we can look to reassess things.”
The Tour de France has always been Cadel’s target, and with his health on the mend he has his eyes on a second title. To him, getting his body back to 100% is his primary goal, and the question of which other riders might challenge him for the Tour crown is at best a secondary concern. “At this point, we’re still a bit early in the year to know,” he points out, almost critical of the pre-emptive question. “But in 2013 I’d look more for of course the performers in 2012, Bradley [Wiggins] and [Chris] Froome, as certainly the guys to beat at this point. I think those are the guys we’ll look to be watching leading into the Tour.”
“The thing that impressed me most about their season, but particularly that of Brad Wiggins, was his consistency to stay at a high level from Paris-Nice through to the Olympic Games. To hold that high, high level was really, well,” he shakes his head a little, “…to me, was bordering on what I thought was impossible, but he’s gone and done it, so it’s clearly not impossible.” He says very little about last year’s Tour winner, but from what little he says, it’s clear Cadel has a grudging respect for the Briton.
Of all riders, though, Cadel knows better than anyone how difficult it is to follow through on such a season as Team Sky has had. He’s philosophical about their chances, and speaks optimistically of his own. “Let’s see how they back up again from that, for this year,” he almost challenges. “Let’s see. That was 2012, this is 2013.”
The other elephant in the room when it comes to Cadel and the Tour is the matter of his young teammate, Tejay van Garderen. While Cadel suffered through the difficulty of riding the Tour on an average year in 2012, 24-year-old van Garderen was the revelation of the race, putting in brilliant efforts in both the time trials and outpacing his team leader on several climbs, finally finishing 5th overall ahead of Cadel’s 7th. The youngster is therefore being hailed as Cadel’s natural successor for the Grand Tours at BMC, and many have been wondering if that succession should in fact be now. There is no hint of uncertainty or forgiveness in Cadel’s expression or tone as he lays down the law for the Tour.
“I think if I’m back at my normal level it’ll be pretty clear what the team needs to focus on, and where we need to concentrate on and that’ll be to concentrate on one leader, that being me, ‘cause I’ve had the experience and I also have the results to back it up.” There is almost a kind of fervour in his voice as he talks about the paramount race of the cycling world. This is his strength. As a GC rider, this is, pure and simple, what he does. “I can win the Tour, and that’ll be important.”
“That comes back to my health in 2012,” he reiterates, a rare glimpse of what his year was like behind his public face. “I was stuck in a few moments where I didn’t know what was going on with my health, I wasn’t at my normal level.” But on the front of van Garderen, he knows exactly where the two of them stand. “In 2013, between Tejay and myself, it’s important that we’re of course honest and clear with each other, but most importantly for me it’s just to get back to my good level and if that happens, the rest is obvious.”
To him, everything is perfectly clear. Black and white. He doesn’t equivocate. When he says ‘I don’t know’, it’s not an equivocation. It just means that he hasn’t thought about the question.
“Everyone always asks me when I’m going to stop, but I don’t know. ‘I don’t know’ doesn’t stand for an answer so you have to make something up.”
The smile and the laugh that accompany this are awkward, as though he doesn’t understand why anyone would ask the question. It’s simply not relevant. The idea doesn’t feature in Cadel’s world.
“One thing about being outside of where you want to be, it motivates you,” he explains. “In 2003, 2004, I had some disappointing years, but that fuelled my motivation for years to come thereafter. That’s how I feel right now.” Cadel is far from bouncing out of his seat. This is not a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, but there is a certain quiet keenness in his voice and in his eye that can’t be mistaken. He leans forward a little and nods his head as he continues speaking.
“If someone said to me ‘Oh, I want you to stop at the end of 2014,’ I’d be like ‘Ahhhh…’ because I’m not through.” His reticence is clear in his onomatopoeia. “I love what I do, I think we have a great environment here in the team, we have a great balance in the way we work and so on. If I was thinking I was going to stop in 2013, I feel I’d be cutting myself somewhat short.”
He smiles just a little. “Easy to say at this point. Let’s see in 2014 and 2015.”
Showing posts with label Cadel Evans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cadel Evans. Show all posts
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Wednesday, 16 January 2013
15 Minutes with Taylor & Tejay
“…all the way through, and then I go full. And I win the Worlds.”
The journalists in the room freeze for a moment. Unlike the other, older riders who walk into the room with maybe a ‘Hello’, sit down and wait for the questions, 22-year-old Taylor Phinney and 24-year-old Tejay van Garderen are already joking around the moment they walk in the door. It turns out Taylor has a bit of a reputation for Philippe Gilbert impressions. Apparently we were just on the receiving end of one.
“That was pretty much like the original,” the Dutch journalist says with a smile. BMC’s young superstar pair, two of the riders frequently hailed as ‘the future of American cycling’, are still going with their quirky two-man stand-up routine.
“Nibali…I don’t know about bikes, but there he is.”
This is clearly going to be a different sort of interview.
We settle down into some – mostly – serious questions, and Tejay leans back in his seat and stretches his legs for a few minutes while Taylor takes the heat. After his performance in the time trial at last year’s World Championships in Limburg, where Taylor came a close second in a competition that left winner Tony Martin momentarily unconscious from exhaustion, there’s a lot of interest in his time trialling ability and his relationship with the king of the discipline, Fabian Cancellara. Taylor says that his experience racing last year’s Giro d’Italia and an off-season that has been for once untouched by injury will be key in developing his skills. “I had two knee injuries in the last off-season and the off-season before that and this off-season I’ve been fine, just training and focussing on what I need to do,” the Boulder, Colorado native explains. “I think being healthy and also just a bit of extra racing and more concentrated training will get me to the place I need to be to beat [Cancellara].”
Taylor is full of warm words for the four-time world champion, who is now giving up time trialling to focus on other things. “Well, he has what, four world championships, Olympic gold medal, not much more you can do from there. I’ll see him in the Classics and I’d consider us relatively good friends already. He’s definitely been an idol and a hero in my career for a long time, ever since I started racing.”
But BMC’s youngster can’t stay serious for long.
“I kind of wouldn’t mind testing myself against somebody like that, that pedigree and that past. It’d be cool if he could focus a little bit more on time-trialling and I could…” something between innocence and mischief appears on Taylor’s face, “see how I match up against him.”
Jokes aside, Taylor’s also the first to acknowledge that he understands Cancellara’s choice to step away from their demanding discipline.
“He’s getting to a different point in his career than I am. And time trialling sucks a lot. It’s really hard, you know. It’s like an hour of pain, why would you want to do that to yourself?” he says with a totally straight face while everyone chuckles. At just 22, the American already has the power to keep his audience rapt, the roomful of journalists too busy listening to him to pose questions to Tejay. “I want to do that to myself so that I can achieve the results that Fabian has, but I can totally understand that once you get those results that you move on.”
Taylor compares Cancellara’s focus-change to his once-beloved discipline on the track, the individual pursuit, which he abandoned in favour of full-time road racing at the end of 2010. Of course, he tells the story a little differently. “I won the World Championships, they took it out of the Olympic program, and then I was like ‘Wow, this is a terrible four minutes of my life. I’m gonna go ahead and focus on something else now.’”
Tejay smiles along with the rest of the room at his younger teammate’s wisecracking, and the focus turns to the older rider and the relationship between the two – are they friends? “Not really!” he replies with a broad grin. Though more laid-back and quiet than Taylor, it seems the comedy act is not entirely one-sided. “Taylor and I are really close friends and it’s good to have a good friend to hang out with and another American to kinda, you know, do some shit-talking with,” Tejay explains with a smile.
The two are also frequent training partners when they’re both at their stateside base of Boulder. “We’re good for each other, we push each other. We have different strengths but they overlap in a coupla different areas, like in a time trial.” Tejay has a calm, earnest way of talking that makes him easy to listen to, and he’s eloquent for a 24-year-old, always able to say precisely what he means.
“Who’s better?” someone calls out. Apparently Taylor can’t resist. “You can’t ask that question!” he pretends to chastise the amused journalist, leaving Tejay to clarify the answer. “We have different strengths,” Tejay says simply. “I would never beat him on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix but I don’t think he would ever beat me up Alpe d’Huez. But if you put us in a time trial, that could be where we overlap a little bit. In a one-day time trial I think he’s a little bit better, but in a time trial at the end of a three-week stage race then I might be a bit better.”
The questions turn to the state of American cycling in the wake of the Armstrong affair, but more particularly the admission of the pair’s former BMC teammate George Hincapie that he was involved in organised doping. Taylor makes light of the situation, as always, but points out that ‘…anybody who’s tuned into the cycling world kind of knew what was coming, in a way.’ For once Tejay seems to be struggling to find a diplomatic way to express his thoughts.
“It wasn’t a shock,” he acknowledges, “but it was, it was definitely…it was definitely, uh, made a lot of headlines, but like Taylor said, we kinda knew it was coming.”
But Taylor isn’t so light-hearted when someone suggests that Americans have been the ‘bad guys’ of the peloton for the last decade. He jumps on the question with an unusual aggressiveness. “I don’t know if it’s just the American riders being the bad guys,” he replies moderately, to more laughter, but he’s quick to assert that past riders are also responsible for the present open state of cycling and not just to blame for its mistakes.
“We’re certainly proud to represent America, we’re proud to be where we’re at. Cycling had its problems in the past, but we stepped into a clean environment, and that was due to people from the past,” Taylor says strongly. “We definitely take that privilege seriously, to make sure the sport never relapses, and we’re always able to go to sleep at night knowing that none of our tests are going to show up positive and that all of our results were achieved in the correct way.” Despite this attitude, Taylor is still critical of the journalist’s original premise, and calls him out on the oblique accusation. “To say that we’re the good guys and they’re the bad guys, I don’t think that’s really fair.”
Taylor has also earned a reputation for being outspoken on the topic of doping, especially after an open interview about the use of legal medications late last year. He’s drawn a lot of interest in the wake of that interview, as it’s unusual for riders to talk so openly of doping. “It’s important for me to get my thoughts out there and my preparation for races out there,” he says of his willingness to open up on the subject. “For me that interview was just to kind of shine a light into a dark place and show how my approach is completely different than all these things that you read; Tyler Hamilton’s book and the USADA reports.”
Taylor has no compunction in being open with his views around his teammates, either. “We have a pretty strict team policy as it is, and I think a lot of people share the same sort of feelings as I do, at least on my team and in my inner circle. I’m very comfortable with what happens here at BMC and proud of what we can achieve.”
