The Tour of Britain 2011

The Tour of Britain is just a baby on the ProTour circuit, a mere eight years old, but given the rise to prominence on the circuit of the British riders - think Brad Wiggins, Geraint Thomas, Mark Cavendish here - and, of course, the quality of the riders racing it, the course is worthy of a mention.

It was only a week before the beginning of the Tour that Mark Cavendish announced that he would be riding his national tour for his ProTeam of HTC-Highroad.  Such an announcement probably struck fear into the heart of his competitors, and with good reason - Cavendish took an easy win on Stage 1 from a bunch sprint with Aussie teammate and lead-out man Mark Renshaw second.  Of course, the other perk of taking a victory on the first stage of a week-long tour is taking the leader's maillot as well, leaving Cav in the yellow at the end of the first day.  He was lucky enough to keep it the next day as well, but through less clement circumstances.  Due to dangerously strong winds along the coast generated by Hurricane Katia the stage was cancelled, and instead the riders took part in a ceremonial two laps around Kendal, the starting town of the stage.

Though the cancellation of stage two meant Mark Cavendish had to forego the honour of finishing his 'home stage' in Blackpool, the beautiful sunny weather of the following day meant the race was back on!  Even with the still-windy conditions the riders were up to all the usual games, but thanks to the hard work and steep pace set by American team HTC-Highroad, no-one who left the peloton could stay away.  This set the stage for Rabobank's Michael Matthews to springboard Lars Boom to a sprint win on the uphill finish, taking the yellow jersey from Cav in the process.

Day 4 was not much of a surprise, to be honest.  If I say it was a bunch sprint at the end of a stage with mountains, who springs to mind?  If your answer is the God of Thunder Thor Hushovd then yes, you would be right.  After the three-man breakaway was reeled in with a few kilometres to go, Hushovd stormed home, with Lars Boom tight on his wheel.  Though Boom missed out on a second stage victory, he increased his lead on the yellow jersey by 12 seconds over local boy Geraint Thomas, the home-country favourite.

Stage 5, not so expected.  There are really only two names that jump to mind when you think of bunch sprints.  But when it came to this bunch sprint, you'd be a day late if you said Hushovd, and wrong if you said the Manx Missile.  The 12-man breakaway was reeled in a little way out, and when it came down to a bunch sprint, Mark Cavendish came second to his own lead-out man, Mark Renshaw.  The rider famous as the world's best lead-out man was keeping mum afterwards about why him and not Cav.

Lars Boom must have been happy on Day 6.  He seemed a little miffed about coming second to Thor Hushovd on the fourth stage to Caerphilly, despite the fact that Boom was, you know, leading the GC and all, but an outright victory in Wells probably helped improve his mood.  The peloton can't have been impressed, though, after letting Boom slip through their fingers early on and jump ahead to the breakaway from which he was later able to springboard his win.  The stage didn't go so well for home favourite Geraint Thomas, though, dropping down the GC leaderboard following a crash.

The theme of successful breakaways continued onto Stage 7, when virtual unknown, Lithuanian Gediminas Bagdonas, took the stage honours within the breakaway of six and Mark Cavendish led the peloton home in seventh place.  Little change in the GC, but for Lars Boom, still in the leader's maillot, the game was still on for Day 8, the double-doozy combo of a short time trial followed by a 10-lap crit on the same roads.  Boom showed he could hold his own in the time trial, coming in just five seconds behind winner Alex Dowsett, who was resplendent in his lovely new white skinsuit of the British time trial champion.

But of course Cav had to have the last word, especially in his national tour, and promptly pipped everyone else to the line to take the last stage victory, clearly wanting the matching set of first-and-last-stages for his trophy cabinet.  Lars Boom played it safe and finished comfortably in the bunch, securing his nice yellow jersey as he enjoyed his first trip to Britain.  Leopard Trek had two top-ten finishers, Australia's Michael Rogers took out 11th and Cav finished a respectable 13th, right behind Geraint Thomas in 12th.

