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 17: Bagnere-de-Luchon - Peyragudes

Today was what can only be termed an interest day. Perhaps ‘interesting’ is a little mild, but it covers a stage in which there were surprises, no drama, and nothing shocking, but merely interesting. It seems fairly safe to say that the Tour de France is now effectively over, and the days to come nothing more than filler until the race arrives in Paris.

Stage 17 was the final day of mountains for the Tour, traversing the Pyrénées from Bagnère-de-Luchon to Peyragudes. This Tour seems to have been characterised by breakaways, even in the mountains, for the attacks began as soon as the stage did yet again. It wasn’t until the 24 kilometre mark that a group managed to stay away, another large group containing around 20 riders including a few strong riders. The group held a slim lead over the peloton as they approached the top of the first climb for the day, the Category 1 Col du Mente.

Pierre Rolland (Europcar) sprinted away from the group as they approached the col’s King of the Mountain point, but he was chased down and caught by the two rivals for the polka-dot jersey, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Voeckler managing to outsprint the Swede for the 10 points. There was a lot of shuffling of the breakaway on the way down the Col du Mente, which eventually left seven riders with a 40’ advantage over the Sky-led peloton. A counter-attack soon formed, 10 riders sitting 30’ ahead of the peloton and one 1’00” behind the leading seven.

The positions on the road hadn’t changed as the leaders reached the second climb of the day. Voeckler sprinted out from behind Kessiakoff to lead the race over the second category climb around the 55 kilometre mark of the stage. Chasing them over the top were the 10 poursuivants, 40 seconds behind, with the pursuing peloton another 50 seconds behind them. It wasn’t long before the race referees called all the cars out from between the first two groups on the road, their premonition being fulfilled 68 kilometres in, swelling the leading group to 17.

The number of riders made no difference to Voeckler and Kessiakoff, still locked in their silent battle for polka-dot points. Kessiakoff began the sprint for the points on offer atop the Cote des Burs, but Voeckler surprised him from behind and outsprinted him again. The peloton passed over the top a solid 3’00” behind the leaders, but that advantage was down to 2’15” as they approached the intermediate sprint. The breakaway was disinterested in the sprint points, sweeping through without any fuss and cleaning up all the points on offer, leaving the peloton nothing to sprint for when they swept through two minutes later.

The feed zone five kilometres on caused some trouble, World Champion Mark Cavendish and Sky teammate Richie Porte taking a tumble. Neither was seriously hurt and, mechanical troubles solved, both rejoined the race quickly without incident. The race was already beginning the ascent of the hors catégorie Port de Balés, the climb splintering the leading group into a fluid group of two or three riders leading two smaller chases further on down the climb.

Then Rui Costa (Movistar) leapt into a solo ride at the front of the stage, sitting a few hundred metres ahead of the next group on the road. The reason soon became clear: teammate Alejandro Valverde similarly leapt off the front and easily bridged the gap to Costa, leaving his teammate behind when Costa could no longer pace him onwards up the mountain. With a 2’20” lead over the peloton, Valverde scooped up the 25 points at the top of the Port de Balés and began racing the 32 kilometres towards the stage finish.

The peloton continued bearing down on the remainder of the breakaway, slowly picking up riders one by one as the yellow jersey group continued towards Peyragudes. Soon it was just Valverde in his time trial up the front, followed by Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) at 2’00” and Costa at 2’18” ahead of the peloton, with only 20 or so kilometres to go in the stage. Costa was the next to go, the peloton sweeping past with riders dropping out the back, unable to keep up with Team Sky and Liquigas-Cannondale’s pacemaking.

One of those soon to go was defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC). The 35-year-old was unable to keep up with the pace in the mountains yesterday due to stomach problems and still seemed to be unwell today, disappearing discreetly to leave young teammate Tejay van Garderen to continue on without him.

An attack from Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) got a response from Bradley Wiggins (Sky), the yellow jersey wearer stepping up the pace so much that the leading group was reduced to just eight riders. Chris Froome (Sky) kept the pace so high that everyone was dropped except for his team leader, the only rider ahead of them on the road being Valverde, one minute ahead with three kilometres to go. Froome seemed to be feeling in excellent form, because he appeared to be wanting to leave Wiggins and chase down Valverde for the stage win. Whether Wiggins denied permission or Froome decided against it, the two Britons finished the stage together, just 19 seconds behind the Spaniard.

Stage 18 is a medium mountains stage, with a few Category 4 climbs breaking up the flats. This could be a stage for a breakaway (think Albasini, Scarponi and even Pinot or Rolland) or it could equally be pulled in by Lotto Belisol to allow for another Greipel-Sagan showdown.

Stage 16: Pau - Bagneres-de-Luchon

The Col d’Aspin, the Col d’Aubisque, the Col du Tourmalet. The grandes dames of the Tour de France; the elder statesmen of the hills as Eddy Merckx is of the riders. Today was the day for the riders to pay their respects to the peaks that have shaped the Tour de France, and one or two chose to respect the peaks with a mountain race that left those watching wanting to stand and applaud in awe.

Stage 16 from Pau to Bagnères-de-Luchon was always going to be interesting, being one of the high Pyrénéan stages of this year’s Tour – and the Pyrenees, as anyone who watches the Tour regularly knows, are always exciting. The stage began with a move that was more unusual than exciting – after 20 kilometres of trying, the day’s breakaway was established, 38 riders being considerably more than are usually allowed in a breakaway. Despite the presence of several very strong riders, there was clearly no-one in the group high enough on the general classification to concern the peloton, and the break was allowed to leave the bunch.