While Taylor sits back for a moment, having satisfied the journalists’ questions, the focus moves back to Tejay and in particular his 6th-placed Tour de France ride of last year, which left many wondering if BMC team leader Cadel Evans was still fit to be the Tour team leader. Tejay is quick to assure everyone that Cadel is still in charge, but he has his own ideas on what his role will be. “I think I’ll be given a bit of a free role to ride my own race,” Tejay says. “Where I’m at right now in my development is that there were climbers that were really good and I was just trying my best to follow. I was just following the best wheel I could, and sometimes that was with the leaders, sometimes it was in a group behind the leaders, like a couple of minutes back.”
To Tejay, this means that it will be his job to be Evans’ lieutenant and not his rival, but this doesn’t preclude him from having his own goals as well. “I can help [Evans] out, but that doesn’t mean that once the finish line comes that I have to hit my brakes and lose five minutes and then cross the line. That doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to get a result,” he emphasises, though he knows that riding for himself may not always be an option. “The only scenario I see would be if Cadel gets dropped and I have to wait for him, which I did in last year’s Tour. I don’t think I’m gonna be called upon to do that, so I think I’ll help Cadel as much as I can from off the front of the race.”
As we all stand and prepare to move rooms at the end of the interview, one of the European journalists feels the need to ask Tejay one last question.
“Have you already dreamed about the yellow jersey?”
Tejay smiles and replies without blinking. “I’ve dreamed about it since I was nine years old.”
The journalists in the room freeze for a moment. Unlike the other, older riders who walk into the room with maybe a ‘Hello’, sit down and wait for the questions, 22-year-old Taylor Phinney and 24-year-old Tejay van Garderen are already joking around the moment they walk in the door. It turns out Taylor has a bit of a reputation for Philippe Gilbert impressions. Apparently we were just on the receiving end of one.
“That was pretty much like the original,” the Dutch journalist says with a smile. BMC’s young superstar pair, two of the riders frequently hailed as ‘the future of American cycling’, are still going with their quirky two-man stand-up routine.
“Nibali…I don’t know about bikes, but there he is.”
This is clearly going to be a different sort of interview.
We settle down into some – mostly – serious questions, and Tejay leans back in his seat and stretches his legs for a few minutes while Taylor takes the heat. After his performance in the time trial at last year’s World Championships in Limburg, where Taylor came a close second in a competition that left winner Tony Martin momentarily unconscious from exhaustion, there’s a lot of interest in his time trialling ability and his relationship with the king of the discipline, Fabian Cancellara. Taylor says that his experience racing last year’s Giro d’Italia and an off-season that has been for once untouched by injury will be key in developing his skills. “I had two knee injuries in the last off-season and the off-season before that and this off-season I’ve been fine, just training and focussing on what I need to do,” the Boulder, Colorado native explains. “I think being healthy and also just a bit of extra racing and more concentrated training will get me to the place I need to be to beat [Cancellara].”
Taylor is full of warm words for the four-time world champion, who is now giving up time trialling to focus on other things. “Well, he has what, four world championships, Olympic gold medal, not much more you can do from there. I’ll see him in the Classics and I’d consider us relatively good friends already. He’s definitely been an idol and a hero in my career for a long time, ever since I started racing.”
But BMC’s youngster can’t stay serious for long.
“I kind of wouldn’t mind testing myself against somebody like that, that pedigree and that past. It’d be cool if he could focus a little bit more on time-trialling and I could…” something between innocence and mischief appears on Taylor’s face, “see how I match up against him.”
Jokes aside, Taylor’s also the first to acknowledge that he understands Cancellara’s choice to step away from their demanding discipline.
“He’s getting to a different point in his career than I am. And time trialling sucks a lot. It’s really hard, you know. It’s like an hour of pain, why would you want to do that to yourself?” he says with a totally straight face while everyone chuckles. At just 22, the American already has the power to keep his audience rapt, the roomful of journalists too busy listening to him to pose questions to Tejay. “I want to do that to myself so that I can achieve the results that Fabian has, but I can totally understand that once you get those results that you move on.”
Taylor compares Cancellara’s focus-change to his once-beloved discipline on the track, the individual pursuit, which he abandoned in favour of full-time road racing at the end of 2010. Of course, he tells the story a little differently. “I won the World Championships, they took it out of the Olympic program, and then I was like ‘Wow, this is a terrible four minutes of my life. I’m gonna go ahead and focus on something else now.’”
Tejay smiles along with the rest of the room at his younger teammate’s wisecracking, and the focus turns to the older rider and the relationship between the two – are they friends? “Not really!” he replies with a broad grin. Though more laid-back and quiet than Taylor, it seems the comedy act is not entirely one-sided. “Taylor and I are really close friends and it’s good to have a good friend to hang out with and another American to kinda, you know, do some shit-talking with,” Tejay explains with a smile.
The two are also frequent training partners when they’re both at their stateside base of Boulder. “We’re good for each other, we push each other. We have different strengths but they overlap in a coupla different areas, like in a time trial.” Tejay has a calm, earnest way of talking that makes him easy to listen to, and he’s eloquent for a 24-year-old, always able to say precisely what he means.
“Who’s better?” someone calls out. Apparently Taylor can’t resist. “You can’t ask that question!” he pretends to chastise the amused journalist, leaving Tejay to clarify the answer. “We have different strengths,” Tejay says simply. “I would never beat him on the cobbles of Paris-Roubaix but I don’t think he would ever beat me up Alpe d’Huez. But if you put us in a time trial, that could be where we overlap a little bit. In a one-day time trial I think he’s a little bit better, but in a time trial at the end of a three-week stage race then I might be a bit better.”
The questions turn to the state of American cycling in the wake of the Armstrong affair, but more particularly the admission of the pair’s former BMC teammate George Hincapie that he was involved in organised doping. Taylor makes light of the situation, as always, but points out that ‘…anybody who’s tuned into the cycling world kind of knew what was coming, in a way.’ For once Tejay seems to be struggling to find a diplomatic way to express his thoughts.
“It wasn’t a shock,” he acknowledges, “but it was, it was definitely…it was definitely, uh, made a lot of headlines, but like Taylor said, we kinda knew it was coming.”
But Taylor isn’t so light-hearted when someone suggests that Americans have been the ‘bad guys’ of the peloton for the last decade. He jumps on the question with an unusual aggressiveness. “I don’t know if it’s just the American riders being the bad guys,” he replies moderately, to more laughter, but he’s quick to assert that past riders are also responsible for the present open state of cycling and not just to blame for its mistakes.
“We’re certainly proud to represent America, we’re proud to be where we’re at. Cycling had its problems in the past, but we stepped into a clean environment, and that was due to people from the past,” Taylor says strongly. “We definitely take that privilege seriously, to make sure the sport never relapses, and we’re always able to go to sleep at night knowing that none of our tests are going to show up positive and that all of our results were achieved in the correct way.” Despite this attitude, Taylor is still critical of the journalist’s original premise, and calls him out on the oblique accusation. “To say that we’re the good guys and they’re the bad guys, I don’t think that’s really fair.”
Taylor has also earned a reputation for being outspoken on the topic of doping, especially after an open interview about the use of legal medications late last year. He’s drawn a lot of interest in the wake of that interview, as it’s unusual for riders to talk so openly of doping. “It’s important for me to get my thoughts out there and my preparation for races out there,” he says of his willingness to open up on the subject. “For me that interview was just to kind of shine a light into a dark place and show how my approach is completely different than all these things that you read; Tyler Hamilton’s book and the USADA reports.”
Taylor has no compunction in being open with his views around his teammates, either. “We have a pretty strict team policy as it is, and I think a lot of people share the same sort of feelings as I do, at least on my team and in my inner circle. I’m very comfortable with what happens here at BMC and proud of what we can achieve.”
While Taylor sits back for a moment, having satisfied the journalists’ questions, the focus moves back to Tejay and in particular his 6th-placed Tour de France ride of last year, which left many wondering if BMC team leader Cadel Evans was still fit to be the Tour team leader. Tejay is quick to assure everyone that Cadel is still in charge, but he has his own ideas on what his role will be. “I think I’ll be given a bit of a free role to ride my own race,” Tejay says. “Where I’m at right now in my development is that there were climbers that were really good and I was just trying my best to follow. I was just following the best wheel I could, and sometimes that was with the leaders, sometimes it was in a group behind the leaders, like a couple of minutes back.”
To Tejay, this means that it will be his job to be Evans’ lieutenant and not his rival, but this doesn’t preclude him from having his own goals as well. “I can help [Evans] out, but that doesn’t mean that once the finish line comes that I have to hit my brakes and lose five minutes and then cross the line. That doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to get a result,” he emphasises, though he knows that riding for himself may not always be an option. “The only scenario I see would be if Cadel gets dropped and I have to wait for him, which I did in last year’s Tour. I don’t think I’m gonna be called upon to do that, so I think I’ll help Cadel as much as I can from off the front of the race.”
As we all stand and prepare to move rooms at the end of the interview, one of the European journalists feels the need to ask Tejay one last question.
“Have you already dreamed about the yellow jersey?”
Tejay smiles and replies without blinking. “I’ve dreamed about it since I was nine years old.”
Friday, 28 September 2012
More Special By Comparison
I know that, thanks to Lance Armstrong, it’s hard to look at cycling these days without thinking, “Doping.” It’s hard to look at a Tour de France winner without thinking, “Drugs.” In fact, it’s hard to look at any amazing victory in cycling anymore without thinking, “Dirty.”
But just because Lance Armstrong, Tom Boonen, Eddy Merckx and so many other big names in the cycling world have tested positive to banned substances or confessed to doping, it’s no reason to visit that reputation on the rest of the peloton. Though admittedly there aren’t a lot of Tour de France winners who have a completely clean record when it comes to doping, that’s something that has definitely changed in the past few years. Take Cadel Evans, for example. I challenge anyone to refute the immaculate reputation of Australia’s own Tour de France winner. Evans is undoubtedly one of the cleanest riders in the peloton – nary a whisper of scandal, doping or otherwise. Even Brad Wiggins, despite all the controversy he likes to generate, is as unimpeachable as Evans on the doping front.
And in a way, cycling’s doping culture only lends greater import to their victories. After all, consider what ‘dirty’ riders in the past have done, compared to the exploits of Wiggins and Evans. Yes, Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times, and there’s not a lot you can say to that, but Evans is the oldest winner since 1923. 1923. In all those 88 years of ‘doping’, no-one over the age of 34 was good enough to win the Tour de France until Evans came along. In fact, doping was still an accepted part of cycling in 1923. You could say that Evans is the oldest clean rider ever to have won the Tour de France. Doesn’t that make his victory even more special, knowing that even the cheats couldn’t do what he did?