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 13 - Pau => Lourdes

It was a gloriously triumphant stage and a devastatingly disappointing stage, depending on which way you look at it.  One man lifted himself above his limits to a well-deserved stage win, but another lost out at the last-minute on his hard-won stage victory after stretching his limits as well.  The Tour de France is always exciting, but it's never quite so heart-breaking and heart-rending as this.

Sadly, but not unsuprisingly, today's stage also began with those who couldn't.   Quickstep sprinter Gert Steegmans never made it to the starting line, and three riders didn't get much past it - Vladimir Isaichev (Katusha), Lars Boom of Rabobank, and Team Radioshack's last hope in German Andreas Kloden all felt they couldn't go on.  The nasty crashes of the first week are beginning to take their deadly toll on Tour de France hopes.  Russian sprinter Denis Galimzyanov was also absent, having finished outside the elimination time on Luz-Ardiden yesterday.

When it came to the day's breakaway it took the riders a while to figure themselves out.  In the end FDJ's Jeremy Roy, clearly tired of all the fluffing around, decided that if no-one else was going to break away, he would.  Several of the sprinters, realising there was now an echappee, opted to join in, including world champion Thor Hushovd and Italian Lampre sprinter Alessandro Petacchi.  But this was Roy's breakaway, and the rules were clear: you keep up with my speed, and don't hold me back, or you can go back to the peloton.  Most of the other nine riders were happy to abide by his rules, and some even took turns at the pace-making, such as Sky's young sprinter Edvald Boasson Hagen, who is beginning to show some skill in climbing.  Boasson Hagen also led the breakaway through the intermediate sprint, no-one bothering to race for maximum points.  The peloton did, though, with Movistar's JJ Rojas and a teammate outmanouvering a very annoyed Cavendish for 10th place.

It was Thor Hushovd who eventually decided that he needed to increase the speed.  The Norweigan accelerated out from the back of the group of 10, rocketing away up the hill.  At first no-one reacted, but after a minute Roy decided that no-one was breaking away from his breakaway without his permission.  He began chasing the powerful sprinter down and soon passed him, being a better climber.  Cofidis' eccentric climber David Moncoutie also decided to farewell his fellow escapees and set off after Hushovd, for a while with the Tour's other Norweigan Eddy Boasson Hagen in tow.  Moncoutie soon caught up to Hushovd on his own, and similarly dropped him later on.

Roy managed to acheive the aim of his breakaway - he crossed the Col d'Aubisque in the lead and took the 20 points for first over the hors-categorie climb, giving him enough points in the King of the Mountains classification to take the polka-dot jersey.  But with an eight-minute lead over the peloton and more than a minute ahead of his nearest pursuers, Roy expanded his ambitions - go for the stage win.

And go he did.  Roy shot off like a cat with its tail on fire, as did his pursuers, while the peloton was merely out for a Sunday ride, seemingly oblivious to all other considerations.  By the time the peloton crossed over the non-categorised Col du Solour, the riders ahead had organised themselves into distinct groups - first there was Roy, doing his own little time-trial in the lead; then Moncoutie and Hushovd, who had caught the Frenchman on the descent of Solour and now had him in his slipstream; and then the trio of Edvald Boasson Hagen, Jerome Pineau (Quickstep) and Lars Bak of HTC-Highroad sitting in positions four through six on the road.

But now it was chase time, Leopard Trek sending some riders to the front of the peloton to up the pace as Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) jumped off the front with Rabobank's Bauke Mollema on his tail.  While unconcerned by riders like Hushovd, Roy and Pineau, Gilbert is reasonably high in the overall classification and the leaders were a bit nervous about him getting too far ahead.  He finished the stage just under a minute head of the peloton, vaulting him into ninth place in the general classification.

It was chase time for the breakaway too.  The massive form of Thor Hushovd, with red-clad Moncoutie in his wake, was now bearing down on raceaway Roy, one and a half minutes ahead.  Though the day was classified as a 'mountain' stage because of the HC climb in the middle, the road to the finish was flat, and Roy had to stay ahead if he wanted to win, as neither Frenchman could beat the Norweigan in a sprint finish.  As the peloton continued its leisurely pace southwards Hushovd continued to eat away at Roy's lead, until by the 10 kilometres-to-go banner Roy was only 30 seconds ahead.

