All Work And No Gain?

It’s always been a part of professional cycling, but it’s a phenomenon that’s come under fire lately – the question of who chases versus who wins.

It’s very much a question of the sprinters. Traditionally, when a team has a sprinter that they believe can win the stage, the onus is on their team to chase down the breakaway as they’re the team who’ll benefit. When a team does it well, the rewards are obvious – a stage win for the sprinter and a morale boost for the whole team.

But what about when they don’t win the stage? It was an ever-present concern for Australian outfit Orica-GreenEDGE during the Tour de France. The team often spent more than 100 kilometres leading the peloton in an attempt to reel in the day’s breakaway to set up a stage win for sprinter Matt Goss. Belgian outfit Lotto Belisol would jump on the front with 10 kilometres to go, still fresh after the day’s stage, and lead German sprinter André Greipel out for the win. It happened more than once. So is that good strategy and clever riding from the Belgian team, or are the others teams taking advantage of Orica-GreenEDGE?

Peter Sagan is another recent example of the issue. The Slovakian doesn’t have a leadout train – at least, nothing on the scale of Orica-GreenEDGE, Lotto Belisol or at times even Team Sky – yet the 22-year-old still claimed three stages of the Tour de France ahead of Greipel and Goss, as well as almost every stage of the Tour of California. Sagan usually tacks onto the end of the nearest sprinter being towed to the line and jumps out when everyone is least expecting it, using the work of Goss, Greipel or Cavendish’s teams. Again, is this a remarkably canny move on the part of the youngster, or are Sky, Lotto and GreenEDGE being deprived of their just rewards?

Cavendish certainly seems to think so. The ‘world’s fastest man’, a title verified by his stripey rainbow jersey of the reigning World Champion, recently hit out at Australia over the lack of effort they put into the chase during the Olympic road race – despite the fact that Australia had a rider in the breakaway, six-time Olympian Stuart O’Grady. Cavendish was highly critical of the other teams for failing to help pull back the breakaway, conveniently forgetting that, like Australia, almost every other country capable of helping had a rider ahead of the peloton with a chance at the gold medal. There was another reason Great Britain was on their own – everyone knew that if it came down to a sprint finish, there was no-one who could beat the Manx Missile, Mark Cavendish. If Great Britain wanted the win, Great Britain had to do all the work – and even then, they knew everyone else would be racing them to the finish. It really was them versus the world.

So are the times changing? Is it now professionally acceptable to let another team or rider do all the work so you can take the win? Has the sport of cycling abandoned the ‘no guts, no glory’ ideal that brought about some of the greatest cycling victories we’ve seen in favour of a ‘end justifies the means’ approach to racing? What remains to be seen is this: who will do the work if they know there’s nothing to gain?

Stage 20: Rambouillet - Paris Champs-Élysées

Paris. Capital of France. One of the paramount cities of Europe. Home of the final Tour de France stage since 1975. The heralded ‘city of love’ provided a stunning backdrop for the finish of the historic 99th edition of Le Tour, truly a grand finale for this most prestigious of races.

Stage 20 went from Rambouillet to the Champs-Élysées of Paris, the flat road stage that rounds out every Tour de France. As usual the stage was more of a tradition than an actual race for most, a longstanding gentleman’s agreement in the peloton meaning that Bradley Wiggins would not be challenged for his yellow jersey on the final stage. Instead the peloton took an easy morning with Sky arranging themselves for the usual team photograph, spread across the road with their arms on their teammates’ shoulders.

The jovial mood was clear in the decorations of the riders for day. Each of the leaders of the four classifications - Bradley Wiggins in GC, Peter Sagan in sprints, Tejay van Garderen (BMC) in young rider and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) in the mountains – was riding a bike that matched their jerseys as the leader of their respective classification. Team Sky had also made some changes to their wallpaper, the characteristic blue stripe on their black uniforms magically turning to yellow overnight, even on the team cars, in celebration of Wiggins’ impending victory.

The first 50 kilometres passed without incident, the highest forms of excitement a puncture in the peloton and six riders forming an ‘escape’ 50 metres ahead of the peloton. The race passed by Versailles, the palatial residence of the last French king, Louis XIV, located in huge grounds on the outskirts of Paris. By now the landmark synonymous with the French city was visible, the Eiffel Tower reaching up in front of the riders like a homing beacon.