Brad Wiggins’ hero, Tom Simpson, was the most successful cyclist in British history, at least until Wiggins came along. Yet Wiggins was able to win the Tour de France, a victory which eluded Simpson right up until his death from a drug-and-alcohol-induced heart attack during the 1967 Tour. If Simpson constitutes a ‘successful’ cyclist, then is there an adjective in the English language sufficiently superlative to describe Wiggins?
By no means am I saying that doping is in any way a good thing. On the contrary, it’s one of the most horrible phenomena that exist in professional cycling. But given it does exist, can’t we look at the bigger picture here and notice how every attempt to win by doping just makes the clean winners look even more brilliant by comparison? Yes, Armstrong may be dirtier than unwashed laundry, but that doesn’t mean that every other rider is dirty by association and that all their hard work is worthless. I for one can’t help but regard those clean riders with so much more awe and respect knowing that even the ‘great’ Armstrong or the ‘successful’ Simpson couldn’t do what they do – win because they’re simply the best.
But just because Lance Armstrong, Tom Boonen, Eddy Merckx and so many other big names in the cycling world have tested positive to banned substances or confessed to doping, it’s no reason to visit that reputation on the rest of the peloton. Though admittedly there aren’t a lot of Tour de France winners who have a completely clean record when it comes to doping, that’s something that has definitely changed in the past few years. Take Cadel Evans, for example. I challenge anyone to refute the immaculate reputation of Australia’s own Tour de France winner. Evans is undoubtedly one of the cleanest riders in the peloton – nary a whisper of scandal, doping or otherwise. Even Brad Wiggins, despite all the controversy he likes to generate, is as unimpeachable as Evans on the doping front.
And in a way, cycling’s doping culture only lends greater import to their victories. After all, consider what ‘dirty’ riders in the past have done, compared to the exploits of Wiggins and Evans. Yes, Armstrong won the Tour de France seven times, and there’s not a lot you can say to that, but Evans is the oldest winner since 1923. 1923. In all those 88 years of ‘doping’, no-one over the age of 34 was good enough to win the Tour de France until Evans came along. In fact, doping was still an accepted part of cycling in 1923. You could say that Evans is the oldest clean rider ever to have won the Tour de France. Doesn’t that make his victory even more special, knowing that even the cheats couldn’t do what he did?
Brad Wiggins’ hero, Tom Simpson, was the most successful cyclist in British history, at least until Wiggins came along. Yet Wiggins was able to win the Tour de France, a victory which eluded Simpson right up until his death from a drug-and-alcohol-induced heart attack during the 1967 Tour. If Simpson constitutes a ‘successful’ cyclist, then is there an adjective in the English language sufficiently superlative to describe Wiggins?
By no means am I saying that doping is in any way a good thing. On the contrary, it’s one of the most horrible phenomena that exist in professional cycling. But given it does exist, can’t we look at the bigger picture here and notice how every attempt to win by doping just makes the clean winners look even more brilliant by comparison? Yes, Armstrong may be dirtier than unwashed laundry, but that doesn’t mean that every other rider is dirty by association and that all their hard work is worthless. I for one can’t help but regard those clean riders with so much more awe and respect knowing that even the ‘great’ Armstrong or the ‘successful’ Simpson couldn’t do what they do – win because they’re simply the best.
Sunday, 29 July 2012
Play Sport, Not Politics
Our sporting rivalry with the Brits is famous. The Ashes, on the track, the road…whenever we can, we go up to bat against the Mother Country in the hopes of returning home victorious.
So it seems odd that the Australian Olympic Committee has knowingly handicapped the Australian cycling team’s chances of a gold medal, in either the time trial or the road race. The road race course is billed as a sprinter’s course, and the best sprinter in the world is, of course, Britain’s Mark Cavendish. The race for second is always heated, but Australia’s Matt Goss is always up there giving it his best shot. The obvious choice for the road race would therefore be Goss, and the obvious choice to lead him out would be Mark Renshaw, billed as the best leadout man in the world – and conveniently Australian.
Well, the selectors got Goss right, but it seems to have somehow slipped their minds that Renshaw was available to take ‘Gossy’ to the finishing line. Renshaw was left out of the Australian World Championships team for 2011 as well, sparking speculation that Renshaw is being deliberately shunned. The 29-year-old is known for being a bit explosive and controversial – he was sent home from the 2010 Tour de France after a well-publicised headbutting incident with Kiwi Julian Dean. It has also been posited that Renshaw’s signing with the Dutch team Rabobank rather than the new Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE is the reason the sprinter has been left out of the Worlds and Olympic teams. Interestingly enough, of the five riders selected for the Olympic team, Stuart O’Grady, Matt Goss and Simon Gerrans all ride for Orica-GreenEDGE, Cadel Evans is the first Australian winner of the Tour de France, and Michael Rogers is an all-around Australian favourite. In saying that, almost half of the Australian pros are signed to GreenEDGE, so a certain amount of GreenEDGE-domination is to be expected.
But there’s another glaring omission in the Australian roster – and a GreenEDGE one at that. Luke Durbridge is the reigning Australian time trial champion, and in particular the only Australian to have beaten Bradley Wiggins in a time trial while Wiggins has been in his current brilliant form. 21-year-old Durbridge won the time trial prologue of the Critérium du Dauphiné just prior to the Tour de France ahead of riders like Wiggins, World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin, French National Time Trial Champion Sylvain Chavanel and, yes, Cadel Evans. Granted, Durbridge is young, but his time-trialling abilities speak for themselves, and he’s proven himself as a domestique throughout his debut season with GreenEDGE.
So why aren’t Renshaw and Durbridge on the team, then? In fact, why is there only one pure sprinter on the team – Gossy – when Australia boasts a pretty good arsenal of sprinters like Heinrich Haussler or Adam Hansen who could help Gossy give Mark Cavendish a run for his money? Australia’s team is simply not geared towards winning a gold medal; rather, each appointment to the team was a political move to pacify and acknowledge Australian cycling’s heads of state. It’s a noble intention, certainly, but someone needs to tell the AOC and Cycling Australia that the Olympic Games is the wrong place for playing politics.
So it seems odd that the Australian Olympic Committee has knowingly handicapped the Australian cycling team’s chances of a gold medal, in either the time trial or the road race. The road race course is billed as a sprinter’s course, and the best sprinter in the world is, of course, Britain’s Mark Cavendish. The race for second is always heated, but Australia’s Matt Goss is always up there giving it his best shot. The obvious choice for the road race would therefore be Goss, and the obvious choice to lead him out would be Mark Renshaw, billed as the best leadout man in the world – and conveniently Australian.
Well, the selectors got Goss right, but it seems to have somehow slipped their minds that Renshaw was available to take ‘Gossy’ to the finishing line. Renshaw was left out of the Australian World Championships team for 2011 as well, sparking speculation that Renshaw is being deliberately shunned. The 29-year-old is known for being a bit explosive and controversial – he was sent home from the 2010 Tour de France after a well-publicised headbutting incident with Kiwi Julian Dean. It has also been posited that Renshaw’s signing with the Dutch team Rabobank rather than the new Australian team Orica-GreenEDGE is the reason the sprinter has been left out of the Worlds and Olympic teams. Interestingly enough, of the five riders selected for the Olympic team, Stuart O’Grady, Matt Goss and Simon Gerrans all ride for Orica-GreenEDGE, Cadel Evans is the first Australian winner of the Tour de France, and Michael Rogers is an all-around Australian favourite. In saying that, almost half of the Australian pros are signed to GreenEDGE, so a certain amount of GreenEDGE-domination is to be expected.
But there’s another glaring omission in the Australian roster – and a GreenEDGE one at that. Luke Durbridge is the reigning Australian time trial champion, and in particular the only Australian to have beaten Bradley Wiggins in a time trial while Wiggins has been in his current brilliant form. 21-year-old Durbridge won the time trial prologue of the Critérium du Dauphiné just prior to the Tour de France ahead of riders like Wiggins, World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin, French National Time Trial Champion Sylvain Chavanel and, yes, Cadel Evans. Granted, Durbridge is young, but his time-trialling abilities speak for themselves, and he’s proven himself as a domestique throughout his debut season with GreenEDGE.
So why aren’t Renshaw and Durbridge on the team, then? In fact, why is there only one pure sprinter on the team – Gossy – when Australia boasts a pretty good arsenal of sprinters like Heinrich Haussler or Adam Hansen who could help Gossy give Mark Cavendish a run for his money? Australia’s team is simply not geared towards winning a gold medal; rather, each appointment to the team was a political move to pacify and acknowledge Australian cycling’s heads of state. It’s a noble intention, certainly, but someone needs to tell the AOC and Cycling Australia that the Olympic Games is the wrong place for playing politics.
Thursday, 19 July 2012
Stage 17: Bagnere-de-Luchon - Peyragudes
Today was what can only be termed an interest day. Perhaps ‘interesting’ is a little mild, but it covers a stage in which there were surprises, no drama, and nothing shocking, but merely interesting. It seems fairly safe to say that the Tour de France is now effectively over, and the days to come nothing more than filler until the race arrives in Paris.
Stage 17 was the final day of mountains for the Tour, traversing the Pyrénées from Bagnère-de-Luchon to Peyragudes. This Tour seems to have been characterised by breakaways, even in the mountains, for the attacks began as soon as the stage did yet again. It wasn’t until the 24 kilometre mark that a group managed to stay away, another large group containing around 20 riders including a few strong riders. The group held a slim lead over the peloton as they approached the top of the first climb for the day, the Category 1 Col du Mente.
Pierre Rolland (Europcar) sprinted away from the group as they approached the col’s King of the Mountain point, but he was chased down and caught by the two rivals for the polka-dot jersey, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Voeckler managing to outsprint the Swede for the 10 points. There was a lot of shuffling of the breakaway on the way down the Col du Mente, which eventually left seven riders with a 40’ advantage over the Sky-led peloton. A counter-attack soon formed, 10 riders sitting 30’ ahead of the peloton and one 1’00” behind the leading seven.
The positions on the road hadn’t changed as the leaders reached the second climb of the day. Voeckler sprinted out from behind Kessiakoff to lead the race over the second category climb around the 55 kilometre mark of the stage. Chasing them over the top were the 10 poursuivants, 40 seconds behind, with the pursuing peloton another 50 seconds behind them. It wasn’t long before the race referees called all the cars out from between the first two groups on the road, their premonition being fulfilled 68 kilometres in, swelling the leading group to 17.
The number of riders made no difference to Voeckler and Kessiakoff, still locked in their silent battle for polka-dot points. Kessiakoff began the sprint for the points on offer atop the Cote des Burs, but Voeckler surprised him from behind and outsprinted him again. The peloton passed over the top a solid 3’00” behind the leaders, but that advantage was down to 2’15” as they approached the intermediate sprint. The breakaway was disinterested in the sprint points, sweeping through without any fuss and cleaning up all the points on offer, leaving the peloton nothing to sprint for when they swept through two minutes later.
