It’s taken two weeks, but today was the first unremarkable stage of this year’s Tour de France. Though unremarkable is never as fun and exciting as remarkable, a stage in which there are no crashes, no sabotage, no drama and which is characterised only by a couple of abandons and an unexpected finish is definitely a good stage. Stage 15 from Samatan to Pau was – finally – that stage.
Once again the attacks began as soon as the race left the neutral zone, groups struggling to stay off the front of the peloton. One or two breakaways seemed to be strong enough to last the distance, but they were inevitably pulled in by Team Sky sooner or later – usually sooner. When yet another break formed at the 60 kilometre mark Sky seemed happy with the composition, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Bernhard Eisel in turn each signalling for the peloton to stop chasing, but the team’s newfound authority of yesterday was shortlived. The enthusiasm of the peloton had no effect, however, the five holding strong and building up a lead ahead of the bunch.
With a 1’30” lead the peloton finally tired of being on the defensive and slowed down, leaving Nicki Sorenson (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank) floating between to eventually chase down and join the leading group of five. As they passed through the feedzone in Marciac, 60 kilometres from the stage finish, the sextet had a lead of almost six minutes over the peloton, still being led by Team Sky. The next excitement for the day was the breakaway passing the intermediate sprint, but the six chose not to contest the sprint, none of them being in the running for the green jersey, and even the peloton failed to create a stir, Sagan slipping quietly forward to take the next highest points as the peloton rolled through.
The abandons became coming through a little more thickly after that, Giovanni Bernardeau (Europcar) and Kenny van Hummel (Vacansoleil-DCM) on the list with Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) as victims of Stage 15 of the Tour. The breakaway already up and over the first categorised climb of the day, a small Cat 4, the peloton slowed as they passed an oil patch on the descent, trying to avoid a repeat of yesterday’s carnage. The six out front continued extending their lead as the peloton took a rest day on the road, calm and unconcerned about the leaders 8’20” ahead of them on the road.
Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) continued to lead the breakaway over the next two climbs of the day, garnering another five points towards his polka-dot jersey total in all. As their lead reached 10’30” with just 25 kilometres to go, it became obvious that the break would stay away til the finish in Pau, and German André Greipel (Lotto Belisol) would have to forgo the chance at taking a stage win on his 30th birthday. Though the peloton was still rolling along, as cool as a cucumber, the breakaway were preparing for the inevitable attacks to split the group for a chance at the stage.
They began just outside of 10 kilometres to go, Sorenson leaping off the front to be quickly chased down by the other five riders. The next attack was more serious. Pierrick Fedrigo went off the front with seven kilometres left in the stage, quickly followed by Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp). The two began working together to maintain their lead over the chasing riders, not wanting to bring the Cofidis sprinter, Samuel Dumoulin, to the line with them. Voeckler, obviously feeling the same way, launched a solo pursuit of the duo, hovering somewhere in between the groups on his own.
But the duo up ahead had made too much of a gap, and the stage win was down to the Frenchman and the American. Fedrigo continued glancing back at Vande Velde as Fedrigo led the way into the final straight, waiting for the move. Perceiving a twitch, Fedrigo went for the sprint, Vande Velde not even moving out of the Frenchman’s wheel as they crossed the line, Fedrigo taking his second Tour de France stage victory in the town of Pau. The peloton arrived en masse nearly 12 minutes later, Greipel leading the sprint to take seventh on the stage, while the overall classification and jerseys remain unchanged.
Tomorrow is a rest day, but Stage 16 reaches the high Pyrénées mountains. This is where the big names – think Cadel Evans, Vincenzo Nibali –will have to make their move if they want to have any chance of unseating Bradley Wiggins. Wiggins and Sky will be defending the yellow vigourously, though, so this could be the battle royale we’ve all been waiting for.
Showing posts with label Kenny van Hummel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kenny van Hummel. Show all posts
Monday, 16 July 2012
Wednesday, 4 July 2012
Stage 3: Orchies – Boulognes-sur-Mer
It was a stage of drama this time. Stage 3 of the Tour, from Orchies
to Boulognes-sur-Mer, had all the pains and troubles of the past few
days but without the redeeming features. Crashes, abandons, myriad
punctures and some rainclouds lent a distinctly gloomy air to the day’s
racing which stayed right up to the tense finish.