The breakaway had a lead of 3’45” as they began the climb of the Col d’Aubisque around the 40 kilometre mark. While polka-dot jersey wearer Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) was in the break, it was Thomas Voeckler’s Europcar teammate, Yukiya Arashiro, who led out Voeckler over the climb to take the maximum 25 points available, helping the Frenchman encroach on Kessiakoff’s lead. Sky was leading the peloton as the main group passed over the climb, BMC Racing Team moving forward as they reached the top.

A crash in the peloton that sent two riders flying into barbed wire on the descent ended badly for one of them. Vladimir Gusev (Katusha) reduced the number of riders in the Tour to just 154 after abandoning the race with a broken collarbone, courtesy of the fence. Up ahead, the blissfully unaware breakaway was passing through the feed zone, preparing for the start of the Tourmalet, the highest pass of the Pyrénées. As the gradient started going up, though, the size of the breakaway began going down as riders fell off the back of the escape now being strongly led by Danilo Hondo (Lampre-ISD). With an extra push by Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) the breakaway began to reduce further, shattering on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet.

Of the 38 riders who began the stage in the lead, only two could follow Martin when he attacked again: one being eternal favourite Voeckler and the other being Brice Feillu (Soar-Sojasun), who spent much of the past two weeks off the back of the peloton with illness. The two caught and passed Martin on the climb and continued on, launching themselves into the stage lead. As Martin continued trying to chase down the pair, a group of poursuivants was forming further down from the remnants of the breakaway that Martin had shattered not long before.

The leading duo having reached the top of the Tourmalet, Voeckler took another 25 points to bolster his second place in the King of the Mountains classification as they continued racing along the stage, the two Frenchman co-operating to maintain their lead. Behind them, Sky was still leading the peloton, Christian Knees now responsible for inflicting the pain as he hauled the bunch up the Tourmalet much faster than many would have liked. Between the leaders and the main group were the chasing groups, several pairs or small collections of riders from the old breakaway bearing down on Voeckler and Feillu in the lead, 10’25” ahead of the peloton.

It really was chaos on the road as the Pyrénées continued to inflict their damage on the riders, some dropping back and some surging forward between the myriad tiny groups of riders chasing down the lead. The riders were inflicting the damage too, three Liquigas-Cannondale riders coming forward to dramatically increase the tempo of the peloton and shelling off a lot of riders in the process. The results were maybe not what they’d expected, Cadel Evans (BMC) disappearing from yet another mountain stage as he fell off the peloton. The other major contenders reached the top of the Col d’Aspin with a 45” advantage on Evans, but after some sterling riding from his team, Evans reappeared in the main peloton on the way down the far side of the Aspin, avoiding losing more time to his rivals.

Now on the final climb of the day, the Category 1 Col du Peyresoude, Voeckler managed to drop his breakmate Feillu and continued on ahead alone, Feillu soon being passed by the distinctive bobbing motion of Chris Anker Sorenson (Saobank-Tinkoff Bank). Voeckler was riding with his usual persistent style, however, claiming more mountain points as he topped the Col de Peyresoude, a minute ahead of the chasing Sorenson.

But back in the peloton drama was afoot, as Evans looked to be in trouble again while Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) attacked the yellow jersey group. Chris Froome (Sky) was once again responsible for bridging the gap to Bradley Wiggins (Sky), leaving the three top-ranked riders in the Tour de France on their own behind the various breakaways. Nibali was dissatisfied with his first attempt and attacked again, trying to gain some time on the yellow jersey, but the British duo bridged the gap once again, the trio still together as they crested the Col du Peyresoude.

Out in the lead, Voeckler was in the final five kilometres of the stage with almost a two minute lead over Sorenson. The stage win was inevitable for the former 2011 yellow jersey wearer, Voeckler’s arms going over his head in the classic victory salute. Sorenson rolled in just over a minute and a half behind him, Gorka Izaguirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Feillu rounding out the top five over a five-minute period.

It was the first major shake-up in the GC, Evans out of the overall top five long before he crossed the line, instead dropping into seventh place at eight minutes down behind sixth-placed teammate Tejay van Garderen. Tomorrow is the final mountain stage of the Tour, as well as being a mountaintop finish, so look out for Nibali to attack again, Voeckler to defend his newfound mountains lead as well as other opportune breakaways looking for their own stage win.

Stage 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 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.

Something More Than Human

People often ask me why I'm so obsessed with cycling.  What it is that draws me to this sport that is nothing but 6 hours of spinning the pedals on a bike?  With three weeks of non-stop cycling before my eyes, I had plenty of time to think about my answer.

And it's the quality of the human spirit in these athletes that I love.  These guys are riding hard every day for 21 days, and yet every day they still have the passion to ride harder than the day before.  Being Australian, one of the traits we value most is hardiness, endurance, that utter tenacity of the soul where you can't give up but instead just keep soldiering on despite all the odds.  We call it the ANZAC Spirit, and we value it above almost all else in people.

These men have that spirit, the GC riders most of all.  Thomas Voeckler is a beautiful example of why I love this sport - he predicted three times over the course of this year's Tour de France that he would lose his yellow jersey at the end of the stage.  Maybe it was a defeatist attitude, or maybe he was just being a realist, but every time, something in Thomas just wouldn't let him give up.  We could all see the grit and determination that made him keep on going, every inch of it clear in the utter pain on his face, somewhere inside himself finding the ability to keep on going despite all else and do something that human beings should not be able to do - be superhuman.