The feed zone five kilometres on caused some trouble, World Champion Mark Cavendish and Sky teammate Richie Porte taking a tumble. Neither was seriously hurt and, mechanical troubles solved, both rejoined the race quickly without incident. The race was already beginning the ascent of the hors catégorie Port de Balés, the climb splintering the leading group into a fluid group of two or three riders leading two smaller chases further on down the climb.
Then Rui Costa (Movistar) leapt into a solo ride at the front of the stage, sitting a few hundred metres ahead of the next group on the road. The reason soon became clear: teammate Alejandro Valverde similarly leapt off the front and easily bridged the gap to Costa, leaving his teammate behind when Costa could no longer pace him onwards up the mountain. With a 2’20” lead over the peloton, Valverde scooped up the 25 points at the top of the Port de Balés and began racing the 32 kilometres towards the stage finish.
The peloton continued bearing down on the remainder of the breakaway, slowly picking up riders one by one as the yellow jersey group continued towards Peyragudes. Soon it was just Valverde in his time trial up the front, followed by Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) at 2’00” and Costa at 2’18” ahead of the peloton, with only 20 or so kilometres to go in the stage. Costa was the next to go, the peloton sweeping past with riders dropping out the back, unable to keep up with Team Sky and Liquigas-Cannondale’s pacemaking.
One of those soon to go was defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC). The 35-year-old was unable to keep up with the pace in the mountains yesterday due to stomach problems and still seemed to be unwell today, disappearing discreetly to leave young teammate Tejay van Garderen to continue on without him.
An attack from Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) got a response from Bradley Wiggins (Sky), the yellow jersey wearer stepping up the pace so much that the leading group was reduced to just eight riders. Chris Froome (Sky) kept the pace so high that everyone was dropped except for his team leader, the only rider ahead of them on the road being Valverde, one minute ahead with three kilometres to go. Froome seemed to be feeling in excellent form, because he appeared to be wanting to leave Wiggins and chase down Valverde for the stage win. Whether Wiggins denied permission or Froome decided against it, the two Britons finished the stage together, just 19 seconds behind the Spaniard.
Stage 18 is a medium mountains stage, with a few Category 4 climbs breaking up the flats. This could be a stage for a breakaway (think Albasini, Scarponi and even Pinot or Rolland) or it could equally be pulled in by Lotto Belisol to allow for another Greipel-Sagan showdown.
Stage 17 was the final day of mountains for the Tour, traversing the Pyrénées from Bagnère-de-Luchon to Peyragudes. This Tour seems to have been characterised by breakaways, even in the mountains, for the attacks began as soon as the stage did yet again. It wasn’t until the 24 kilometre mark that a group managed to stay away, another large group containing around 20 riders including a few strong riders. The group held a slim lead over the peloton as they approached the top of the first climb for the day, the Category 1 Col du Mente.
Pierre Rolland (Europcar) sprinted away from the group as they approached the col’s King of the Mountain point, but he was chased down and caught by the two rivals for the polka-dot jersey, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Voeckler managing to outsprint the Swede for the 10 points. There was a lot of shuffling of the breakaway on the way down the Col du Mente, which eventually left seven riders with a 40’ advantage over the Sky-led peloton. A counter-attack soon formed, 10 riders sitting 30’ ahead of the peloton and one 1’00” behind the leading seven.
The positions on the road hadn’t changed as the leaders reached the second climb of the day. Voeckler sprinted out from behind Kessiakoff to lead the race over the second category climb around the 55 kilometre mark of the stage. Chasing them over the top were the 10 poursuivants, 40 seconds behind, with the pursuing peloton another 50 seconds behind them. It wasn’t long before the race referees called all the cars out from between the first two groups on the road, their premonition being fulfilled 68 kilometres in, swelling the leading group to 17.
The number of riders made no difference to Voeckler and Kessiakoff, still locked in their silent battle for polka-dot points. Kessiakoff began the sprint for the points on offer atop the Cote des Burs, but Voeckler surprised him from behind and outsprinted him again. The peloton passed over the top a solid 3’00” behind the leaders, but that advantage was down to 2’15” as they approached the intermediate sprint. The breakaway was disinterested in the sprint points, sweeping through without any fuss and cleaning up all the points on offer, leaving the peloton nothing to sprint for when they swept through two minutes later.
The feed zone five kilometres on caused some trouble, World Champion Mark Cavendish and Sky teammate Richie Porte taking a tumble. Neither was seriously hurt and, mechanical troubles solved, both rejoined the race quickly without incident. The race was already beginning the ascent of the hors catégorie Port de Balés, the climb splintering the leading group into a fluid group of two or three riders leading two smaller chases further on down the climb.
Then Rui Costa (Movistar) leapt into a solo ride at the front of the stage, sitting a few hundred metres ahead of the next group on the road. The reason soon became clear: teammate Alejandro Valverde similarly leapt off the front and easily bridged the gap to Costa, leaving his teammate behind when Costa could no longer pace him onwards up the mountain. With a 2’20” lead over the peloton, Valverde scooped up the 25 points at the top of the Port de Balés and began racing the 32 kilometres towards the stage finish.
The peloton continued bearing down on the remainder of the breakaway, slowly picking up riders one by one as the yellow jersey group continued towards Peyragudes. Soon it was just Valverde in his time trial up the front, followed by Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) at 2’00” and Costa at 2’18” ahead of the peloton, with only 20 or so kilometres to go in the stage. Costa was the next to go, the peloton sweeping past with riders dropping out the back, unable to keep up with Team Sky and Liquigas-Cannondale’s pacemaking.
One of those soon to go was defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC). The 35-year-old was unable to keep up with the pace in the mountains yesterday due to stomach problems and still seemed to be unwell today, disappearing discreetly to leave young teammate Tejay van Garderen to continue on without him.
An attack from Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) got a response from Bradley Wiggins (Sky), the yellow jersey wearer stepping up the pace so much that the leading group was reduced to just eight riders. Chris Froome (Sky) kept the pace so high that everyone was dropped except for his team leader, the only rider ahead of them on the road being Valverde, one minute ahead with three kilometres to go. Froome seemed to be feeling in excellent form, because he appeared to be wanting to leave Wiggins and chase down Valverde for the stage win. Whether Wiggins denied permission or Froome decided against it, the two Britons finished the stage together, just 19 seconds behind the Spaniard.
Stage 18 is a medium mountains stage, with a few Category 4 climbs breaking up the flats. This could be a stage for a breakaway (think Albasini, Scarponi and even Pinot or Rolland) or it could equally be pulled in by Lotto Belisol to allow for another Greipel-Sagan showdown.
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Stage 16: Pau - Bagneres-de-Luchon
The Col d’Aspin, the Col d’Aubisque, the Col du Tourmalet. The grandes dames of the Tour de France; the elder statesmen of the hills as Eddy Merckx is of the riders. Today was the day for the riders to pay their respects to the peaks that have shaped the Tour de France, and one or two chose to respect the peaks with a mountain race that left those watching wanting to stand and applaud in awe.
Stage 16 from Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon was always going to be interesting, being one of the high Pyrénéan stages of this year’s Tour – and the Pyrenees, as anyone who watches the Tour regularly knows, are always exciting. The stage began with a move that was more unusual than exciting – after 20 kilometres of trying, the day’s breakaway was established, 38 riders being considerably more than are usually allowed in a breakaway. Despite the presence of several very strong riders, there was clearly no-one in the group high enough on the general classification to concern the peloton, and the break was allowed to leave the bunch.
The breakaway had a lead of 3’45” as they began the climb of the Col d’Aubisque around the 40 kilometre mark. While polka-dot jersey wearer Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) was in the break, it was Thomas Voeckler’s Europcar teammate, Yukiya Arashiro, who led out Voeckler over the climb to take the maximum 25 points available, helping the Frenchman encroach on Kessiakoff’s lead. Sky was leading the peloton as the main group passed over the climb, BMC Racing Team moving forward as they reached the top.
A crash in the peloton that sent two riders flying into barbed wire on the descent ended badly for one of them. Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) reduced the number of riders in the Tour to just 154 after abandoning the race with a broken collarbone, courtesy of the fence. Up ahead, the blissfully unaware breakaway was passing through the feed zone, preparing for the start of the Tourmalet, the highest pass of the Pyrénées. As the gradient started going up, though, the size of the breakaway began going down as riders fell off the back of the escape now being strongly led by Danilo Hondo (Lampre-ISD). With an extra push by Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) the breakaway began to reduce further, shattering on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet.
Of the 38 riders who began the stage in the lead, only two could follow Martin when he attacked again: one being eternal favourite Voeckler and the other being Brice Feillu (Soar-Sojasun), who spent much of the past two weeks off the back of the peloton with illness. The two caught and passed Martin on the climb and continued on, launching themselves into the stage lead. As Martin continued trying to chase down the pair, a group of poursuivants was forming further down from the remnants of the breakaway that Martin had shattered not long before.
The leading duo having reached the top of the Tourmalet, Voeckler took another 25 points to bolster his second place in the King of the Mountains classification as they continued racing along the stage, the two Frenchman co-operating to maintain their lead. Behind them, Sky was still leading the peloton, Christian Knees now responsible for inflicting the pain as he hauled the bunch up the Tourmalet much faster than many would have liked. Between the leaders and the main group were the chasing groups, several pairs or small collections of riders from the old breakaway bearing down on Voeckler and Feillu in the lead, 10’25” ahead of the peloton.
It really was chaos on the road as the Pyrénées continued to inflict their damage on the riders, some dropping back and some surging forward between the myriad tiny groups of riders chasing down the lead. The riders were inflicting the damage too, three Liquigas-Cannondale riders coming forward to dramatically increase the tempo of the peloton and shelling off a lot of riders in the process. The results were maybe not what they’d expected, Cadel Evans (BMC) disappearing from yet another mountain stage as he fell off the peloton. The other major contenders reached the top of the Col d’Aspin with a 45” advantage on Evans, but after some sterling riding from his team, Evans reappeared in the main peloton on the way down the far side of the Aspin, avoiding losing more time to his rivals.
Now on the final climb of the day, the Category 1 Col du Peyresoude, Voeckler managed to drop his breakmate Feillu and continued on ahead alone, Feillu soon being passed by the distinctive bobbing motion of Chris Anker Sorenson (Saobank-Tinkoff Bank). Voeckler was riding with his usual persistent style, however, claiming more mountain points as he topped the Col de Peyresoude, a minute ahead of the chasing Sorenson.