Ironically, it wasn’t until this fourth day of racing that the Tour de France finally reached France. Unlike yesterday, the riders were eager to get away today, the successful breakaway forming just four or five kilometres in. The apparent breakaway specialist of the 2012 Tour, Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank’s Michael Morkov, was quick to jump on the escape attempt of Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel-Euskadi), along with AG2R La Mondiale’s Sebastien Minard, Europcar’s Giovanni Bernardeau and Andriy Grivko of Astana. Some fast riding saw the quintet reach a maximum gap of 5’40” after half an hour, before settling into the three-minute lead it would remain for much of the stage.
In the unfortunate characteristic of the stage, the next decisive event was a crash. Janez Brajkovic of Astana was the biggest name sitting on the road, thankfully needing no more than a flying visit to the race doctor’s car for a leg wound to continue on. Going through the feed zone, the tense peloton began to calm down again, gradually directing its energies towards the next event – the intermediate sprint point.
Suddenly the GreenEDGE express appeared at the front of the peloton, intimidating in their determination to put sprinter Matt Goss over the line first. The sprint train which the Australians had been practising was working like a charm, pulling the peloton along like a cat on a ball of string, until a slower turn by one of the riders allowed Lotto Belisol to sprint up alongside and the train fell apart. All turned to chaos as other sprinters saw their chance and bolted for the sprint line, Kenny van Hummel (Vacansoleil-DCM) controversially swerving to block Mark Cavendish (Sky Procycling) as they went for the line. Cavendish wasn’t too adversely affected, leading van Hummel, Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-Bigmat) over the line to fill the top 10 places.
Sprint over, the peloton began to relax again, while out the front the breakaway was approaching the first climb of the day, the Category 4 Côte l’Éperche with one point on offer, which Morkov was eager to claim in defence of his polka-dot jersey. A few minutes behind, the peloton had followed the five riders over the climb before disaster struck again. A second crash with 54 kilometres to go left more riders on the ground, one of Bradley Wiggins’ Sky teammates quickly attracting attention. Hurt and struggling, Kanstantin Sivtsov was forced to abandon the Tour on just the 3rd stage, leaving Wiggins and Team Sky already one man short.
Oblivious to the carnage behind, the breakaway began the next climb of the day, Grivko upping the pace just enough that Bernardeau, riding his first Tour de France, couldn’t follow and fell off the back of the group. Morkov led the remaining three escapees over the Category 3 to bolster his lead in the King of the Mountains classification, but back in the peloton the carnage just kept coming. Yet another crash left Orica-GreenEDGE stage hopeful Simon Gerrans brushing off his knicks after a cannonball into a barbed-wire fence, while Movistar sprinter José Joaquín Rojas became the second abandon of the Tour. Meanwhile the crash at the peloton’s rear had fractured the peloton into several groups on the road, with Gerrans and BMC stage favourite Philippe Gilbert trapped in the group almost a minute behind the rest of the bunch.
Up the front Grivko and Morkov had left their companions for dead on the next Category 4 climb, racing each other to the top for the KOM points, again added to Morkov’s burgeoning total. The pair continued to go it alone as the shrunken peloton behind them swallowed first Bernardeau and then Minard and Perez Moreno, reducing the gap to less than a minute. The leading duo made it over the fourth climb of the day, Morkov collecting the point again and earning himself the Fighting Spirit award for his tenacity, before Grivko dropped him on the second-last climb and went it alone, leaving Morkov to the mercy of the peloton.
But the peloton could smell a chance at the stage now, hunting down Grivko to have its own shot at stage win glory. Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) led the select group of riders over the penultimate climb, before French time trial champion Sylvain Chavanel of Omega Pharma – Quickstep shot off the front of the group and began a solo ride to the finish. A skilled descender, Chavanel built up a small lead, but the peloton weren’t giving away the victory that easily, hauling him back just a kilometre from the finish.
Despite the crashes of earlier in the day, not all riders were paying attention on the sweep into the finish, heading straight into the fence as they missed a corner or crashing on the final uphill approach to the finish. Amongst the chaos Peter Sagan brought his newfound uphill sprinting abilities into play, making another unique salute as he rolled across the line for another stage victory. The 22-year-old Slovak tightened his lead on the green jersey, now 42 points ahead of nearest challenger, yellow jersey wearer Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek). In a nice twist, 7th place on the stage went to AG2R La Mondiale’s Nicolas Roche, a good present for the Irishman, who turns 28 today.
Stage 4 is another flat stage for the sprinters which could turn out to be yet another Sagan Playground or could instead bring Mark Cavendish out to play. Here’s to hoping the course profile belies the mood of the day and we have an ‘up’ day instead of a flat one.