Watching Johnny Hoogerland also had that feeling, but this time the whole world could feel it.  We could see the streams of blood running in rivulets down his legs as he rode to the finish of that horrific stage where he became so intimately acquainted with a barbed-wire fence.  We could see and feel his pain, and yet he clambered out, was back on the bike and began riding after the breakaway.  He needed 33 stitches afterwards, but he was still putting his body and his mind through agony to keep going when any normal person would have collapsed in a sobbing, bleeding heap by the side of that road.  These men have some celestial ability to transcend normal human limits and go beyond, time and again, to be heroes, legends and champions - glimpses of the heights to which humanity can ascend.

And of course, our golden boy, Cadel.  When his bike broke down riding up Alpe d’Huez with Andy and Alberto, everyone thought he’d lost the Tour de France.  Even I was dubious.  Trying to make up a minute and half on the world’s top climbers racing up a mountain is almost foolhardy in its impossibility.  It’s like running after a car – you’re never gonna get there, unless you can fly.  And Cadel Evans showed us he can.  He achieved with ease what we were all saying was impossible, and yet every time we apply the word ‘impossible’ to something these men do, they find a way to prove us wrong again.  It was the feat of a winner and a champion – and now he’s both.

Just like the Greeks who lived near Mount Olympus, catching glimpses of the gods from time to time, this proximity to greatness touches us all.  There is something inspirational about the men who possess this magical ability to be more than they are, just for a little while.  The 6 hours of mindless pedalling merely gives us the context so we can truly appreciate when they have one of these man-as-god Olympian moments.  It is the humanity in cycling that draws me - and the proof that sometimes, if we only try hard enough, for just a little while we can be something more than human.

Stage 19 - Mondane => Alpe d'Huez

Three days left to go in the Tour de France.  It is close, but not decided yet.  How will that change tonight?  Will we know our winner by tomorrow?  Will we know who's lost?  And who will win on Alpe d'Huez?

Today started with - guess what? - another big breakaway.  This time 14 riders jumped off 10 kilometres from the starting line at Mondane, though they weren't destined to be very long-lived on a mountain stage like d'Huez.  The surprising and yet not-surprising move of the day was from our favourite spicer-of-the-mix, Alberto Contador.  Rounding a corner on the extreme inside of the pack, he surged ahead as the gradient increased of the corner and simply didn't look back.  Andy Schleck was right behind him as always, Cadel Evans fought his way to their wheel, and Thomas Voeckler did that thing he does these days where he supercedes his actual abilities and just does what needs doing to protect the yellow jersey.  Unfortunately for Andy, brother Frank couldn't follow the move and waited behind with the rest of Leopard Trek in the peloton.

This was where things got interesting.  Five kilometres from the top of the first climb, the Col du Telegraphe, Contador went again, and while Andy followed, this time both Cadel and Voeckler floundered.  So maybe it wasn't unexpected when Cadel first stopped to check his bike and then, clearly unhappy with it, waited for the team car to change it for a new one.  This was a definite turning-point in this year's Tour.  Cadel had lost enough time on the leaders to be counting it in minutes, not seconds, and there were only three days left, two if you discount the ceremonial ride into Paris.  Could he do it?

While Voeckler sat out in no-man's land, trying to catch up to the two leaders but never quite strong enough, Cadel dropped back to the peloton, being lead by Ivan Basso's Liquigas team, for a bit of support from his own team.  Right out the front, Andy and Alberto were chugging neatly through the forlorn remnants of the breakaway that couldn't take the heat of an Alpine climb.   Only Movistar stage winner Rui da Costa and AG2R climber Christophe Riblon kept up with the big boys after they'd been caught, and the four continued up once more to the heights of the Col du Galibier.

Back at the peloton, BMC had taken over the pace-making from Liquigas, but as we've seen many times this Tour Cadel wanted to ride his own race, and that's what he did.  Sitting at the front end of the peloton, he soon rode them off his wheel and began encroaching on Voeckler, who decided to sit up and wait for the septet of Cadel, Ivan Basso, Samuel Sanchez, Frank Schleck, and three of Voeckler's own Europcar teammates.

And this is where is starts getting messy.  Sanchez jumps off the front, Europcar's Anthony Charteau and Pierre Rolland chase, Voeckler starts to tire, Charteau drops back to Voeckler, Rolland carries on.  Crossing the top of the Galibier, it's Schleck followed by his friends, then Sanchez, Cadel followed a few seconds later by his group, assorted others chasing, Voeckler with two teammates and then the peloton itself.  On the descent, Sanchez catches the leading four, Cadel's group consolidates itself and then effectively chases down the leaders, catching them and forming one big lead group with 25 kilometres to go.

White jersey hopeful Rolland went off the front first, along with Canadian Ryder Hesjedal, and the two had a 47-second gap open at the foot of the Alpe.  In the meantime, Voeckler's teammates had paced him back to the main group to try and stay competitive in the GC.  Only 15 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck, Voeckler's yellow jersey was on shaky ground.  Behind Rolland and Hesjedal, a big push from one of Leopard Trek's domestiques saw riders start tumbling off the back again, including Voeckler and the current white jersey wearer, Estonian Rein Taaramae.  Then Contador attacked at 12.5 kilometres out, catching up to Rolland and Hesjedal before Andy and Cadel could catch him.  Soon after catching the pair, Contador went on ahead, with Rolland chasing his wheel.