But back in the peloton drama was afoot, as Evans looked to be in trouble again while Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) attacked the yellow jersey group. Chris Froome (Sky) was once again responsible for bridging the gap to Bradley Wiggins (Sky), leaving the three top-ranked riders in the Tour de France on their own behind the various breakaways. Nibali was dissatisfied with his first attempt and attacked again, trying to gain some time on the yellow jersey, but the British duo bridged the gap once again, the trio still together as they crested the Col du Peyresoude.
Out in the lead, Voeckler was in the final five kilometres of the stage with almost a two minute lead over Sorenson. The stage win was inevitable for the former 2011 yellow jersey wearer, Voeckler’s arms going over his head in the classic victory salute. Sorenson rolled in just over a minute and a half behind him, Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Feillu rounding out the top five over a five-minute period.
It was the first major shake-up in the GC, Evans out of the overall top five long before he crossed the line, instead dropping into seventh place at eight minutes down behind sixth-placed teammate Tejay van Garderen. Tomorrow is the final mountain stage of the Tour, as well as being a mountaintop finish, so look out for Nibali to attack again, Voeckler to defend his newfound mountains lead as well as other opportune breakaways looking for their own stage win.
Stage 16 from Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon was always going to be interesting, being one of the high Pyrénéan stages of this year’s Tour – and the Pyrenees, as anyone who watches the Tour regularly knows, are always exciting. The stage began with a move that was more unusual than exciting – after 20 kilometres of trying, the day’s breakaway was established, 38 riders being considerably more than are usually allowed in a breakaway. Despite the presence of several very strong riders, there was clearly no-one in the group high enough on the general classification to concern the peloton, and the break was allowed to leave the bunch.
The breakaway had a lead of 3’45” as they began the climb of the Col d’Aubisque around the 40 kilometre mark. While polka-dot jersey wearer Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) was in the break, it was Thomas Voeckler’s Europcar teammate, Yukiya Arashiro, who led out Voeckler over the climb to take the maximum 25 points available, helping the Frenchman encroach on Kessiakoff’s lead. Sky was leading the peloton as the main group passed over the climb, BMC Racing Team moving forward as they reached the top.
A crash in the peloton that sent two riders flying into barbed wire on the descent ended badly for one of them. Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) reduced the number of riders in the Tour to just 154 after abandoning the race with a broken collarbone, courtesy of the fence. Up ahead, the blissfully unaware breakaway was passing through the feed zone, preparing for the start of the Tourmalet, the highest pass of the Pyrénées. As the gradient started going up, though, the size of the breakaway began going down as riders fell off the back of the escape now being strongly led by Danilo Hondo (Lampre-ISD). With an extra push by Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) the breakaway began to reduce further, shattering on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet.
Of the 38 riders who began the stage in the lead, only two could follow Martin when he attacked again: one being eternal favourite Voeckler and the other being Brice Feillu (Soar-Sojasun), who spent much of the past two weeks off the back of the peloton with illness. The two caught and passed Martin on the climb and continued on, launching themselves into the stage lead. As Martin continued trying to chase down the pair, a group of poursuivants was forming further down from the remnants of the breakaway that Martin had shattered not long before.
The leading duo having reached the top of the Tourmalet, Voeckler took another 25 points to bolster his second place in the King of the Mountains classification as they continued racing along the stage, the two Frenchman co-operating to maintain their lead. Behind them, Sky was still leading the peloton, Christian Knees now responsible for inflicting the pain as he hauled the bunch up the Tourmalet much faster than many would have liked. Between the leaders and the main group were the chasing groups, several pairs or small collections of riders from the old breakaway bearing down on Voeckler and Feillu in the lead, 10’25” ahead of the peloton.
It really was chaos on the road as the Pyrénées continued to inflict their damage on the riders, some dropping back and some surging forward between the myriad tiny groups of riders chasing down the lead. The riders were inflicting the damage too, three Liquigas-Cannondale riders coming forward to dramatically increase the tempo of the peloton and shelling off a lot of riders in the process. The results were maybe not what they’d expected, Cadel Evans (BMC) disappearing from yet another mountain stage as he fell off the peloton. The other major contenders reached the top of the Col d’Aspin with a 45” advantage on Evans, but after some sterling riding from his team, Evans reappeared in the main peloton on the way down the far side of the Aspin, avoiding losing more time to his rivals.
Now on the final climb of the day, the Category 1 Col du Peyresoude, Voeckler managed to drop his breakmate Feillu and continued on ahead alone, Feillu soon being passed by the distinctive bobbing motion of Chris Anker Sorenson (Saobank-Tinkoff Bank). Voeckler was riding with his usual persistent style, however, claiming more mountain points as he topped the Col de Peyresoude, a minute ahead of the chasing Sorenson.
But back in the peloton drama was afoot, as Evans looked to be in trouble again while Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) attacked the yellow jersey group. Chris Froome (Sky) was once again responsible for bridging the gap to Bradley Wiggins (Sky), leaving the three top-ranked riders in the Tour de France on their own behind the various breakaways. Nibali was dissatisfied with his first attempt and attacked again, trying to gain some time on the yellow jersey, but the British duo bridged the gap once again, the trio still together as they crested the Col du Peyresoude.
Out in the lead, Voeckler was in the final five kilometres of the stage with almost a two minute lead over Sorenson. The stage win was inevitable for the former 2011 yellow jersey wearer, Voeckler’s arms going over his head in the classic victory salute. Sorenson rolled in just over a minute and a half behind him, Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Feillu rounding out the top five over a five-minute period.
It was the first major shake-up in the GC, Evans out of the overall top five long before he crossed the line, instead dropping into seventh place at eight minutes down behind sixth-placed teammate Tejay van Garderen. Tomorrow is the final mountain stage of the Tour, as well as being a mountaintop finish, so look out for Nibali to attack again, Voeckler to defend his newfound mountains lead as well as other opportune breakaways looking for their own stage win.
Sunday, 15 July 2012
Stage 14: Limoux - Foix
To say it was a day of drama would be an understatement. Scandals, sportsmanship and surprises barely touches on the 191 kilometre stage from Limoux to Foix through the Pyrénées mountains. As always, the Tour de France provided entertainment, sport and a compelling story to rival all others.
Despite being classified as a high mountains stage, with two Category 1 climbs in the latter part of the stage, the attacks began from the get-go, several riders trying to break clear of the peloton and establish a lead. Unsurprisingly, it was boy wonder Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) who was the successful rider, finding himself ahead of the peloton in the company of Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) and Sergio Paulinho (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank) after attacking on the descent of Category 2 climb Col du Portel. The trio took advantage of the chaos on the descent as the peloton split in two with a gap of almost a minute in between. Even though the two main groups were maintaining a high average speed, Sagan’s group was slowly edging away from the nearest leaders, second by second.
Seeing that this break appeared to be succeeding, already having lasted longer and stronger than previous attempts, eight riders jumped off the front of the peloton in an attempt to join them. The strong riders in the group helped bridge the gap to the three riders leading the stage, now 1’12” ahead of the pursuing peloton. The lead ballooned out over the next 20 kilometres or so, the break building up an astonishing gap of 11 minutes as they approached the intermediate sprint.
The only real sprinter in the group, Sagan wasn’t expecting competition from the other breakaway members for the 20 points on offer at the intermediate. Just to be on the safe side, Sagan sat on the front of the breakaway as they approached the sprint point of Tarasçon-Sur-Ariège, nervously checking behind him for any sign of a response. Obviously Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) has a sense of humour, because the Basque rider decided to indulge Sagan’s paranoia, feinting to the right in the last few hundred metres as though to attack. The Spaniard was only in jest, though, and Sagan claimed his precious 20 points uncontested.
The breakaway’s lead had gone out to almost 15 minutes as they began the first of the two Category 1 climbs for the day, the Port de Lers. The weather began to deteriorate towards the top of the climb, riders calling for rain jackets to protect against the incoming mist and cold. Cyril Gautier (Europcar), who had been part of the day’s breakaway, had a puncture which forced him out of the group and left him chasing the dectet all the way down the far side of the Port de Lers and up the subsequent Mur de Péguère, finally catching them early on the climb.
While Sky tapped out the pace as the peloton ascended the Port de Lers, 16 minutes ahead on the Mur, Luis Léon Sánchez (Rabobank) was taking his turn at the pace-making. The Spaniard was forcing a few riders off the back of the breakaway with his tempo, which was aimed at dropping Slovakian sprinter Peter Sagan, who would be able to beat the rest of the breakaway in a sprint finish. The tactic failed to work, Sagan one of only four riders to join Sánchez in the leading group of the stage. The 22-year-old sprinted ahead to follow Sandy Casar (FDJ-Bigmat) and Gorka Izaguirre over the final climb of the day.
Behind them in the peloton, chaos was reigning as the main group of riders passed over the preceding climb. What was later identified as a collection of tacks scattered over the road was causing punctures in the tyres of all the top GC contenders, many of whom were stranded far from their team cars when the punctures occurred. The incident first came to light when defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC) was seen standing at the King of the Mountains point atop the Port de Lers with a punctured back tyre. The 35-year-old barely maintained his calm as he waited for his team car to make its way through the grupetto to change his tyre. Swapping with a passing teammate, he began chasing down the group of yellow jersey Bradley Wiggins (Sky) which was now almost a minute ahead. Evans’ day didn’t get any better, having to stop for two more tyre changes in the next 10 minutes.
Evans wasn’t the only rider affected. Around 20 other riders were also forced to change tyres, Wiggins opting to change his whole bike after he punctured. The worst off was Astana’s Robert Kiserlovski, whose puncture caused him to crash on the descent and abandon the Tour with a suspected broken collarbone.
It didn’t get better. Though Wiggins had called a truce in the yellow jersey group, waiting for Evans to catch up before they continued racing, Team Europcar’s Pierre Rolland appeared not to be aware of the situation behind and attack the groupe maillot jaune, building up almost a two minute lead. Though Wiggins clearly still wanted to wait for Evans, who was falling further behind with each wheel change despite BMC Racing Team pacing him back towards the lead, the teams of Lotto Belisol and Liquigas-Cannondale made the decision to start chasing down Rolland. The young Frenchman was high enough in the GC to start challenging the positions of their riders in the top 10. Rolland caught, the pace slackened off again for Evans to catch up, the atmosphere in the group clearly souring towards the impudent Rolland.
Meanwhile in the breakaway, Sánchez had decided it was time to be rid of Sagan in the interests of the stage win and began a solo break with 11 kilometres left in the stage. The two-time defending Spanish time trial champion caught Sagan on a snack break and managed to put a gap between himself and his fellow escapees, which only expanded over the next few minutes. The three-time Tour stage winner managed to hold off the pursuing four to take a stage victory which has been the only ray of light for a team battered by misfortune at this year’s Tour. Sagan led the rest of the breakaway to the finish three-quarters of a minute later, the main body of riders rolling over the line 18’15” after Sánchez, leaving the overall standings unchanged.