But 'Jeje' Roy stayed tantalisingly out of reach, stubbornly staying 15 seconds ahead of Hushovd for the next seven-and-a-half kilometres, until Hushovd decided it was time to shut him down once and for all to take the stage.  Despite looking like he was flagging, Hushovd suddenly jumped forward, leaving behind Moncoutie (who refused to help with the pace-making so as not to be accused of preventing a French victory) and very quickly came up behind Roy, who didn't even have the energy to jump in Hushovd's slipstream and grab second place.  A demoralised Roy rolled over the line 26 seconds behind the leader.

Though earning himself both the polka-dot jersey of the King of the Mountains and the red number of the most combative or "spirited" rider, Roy was extremely disheartened to lose the stage so close to victory.  "They [my wife and parents] were disappointed for me, they cried.  They believed it too," he said in an article he wrote for French sports paper 'L'Equipe'.  This is the heart-rending part - as a sprinter Hushovd was thrilled to take a 'miracle' stage win over the high mountains, but at the cost of "not a champion" man who had worked all day for the same prize.  How do you choose who should win?

Nothing to report on the big names; the only major change in the GC is Gilbert's jump to ninth.  Tomorrow on the road to Plateau du Beille is when the girls and boys may - or may not - come out to play.  Whether Contador decides to attack and make up time or whether everyone waits til the Alps to go for gold (en jerseys) remains to be seen.

And for the record, I chose Jeremy.

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.

Stage 8 - Aigurande => Super-Besse Sancy

An exciting day on the Tour!  Not surprising considering the Tour has finally entered its exciting phase: THE MOUNTAINS (cue dramatic music).  Surprisingly, and somehow not surprisingly, today's drama came about because of the breakaway.

For yes, again today we had a breakaway in the Tour de France.  Quel surprise.  This was by far the biggest breakaway of this year's Tour, comprising around 10 riders from a similar number of teams.  Team Sky was represented in their first breakaway for the Tour, being forced to change their tactics after the withdrawal of team leader Brad Wiggins due to injury, while Team Cofidis had two riders out the front.  Leaping off after 8 kilometres, they built up a lead of around seven kilometres at its height.

The most puzzling part of the day's stage that has kept commentators talking was the tactics of Team BMC.  The entire team of Aussie Cadel Evans moved up to the front of the peloton and took up the pace-making for almost the entire stage.  BMC was joined in the later sections by Garmin-Cervelo, making a token effort at defending the yellow jersey worn by their sprinter Thor Hushovd, which most people were sure Hushovd would lose at the end of the stage, possibly to Evans himself.

There was nothing much exciting to report until the mountains, when the peloton with Garmin leading began to close in on the breakaway, and young American rider Tejay van Garderen decided that he could do better on his own.  The HTC rider moved off, and set such a high pace that the rest of the breakaway struggled to follow.  Soon it was only Movistar's Rui da Costa who could keep up, and the two raced away up the small slope towards Super-Besse.

Meanwhile, some of the other riders wanted in on the breakaway action.  Johnny Hoogerland, leader of the polka-dot jersey competition leapt off the front of the peloton with a friend, and began chasing down the two leaders, van Garderen and da Costa, as well as the three riders that the pair had dropped off.  But then Astana's top rider, Alexandre Vinokourov, decided it was his day and made his own move.  While Hoogerland never got far - he bridged the gap to one of the chase groups - Vinokourov was a much tougher competitor.

Soon it was chaos for media and spectators alike, with so many small groups of riders moving up and down between the two leaders and the main peloton that it became extremely difficult to know who was where and with what time gap.  But one theme became very apparent - Vinokourov was closing in.  Portuguese da Costa clearly didn't like this idea, and surged ahead so quickly that this time, despite being the man to counter any individual moves in his original breakaway group, van Garderen couldn't follow.

Vinokourov soon passed van Garderen, and by the time da Costa passed beneath the flamme rouge signalling one kilometre to go, he could have turned his head and seen Vino.  But everyone was so focused on the battle for supremacy at the front that no one had noticed that the peloton was rearing its speedy head again.  Though no one wanted to pace the peloton towards actively chasing, the riders were moving very fast; so fast, in fact, that they'd made up all but a minute of da Costa's lead.