At the 10.5-kilometre mark, a group containing Sammy Sanchez and Frank Schleck made it up to Cadel and Andy's group - yes, they're all over the mountain again.  The Schlecks tried to make Cadel's life difficult, but he took everything they threw at him easily.  When Peter Velits (HTC-Highroad) went off the front, Sanchez chased him, passed him and caught up to Rolland, who, despite the Spaniard's urgings, refused to do any leading.  Rolland sat comfortably on the back of Sanchez's wheel until they caught Alberto, and then promptly took off, leaving the two exhausted Spaniards in the dust to come in second and third, while the young French took his first TdF stage win and the white jersey.

So after all that kerfuffle, the changing hands of the white jersey and the unexpected stage winner who wears it, Cadel is now only 57 seconds down on new race leader Andy Schleck going into tomorrow's time trial, and a laughable four seconds down on second-placed Frank.  While Andy will savour his yellow over the next 24 hours, the question remains as to whether Andy can do a brilliant time trial to save that yellow jersey, or whether in 24 hours, that yellow will be Cadel's.

Stage 18 - Pinerolo => Galibier Serre-Chevalier

Oh.  My gosh.  The Col du Galibier.  FINALLY.  Mountains high enough to get some excitement going.  I will confess, though, that one thing does annoy me about the mountain stages - either you have a breakaway that breaks up and leaves scattered riders all over the course until you have no idea who is where anymore, or else everyone goes quietly off the back of the peloton, never to be seen or heard from again.

But moping aside, mountains!  There was, of course, the usual intermediate sprint with all the associated green jersey action, but all the work of HTC-Highroad to get Mark Cavendish up there in front of JJ Rojas was somewhat wasted, given the breakaway made their break only one kilometre from the sprint point, sweeping through with the top 13 places.  Such big names as AG2R-La Mondiale's Nicolas Roche and everyone's favourite battler, Johnny Hoogerland of Vacansoleil.

But what baffled everyone was the inclusion of Leopard Trek riders Joost Posthuma and Maxime Monfort and BMC's Brent Bookwalter in the breakaway.  As the two teams with GC riders most likely to win the Tour, road race tactics dictate they avoid joining breakaways and try to reel in any that do form.  As we were to discover, Leopard Trek was simply enacting their grand plan.  Maybe BMC had conceived the same plan and missed their opportunity too enact it, or maybe they were simply marking Leopard's move.  It's hard to say.

The number of riders in the breakaway went out to 15 just before the Col Agnel, when Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Mickael Delage (FDJ) and Egor Silin (Katusha) caught up to them.  At the beginning of the first hors-categorie climb the now-16 strong breakaway had almost a nine-minute lead over the main peloton.

And then began the fun of the mountain stages.  As the hills kick in, the climbers check in and the not-so-climbers check out, which left the lead group at 11.  Katusha's Maxim Iglinsky was taking the lead, cresting the Col Agnel first with Johnny Hoogerland right behind.  The group moved straight onto the Col d'Izoard, only six making it to the top in the lead, Leopard Trek's pace-making making it difficult to keep away.

The reason soon became apparent, in one of the most gutsy and unorthodox moves in modern cycling.  60 kilometres from the finish of a mountain stage, Andy Schleck went off the front off the group of favourite riders and began to make his way up the Col d'Izoard alone.  No one was sure what the hell he was doing.  No one was sure he could actually do whatever he was doing.  But he is Andy Schleck, one of the most capable riders in the peloton.  He blazed right past the remnants of the breakaway group as he blazoned on up the Col.

And this was where Leopard Trek's unusual tactics began to show.  As the group of the top contenders behind him finally began to up the ante, maybe not believing he could really stay off the front until the end, the two Leopard riders up from front, Joost and Maxime, waited for Andy to catch up with each of them in turn, and then paced him as far as they could go.  But there was still Iglinsky way out in front.

With the help of teammate Maxime and the three other riders around them, Andy caught Iglinsky with 30 kilomeres left to go, by which point he was far enough ahead of Thomas Voeckler to be wearing the 'virtual' yellow jersey.  With 15 kilometres to go, Max Monfort had finally run out of steam and left Andy to go it almost alone, keeping Iglinsky and Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) for company.

Meanwhile, Contador had decided that enough was enough and started chasing down Andy Schleck.  The three-time Tour de France champion clearly felt he had already lost too much time on his two-time runner-up and was doing something about it, but pretty soon the pace-making all fell to Cadel Evans.  After a couple of abortive breakaway attempts, the also-two-time runner-up clearly decided to ride his own race and simply paced himself up the hill, coincidentally with the yellow jersey group in tow.  As they hauled themselves up the final climb of the Col du Galibier, almost four minutes separated Andy from the groupe maillot jaune.

Finally within the 10-kilometre mark, Andy clearly saw fit to shed his baggage and raced away up the mountain.  Behind him the gap was slowly closing, as Cadel literally dragged the world's top riders up the world's most famous biking mountain.  Though clearly not finding it easy, Andy stuck to his guns long enough to get them over the finishing line in first place, while Contador couldn't stick to his further downhill and fell off the back of Cadel's group, kissing another yellow goodbye.  Andy's brother Frank found his legs and was able to sprint off the front of Cadel's group in the last few kilometres to take second behind his younger sibling.

In a miraculous twist, Voeckler was able to stick to Cadel's wheel, who brought him in 15 seconds ahead of Andy and thus kept his yellow jersey for yet another astonishing day.  So with Contador is clearly out of the question, the question itself reads thus: Andy or Cadel?  Cadel, or Andy?  And here at Maillot Jaune, I've already picked my side.  It's Cadel, all the way.