Tomorrow’s stage from Samatan to Pau is fairly straightforward and flat, only a couple of small categorised climbs to contend with. It should be a stage for the sprinters like André Greipel, Peter Sagan, Matt Goss and Mark Cavendish – that is, assuming the saboteurs from today’s stage have no ill-advised plans for a repeat performance.
Despite being classified as a high mountains stage, with two Category 1 climbs in the latter part of the stage, the attacks began from the get-go, several riders trying to break clear of the peloton and establish a lead. Unsurprisingly, it was boy wonder Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) who was the successful rider, finding himself ahead of the peloton in the company of Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank) and Sergio Paulinho (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank) after attacking on the descent of Category 2 climb Col du Portel. The trio took advantage of the chaos on the descent as the peloton split in two with a gap of almost a minute in between. Even though the two main groups were maintaining a high average speed, Sagan’s group was slowly edging away from the nearest leaders, second by second.
Seeing that this break appeared to be succeeding, already having lasted longer and stronger than previous attempts, eight riders jumped off the front of the peloton in an attempt to join them. The strong riders in the group helped bridge the gap to the three riders leading the stage, now 1’12” ahead of the pursuing peloton. The lead ballooned out over the next 20 kilometres or so, the break building up an astonishing gap of 11 minutes as they approached the intermediate sprint.
The only real sprinter in the group, Sagan wasn’t expecting competition from the other breakaway members for the 20 points on offer at the intermediate. Just to be on the safe side, Sagan sat on the front of the breakaway as they approached the sprint point of Tarasçon-Sur-Ariège, nervously checking behind him for any sign of a response. Obviously Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) has a sense of humour, because the Basque rider decided to indulge Sagan’s paranoia, feinting to the right in the last few hundred metres as though to attack. The Spaniard was only in jest, though, and Sagan claimed his precious 20 points uncontested.
The breakaway’s lead had gone out to almost 15 minutes as they began the first of the two Category 1 climbs for the day, the Port de Lers. The weather began to deteriorate towards the top of the climb, riders calling for rain jackets to protect against the incoming mist and cold. Cyril Gautier (Europcar), who had been part of the day’s breakaway, had a puncture which forced him out of the group and left him chasing the dectet all the way down the far side of the Port de Lers and up the subsequent Mur de Péguère, finally catching them early on the climb.
While Sky tapped out the pace as the peloton ascended the Port de Lers, 16 minutes ahead on the Mur, Luis Léon Sánchez (Rabobank) was taking his turn at the pace-making. The Spaniard was forcing a few riders off the back of the breakaway with his tempo, which was aimed at dropping Slovakian sprinter Peter Sagan, who would be able to beat the rest of the breakaway in a sprint finish. The tactic failed to work, Sagan one of only four riders to join Sánchez in the leading group of the stage. The 22-year-old sprinted ahead to follow Sandy Casar (FDJ-Bigmat) and Gorka Izaguirre over the final climb of the day.
Behind them in the peloton, chaos was reigning as the main group of riders passed over the preceding climb. What was later identified as a collection of tacks scattered over the road was causing punctures in the tyres of all the top GC contenders, many of whom were stranded far from their team cars when the punctures occurred. The incident first came to light when defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC) was seen standing at the King of the Mountains point atop the Port de Lers with a punctured back tyre. The 35-year-old barely maintained his calm as he waited for his team car to make its way through the grupetto to change his tyre. Swapping with a passing teammate, he began chasing down the group of yellow jersey Bradley Wiggins (Sky) which was now almost a minute ahead. Evans’ day didn’t get any better, having to stop for two more tyre changes in the next 10 minutes.
Evans wasn’t the only rider affected. Around 20 other riders were also forced to change tyres, Wiggins opting to change his whole bike after he punctured. The worst off was Astana’s Robert Kiserlovski, whose puncture caused him to crash on the descent and abandon the Tour with a suspected broken collarbone.
It didn’t get better. Though Wiggins had called a truce in the yellow jersey group, waiting for Evans to catch up before they continued racing, Team Europcar’s Pierre Rolland appeared not to be aware of the situation behind and attack the groupe maillot jaune, building up almost a two minute lead. Though Wiggins clearly still wanted to wait for Evans, who was falling further behind with each wheel change despite BMC Racing Team pacing him back towards the lead, the teams of Lotto Belisol and Liquigas-Cannondale made the decision to start chasing down Rolland. The young Frenchman was high enough in the GC to start challenging the positions of their riders in the top 10. Rolland caught, the pace slackened off again for Evans to catch up, the atmosphere in the group clearly souring towards the impudent Rolland.
Meanwhile in the breakaway, Sánchez had decided it was time to be rid of Sagan in the interests of the stage win and began a solo break with 11 kilometres left in the stage. The two-time defending Spanish time trial champion caught Sagan on a snack break and managed to put a gap between himself and his fellow escapees, which only expanded over the next few minutes. The three-time Tour stage winner managed to hold off the pursuing four to take a stage victory which has been the only ray of light for a team battered by misfortune at this year’s Tour. Sagan led the rest of the breakaway to the finish three-quarters of a minute later, the main body of riders rolling over the line 18’15” after Sánchez, leaving the overall standings unchanged.
Tomorrow’s stage from Samatan to Pau is fairly straightforward and flat, only a couple of small categorised climbs to contend with. It should be a stage for the sprinters like André Greipel, Peter Sagan, Matt Goss and Mark Cavendish – that is, assuming the saboteurs from today’s stage have no ill-advised plans for a repeat performance.
Saturday, 14 July 2012
Stage 13: Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux - Le Cap d'Agde
It was almost not the stage we were expecting. Stage 13 from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux to Le Cap d’Agde was meant to be a transitional stage, nothing more than an interlude as the Tour went from the Alps to the Pyrenees. But the flat-finish sprinters stage was nearly highjacked in a series of events which ensured that a ‘boring’ stage was anything but.
As always the stage began with a breakaway, Marcus Burghardt (BMC) initiating the attack which turned into a five-man leading group, of which Burghardt was somehow not a member. Instead the job of leading the race went to Pablo Urtasun Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ-Bigmat), Michael Morkov (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank) and Roy Curvers (Argos-Shimano), who were doing so admirably with a lead of 27” over the chase group and 2’00” over the peloton at the five kilometre mark. The lead wasn’t enough to hold off Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun) and Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale), who caught the quintet two kilometres further on.
It didn’t hold off Jerome Pineau (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) either, and the lead of the now eight-strong breakaway was at four minutes with the arrival of the fifth Frenchman. The gap kept expanding, though, none of the leaders high enough on GC to threaten the peloton, and after just 35 kilometres of racing the break was over nine minutes ahead of the Orica-GreenEDGE-led peloton, which decided to bring them in just a little bit closer. Just over 35 kilometres later, the gap had halved to 4’40”, enough for the peloton to ease up just a little.
It still wasn’t easing enough for Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), who became the Tour’s 35th withdrawal, an illness proving too much for him to continue. He wasn’t the only one having a bad day. Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) crashed into the barrier just outside the sprint point, but was thankfully able to pick himself up and keep going with the help of a teammate. Ahead of Velits the peloton were sprinting for the minor placings at the intermediate, Sagan edging out Greipel and Goss to take the seven points still on offer.
Out in front the breakaway were still pedalling away at over 40km/h, the gap to the peloton having been pulled back to less than three minutes. As the number became less than two, Pineau attacked in an attempt to keep the breakaway alive. He was quickly pulled back in and then superseded as Morkov went on the attack, managing to keep a few seconds between himself and the chasing breakaway. Being the fifth anniversary of his father’s death to cancer, Morkov wanted to honour his memory, and with that wish in mind the Dane was gunning for the stage win.
With 60 kilometres to go, Morkov was looking at a very long and lonely time trial in the lead to maintain his advantage and take the victory. But the attempt was going relatively well, the breakaway slowly slipping back second by second and handing Morkov a bigger and bigger lead. Almost 20 kilometres into his solo ride, the former track rider had built a gap of almost a minute, with the peloton a further two minutes back. The gap continued increasing as Morkov was officially voted the most aggressive rider of the stage, already fulfilling his wish for the day’s racing.
BMC stepped up to the front of the peloton as the race hit almost 50km/h. The American team of Cadel Evans was trying to split the race with the help of the crosswinds that were buffeting the riders. The effort succeeded, those riders not dropped by the effort being divided into two smaller pelotons, though unfortunately for BMC, all the riders at whom the attack was aimed made it into the first of the two pelotons. The increase in tempo was also doing damage to Morkov’s lead, the Dane sitting just 1’48”as he entered the 40th kilometre of his solo ride.
The race hit the ascent of Mont Saint-Clair with Morkov still in the lead and a number of riders behind him, either being dropped from the original breakaway or attacking to make up the gap. The peloton was bearing down, caring less about catching Morkov and more about marking each other as Bradley Wiggins (Sky) tried to stick close to Evans, who was leading them hell-for-leather up the climb and not quite dropping the yellow jersey in the process. Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and Evans led the group of around 25 riders over the top of Mont Saint-Clair, just 23 kilometres from the finishing line.
The peloton had caught Michael Morkov and was around 15 kilometres from the finish when the attack came. Astana’s Alexandre Vinokourov, chased by Orica-GreenEDGE’s Michael Albasini, jumped off the front of the bunch and began working together to build a small lead of no more than 30 seconds off the front of the bunch. Lotto Belisol were making them work for their gains, the sprinter’s train of Andre Greipel keeping the duo in close contact as they reached the 4 kilometre mark. Hauled in at 2.7 kilometres to go, Luis Léon Sánchez (Rabobank) and Mathieu Sprick (Argos-Shimano) made their own sprint for the line, but they couldn’t withstand the power of leader Bradley Wiggins as he barrelled through the flamme rouge with teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen on his tail.
Wiggins’ effort was in vain, though, as Boasson Hagen was quickly overtaken by Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Andre Greipel battling for the line. Greipel was too fast for the young Slovakian, taking a third stage win for the Tour to make him equal with the three of Sagan. Stage 14 is the beginning of the Pyrenees, with a couple of Category 1 climbs towards the end and a Cat 2 near the start. In short, watch the GC riders – Evans, Vincenzo Nibali, Jurgen van den Broeck. Stages like tomorrow are critical for these riders to take back a few precious seconds if they want to have a chance at a podium finish.
