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 He was quickly pulled back in and then superseded as Morkov went on the attack, managing to keep a few seconds between himself and the chasing breakaway.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.
Showing posts with label Michael Morkov. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Morkov. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 July 2012
Sunday, 8 July 2012
Stage 7: Tomblaine – La Planche des Belles Filles
There is a saying amongst the riders when the race enters the
mountains – ‘The Tour begins today’. That it certainly did, Stage 7
providing the first serious mountain climbing challenge and giving us a
good idea of who will be seriously competitive in this year’s Tour de
France.
It was another beautiful day in northern France, the gentle sunshine belying the carnage of the day before as the peloton rolled along from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles. The crashes certainly took their toll, a further eight riders failing to start the day’s stage in addition to the four who withdraw during the race yesterday. A 13th rider, Saur-Sojasun’s Anthony Delaplace, withdrew early on in the stage after being unable to continue with a broken wrist.
With the much-reduced peloton racing along at the fastest opening speed of this year’s Tour de France, going 44km/h, the race was nearly 20 kilometres in before the day’s breakaway was formed, the biggest of the Tour so far. Seven different teams were represented in the nine-man escape group, Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale), Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), Martin Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank). As we’ve come to expect, the septet raced away to build themselves a lead of up to six minutes by the 35 kilometre mark.
BMC Racing Team and Katusha Team were leading the peloton through the stunning mountain countryside of forests and lakes as the bunch approached the intermediate sprint, passed by the breakaway nearly five minutes hence with Albasini in the lead. Orica-GreenEDGE put together their sprint train and raced away from the peloton, Peter Sagan sitting on Matt Goss’s wheel. Unfortunately for the Australian team, Goss suffered mechanical trouble as Sagan began to sprint for the line, leaving Sagan to take eighth place along before waiting several minutes for the peloton to catch up after his huge acceleration.
BMC continued to lead the peloton as the breakaway began heading up through the mountains. Luis Léon Sanchez had some problems with fans getting too close as they headed up the hills, appealing to the commissaires to intervene, to no avail. Chris Anker Sorenson, teammate of points classification leader Michael Morkov, claimed the King of the Mountain points available on the first climbs to protect the Dane’s lead as the peloton began making their mountains as well. It wasn’t long before the peloton began shedding riders; sprinters and those injured in crashes the first to go. BMC, Team Sky and Garmin-Sharp were taking turns leading the peloton at an ever-increasing pace, trying to haul back the breakaway and set up the peloton for a stage win all in one go.
The first objective was achieved sooner than the second, but it still took a while to break the spirit of the breakaway. As the peloton continued fracturing and some of the big names like Jurgen van den Broeck of Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Alejandro Valverde from Movistar punctured, the breakaway riders began attacking again, Fofonov and Albasini trying to escape their less mountain-inclined companions. The final climb finished off the peloton’s job, though, the seven escapees unable to cope with the high gradient of the final climb.
Riders continued going off the back as the peloton went up, some of the key GC contenders and notable climbers being the next to go. Soon enough the ‘peloton’ was reduced to 10 or 15 riders who were able to keep up with the tempo that Sky were stamping out over the final few kilometres. One by one the Sky riders emptied their tanks and trailed off the back, leaving both Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome alone with Cadel Evans and a handful of others, including Liquigas-Cannondale’s Vincenzo Nibali and Cofidis’s Rein Taaramae. Froome continued to put the pressure on the leaders until the final kilometre, when Cadel Evans jumped out from behind Wiggins’s wheel and began leading towards the finish. Wiggins was doing all he could to stay on Evans’s wheel as the Australian raced away towards the finish, allowing Froome to power up alongside him and leave both Wiggins and Evans in the dust to take the stage win. Fabian Cancellara came over the line a little more than a minute later, putting Wiggins in yellow for Stage 8 with Cadel in second place on the general classification, just 10 seconds behind him.