Team Sky and its leader, Bradley Wiggins, were staying close to the front of the peloton as George Hincapie (BMC) and Chris Horner (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) led the race over the finish line to begin eight laps of the 6.5 kilometre Champs-Élysées circuit. That was the signal for the attacks to commence, Jerome Pineau (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) happily obliging. He was soon joined by a number of other riders, but it was Jens Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) and Danilo Hondo (Lampre-ISD) who made the cut, taking it in turns to ride on the front. The race began cycling between the landmarks of Paris, the Arc de Triomphe, Place de la Concorde and golden statue of young French martyr Joan of Arc dominating the visions of passing riders.

It was probably the only flat stage in which the intermediate sprint was uncontested, Team Sky following the now three-strong breakaway over the line with 35 kilometres left in the race. Another eight riders rode out to join the leaders, the 11 having less than 30” advantage on the Liquigas-led peloton. An attack from Jens Voigt at 13 kilometres to go shattered the escape group, most being quickly collected by the chase group while Voigt and two companions continued pushing the pedals up the front.

The second-to-final lap was when riders started hearing commands from their sports director to catch the breakaway in their earpieces, ready to set the stage up for a sprint finish. That proved easier said than done, though, Voigt and his companions holding onto enough seconds to stay off the front of the peloton. Only half a lap remained in the Tour de France by the time the Sky-controlled peloton finally caught the leading trio. The chase was now on.

The teams of the sprinters were now visible at the front, each trying to do something for their man to take the most coveted stage victory in professional road racing. Yellow jersey wearer Bradley Wiggins was setting the pace on the front of the peloton, swinging off just past the flamme rouge to make way for Mark Cavendish’s leadout train. Despite launching from the 350 metre mark once again, Cavendish reaffirmed his title as the ‘Manx Missile’, holding off Peter Sagan and Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEDGE) to take his third stage win of the 2012 Tour.

Bradley Wiggins ascended the podium as the first-ever British winner of the Tour de France, Sky teammate Chris Froome and Liquigas-Cannondale’s Vincenzo Nibali standing beside him in second and third places. Tejay van Garderen retained his hold on the white jersey, as did Peter Sagan his green and Thomas Voeckler his polka-dots, while Radioshack-Nissan-Trek took out the teams’ classification and Chris Anker Sorenson claimed the SuperCombativity Prize for the most spirited rider. All should be back next year to defend their titles in the 100th edition of the world’s oldest and most famous Grand Tour, which will be a showdown not to be missed.

Stage 18: Blagnac - Brive-la-Gaillarde

Stage 18 was a classic Tour de France stage. Breakaways, excitement, and plenty of plain good riding carried the Tour from Blagnac to Brive-la-Gaillarde as the race returns to Paris for the homecoming of the 99th edition of Le Tour.

Once again it took some time for the day’s breakaway to be established. Six riders jumped off the front of the peloton at the 23 kilometre mark, but were brought back to the peloton just 26 kilometres later. It wasn’t for another 10 kilometres that anyone tried again, 14 riders eventually bridging the gap to two escapees ahead to form the day’s successful break after 70 kilometres of racing. The two instigators, Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) and Nick Nuyens (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank), had already claimed two sets of King of the Mountain points as they led their pursuers over the Category 3 Cote de Saint-Georges.

The peloton was 3’10” behind the 16 riders as they passed through the feedzone, and though that dipped to 2’45” a short while later due to the pace-making of BMC, the gap began ticking back upwards to 3’30” as the leaders neared the intermediate sprint. With no-one in the breakaway involved in the green jersey competition, and indeed the jersey securely ensconced on the shoulders of Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), there was no serious contest for the intermediate sprint. The mountains were of more concern to them in ensuring the break stayed away from the peloton, Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEDGE) leading the his 15 breakmates over the next Category 4 climb.

The peloton was having yet another idiot fan moment just two minutes behind. An errant dog in the peloton had unseated 10 or so riders and dumped them unceremoniously on the ground. An involuntarily displaced Philippe Gilbert (BMC) felt the need to have several choice words with the miscreant pooch’s owner before remounting and riding on. Gilbert and the other crashed riders soon caught up with the peloton, which was riding at just over 40km/h in pursuit of the breakaway 2’40” ahead.

As a long, relatively flat stage the drama was chiefly in the stage win and, in a smaller way, the movements of the day’s breakaway. Both peloton and escapees continued to race along through south-eastern France at 45km/h, a little faster than the trio of donkeys dressed in yellow, green and polka-dot coats that watched them race by. Ahead in the breakaway the co-operation was beginning to fray, attacks starting and being pulled back in by the chasing group. As the gap reached 1’30”, the attacks were beginning to have an effect, the group starting to lose riders.