Stage 17 - Gap => Pinerolo, Italy

It's called the Tour de France, and it tours France, but that doesn't mean that it tours all of France, or only France. The same as last year's prologue was in Holland, this year's Tour took a small detour - into Italy. The way out of Italy will include one of the most anticipated moments of this year's Tour - the Col du Galibier. But riding into Pinerolo will be only marginally less exciting than riding out of it.

It took a fair bit of work to get the day's breakaway going, always too big to safely get away, but 14 riders finally went off the front, including FDJ leader Sandy Casar, Sky sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen and Quicksteps's French national champion Sylvain Chavanel. Building up their lead as they climbed, they were soon individually pursued by AG2R's Nicolas Roche, Tour stalwart Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) and Quick Step climber Kevin de Weert, who never came close to joining them.

Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel-Euskadi) managed to break off the front and build up a 43-second lead on the descent, but was picked up again by the breakaway as they again began descending. Sylvain Chavanel then had his shot at solo glory 4.5 kilometres from the end of the final climb, but young Norwegian 'sprinter' Eddy Boasson Hagen, who is proving himself to be much more of an all-around GC guy this Tour, simply wasn't having any of it. Shutting Chavanel down promptly, he just kept right on going and soon found himself alone. The 24-year-old from Lillehammer paced himself into Pinerolo to eventually take a hard-won stage victory, which had me very happy after yesterday's heart-breaking defeat on the road to Gap. The Tour first-timer now has two TdF stage wins under his belt and he is already promising to be absolutely deadly in a few years' time.

In the meantime, back in peloton-land the kids were having fun. Alberto Contador (Saxobank-Sungard), on the back foot after his huge time losses from the first week, started playing some games on the way up the Col de Pramartino, and when he threw himself into the descent only Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) felt like joining him. Cadel Evans, as he later revealed, was trapped behind Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek), a notorious not-so-great descender, when Contador made his move and as such couldn't follow.

The descent was a tricky, technical one, and none would know this better than Saur-Sojasun's Jonathan Hivert. Taking every possible risk as he raced down the mountain in pursuit of Edvald Boasson Hagen, the Frenchman missed a corner and went flying off into the woods alongside the road. He was clearly up and riding shortly after because he did the same thing on another corner and rode neatly into someone's backyard through the fortunately open gate! He wasn't alone. A few minutes later the yellow of Thomas Voeckler appeared next to the parked car in the same backyard, although this time there was a spectator, possibly the homeowner himself, lending a hand to get the maillot jaune back on the road.

With Alberto and Samuel ahead of them and Voeckler losing time on his detour, the group of Cadel and the Schleck brothers, along with the other top names of the Tour, kept pounding their way down the other side of the mountain, trying not to lose too much time to the defending champion. The effort, led by Cadel, didn't seem to be going too well, as Contador and Sanchez were approaching Pinerolo without the other riders in sight. The Spanish pair, working together against the Luxembourg brothers and Aussie battler, were rounding the final corners to the finish line in the middle of town. Then just at the heart-breaking moment when the pair rounded the corner into the finishing straight and your two favourites were going to lose some time, the camera angle shifted to show the two racing forwards - with the other group rounding the corner behind them. Somehow Cadel had dragged everyone up to catch the Olympic and Tour de France champions shortly before they hit the finishing line. Cadel and Andy retained the same times compared to Contador, who must have been shattered that his near-successful breakaway was so neatly destroyed so near the end.

Stage 16 - Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux => Gap

So I guess medium mountain stages are better than flat stages, but they're still not nearly as fun or exciting as the high mountains.  Well, not unless top-level-mountain-climbing-GC-contenders like Alberto Contador decide that an otherwise unremarkable stage is the perfect time to attack and try and gain time on the other GC contenders - and decide the outcome of the Tour de France in the process.  Yes, as of today I'm staking my reputation, such as it is, and calling it.  But I won't spoil the surprise yet.

Today's breakaway took quite a while to form, but the composition will surprise few.  Several are familiar names from other breakaways: Thor Hushovd, of Garmin-Cervelo; Jeremy Roy, FDJ; Marco Marcato, from Vacansoleil; and other familiar names include Norwegian sprinter Eddie Boasson Hagen; and strong GC rider Tony Martin, of HTC-Highroad.  Once released the riders flew ahead and gained huge amounts of time on the peloton, until they'd built up a lead of six minutes with 45 kilometres to go and the peloton stopped chasing after it realised they wouldn't be caught before the intermediate sprint point.  First Katusha's Mikhail Ignatyev, followed by Quickstep's Dries Devenyns, tried to break from the group, but the breakaway soon caught their wheel and forced the 10 to stick together.

Canada's Ryder Hesjedal then took up the breakaway's pace-making, and finding the others unable to keep up, took off on his own.  Sky's young sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen, who is showing himself to be reasonably adept at scaling mountains as well, soon decided to take up the chase, and was followed by Hesjedal's teammate, world champion Thor Hushovd, who marked Boasson Hagen's every move but refused to help in the chase of his co-equipier.  Behind them the breakaway splintered, the remaining riders destined to drift across the finish line over a period of a few minutes.