Tomorrow is a lumpy stage with one Category 4, one Category 3, four Category 2s and a Category 1 climb leading into a downhill finish. This is a perfect stage for a breakaway to stay the distance and take the stage, but with so many riders injured, the move may well come from Team Astana, which has the most uninjured climbers. Simon Gerrans from Orica-GreenEDGE and Nicki Sorenson from Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank are other possibilities for mountain breakaways that can hold out against the peloton. It will also be worth watching Team Sky to see how they go defending Bradley Wiggins and the yellow jersey.
It was another beautiful day in northern France, the gentle sunshine belying the carnage of the day before as the peloton rolled along from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles. The crashes certainly took their toll, a further eight riders failing to start the day’s stage in addition to the four who withdraw during the race yesterday. A 13th rider, Saur-Sojasun’s Anthony Delaplace, withdrew early on in the stage after being unable to continue with a broken wrist.
With the much-reduced peloton racing along at the fastest opening speed of this year’s Tour de France, going 44km/h, the race was nearly 20 kilometres in before the day’s breakaway was formed, the biggest of the Tour so far. Seven different teams were represented in the nine-man escape group, Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale), Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), Martin Velits (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge), Cyril Gautier (Europcar), Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana) and Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank). As we’ve come to expect, the septet raced away to build themselves a lead of up to six minutes by the 35 kilometre mark.
BMC Racing Team and Katusha Team were leading the peloton through the stunning mountain countryside of forests and lakes as the bunch approached the intermediate sprint, passed by the breakaway nearly five minutes hence with Albasini in the lead. Orica-GreenEDGE put together their sprint train and raced away from the peloton, Peter Sagan sitting on Matt Goss’s wheel. Unfortunately for the Australian team, Goss suffered mechanical trouble as Sagan began to sprint for the line, leaving Sagan to take eighth place along before waiting several minutes for the peloton to catch up after his huge acceleration.
BMC continued to lead the peloton as the breakaway began heading up through the mountains. Luis Léon Sanchez had some problems with fans getting too close as they headed up the hills, appealing to the commissaires to intervene, to no avail. Chris Anker Sorenson, teammate of points classification leader Michael Morkov, claimed the King of the Mountain points available on the first climbs to protect the Dane’s lead as the peloton began making their mountains as well. It wasn’t long before the peloton began shedding riders; sprinters and those injured in crashes the first to go. BMC, Team Sky and Garmin-Sharp were taking turns leading the peloton at an ever-increasing pace, trying to haul back the breakaway and set up the peloton for a stage win all in one go.
The first objective was achieved sooner than the second, but it still took a while to break the spirit of the breakaway. As the peloton continued fracturing and some of the big names like Jurgen van den Broeck of Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Alejandro Valverde from Movistar punctured, the breakaway riders began attacking again, Fofonov and Albasini trying to escape their less mountain-inclined companions. The final climb finished off the peloton’s job, though, the seven escapees unable to cope with the high gradient of the final climb.
Riders continued going off the back as the peloton went up, some of the key GC contenders and notable climbers being the next to go. Soon enough the ‘peloton’ was reduced to 10 or 15 riders who were able to keep up with the tempo that Sky were stamping out over the final few kilometres. One by one the Sky riders emptied their tanks and trailed off the back, leaving both Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome alone with Cadel Evans and a handful of others, including Liquigas-Cannondale’s Vincenzo Nibali and Cofidis’s Rein Taaramae. Froome continued to put the pressure on the leaders until the final kilometre, when Cadel Evans jumped out from behind Wiggins’s wheel and began leading towards the finish. Wiggins was doing all he could to stay on Evans’s wheel as the Australian raced away towards the finish, allowing Froome to power up alongside him and leave both Wiggins and Evans in the dust to take the stage win. Fabian Cancellara came over the line a little more than a minute later, putting Wiggins in yellow for Stage 8 with Cadel in second place on the general classification, just 10 seconds behind him.
Tomorrow is a lumpy stage with one Category 4, one Category 3, four Category 2s and a Category 1 climb leading into a downhill finish. This is a perfect stage for a breakaway to stay the distance and take the stage, but with so many riders injured, the move may well come from Team Astana, which has the most uninjured climbers. Simon Gerrans from Orica-GreenEDGE and Nicki Sorenson from Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank are other possibilities for mountain breakaways that can hold out against the peloton. It will also be worth watching Team Sky to see how they go defending Bradley Wiggins and the yellow jersey.