With 25 kilometres to go, that gap was down to just one minute, the heralded breakaway win looking ever less likely. An attack from the Australian Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) finally did the job, imploding the escape group as breakaway specialist Jérémy Roy (FDJ-Bigmat) latched onto his wheel for the trip to the finish line. Two chase groups of three each formed behind them, the six riders a thin buffer between the leaders and the peloton 40 seconds behind. As the rearmost group was caught by the peloton, the middle group on the road caught the two in front, five riders now leading the stage by just a handful of seconds.

The breakaway imploded a second time, Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) pulling Luca Paolini (Katusha) and Hansen away from the other two riders, who were quickly caught by the racing peloton. With just 12 kilometres left in the day’s race, a chase group of three which launched from the peloton caught the three stage leaders who were barely 10 seconds ahead, the six of whom were still trying to stay away for the victory. The chase continued through the final few kilometres, the peloton not quite able to catch the six stage leaders who were never more than 10 or 12 seconds away. The sprinters’ teams began rallying anyway, Orica-GreenEDGE, Liquigas-Cannondale and Sky manoeuvring their riders into position.

The six were still there with just 500 metres to go, Irishman Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) and Spaniard Luis Léon Sánchez (Rabobank) trying a desperate sprint for home. At 300 metres to go, the sprint teams had to take a risk. Edvald Boasson Hagen dropped Manx Missile Mark Cavendish off as the sprinters caught the break, leaving Cavendish much further to sprint than usual against the still-racing breakaway. Cavendish proved more convincingly than ever why he’s known as the fastest man in the world, sprinting almost double his usual distance to still come out on top over a bike length ahead of his rivals.

Tomorrow is Stage 19, the final time trial that precedes the last stage into Paris. In the absence of World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin and former World Time Trial Champion Fabian Cancellara, both of whom have withdrawn, expect another 1-2 double from Sky teammates Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome. Keep an eye out also for BMC’s Tejay van Garderen, who may just be able to repeat his astounding and unexpected performance of Stage 9.

Stage 15: Samatan - Pau

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.

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.

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.

Stage 12: Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne - Annonay-Davizieux

Despite the climbs at the beginning of the stage, the 208 kilometres from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Annonay-Davizieux were essentially flat, meaning a calm day. That’s not to say it didn’t have its moments of excitement – that, and the heated battle for the green jersey today became an open flame as the race heads towards Paris.

Compared to the past few days, Stage 12 was much more relaxed, the peloton having a day off as they rolled across south-eastern France. It was tipped as a stage for breakaways, and the successful one went off the front around 10 kilometres from the end of the neutral zone, another big bunch of 19. The failure of the peloton to react after the break reached one minute was the signal that they didn’t plan to and the breakaway was free to go.

They didn’t go very far, though, never quite reaching two minutes before riders began being spat out on the Col du Grand Cucheron. Soon enough there was an 11-man lead one minute ahead of a three-man chase group, which was a further 1’10” ahead of the idle peloton. Of course, it was destined not to last. By the time the lead group began the ascent of the second climb, the Col Du Granier, the chase group had collapsed and a series of attacks from the peloton meant there were riders all over the road.

There were soon fewer riders on the road than had started the day. Argos-Shimano’s leadout man-cum-secondary sprinter Tom Veelers abandoned the stage after 65 kilometres of racing, while Cofidis climber David Moncoutié was shattered at having to abandon his farewell Tour de France with a possible broken collarbone after crashing on the descent of the Col du Grand Cucheron. But the Tour de France doesn’t wait for abandons, the now-five leaders approaching the King of the Mountains point atop the Col du Grand Cucheron and sprinting for the 10 points on offer.

Behind them at the peloton a third chase group was forming, Liquigas-Cannondale sprinter Peter Sagan obviously hoping to beat the peloton to the sprint point. Orica-GreenEDGE definitely didn’t like that, chasing the green jersey for their sprinter Matt Goss, and the Australian team began leading the charge to bring in the latest breakaway. Their work paid off, Sagan and his breakaway companions returning to the main field as they reached the feed zone in Saint-Joseph-de-Rivière, 35 kilometres from the sprint point.