With all eyes on the breakaway and the fierce competition between Hesjedal, Boasson Hagen and Hushovd for stage supremacy, of course it was in the peloton where the action was taking place.  Feeling the gradient suddenly kick up on the bottom of the Col de Manse as the peloton rounded a bend, Alberto Contador suddenly jumped to the front of the peloton and attacked, and all of a sudden the race was on.  The Schleck brothers of Team Leopard Trek, Cadel Evans (BMC) and yellow jersey of Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) all followed, trailed by Olympic champion, Euskaltel-Euskadi's Sammy Sanchez.  Contador went again, and this time Andy Schleck struggled to keep up, not faring so well on the medium slope.  Contador attacked a third time, and this time he was gone, and only after a few seconds could Cadel and Samuel Sanchez catch up, the Schlecks and Voeckler left behind.  Sanchez quickly assumed the lead from Contador to try and put some distance between the three and their chasers, who were separated from the main peloton.

As the trio raced uphill, another trio was racing down.  Nine kilometres from the end Boasson Hagen, usually described as a "sprinter", had caught sole Canadian pro-cyclist Hesjedal, Hushovd still sitting comfortably in his younger countryman's wake.  Now both Garmin riders sat back, letting Boasson Hagen do the pace-making, the black-clad rider knowing all the time that the teammates on his back wheel were co-ordinating their attack against him.  In truth it was very simple and not at all unexpected.  With a couple of kilometres to go Hesjedal took up the pace-making again, Hushovd at the back, Boasson Hagen sitting in between checking constantly on the bigger sprinter behind to see when he would make his move.  The three moved warily down to the flamme rouge of one kilometre to go, and then they went.  Hesjedal increased the tempo to open up the sprint, and when Boasson Hagen wasn't expecting it Hushovd simply jumped out from behind and went ahead.  The younger Norwegian sprinter was no match for the older Norwegian sprinter, and Hushovd took a second stage victory from his compatriot.

Meanwhile the fight was still very much alive behind them, and as Contador, Evans and Sanchez crested the climb they had around a minute over the other GC riders pursuing them.  But the gap increased on the descent, for Cadel Evans, clearly a better descender than either of the Spaniards, rode downhill at his own pace, and at one point had nearly 30 seconds over his two followers.  The pair managed to bring this down once they reached the flat section leading to the finish at Gap, finishing three seconds behind Evans and around 20 seconds ahead of the pursuers behind, who included Thomas Voeckler and Frank Schleck but not his brother, Andy.

So to finish my earlier comments, I'm now calling the yellow jersey of the 2011 Tour de France for Cadel Evans.  Of the serious contenders for the maillot jaune who are left in the race, Cadel is the best time-trialler and will finish with at least 30 seconds over the nearest of them.  He can keep pace with Andy and Alberto in the high mountains, those being the two known for their quick accelerations on steep ascents, and is quite comfortable in medium mountains, something which Andy Schleck (and possibly Frank) is definitely not.  He is in brilliant form this year, looking much better than any of the other riders, and  lastly his team this year is excellent. BMC's Tour de France team was chosen with direct input from Cadel Evans and with supporting Cadel to yellow in mind, and all of the team members have been visible doing exactly that, while Contador's Saxobank-Sungard side made mistakes from the word 'go' (beginning with the crash in the first stage where the team should have moved Contador up the front out of trouble like the other teams had done).  Andy and Frank's team of Leopard Trek are all brilliant, but maybe their issue lies therein.  Leopard truly is a 'team of champions', each one renowned and celebrated with several victories to their name, whereas by contrast BMC appears to be the proverbial 'champion team' - eight good, solid, unremarkable riders all focussed on the single goal of helping Cadel Evans win the Tour.  With all this in his favour, I fail to see now how he can lose.

Stage 14 - Saint-Gaudens => Plateau de Beille

In every Tour de France which has had a stage finish on the Plateau de Beille, the winner of the stage has gone on to win the Tour.  I highly doubt that this will ring true this year - the stage winner is not a big name; in fact, this is their first win in their entire professional career of seven years.  But like all sport cycling is constantly improving, and I suspect that not only is the quality of riders by this 2011 Tour higher than the last time the Tour rode to Plateau de Beille, but that the high-quality riders are closer together in ability than they have been previously.  In short, there are more equally-brilliant riders than every other time the winner of Plateau de Beille has won the Tour de France.

Today's breakaway was a surprising one - 24 riders, including three from the GC teams of yellow jersey hopefuls Cadel Evans (BMC) and Frank and Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek).  A breakaway of this size was never going to succeed, so some of the riders decided to go it alone.  Julien El Fares of Cofidis and the team leader of FDJ, Sandy Casar, leapt ahead of the pack and were soon joined by Garmin-Cervelo's David Millar.  As the reached the first of the climbs Millar was unable to keep up, but several others from the original breakaway of 24 came forward to join Casar and El Fares to make a total of 11 riders, including Jens Voigt and Linus Gerdemann, the teammates of the Schleck brothers.

Europcar, protecting the yellow jersey of Thomas Voeckler, began setting the pace, before Leopard Trek took over and began upping the ante, putting the pressure on the peloton as they began traversing the second and first category climbs mi-parcours.  Unfortunately Stuey O'Grady may have been warning the riders behind him of the upcoming bends of the descents, but clearly not all got the message, as Rabobank's Laurens Ten Dam went off the bitumen and performed what can only be described as a faceplant over the handlebars into a ditch.  Patched up, he continued chasing, but up in the breakaway Jens Voigt wasn't having any more luck.  Having chosen a nice place to crash, he promptly went off the road into a large pile of soft ferns, and quickly re-emerged, bike held over his head.  The new bike did him no good either, for his wheel slipped on the sun-warmed tar of the road and he hit the deck again.  The peloton soon reeled him in and he joined the "Leopard Trek Express", chuffing Andy and Frank right on up the climbs - the rest of the peloton were participation optional!