Ironically, it wasn’t until this fourth day of racing that the Tour de France finally reached France. Unlike yesterday, the riders were eager to get away today, the successful breakaway forming just four or five kilometres in. The apparent breakaway specialist of the 2012 Tour, Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank’s Michael Morkov, was quick to jump on the escape attempt of Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel-Euskadi), along with AG2R La Mondiale’s Sebastien Minard, Europcar’s Giovanni Bernardeau and Andriy Grivko of Astana. Some fast riding saw the quintet reach a maximum gap of 5’40” after half an hour, before settling into the three-minute lead it would remain for much of the stage.
In the unfortunate characteristic of the stage, the next decisive event was a crash. Janez Brajkovic of Astana was the biggest name sitting on the road, thankfully needing no more than a flying visit to the race doctor’s car for a leg wound to continue on. Going through the feed zone, the tense peloton began to calm down again, gradually directing its energies towards the next event – the intermediate sprint point.
Suddenly the GreenEDGE express appeared at the front of the peloton, intimidating in their determination to put sprinter Matt Goss over the line first. The sprint train which the Australians had been practising was working like a charm, pulling the peloton along like a cat on a ball of string, until a slower turn by one of the riders allowed Lotto Belisol to sprint up alongside and the train fell apart. All turned to chaos as other sprinters saw their chance and bolted for the sprint line, Kenny van Hummel (Vacansoleil-DCM) controversially swerving to block Mark Cavendish (Sky Procycling) as they went for the line. Cavendish wasn’t too adversely affected, leading van Hummel, Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Yauheni Hutarovich (FDJ-Bigmat) over the line to fill the top 10 places.
Sprint over, the peloton began to relax again, while out the front the breakaway was approaching the first climb of the day, the Category 4 Côte l’Éperche with one point on offer, which Morkov was eager to claim in defence of his polka-dot jersey. A few minutes behind, the peloton had followed the five riders over the climb before disaster struck again. A second crash with 54 kilometres to go left more riders on the ground, one of Bradley Wiggins’ Sky teammates quickly attracting attention. Hurt and struggling, Kanstantin Sivtsov was forced to abandon the Tour on just the 3rd stage, leaving Wiggins and Team Sky already one man short.
Oblivious to the carnage behind, the breakaway began the next climb of the day, Grivko upping the pace just enough that Bernardeau, riding his first Tour de France, couldn’t follow and fell off the back of the group. Morkov led the remaining three escapees over the Category 3 to bolster his lead in the King of the Mountains classification, but back in the peloton the carnage just kept coming. Yet another crash left Orica-GreenEDGE stage hopeful Simon Gerrans brushing off his knicks after a cannonball into a barbed-wire fence, while Movistar sprinter José Joaquín Rojas became the second abandon of the Tour. Meanwhile the crash at the peloton’s rear had fractured the peloton into several groups on the road, with Gerrans and BMC stage favourite Philippe Gilbert trapped in the group almost a minute behind the rest of the bunch.
Up the front Grivko and Morkov had left their companions for dead on the next Category 4 climb, racing each other to the top for the KOM points, again added to Morkov’s burgeoning total. The pair continued to go it alone as the shrunken peloton behind them swallowed first Bernardeau and then Minard and Perez Moreno, reducing the gap to less than a minute. The leading duo made it over the fourth climb of the day, Morkov collecting the point again and earning himself the Fighting Spirit award for his tenacity, before Grivko dropped him on the second-last climb and went it alone, leaving Morkov to the mercy of the peloton.
But the peloton could smell a chance at the stage now, hunting down Grivko to have its own shot at stage win glory. Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Tony Gallopin (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) led the select group of riders over the penultimate climb, before French time trial champion Sylvain Chavanel of Omega Pharma – Quickstep shot off the front of the group and began a solo ride to the finish. A skilled descender, Chavanel built up a small lead, but the peloton weren’t giving away the victory that easily, hauling him back just a kilometre from the finish.
Despite the crashes of earlier in the day, not all riders were paying attention on the sweep into the finish, heading straight into the fence as they missed a corner or crashing on the final uphill approach to the finish. Amongst the chaos Peter Sagan brought his newfound uphill sprinting abilities into play, making another unique salute as he rolled across the line for another stage victory. The 22-year-old Slovak tightened his lead on the green jersey, now 42 points ahead of nearest challenger, yellow jersey wearer Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek). In a nice twist, 7th place on the stage went to AG2R La Mondiale’s Nicolas Roche, a good present for the Irishman, who turns 28 today.
Stage 4 is another flat stage for the sprinters which could turn out to be yet another Sagan Playground or could instead bring Mark Cavendish out to play. Here’s to hoping the course profile belies the mood of the day and we have an ‘up’ day instead of a flat one.
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