As always the stage began with a breakaway, Marcus Burghardt (BMC) initiating the attack which turned into a five-man leading group, of which Burghardt was somehow not a member. Instead the job of leading the race went to Pablo Urtasun Perez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), Matthieu Ladagnous (FDJ-Bigmat), Michael Morkov (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank) and Roy Curvers (Argos-Shimano), who were doing so admirably with a lead of 27” over the chase group and 2’00” over the peloton at the five kilometre mark. The lead wasn’t enough to hold off Jimmy Engoulvent (Saur-Sojasun) and Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale), who caught the quintet two kilometres further on.
It didn’t hold off Jerome Pineau (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) either, and the lead of the now eight-strong breakaway was at four minutes with the arrival of the fifth Frenchman. The gap kept expanding, though, none of the leaders high enough on GC to threaten the peloton, and after just 35 kilometres of racing the break was over nine minutes ahead of the Orica-GreenEDGE-led peloton, which decided to bring them in just a little bit closer. Just over 35 kilometres later, the gap had halved to 4’40”, enough for the peloton to ease up just a little.
It still wasn’t easing enough for Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), who became the Tour’s 35th withdrawal, an illness proving too much for him to continue. He wasn’t the only one having a bad day. Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) crashed into the barrier just outside the sprint point, but was thankfully able to pick himself up and keep going with the help of a teammate. Ahead of Velits the peloton were sprinting for the minor placings at the intermediate, Sagan edging out Greipel and Goss to take the seven points still on offer.
Out in front the breakaway were still pedalling away at over 40km/h, the gap to the peloton having been pulled back to less than three minutes. As the number became less than two, Pineau attacked in an attempt to keep the breakaway alive. He was quickly pulled back in and then superseded as Morkov went on the attack, managing to keep a few seconds between himself and the chasing breakaway. Being the fifth anniversary of his father’s death to cancer, Morkov wanted to honour his memory, and with that wish in mind the Dane was gunning for the stage win.
With 60 kilometres to go, Morkov was looking at a very long and lonely time trial in the lead to maintain his advantage and take the victory. But the attempt was going relatively well, the breakaway slowly slipping back second by second and handing Morkov a bigger and bigger lead. Almost 20 kilometres into his solo ride, the former track rider had built a gap of almost a minute, with the peloton a further two minutes back. The gap continued increasing as Morkov was officially voted the most aggressive rider of the stage, already fulfilling his wish for the day’s racing.
BMC stepped up to the front of the peloton as the race hit almost 50km/h. The American team of Cadel Evans was trying to split the race with the help of the crosswinds that were buffeting the riders. The effort succeeded, those riders not dropped by the effort being divided into two smaller pelotons, though unfortunately for BMC, all the riders at whom the attack was aimed made it into the first of the two pelotons. The increase in tempo was also doing damage to Morkov’s lead, the Dane sitting just 1’48”as he entered the 40th kilometre of his solo ride.
The race hit the ascent of Mont Saint-Clair with Morkov still in the lead and a number of riders behind him, either being dropped from the original breakaway or attacking to make up the gap. The peloton was bearing down, caring less about catching Morkov and more about marking each other as Bradley Wiggins (Sky) tried to stick close to Evans, who was leading them hell-for-leather up the climb and not quite dropping the yellow jersey in the process. Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) and Evans led the group of around 25 riders over the top of Mont Saint-Clair, just 23 kilometres from the finishing line.
The peloton had caught Michael Morkov and was around 15 kilometres from the finish when the attack came. Astana’s Alexandre Vinokourov, chased by Orica-GreenEDGE’s Michael Albasini, jumped off the front of the bunch and began working together to build a small lead of no more than 30 seconds off the front of the bunch. Lotto Belisol were making them work for their gains, the sprinter’s train of Andre Greipel keeping the duo in close contact as they reached the 4 kilometre mark. Hauled in at 2.7 kilometres to go, Luis Léon Sánchez (Rabobank) and Mathieu Sprick (Argos-Shimano) made their own sprint for the line, but they couldn’t withstand the power of leader Bradley Wiggins as he barrelled through the flamme rouge with teammate Edvald Boasson Hagen on his tail.
Wiggins’ effort was in vain, though, as Boasson Hagen was quickly overtaken by Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Andre Greipel battling for the line. Greipel was too fast for the young Slovakian, taking a third stage win for the Tour to make him equal with the three of Sagan. Stage 14 is the beginning of the Pyrenees, with a couple of Category 1 climbs towards the end and a Cat 2 near the start. In short, watch the GC riders – Evans, Vincenzo Nibali, Jurgen van den Broeck. Stages like tomorrow are critical for these riders to take back a few precious seconds if they want to have a chance at a podium finish.
Friday, 13 July 2012
Stage 11: Albertville - La Toussuire-Les Sybelles
Today was the day. This was the
stage we’d all been waiting for, the decider, the bike race to end all bike
races. It happened. And it was spectacular – spectacularly
destructive, spectacularly revealing, spectacularly tenacious.
Stage 11 reminded that this is the Tour de France, of whom only the greatest
are worthy, and today we finally learnt who the worthy riders are.
It panned out almost exactly the same as
the day before. Today’s stage began with a large breakaway that formed
almost as soon as the riders left the neutral zone. The 30 or so riders
moved fluidly between several breakaway groups ahead of the peloton for the
first hour or more, being dropped, catching or attacking in turn.
As the group reached the top of the first climb of the day, the hors catégorie
Col de la Madeleine, the 26 riders were 2’55” ahead of the Team Sky-led
peloton.
Due to the pace being set by Sky’s Edvald
Boasson Hagen, riders were dropping off the back of the peloton as the climbed
the Madeleine. Behind Boasson Hagen, four more Sky riders were waiting in
line to do the pace-making, willing to lay everything on the line for their
team leader, Bradley Wiggins. Boasson Hagen’s high tempo had cut nearly a
minute off the breakaway’s lead, before Christophe Kern (Europcar) took over
the pace-making from teammate Davide Malacarne and began stepping up the speed
of the escape group.
The King of the Mountain point was passed
without incident by the breakaway, Astana’s Fredrik Kessiakoff leaping forward
for second place in an attempt to regain his polka-dot jersey. Kessiakoff
continued over the top of the climb to attack the breakaway on the descent with
Peter Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), one of two groups to do so, splintering
the breakaway into three. The first two groups rejoined in time for the
intermediate sprint at Saint-Etienne-de-Cuines, uncontested due to the lack of
sprinters, Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) leading the second group across the
line.
As the leading group began the second HC
climb of the day, the Col de la Croix de Fer, the second group on the road
bridged gap, forming a 22-man leading group again. The group soon began
dropping riders, as the third rider of the day dropped out of the Tour de
France. Rabobank sprinter Mark Renshaw joined Vacansoleil-DCMs Lieuwe
Westra and Gustav Larsson on the list of riders withdrawn from the Tour’s 11th
stage. Riders continued to yoyo on and off the back of the breakaway as
Kern continued the pace-making up front and Sky set the tempo further down.
The expected attack came partway up the
Col de la Croix de Fer. Sky made no reaction as the wearer of the best
young rider’s white jersey, Tejay van Garderen, disappeared up the climb.
The reason for van Garderen’s attack was soon evident: a few minutes later, BMC
team leader Cadel Evans attacked as well, racing ahead to join his young
teammate. The leading Sky rider, Australian Michael Rogers, began
increasing the tempo of the peloton even more in an attempt to bridge the gap
to Evans, who was by then sitting comfortably on the wheel of Tejay van
Garderen. He didn’t look comfortable for long, however, van Garderen’s
accelerations dropping his team leader off his wheel far too easily. Even
with the assistance of Amael Moinard, dropping back from the breakaway, it was
too much for Evans, and the Skymobile came forward to swallow all three back up
again.
Thanks to Sky’s accelerations, the groupe
Maillot Jaune had been reduced to just 10 riders; team leaders and the best
climbers. There were just seven men in the lead group just over two
minutes ahead as the crossed the top of the Croix de Fer, led by Robert
Kiserlovski (Astana) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar). The riders began
attacking each other on the way down, but it was Rolland again who led them
over the third and final climb of the day before they reached the mountaintop
finish. A group of three formed at the head of the race as Rolland,
Kiserlovski and Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) began descending the Col de
Mollard. The glory was shortlived, however, Rolland crashing on the
descent. Bleeding from his elbow but otherwise unhurt, Rolland was able
to remount and try to chase down the leading pair a few seconds ahead of him,
catching them 23 kilometres from the end of the stage.
Back together in the lead, Rolland
attacked his breakmates, trying to set himself up for a solo stage win.
There were attacks back in the main field, too, Jurgen van den Broeck
(Lotto Belisol) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) among the four riders
who jumped of the front of the peloton. Forced to chase, Sky
super-domestique Chris Froome began setting a pace that dropped all bar a few
riders. Fortunately for Wiggins, one of the dropped riders was Cadel
Evans, who had teammate Tejay van Garderen thoroughly confused with his
inability to keep up. Van Garderen also dropped back to pace Evans over
the climb, the pair unable to rejoin the yellow jersey group and crossing the
line over three minutes behind the winner of the stage.
Froome and Wiggins, meanwhile, had dropped
everyone else and were forging ahead to join the breakaway of van den Broeck
and Nibali just up the road. Having managed this, Froome then went to the
head of the group and accelerated so hard that Wiggins dropped off the
back. Froome was quickly instructed to stop pace-making and go back to
help Wiggins, stranded behind the group of four. Picking up Kiryienka
along the way, the reformed group of seven continued their high pace towards
the stage finish on La Toussuire.
But they weren’t the only ones out
there. Pierre Rolland, with a minute over his nearest pursuers, repeated
his feat of last year soloed to a mountaintop stage victory, the day after the
stage win of his team leader, Thomas Voeckler. The French fans were in
for a bigger surprise, because young FDJ-Bigmat star Thibaut Pinot managed to
outsprint Froome to take second to make it a French 1-2, Wiggins rolling across
the line two seconds later, one and a half minutes ahead of Evans.
Stage 12 is a medium mountains stage,
with two Category 1 climbs close to the start and a long flat towards the
finish. This is the kind of stage that encourages breakaways, and would
definitely suit the skills of a rider like Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE),
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) or maybe even Michele Scarponi
(Lampre-ISD). It’s unlikely to see the big GC contenders try anything one
a stage with such a flat finish, but being the Tour de France, anything could
happen.
Thursday, 12 July 2012
Stage 10: Mâcon - Bellegarde-sur-Valserine
The mountains
are always the most fun part of the Tour de France. It’s where you get the
uplifting performances, the heart-breaking disappointments, the surprises, the
shocks and the real Tour de France. Today was a day for the surprises, some
unanticipated moves and an unexpected finish keeping things fresh and
interesting after a day out of the saddle.