Once they hit the final climb, the hors-categorie montee up to the Plateau de Beille, the result was inevitable.  Leopard Trek kept going as long as they had breath and rider, stamping out a pace designed to shred the peloton to pieces.  As usual they did a good job, only a few riders still able to follow the leaders by the time the Leopard domestiques could do no more.  The leaders themselves did the rest of the work, setting a pace only they could handle as they swept past broken remnants of breakaway and attacks long forgotten and now futile.

Though many were saying it was Frank who looked strongest on the climb up to Luz-Ardiden two days ago, today it was Andy Schleck who parried and feinted like a master swordsman, attacking several times on the way up the plateau.  By now the group only held 10 - Andy and his brother; Cadel Evans; Alberto Contador, Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale); Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma-Lotto); Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi); Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale); and yellow jersey-wearer Thomas Voeckler and teammate Pierre Rolland.  Lampre's Damiano Cunego clung to the back for a while, but as the group reached the higher climes Cunego had long since disappeared.  Despite Andy's attacks, he achieved no time advantage, for there was always someone waiting to jump on his back wheel, and the rest of the group followed suit.  Though he never actively chased as did Voeckler or Evans, Contador remained in the group, following every attack as closely as all the rest.  Basso seemed to be riding at his own tempo, sometimes falling off the back of the group and at other times leaping to the front to lead it, unable to keep up with the accelerations and decelerations of the others.

The four main rivals were so busy concentrating on each other they didn't notice at first when Jelle Vanendert made his move and got clear, and little did they care, either.  Not high enough on the GC table to be a threat, Evans, Contador and the Schlecks were conserving their energy to battle each either, so neither did the follow when Sammy Sanchez decided now was his time.  Unable to catch the Belgian, the stage played out as a mirror image of Luz-Ardiden, when Sanchez won, Vanendert took second and the main riders shadowed each other to the finish.  This time, however, the Belgian unknown was riding to his first ever victory on the pro circuit, shadowed by the world champion.  As the "peloton" of the top GC riders came in, Andy clearly felt a bit antsy and sprinted for the finish, leaving the others to come in a few seconds behind, not enough to change the overall standings.

The remarkable rider of the day had to go to Thomas Voeckler, who, even though he eventually lost teammate Pierre Rolland who had paced him up Luz-Ardiden and is likely a better climber, still managed to chase the big names up to the top and challenge them for the lead.  If Andy, Cadel & Friends don't manage to dislodge him when they reach the Alps, Tommy Voeckler could suddenly be dangerously close to winning the French a Tour de France.

Stage 10 - Aurillac => Carmaux

Finally, a 'good' stage on the Tour de France - because no-one crashed out!  It's a little bit sad that this should be dubbed a 'good' stage and not a 'normal' stage on the Tour.  While there was a crash, it was comparatively small, and everyone got up and rode away.  One of the 'uninjured' teams in yesterday's round-up is also off that list now - Leopard Trek had their first piece of bad luck when several of their riders when down in a crash 11 kilometres from the start of the stage, but apart from a few scrapes and bruises all are well.

But that crash was the incentive for the breakaway, using the moment of confusion to leap off the front of the peloton.  Saur-Sojasun's Anthony Delaplace was up there again, along with Remy Di Gregorio from Astana, another team that has changed tactics to breakaways after losing their team leader, and four other riders.   Newbie Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) made his prescence felt, taking all the King of the Mountains points to prevent anyone else encroaching upon the lead of his teammate Johnny Hoogerland in that competition.

The peloton raced through the intermediate sprint, Mark Cavendish once again showing his dominance in that discipline, before settling itself into a steady rhythm with HTC-Highroad and Europcar making the pace.  They were later joined by the teams of the sprinters such as Omega and Garmin to try and bring the breakaway back before the sprint finish of the stage.

They reeled in the breakaway with around 30 kilometres to go, Marcato trying to hang on until he'd crossed the final time and claimed the final mountain points. But the peloton was too strong riding uphill, and collected the 27-year-old, who won himself the red number of the most combative rider for his efforts.

It wasn't until around 10 kilometres from the finish that anyone made their move.  The golden boy of this year's Tour, Belgian Philippe Gilbert, raced off the front of the peloton, along with the Tour leader Thomas Voeckler, Cofidis' Tony Gallopin, Quickstep's Dries Devenyns and Tony Martin of HTC-Highroad, who was 6th in the GC.  This caused a bit of panic for the peloton, who didn't like the thought of Martin, Voeckler or Gilbert quite so far ahead, even when 'far' constitutes 11 seconds, so there was some frantic pace-making from the teams of the leaders which saw them finally reeled in around five kilometres from the end.

Then the sprinters began to come forward, HTC's lead-out train taking prominence despite being shorter than usual - Matty Goss, Bernhard Eisel and Mark Renshaw were dropped on the climb up the last hill.  This meant that Mark Cavendish went for the sprint from further back than usual.  Appearing from behind the wheel of a Liquigas-Cannondale rider, the Manxman went like crazy as usual, Omega Pharma-Lotto sprinter Andre Greipel on his wheel.  In the last 100 metres Greipel came up beside Cavendish, and finally had his victory over his rival by pipping Cav for the win by a wheel.  Thor Hushovd also made it over the climbs to finish fourth in the stage.