As Vinokourov passed under the flamme rouge himself, the peloton was suddenly there behind him, and Vino suddenly wasn't.  Though no-one could have hoped to catch Rui da Costa at that point, thus claiming Portugal a stage win for the second Tour in a row, the front of the peloton was now fighting it out for the other placings.  Philippe Gilbert suddenly found himself with the legs and went from behind, pounding right up to the finish line and claiming second place, 12 seconds behind da Costa.

But all eyes were on the front of the peloton, where Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador were eyeing each other off, neither ready to make the first move, Cadel Evans sitting right behind them.  Contador decided to go for it, but never got far with Andy clinging to his wheel like a limpet and Cadel still right behind him.  Riders began going past the three favourites in their elaborate dance of tactics, and suddenly Cadel decided this wasn't good enough.  One could almost see his thought process as he rode - "They're going right past us!  You guys don't wanna do anything about this?  Fine, I'll do it myself."  And suddenly Evans leapt forward onto the back of the riders surging ahead, so fast that Contador and Schleck seemed to stunned to follow.  Evans took third place on the stage, three seconds behind Gilbert, but he gained no time overall as the peloton followed him across the line.

Most unexpectedly for most (but not here!) Tour leader Thor Hushovd, best known as a sprinter, was able to keep pace with the main field all the way to Super-Besse and finished in the peloton, losing no time to the GC contenders and thus keeping his yellow jersey a  little longer.  Though clearly not able to wear the jersey through the Pyrenees, it now looks much more possible that Hushovd will wear his yellow up until we reach them.  And as for the three main boys?  Well, Cadel looks in spantabulous form this year, though Contador looks a bit off, and Andy is playing it far too cautious to tell yet.  But all will be clear when we reach the Pyrenees...

Stage 3 - Olonne-sur-Mer => Redon

It feels like we're finally settling into the Tour de France rhythm - today's stage was a fairly tame one without any major disruptions, insofar as the TdF ever has no disruptions.

Stage 3 was pretty flat, the only excitement being the intermediate sprint and a category 4 climb on top of a lovely bridge over the Loire (which rather resembled Melbourne's Westgate Bridge, by the way).  As expected a breakaway went off the front and happily sat out there for most of the day.  Some of the five started sprinting for the green jersey points, which were taken out by Frenchman Mickael Delage (FDJ), before settling back into their pace ahead of the pack.  The peloton also chased for the remainder of the sprint points, Cavendish and Hushovd taking out the next highest points, but both having those points stripped after a headbutting incident similar to that of Mark Renshaw and Julian Dean in last year's tour.

The next bit of fun was the climb for KOM points, 40 kilometres on from the sprint.  The wind on top of the bridge wasn't an obstacle for the breakaway, ever so slowly being drawn back in by the main field, but the peloton found themselves abruptly cut in half by the crosswinds as they made their way to the top of the bridge.  Consternation reigned for the next 10 kilometres or so, as the peloton regrouped, riders dropped off the back made contact again, and the breakaway tried to continue its renegade act in the face of an ever-approaching peloton.

Movistar's Jose Ivan Gutierrez, seeing the peloton 30 seconds behind, clearly decided he didn't want to be caught and went on another speed crusade, taking Delage with him for company.  Despite the wishes of the peloton the two managed to stay off the front until 10 k's to go, and allowed themselves to be caught gracefully before disappearing behind the prominent lead-out trains of Garmin-Cervelo and Lampre.  The sprinters teams were planning to claim this one, but something definitely went awry for HTC, and despite having all nine riders preparing the train, Cavendish fell off the back of the train before Renshaw could launch him and finished 5th instead.  Lampre's train also vanished and Alessandro Petacchi attached himself to Hushovd's wheel at the end of Garmin's train instead, but wasn't able to get himself up there in the end.