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.
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Stage 2: Visé – Tournai
It was a stage of injuries, of sprinters, of chateaux and long
breakaways, and a stage of rising above. Stage 2 of the 2012 Tour de
France from Visé to Tournai saw all the things we’ve come to expect from
the paramount race of the world – pain, triumph, inhuman achievement
and a gripping finish to keep us all guessing.
After the crashes and dramatic finish of yesterday’s stage into Seraing, the peloton started off slowly, savouring the beautiful panoramas and elegant cathedrals of central Belgium. It was 22 kilometres into the stage before Anthony Roux of FDJ-BigMat attempted a breakaway and was quickly joined by Europcar’s Christophe Kern and Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank’s Michael Morkov, wearer of the polka-dot jersey after his participation in yesterday’s breakaway. The three rode rapidly away from the peloton to build up a lead that reached around eight minutes, Roux leaning on his handlebars as though for a time trial to avoid using his broken left hand, the result of one of yesterday’s crashes.
The young Frenchman wasn’t the only rider putting on a brave face for the stage. World time trial champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) was also in considerable pain from a fractured scaphoid in his left hand which had caused temporary doubt as to whether he would start the stage. The German’s Tour de France certainly hadn’t improved, with a puncture in the prologue time trial preceding the Stage 1 crash which left him in a plastic brace.
The breakaway trio’s lead had dropped down to 6’15” as they passed through the city of Namur and began the climb up to the King of the Mountains point at the Côte de la Citadelle de Namur, a Roman-era fortress sitting at the top of the winding cobbles. Morkov dashed ahead of Kern and Roux to take the single point on offer, extending his lead over the polka-dot jersey competition to three points. Objective achieved, Morkov assumed a position at the back of the leading group and let the French pair do the work for the rest of the stage.
The gap quickly receding, the idle peloton realised they’d left it too late to catch the breakaway before the sprint point at Soignies, allowing Kern, Roux and Morkov respectively to take top points, and instead prepared to sprint for 4th place. The teams of the sprinters, already with a rider each at the front to do the pacemaking, sent up their leadout trains to contend for the vital green jersey points. Liquigas-Cannondale’s train was pulling for Peter Sagan, but Australian outfit Orica-GreenEDGE once again slipped sprinter Matthew Goss up the side to take the win ahead of Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) and Mark Cavendish (Sky).
Intermediate sprint aside, the race continued west across Belgium as the lead group’s advantage slowly ticked down. As the peloton loomed behind, Roux decided that the attitude of the day was ‘never say die’ and attacked again with 31 kilometres to go, an action that earned him the Combative Rider award for the day, while Kern and Morkov were swallowed up by the quickly-moving peloton and promptly spat out at the back end. As the pace increased, the hopeful teams of the sprinters moved to the front of the peloton for a second time and began preparing their sprint trains for the battle royale that was to be the stage finish.
At the rear of the peloton, though, Argos-Shimano’s sprinter Marcel Kittel was having trouble. While his team led the peloton charging towards Tournai, Kittel was falling off the back of the main field, his expression strained. Despite the help of teammates Kittel was unable to keep in touch any longer and dropped off, victim of a stomach bug, surrendering his chance at the day’s stage win.
The front of the peloton barely noticed his absence, flying towards the finish at nearly 70kph, scooping up the still-fighting Roux along the way. The key sprint teams of Liquigas-Cannondale, Lotto Belisol, Orica-GreenEDGE and Sky Procycling were jostling for position as King Albert II of Belgium, as keen a cycling fan as his countrymen, waited for the riders at the finish. Though Lotto Belisol appeared to have the win lined up neatly for Andre Greipel, Liquigas-Cannondale’s Peter Sagan clinging to his back wheel, the aptly-named ‘Manx Missile’ of Mark Cavendish shot past Greipel to take his 21st Tour de France stage win, Orica-GreenEDGE’s Matt Goss again slipping up the side to take third.