Stage 9 - Issoire => Saint-Flour

I wrote on Facebook a few days ago that we'd probably have the final standings of the Tour by day 10, and that the winner this year would be the one guy still on his bike by the time we reached Paris. It's beginning to look scarily like it's coming true, and for the most horrible of reasons.

It seems all I write about these days is crashes in the Tour de France, but this year's race has really and truly been defined by these incidents. While crashes are normal - indeed, expected - in any bike race, this year seems to have been particularly bad. With the death of Wouter Weylandt in the Giro and Team Movistar rider Juan Mauricio Soler left in a coma after a crash in the Tour de Suisse, the horrific accidents at the Tour are made all the more scary. Three teams (Sky, Astana and Omega-Pharma Lotto) are now left without their main GC contendors, two other teams (Quickstep and Radioshack) look set to go the same way, and the only team that seems to have been no riders who've hit the asphalt is Team Leopard Trek, of the Schleck brothers.

So today was no different - after the peloton crossed the first of the 7 climbs of the stage, the Category 3 Cote de Massiac, a breakaway finally managed to form, sprinting off the front to build up a lead of around about five minutes. It was almost surprising that the peloton let this six-man breakaway escape, given the strength of the riders in it - Spanish time-trial champion Luis Leon Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), former yellow jersey-wearer Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), former polka dot-jersey wearer Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil), as well as Niki Terpstra (Quickstep), Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky) and Sandy Casar (FDJ).

The six men raced away and began to climb mountains, Voeckler and Hoogerland originally fighting it out for King of the Mountains points as they crossed each climb, until the pair made a controversial and technically illegal agreement that Voeckler would let Hoogerland take maximum KOM points if Hoogerland would help Voeckler towards the yellow jersey and the stage win. The breakaway were so pre-occupied with trying to stay ahead of the peloton that they heard nothing of the destruction behind them.

Coming down the Col du Pas de Peyrol (Le Puy Mary on the south side), Team Astana were descending fast on the outside, so fast that when they hit the corner a rider ahead of them went down and Team Astana were forced off the road into a deep ditch. Teammates soon carried Alexandre Vinokourov out of the ditch and straight into the back of a waiting Tour ambulance, which took him to hospital to be treated for his fractured femur head. Meanwhile, Omega Pharma-Lotto's leader Jurgen van den Broeck was lying on the road looking sorry for himself, and when placed back on his bicycle by team staff, van den Broeck kicked his leg back over the bike and collapsed onto the ground again, in a clear gesture of 'I'm not doing it, guys. Just get me out of here.' It was a good call by van den Broeck, who will spend several days in the Intensive Care Unit with a collapsed lung, three broken ribs and a broken shoulderblade. Teammate Frederik Willems also pulled out with a broken collarbone, as did Garmin-Cervelo's Dave Zabriskie with a broken wrist.

By agreement at the front of the peloton, a truce was called to allow those affected by the crash who could still ride to catch up to the main peloton. 20 kilometres or so later it was back to work as the peloton now had to try and reel in the breakaway, whose lead had ballooned out to five minutes again when the peloton crashed.

But the breakaway was having trouble of its own. A French TV car, swerving into the road to dodge a tree on the shoulder, drove straight into the breakaway and cleaned up two of the riders, causing Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha to kiss the asphalt and sending Vacansoleil's Johnny Hoogerland flying into a barbed wire fence. The remaining three riders in the breakaway, Niki Terpstra long having been dropped, continued riding, now with diminshed capacity to stay off the front. Flecha was soon back on the bike and being bandaged up by the medics as he tried to return to the breakaway, but his injuries won over and he was soon caught by the peloton.

It took a lot longer before anyone could get eyes on Hoogerland, but a sorrier sight never was seen at the Tour de France. Rips, tears, gashes and gouges all over him, blood flowing from inumerable cracks in the hide and with token white bandages all over, Hoogerland was more than happy to take it easy, falling off the back of the peloton but still managing to finish the stage so as to validate his King of the Mountain points and claim his hard-won jersey. Then it was off to hospital for 33 stitches, even as Flecha was taken in for an X-ray, just to be on the safe side - presuming such a thing really exists in this Tour.

While Flecha and Hoogerland tried to be bigger than their injuries, the breakaway was still flying along and managing to keep a solid five minutes clear of the peloton, a gap which was greater than that separating breakaway leader Voeckler from the yellow jersey-wearer Hushovd, making Voeckler the virtual wearer of the sunny garment. Inspired by this idea, Voeckler pushed on, receiving no help from Casar, struggling to keep up, or even Sanchez, who was conserving energy for his own move.

That move came within 500 metres of the finish, after Voeckler, who had hauled the trio up the final climb unassisted, ducked behind his two companions before darting around to try and win the stage. Sanchez saw him coming and went, and, having more in his legs than the man who had done all the day's pace-making, raced on to win three seconds ahead of the exhausted Voeckler, Casar dragging himself across the line three seconds after.

Garmin-Cervelo soon resigned themselves to the fact that Thor had lost the jersey to Thomas Voeckler and surrendered the pace-making, instead taking it easy and conserving energy for later on. But despite the best efforts of BMC and Leopard Trek, trying to keep their GC riders within a good time gap, they couldn't bridge the gap to the breakaway and instead the front section of the peloton finished almost four minutes behind, leaving Cadel Evans 2:26 down on yellow and Frank and Andy Schleck 2:29 and 2:37 down, respectively. Alberto Contador is now 16th in the general classification, 4:07 from donning the maillot jaune, and with injuries to boot. Contador has a lot of work to do if he wants glory again this year.