As it was, Hushovd instead succeeded in helping American teammate Tyler Farrar bolt ahead to take his first-ever stage victory, ahead of Vacansoleil's Romain Feillu and Movistar's Jose Joaquin Rojas.  I almost teared up when Farrar lifted his hands off his bike as he crossed the line to form a 'W' - dedicating his win to his best mate and training partner Wouter Weylandt from Team Leopard Trek, who died in the Giro d'Italia a few months ago.  I'll bet Farrar was wishing Wouter could have been there to see him finally make it, and on American Independence Day as well.  I'm sure Wouter was watching anyway.

Preview of le Tour

It’s the day before the start of the most prestigious race in cycling, and Tour fever is building up.

All around the world, cycling fans are buying their popcorn and race guides, settling in for the biggest three weeks of the year on the cycling calendar.  And as the excitement heats up, so do the possibilities, and this year’s race could go umpteen different ways.

First and foremost, there is the question of the Spaniard, Alberto Contador. A cloud hangs over the defending champion’s future after being implicated in a doping scandal at last year’s Tour de France.  The winner of the 2009 and 2010 maillot jaune is scheduled to ride the Tour for Team Saxobank-Sunguard, but if the conclusion to this nine-month affair goes down in the next three weeks, Contador could find himself out of the Tour and the race for the yellow jersey blown wide open.

This of course brings us to the question of who will win the maillot jaune?  While Contador is the premiere candidate to take out cycling’s most coveted prize, several other names are also on the shortlist, the most prominent being Andy Schleck.  The Luxembourg 26-year-old has won the white jersey (under-25 riders category) in the Tour for the past three years and was looking good for the major prize last year, until a controversial accident put Contador just ahead of him.  Even so, Schleck stunned the cycling world a few days later in the time trial, showing an improvement at the discipline and keeping pace with Alberto Contador in a stage where Contador was expected to consolidate his lead beyond all doubt.  It still wasn’t enough for Schleck, who came second for the second year in a row and took out his third white jersey instead.  With Contador’s future unstable and another’s year training under his belt, this may be the year where Andy makes his break.

Then, according to the Australian commentators at least, there’s also Cadel Evans to consider.  The Geelong boy who was the 2009 world road race champion has come second in the Tour twice and was leading last year’s Tour, until an early fall left him with a broken arm and cost him 10 minutes and the yellow jersey.  Despite this setback, Cadel has been in excellent form the past few years and after a more careful preparation for this year’s Tour, every Australian is asking the same question: will this year be Cadel’s year?

 

Also tipped as contenders for the top spot are Italian Tour veteran Ivan Basso, young Dutch rider Robert Gesink, now the leader of Team Rabobank at just 25, and the current Olympic champion, Spaniard Samuel Sanchez, as well as Andy’s older brother and teammate, Fränk Schleck.

The competition for the other jerseys is less notorious but every bit as fierce.  The white jersey is open for the first time in three years, with Andy Schleck finally out of contention, leaving Robert Gesink and Team Liquigas’ Roman Kreuziger as the two favourites.  The polka-dot King of the Mountain (climbing category) jersey is less certain, while the question of the green sprinter’s jersey comes down to whether the strategies of the “God of Thunder”, Norwegian Thor Hushovd or those of “Manx Missile”, Brit Mark Cavendish are better suited to the category.  All will be decided at the final stage in Paris, so until then, vive le Tour!

Chaos on the Cobbles: Paris-Roubaix 2011

One of the oldest and most well-known Pro-Tour races traditionally ridden by all the world’s best riders, the ending to this year’s Paris-Roubaix was a little less expected.  This year the three favourites for the title were two-time previous winner and world time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara, world road race champion Thor Hushovd, and multiple Paris-Roubaix top-ten finisher Juan Antonio Flecha.  And predictably enough, when three riders split from the peloton to form a chase group (the poursuivants) behind the breakaway group one minute ahead, they were Cancellara, Hushovd and Flecha, along with BMC’s Alessandro Ballan.  When Cancellara made his first attack, Flecha dropped back, and Ballan was forced to chase Cancellara and Hushovd to keep up.  The three closed the gap on the leading group of around 17 riders to 20 seconds, but this soon ballooned out to 40 seconds when Cancellara stopped leading.  Both Hushovd and Ballan had riders from their teams in the lead group, and with both riders sitting on his back wheel and refusing to do a share of the work, Cancellara chose to simply stop chasing rather than help his rivals to an easy victory.