With 119 kilometres to go the breakaway had finally settled into a stable group of five – Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Robert Kiserlovski (Astana), Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale), Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and David Millar (Garmin-Sharp). The group began working together to build up a lead that went right out to 11 minutes as the peloton approached the intermediate sprint, making it seem unlikely that the breakaway would be caught.

The peloton had other cares at this point, the intermediate sprint dominating their thoughts. Team Sky continued to lead the peloton right into the final kilometre as the sprint trains prepared to launch their sprinters. Matt Goss decided to leap out with a few hundred metres to go and managed to hold off the ‘Tour-minator’ Peter Sagan to take sixth place, gaining three more precious points over his green rival.

Despite the wind out the front of the stage making pace-making difficult, the breakaway was holding a 12 minute lead over the peloton at 40 kilometres to the finish. They managed to maintain most of their advantage for the remainder of the stage, the gap still 10 minutes as the leaders reached the five kilometre mark and prepared themselves for the inevitable attacks. It was Peraud who finally made the serious move, bolting towards the finish with just a couple of kilometres to go, Millar quickly on his wheel. The pair worked together tentatively to stay away from the trailing trio, each waiting for the other to start the sprint. In the end Peraud leapt out from behind the wheel of the Scotsman, but though Millar took a few seconds to respond his speed soon surpassed that of Peraud and the Frenchman was pipped on the line for first place. A few moments later Martinez appeared, leading Gautier and Kiserlovski in the sprint for third.

It was a further nine minutes before the peloton arrived, the sprint trains already doing their work again out the front. The green jersey of Sagan was once again prominent next to that of Matt Goss, sprinting for sixth and seventh place. Though Goss crossed the line first, Sagan protested that the Australian had deviated from his line, and the subsequent decision from the race judges ruled in his favour, relegating Goss to the back of the group and leaving Sagan to collect the points for sixth and keep his green. The fiery rematch will likely take place tomorrow, with a dead flat Stage 13 promising some fun for sprinters such as Sagan and Goss as well as Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel.

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.

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 13^th 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.

Stage 6: Épernay – Metz

The Tour de France ended today.  For a lot of riders, it did, in one way or another.  Stage 6 from Épernay to Metz takes the Drama Award for the Tour de France so far – and maybe the Decisive Stage Award as well, mixing up the race in a way that really wasn’t expected and could be telling in the days to come.

The day started before it started, so to speak.  A crash in the neutral zone took out Lotto Belisol’s Jurgen van den Broeck and Sky’s Richie Porte.  With no serious injuries, everyone was soon back on their bikes and heading towards the official start of the stage.  Today’s ‘eager beaver’, hovering off the front of the peloton, was the American David Zabriskie, famously the first man to ride the Tour de France on a vegan diet. He was soon joined David Malacarne (Europcar), Romain Zingle (Cofidis) and Karsten Kroon (Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank), the quartet making slow but steady progress into the distance.

The peloton was not destined to have a good day.  Though the time of the breakaway only seemed to concern the leading Radioshack-Nissan-Trek team, the four-minute lead of the escapees putting Malacarne in virtual yellow, what concerned the other riders far more was the crash at 35 kilometres from the start.  André Greipel headlined a short list of names that hit the tarmac at the very beginning of the stage, none too damaged to continue riding, though the race doctor was forced to ply his trade on a few bleeding knees and elbows.  The crash took the pressure off the chase for a while, allowing the breakaway to stretch their gap to a peak of 6’50”.

The weather seemed content to play along as the peloton rode along at a leisurely 42km/h, no sun, but only a few spots of rain to disturb the day’s ride.  Lotto Belisol and Orica-GreenEDGE were leading the chase, promising another exciting showdown between Lotto Belisol’s sprinter Greipel and the Australian, Matthew Goss.  The average pace of the peloton slowly increased as they passed through the feed zone, the approach of the intermediate sprint clearly enforcing that they wanted to catch the breakaway before the final kilometre this time.

For once the intermediate sprint brought some surprises.  The teams set up as usual, Sky providing a small train for Mark Cavendish.  As the final Sky leadout man swung off, Matt Goss launched himself into the sprint from behind Cavendish.  The green colours of Liquigas-Cannondale’s Peter Sagan were visible behind the pair, but the real battle was just between Goss and Cavendish, Goss holding half a wheel’s advantage on Cavendish as they crossed the line.