The win has done little for the overall standings, Peter Sagan taking the green sprinter’s jersey the only change in the classifications. Tomorrow the Tour heads into northern France and more medium mountains, a newfound battleground for Sagan which may enable him to consolidate his lead on the maillot vert.
After the crashes and dramatic finish of yesterday’s stage into Seraing, the peloton started off slowly, savouring the beautiful panoramas and elegant cathedrals of central Belgium. It was 22 kilometres into the stage before Anthony Roux of FDJ-BigMat attempted a breakaway and was quickly joined by Europcar’s Christophe Kern and Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank’s Michael Morkov, wearer of the polka-dot jersey after his participation in yesterday’s breakaway. The three rode rapidly away from the peloton to build up a lead that reached around eight minutes, Roux leaning on his handlebars as though for a time trial to avoid using his broken left hand, the result of one of yesterday’s crashes.
The young Frenchman wasn’t the only rider putting on a brave face for the stage. World time trial champion Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) was also in considerable pain from a fractured scaphoid in his left hand which had caused temporary doubt as to whether he would start the stage. The German’s Tour de France certainly hadn’t improved, with a puncture in the prologue time trial preceding the Stage 1 crash which left him in a plastic brace.
The breakaway trio’s lead had dropped down to 6’15” as they passed through the city of Namur and began the climb up to the King of the Mountains point at the Côte de la Citadelle de Namur, a Roman-era fortress sitting at the top of the winding cobbles. Morkov dashed ahead of Kern and Roux to take the single point on offer, extending his lead over the polka-dot jersey competition to three points. Objective achieved, Morkov assumed a position at the back of the leading group and let the French pair do the work for the rest of the stage.
The gap quickly receding, the idle peloton realised they’d left it too late to catch the breakaway before the sprint point at Soignies, allowing Kern, Roux and Morkov respectively to take top points, and instead prepared to sprint for 4th place. The teams of the sprinters, already with a rider each at the front to do the pacemaking, sent up their leadout trains to contend for the vital green jersey points. Liquigas-Cannondale’s train was pulling for Peter Sagan, but Australian outfit Orica-GreenEDGE once again slipped sprinter Matthew Goss up the side to take the win ahead of Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) and Mark Cavendish (Sky).
Intermediate sprint aside, the race continued west across Belgium as the lead group’s advantage slowly ticked down. As the peloton loomed behind, Roux decided that the attitude of the day was ‘never say die’ and attacked again with 31 kilometres to go, an action that earned him the Combative Rider award for the day, while Kern and Morkov were swallowed up by the quickly-moving peloton and promptly spat out at the back end. As the pace increased, the hopeful teams of the sprinters moved to the front of the peloton for a second time and began preparing their sprint trains for the battle royale that was to be the stage finish.
At the rear of the peloton, though, Argos-Shimano’s sprinter Marcel Kittel was having trouble. While his team led the peloton charging towards Tournai, Kittel was falling off the back of the main field, his expression strained. Despite the help of teammates Kittel was unable to keep in touch any longer and dropped off, victim of a stomach bug, surrendering his chance at the day’s stage win.
The front of the peloton barely noticed his absence, flying towards the finish at nearly 70kph, scooping up the still-fighting Roux along the way. The key sprint teams of Liquigas-Cannondale, Lotto Belisol, Orica-GreenEDGE and Sky Procycling were jostling for position as King Albert II of Belgium, as keen a cycling fan as his countrymen, waited for the riders at the finish. Though Lotto Belisol appeared to have the win lined up neatly for Andre Greipel, Liquigas-Cannondale’s Peter Sagan clinging to his back wheel, the aptly-named ‘Manx Missile’ of Mark Cavendish shot past Greipel to take his 21st Tour de France stage win, Orica-GreenEDGE’s Matt Goss again slipping up the side to take third.
The win has done little for the overall standings, Peter Sagan taking the green sprinter’s jersey the only change in the classifications. Tomorrow the Tour heads into northern France and more medium mountains, a newfound battleground for Sagan which may enable him to consolidate his lead on the maillot vert.
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