It was at 14 kilometres to go that Cancellara chose to make his move.  A group of four riders had gone off the front of the leading group, and Cancellara couldn’t wait any longer if he wanted to have a chance.  Hushovd gave chase, and Ballan and Flecha followed them down the road, blowing past the scattered remnants of the leading group.  Soon it was just Cancellara and friends chasing three riders out front, who were in turn chasing down Johan van Summeren, the fourth leading rider who had made a break of his own.  That was when Cancellara went for it again, and this time Hushovd couldn’t follow.  Cancellara caught the three riders ahead with only one kilometre to go, but even Johan van Summeren’s flat tyre at the five-k mark didn’t slow him down enough for Cancellara to catch him before he entered the Velodrome at Roubaix and secured first place.

A Fangirl's Fantasy

I found this stored in my archives of journalism and writing this morning, a discarded more casual version of an article from last year, and decided to give it a bit of polish and share it. Hope you enjoy!

***

 “I’m off to interview Matti now,” the Danish journalist said to me as she passed my desk.  “Would you like me to tell him hi for you?”

A few days earlier I would have flipped out at a question like this, but several hours working in the Media Centre had made me very blasé.  “Yes, please,” I told the journo as she pushed open the front door.  “Good luck!”

The ‘Matti’ the journalist was off to interview was Matti Breschel, a Danish rider with the Pro-Tour team Saxobank and one of the top cyclists in the world circuit.  As a true cycling fangirl, usually just the mention of Matti Breschel’s name would be enough to set me squealing, but when you’re a volunteer at the UCI World Road Cycling championships, running into the world’s best journalists and cyclists is just a matter of course.

My first ‘Eureka!’ moment, I’m very ashamed to say, only occurred on my second day of working as a Press Conference Co-ordinator in the Media Centre set up for the event.  One of the 100 or so journalists floating around walked passed my desk, and I noticed the colourful Hawaiian shirt he wore only because he’d had another Hawaiian shirt on the day before.  This guy sure loves his Hawaiian shirts, I thought, he’s been wearing them two days in a row…hang on, that rings a bell….didn’t they mention something on the SBS Tour de France coverage who loves wearing Hawaiian shirts…oh my gosh, YOU’RE Rupert Guinness!

Given that I’d been up til 2am every night of the Tour, pinching and kicking myself to stay awake and dooming all my uni assignments to hell in the process, I should have remembered the face of the guy who reviewed each night’s stage while we waited for the day’s presentations.  At least I didn’t embarrass myself that way when it came to Mike Tomalaris.  Well…almost not.  Having cleaned the coffee machines, kitchen and refilled the fridge for about the 10^th time that day, I decided it was about time to make myself a coffee.  Halfway through the cappuccino creation process, I turned around to see which country the journo behind me was from, only to recognise the distinctive hair of the SBS coverage’s host.  I actually managed not to lose all ability to speak at the sight of one of my journalistic heroes as I told him of my 2am escapades and how much I loved watching the Tour.  “Could I get a photograph with you please?”  I asked him nervously.  “My mum is going to love this.”

He was very good about the whole thing, even asked me my name, and it was all I could do not to scream out loud as he went back to making his coffee.  I shoved my cappuccino under the machine and hit the milk button, buzzing with excitement.  My Eddie McGuire or, well, whoever else commentates the footy these days was standing right there behind me!  In fact, I was so absorbed in discreetly watching him leave that I turned around to find my cappuccino overflowing all over the bench.  I could only thank my lucky stars that of all the journalists standing around in the kitchen, Mike Tomalaris wasn’t there to see me right then.

I actually saw that Danish journalist again before I finished my final shift on Sunday night.  I thought she’d like to know that I’d finally gotten my chance to take a photo with Matti Breschel.  As the silver medallist in the elite men’s road race, Matti took his place on the podium in my press room for the post-race press conference with Thor Hushovd and Australia’s Allan Davis.  The journalist smiled when I told her.  “Hopefully we’ll see you in Copenhagen for next year’s World Championships, then.”

Oh, I wish I could.