Today’s King of the Mountain point passed without incident, ‘Captain America’ of the time trial, Dave Zabriskie, taking the single point on offer as they rode under the trees.  It wasn’t so uneventful for the peloton, who seemed to have learnt nothing from the crashes of the past few days.  Another crash sent André Greipel to the ground for the second time today, along with Garmin-Sharp sprinter Tyler Farrar.  As a result of his injuries, Lotto Belisol team manager Herman Frison said Greipel wouldn’t sprint for the stage race, as the German was still trying to rejoin the peloton.  Things were definitely looking up for Matt Goss, itching for the stage win.

The focus was on a few riders beginning to drop off the back of the peloton, notably Katusha fastman Oscar Freire, when the big drama of the day occurred.  Yet another crash rocked the peloton, but this one looked to be a lot more decisive than the previous ones.  Only 50 or so riders escaped the carnage just 26 kilometres from the end of the stage, and if you weren’t part of Orica-GreenEDGE, BMC Racing Team, Euskaltel-Euskadi or Team Sky then chances were you weren’t one of the lucky ones.  A number of the big names faltered, including Frank Schleck (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp), Robert Gesink (Rabobank), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Mark Cavendish, and ended up losing between two and eight minutes to the front peloton.  Some riders were destined never to see the front peloton again, riders like Tom Danielson of Garmin-Sharp, Davide Viganò of Lampre-ISD and Mikel Astarloza of Euskaltel-Euskadi pulling out of the race for good.

Meanwhile the front group were oblivious to the drama they’d avoided, all concentration on catching the renegades ahead of them in time for the sprint finish.  Simon Gerrans, pulling for GreenEDGE on the front, was having a hard time recouping those last 15 seconds as the breakaway and its chasers raced under the banner of 10 kilometres to go.  As soon as Lotto Belisol stepped up to help the pacemaking, however, the numbers began ticking down and heartrates began ticking up.  Was Lotto Belisol lining up for Greipel’s leadout man Greg Henderson to take a shot at the victory, or was the effort for Greipel himself?

Lampre-ISD also jumped on the front and lent a hand with the pulling, hauling in two of the three riders, Zingle having dropped off long ago after a flat tyre.  Zabriskie, on the other hand, apparently wanted to be the hero of the day, and with two kilometres to go he was attempting a solo time trial 150 metres ahead of the bunch.  A racing peloton, however, is as inevitable as karma, and Zabriskie was caught with a kilometre left for the sprinters.  Lotto Belisol were powering down the straight as usual, Peter Sagan’s green jersey on Greipel’s wheel and Goss on the end of his own train.  For a moment or two it looked like it was between Goss and Greipel, but just as Goss fell behind Greipel’s wheel, a green bullet shot up the side and across the line before anybody could say ‘Sagan’, leaving Greipel with another second and Goss with another third.

The rest of the riders filtered through over the next hour, in varying spirits and states of shabbiness with assorted amounts of skin still attached to elbows and backsides.  The jersey wearers remain the same, with Zabriskie claiming the red number for Fighting Spirit, but the GC has certainly received a shake-up today, one which will likely decide the Tour de France.  As for tomorrow, we’ve left the sprinters’ stages behind, but with Stage 7 finishing on the never-before-seen climb to La Planche des Belles Filles, we’ve entered the stages of medium mountains, where breakaways have the chance to succeed.  Orica-GreenEDGE are becoming desperate for a stage win, so keep an eye out for Simon Gerrans or Michael Albasini, who’ll be looking to join any moves that form, as well as climbers like Alejandro Valverde, who lost a lot of time today that he’ll be looking to get back.

Stage 4: Abbéville – Rouen

The stage started out in the sunshine today, a good omen for the race that was to come.  The stunning scenery of northern France lent a beautiful backdrop to a much calmer, happier stage than we’ve seen recently with a thoroughly exciting finish to round things out.

Stage 4 from Abbéville to Rouen saw the Tour leave coastal Normandy and head inland towards the river Seine, which will greet the riders again when they roll into Paris.  The peloton had a much slower start to the day than anticipated at an average 37km/h, perhaps enjoying the views as they rode along the sheer cliffs of the ‘Alabaster Coast’, reminiscent of the cliffs of Dover in their pure white colour. Europcar rider Yukiya Arashiro clearly wasn’t watching the countryside, attacking as soon as the peloton was clear of the neutral zone.  He was soon joined by David Moncoutié of Cofidis and Anthony Delaplace of Saur-Sojasun, the trio rocketing away to a lead of 8’40” within 20 kilometres.