More riders failed to make the start today, as the Tour toll rose to 23. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) pulled out after the Stage 9 time trial to try and allow his broken scaphoid to heal, while Australia’s Matt Lloyd (Lampre-ISD) lost his Tour to a broken elbow. Rémy Di Gregorio (Cofidis) left under much less savoury circumstances, arrested in a doping scandal and suspended by his team during the rest day.
Stage 10 from Mâcon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine started hard and fast, green jersey wearer Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) jumping away just two kilometres in with two companions. Apparently Sagan wasn’t a popular peloton choice for the breakaway, numerous large groups trying to chase him and Andriy Grivko (Astana) down, the third member of their trio already having been dropped. In the end it took 30 kilometres before two merged chase groups comprising 23 riders finally bridged the gap to the duo, and the race was on. With enough riders to do the pace-making, the mini-peloton out the front built up a lead of 5’55” ahead of the fast-chasing peloton.
That lead was nearer seven minutes as the 25-strong breakaway reached the first climb of the day, the Category 2 Côte de Corlier. Former polka-dot jersey wearer Michael Morkov surged forward to take top points, leading out Grivko, rouleur Jens Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) and French favourite Thomas Voeckler (Europcar). As the peloton neared the top of the climb they were only 6’45” behind, Team Sky beginning to pull back the escapees.
A couple of punctures for leaders Sánchez and Voeckler didn’t stop them, each soon rejoining the breakaway after their respective technical difficulties. They were irrelevant, however, as the intermediate sprint approached, soon revealing the real reason why Sagan initiated the breakaway and why so many sprinters chose to join it. With Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) leading out team sprinter Matt Goss, Goss, Sagan and FDJ-Bigmat sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich raced each other to the line, Goss outmanoeuvring both to take the 20 points on offer for first, chipping another five points off Sagan’s lead in the green jersey competition. Shortly after both the Australian Goss and the Belarusian Hutarovich were seen dropping rapidly off the back of the breakaway, exercise done for the day.
They weren’t the only ones to go, the Europcar riders setting a tough pace that some in the breakaway couldn’t follow. It was a common theme with the peloton, too, where some of the big names were being shelled off the back from the pace set by Sky as they chased the now-16 man escape. The number kept going down until eventually Sanchez, Voeckler, Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD), Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale) and Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) had shed every one of their breakaway companions. After several minutes of attacks, escapes and catches, Sanchez, Voeckler, Scarponi and Devenyns found themselves alone in the lead on their way up the hors catégorie Col de Grand Colombier.
One could be forgiven for thinking that it was a Norwegian national holiday from all the red, blue and white flags lining the race route up the second climb of the day. Edvald Boasson Hagen’s countrymen had turned out in force to support him as he led the peloton up the HC climb in the Norwegian national jersey, working as a domestique for Sky team leader Bradley Wiggins. The slope of the climb took its toll, though, a handful of the big favourites making it over the climb in a little group, a short way ahead of the remainder of the peloton. Vincenzi Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) led the descending peloton down the other side, Bradley Wiggins and his Sky teammates hovering in constant attendance around reigning champion Cadel Evans (BMC). Without such stringent supervision, Nibali leapt off the front of the group and caught up to teammate Peter Sagan, waiting further on down the road, as the two attempted the same manoeuvre as Andy Schleck did with teammates Maxime Monfort and Joost Posthuma last year, though without Schleck’s level of success. Sky soon wound Nibali back in as the peloton regrouped for the final 30 kilometres of the stage.
Meanwhile, out the front, Voeckler had led the breakaway quartet over the final two climbs of the day, giving him enough King of the Mountain points to take the polka-dot jersey. Inside the final 20 kilometres, the four were so focussed on preparing to race each other for the stage win that they failed to notice Jens Voigt speeding up behind them, having sat in no-man’s land between the peloton and the breakaway for a large part of the day. The addition of Voigt into the mix was not a welcome one, Scarponi attacking early to try and shake the strong German off his tail before the finish line. The rest of the break caught him on the end of the descent, before being surprised as Devenyns jumped off the front. The remaining four were reluctant to chase, Voigt finally taking responsibility to allow himself a chance at the stage win.
Devenyns caught, Voeckler began coming up alongside Voigt, trying to outrace the German, but Sanchez was also coming from behind, trying to salvage a stage win after his efforts of the day. The almost comically slow sprint finish from three very tired riders ended with the combination pain-and-triumph expression so familiar on Thomas Voeckler’s face as he claimed France’s second stage win of the Tour, every effort of the victory etched in his features. As the remaining breakaway riders rolled in from no-man’s land, a black and red jersey could be seen sprinting towards the line, followed by a yellow one. Brad Wiggins refused to let Cadel Evans escape his clutches right to the finish line, chasing far more vigorously than during Jurgen van den Broeck’s (Lotto Belisol) attacks earlier in the stage to defend his yellow jersey.
Stage 11 hits the Alps, with two HC climbs as well as a Cat 1 and a Cat 2. It seems even more unlikely that a breakaway will succeed than it did today, but this is the Tour de France, and anything is possible. The most likely scenario (and a fairly exciting one at that) would have Team Sky hauling Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali, Jurgen van den Broeck and Denis Menchov, plus a few extras, through the Alps at top speed, though Evans’ and van den Broeck’s propensity for attacking will certainly keep things lively. That said, the mountain breakaway has already succeeded once, so just maybe they could pull it off again.
More riders failed to make the start today, as the Tour toll rose to 23. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) pulled out after the Stage 9 time trial to try and allow his broken scaphoid to heal, while Australia’s Matt Lloyd (Lampre-ISD) lost his Tour to a broken elbow. Rémy Di Gregorio (Cofidis) left under much less savoury circumstances, arrested in a doping scandal and suspended by his team during the rest day.
Stage 10 from Mâcon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine started hard and fast, green jersey wearer Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) jumping away just two kilometres in with two companions. Apparently Sagan wasn’t a popular peloton choice for the breakaway, numerous large groups trying to chase him and Andriy Grivko (Astana) down, the third member of their trio already having been dropped. In the end it took 30 kilometres before two merged chase groups comprising 23 riders finally bridged the gap to the duo, and the race was on. With enough riders to do the pace-making, the mini-peloton out the front built up a lead of 5’55” ahead of the fast-chasing peloton.
That lead was nearer seven minutes as the 25-strong breakaway reached the first climb of the day, the Category 2 Côte de Corlier. Former polka-dot jersey wearer Michael Morkov surged forward to take top points, leading out Grivko, rouleur Jens Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) and French favourite Thomas Voeckler (Europcar). As the peloton neared the top of the climb they were only 6’45” behind, Team Sky beginning to pull back the escapees.
A couple of punctures for leaders Sánchez and Voeckler didn’t stop them, each soon rejoining the breakaway after their respective technical difficulties. They were irrelevant, however, as the intermediate sprint approached, soon revealing the real reason why Sagan initiated the breakaway and why so many sprinters chose to join it. With Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) leading out team sprinter Matt Goss, Goss, Sagan and FDJ-Bigmat sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich raced each other to the line, Goss outmanoeuvring both to take the 20 points on offer for first, chipping another five points off Sagan’s lead in the green jersey competition. Shortly after both the Australian Goss and the Belarusian Hutarovich were seen dropping rapidly off the back of the breakaway, exercise done for the day.
They weren’t the only ones to go, the Europcar riders setting a tough pace that some in the breakaway couldn’t follow. It was a common theme with the peloton, too, where some of the big names were being shelled off the back from the pace set by Sky as they chased the now-16 man escape. The number kept going down until eventually Sanchez, Voeckler, Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD), Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale) and Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) had shed every one of their breakaway companions. After several minutes of attacks, escapes and catches, Sanchez, Voeckler, Scarponi and Devenyns found themselves alone in the lead on their way up the hors catégorie Col de Grand Colombier.
One could be forgiven for thinking that it was a Norwegian national holiday from all the red, blue and white flags lining the race route up the second climb of the day. Edvald Boasson Hagen’s countrymen had turned out in force to support him as he led the peloton up the HC climb in the Norwegian national jersey, working as a domestique for Sky team leader Bradley Wiggins. The slope of the climb took its toll, though, a handful of the big favourites making it over the climb in a little group, a short way ahead of the remainder of the peloton. Vincenzi Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) led the descending peloton down the other side, Bradley Wiggins and his Sky teammates hovering in constant attendance around reigning champion Cadel Evans (BMC). Without such stringent supervision, Nibali leapt off the front of the group and caught up to teammate Peter Sagan, waiting further on down the road, as the two attempted the same manoeuvre as Andy Schleck did with teammates Maxime Monfort and Joost Posthuma last year, though without Schleck’s level of success. Sky soon wound Nibali back in as the peloton regrouped for the final 30 kilometres of the stage.
Meanwhile, out the front, Voeckler had led the breakaway quartet over the final two climbs of the day, giving him enough King of the Mountain points to take the polka-dot jersey. Inside the final 20 kilometres, the four were so focussed on preparing to race each other for the stage win that they failed to notice Jens Voigt speeding up behind them, having sat in no-man’s land between the peloton and the breakaway for a large part of the day. The addition of Voigt into the mix was not a welcome one, Scarponi attacking early to try and shake the strong German off his tail before the finish line. The rest of the break caught him on the end of the descent, before being surprised as Devenyns jumped off the front. The remaining four were reluctant to chase, Voigt finally taking responsibility to allow himself a chance at the stage win.
Devenyns caught, Voeckler began coming up alongside Voigt, trying to outrace the German, but Sanchez was also coming from behind, trying to salvage a stage win after his efforts of the day. The almost comically slow sprint finish from three very tired riders ended with the combination pain-and-triumph expression so familiar on Thomas Voeckler’s face as he claimed France’s second stage win of the Tour, every effort of the victory etched in his features. As the remaining breakaway riders rolled in from no-man’s land, a black and red jersey could be seen sprinting towards the line, followed by a yellow one. Brad Wiggins refused to let Cadel Evans escape his clutches right to the finish line, chasing far more vigorously than during Jurgen van den Broeck’s (Lotto Belisol) attacks earlier in the stage to defend his yellow jersey.
Stage 11 hits the Alps, with two HC climbs as well as a Cat 1 and a Cat 2. It seems even more unlikely that a breakaway will succeed than it did today, but this is the Tour de France, and anything is possible. The most likely scenario (and a fairly exciting one at that) would have Team Sky hauling Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali, Jurgen van den Broeck and Denis Menchov, plus a few extras, through the Alps at top speed, though Evans’ and van den Broeck’s propensity for attacking will certainly keep things lively. That said, the mountain breakaway has already succeeded once, so just maybe they could pull it off again.
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