Though the peloton was taking the morning off to have a more relaxing ride, even celebrating Vladimir Gusev’s (Katusha) 30^th birthday, it was a flat stage with plenty of sprint finish potential and the peloton wasn’t going to let a breakaway ruin it. Lotto Belisol, the team of André Greipel, jumped on the front and began pulling, reducing the escapee trio’s lead to seven and a half minutes.  They relaxed a bit too soon, though, and when the gap went out to 8’35” again the team of yellow jersey wearer Fabian Cancellara, Radioshack-Nissan-Trek, stepped up to do their turn of defending the maillot jaune – Arashiro’s time gap was enough to put him in virtual yellow.

Up the front in the breakaway, Arashiro and his companions had been making their way over the first three of four Category 4 climbs for the day, climber Moncoutié taking the King of the Mountain points on offer each time.  The beautiful coastal views continued to flash by the riders, a cool sea breeze sweeping in from the clear blue ocean keeping the temperature down.  The race route finally turned away from the cliffs and headed inland, straight for the day’s intermediate sprint point, which the breakaway, unconcerned with the green jersey, passed without incident.

The peloton was certainly concerned with the green jersey, however, and Orica-GreenEDGE began setting up the win for their rider, Matt Goss.  Today’s train certainly seemed better than yesterday’s, but in the end Mark Cavendish (Sky) proved once again that he is indeed the fastest man on two wheels, narrowly taking fourth place ahead of Gossy, Rabobank’s Mark Renshaw and Liquigas-Cannondale’s Peter Sagan.

A little spot of rain further on down the road caused the peloton to take just a little more care on the newly-soaked roads, but if a crash is going to happen in a bike race then it seems no force in the world can stop it.  Australian neo Jonathan Cantwell from Team Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank clipped his wheel on the edge of the road with 45 kilometres to go and took a tumble, taking a handful of other riders down with him.  Luckily there was no damage done apart from some bumped bodies and bruised egos, and all riders were soon continuing on their way to Rouen.

Over the next few kilometres the lead group’s break continued ticking down as the race began passing through typical French countryside, brilliantly green and full of grand, ancient chateaux and cathédrales.  Arashiro definitely didn’t want to be caught, even trying a solo break at one point and earning the day’s Fighting Spirit Award, but he was the first rider to falter and fall when the peloton came knocking.  Delaplace and Moncoutié took a little longer, initially being joined by a series of riders sprinting out from the front of the peloton, the most notable being Omega Pharma-Quickstep’s Sylvain Chavanel and Philippe Gilbert of BMC.  But the peloton was hungry for the sprint, and the race came back together with about five kilometres to go, 195 riders all barrelling towards the final few kilometres of the stage.

The sprint trains were setting themselves up, Orica-GreenEDGE, Lotto Belisol and Lampre-ISD preparing to deliver their men to the line for victory, Mark Cavendish floating on the nearest wheel as a makeshift leadout train.  But nothing complicates or livens things up like a crash less than three kilometres from the finish, especially when the rainbow jersey of Mark Cavendish is sitting on the ground with pieces scraped off his back.

The front section of the peloton continued on, leaving those behind to pick themselves up, focussing instead on the sprint finish to be won.  Australia’s Adam Hansen and New Zealand’s Greg Henderson led the Lotto Belisol sprint train powering down the final straight with the same implacability once seen in the HTC-Highroad express.  Though the Lampre-ISD train kept pulling for Alessandro Petacchi, and Orica-GreenEDGE’s Daryl Impey did his best to bring Matt Goss forward, no-one could stand in the way of the ‘Gorilla’ André Greipel, Petacchi and Goss sliding into second and fourth respectively with Argos-Shimano’s Tom Veelers rounding out the podium.  Cavendish rolled over the line a few minutes later, looking very much the worse for wear but mostly unhurt, the same as his fellow victims.

As the crash happened within the last three kilometres, all those affected had their time gaps neutralised and received the same time as the group they were riding in prior to the crash.  As such Peter Sagan maintains his green jersey, and with the time gaps neutralised Fabian Cancellara maintains his yellow into tomorrow’s stage, as does Bradley Wiggins his second place on GC.  Tomorrow’s stage to Saint-Quentin is as flat as today’s, but after missing out on a chance at the win today, it will be a safe bet to keep your eyes on Mark Cavendish gunning for a second chance to be on the podium.

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 3^rd 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, 7^th 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.

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 21^st 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.