Stage 4 - Lorient => Mur-de-Bretagne

We've certainly hit the rhythm of the Tour de France now, but no stage on the Tour is ever boring.  Certainly not today, and we're beginning to see the form of some of the riders and guess who among them is likely to be on the podium in Paris.

Another breakaway today, this time leaping off the front 9 kilometres into the race.  Jeremy Roy from FDJ was in it again today, along with four other riders from teams without strong GC contenders.  BMC clearly favoured this stage for Cadel Evans, so they took on over 50% of the pace-making, with Omega Pharma-Lotto picking up the slack to pave the way for Phillipe Gilbert to take another stage victory.

As they reached the intermediate sprint, Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) began to pedal and pulled away from the other four, who were obviously uninterested in sprint points.  Hoogerland took the first 20 points uncontested, the next four sets of points going to the other members of the breakaway.  When the peloton arrived, Movistar and Garmin began setting up their trains, but it was Tyler Farrar, who won yesterday's stage in memory of late friend Wouter Weylandt, who nipped ahead to pick up the next allotment of 10 points on offer.  Green jersey wearer J.J. Rojas (Movistar) came in behind him and picked up enough points to keep his green jersey.

Omega Pharma-Lotto kept the pace up, dangling the breakaway at only two or three minutes for the next few hours, ready to reel them in for Gilbert to take the stage.  Then the peloton split unexpectedly, leaving Liquigas's Ivan Basso as well as BMC's Cadel Evans trapped at the back of the rear peloton.  The two halves of the peloton quickly joined, but Cadel's day didn't improve quite as fast.  After the 'natural break' that left him behind, he had not one but two mechanical problems - first a puncture, then an issue with the new bike after the puncture - that kept taking him to the team car at the back of the peloton.  But even then Madame Misfortune still plagued him.  As he tried to rejoin the peloton after having his bike checked, a photographer fell off the motorbike right in front of him.  A team assistant raced up to guide Cadel around and give him a push, while teammates Amael Moinard and Michael Schar waited to take him back to the front of the peloton.  They did their jobs admirably in the final 20 kilometres, and Cadel soon found himself in the front 30 riders with teammate George Hincapie, as well as the Team Leopard Trek riders surrounding Frank and Andy Schleck and the Omega Pharma-Lotto team still leading for Phillipe Gilbert.

The breakaway riders tried valiantly to hang on until the very end, and did themselves proud, finally allowing themselves to be caught at the four kilometre-mark, much later than anyone predicted.  This meant that there was minimal time for the usual posturing and positioning that happens at the end of the stage.  Of course, that's not to say there wasn't still posturing.  By the time the breakaway was caught, George Hincapie was already at the front of the peloton pedalling for all he was worth, setting the pace high to make it hard for the riders, giving Cadel the best chance of staying at the front and avoiding trouble.

At around 1.5 kilometres to go, Contador attacked and led a small group of 10 riders off the front of the main peloton.  He fought his way up the climb, leading the likes of Evans, Frank Schleck, Rigoberto Uran Uran (Team Sky) and even yellow jersey-wearer Thor Hushovd up the Mur-de-Bretagne, the Wall of Brittany.  Others including Omega Pharma-Lotto's GC rider Jurgen van den Broeck took turns pace-making, while speculation began to fly regarding Contador's racing form, suggesting that he isn't at his peak like last year and that Contador is a bit off-colour in this Tour.

Nearly 10 seconds ahead of the peloton, Contador attacked again at 500 metres to go, and Cadel followed, passing him on the final flat as he sprinted for the finish.  Contador, resigned to the fact that he wasn't going to make up any time on his rivals with his attack, rallied himself and chased after Cadel, passing him on the line and creating confusion as to who had actually won the stage.  A photo finish quickly showed that Cadel had won by a quarter of a wheel, giving BMC's GC rider a well-deserved stage victory and also the polka-dot jersey, having won the two King of the Mountain points on offer at the end of the stage.  He narrowly avoided taking the yellow jersey from Thor Hushovd, who finished in the sprint group just behind Cadel and Contador, thus maintaining his one-second lead over the Aussie.  In all likelihood Hushovd will keep the maillot jaune until Saturday, when the Tour heads into the mountains.  Cadel simply has to stay out of trouble until then - but will Contador do the same?

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.

Wouter Weylandt

All eyes in the cycling world were on this year’s Giro d’Italia, as always, but the Giro was sadly marred by the untimely passing of Team Leopard Trek cyclist, Wouter Weylandt.

 
On May 9, Weylandt clipped a wall and crashed into the road while descending the Passo del Bocco in Stage 3 of the Giro.  Racing at around 70kph, Weylandt was thrown across the road and killed instantly from internal injuries.  Despite the best efforts of the Giro doctors and a helicopter medical team, Weylandt was unable to be resuscitated and was pronounced dead around an hour later.

That night Team Leopard Trek released a short statement on their website, offering their condolences to Weylandt’s friends and family.  26-year-old Weylandt leaves behind his girlfriend, Sophie, who is pregnant with their first child.

The following day of the Giro was turned into a tribute ride, with no points or times being awarded towards the overall rankings.  Instead the teams took it in turns to lead the stage, along with Team Leopard Trek and Garmin-Cervelo’s Tyler Farrar, Weylandt’s friend and training partner.  Church bells along the route tolled in mourning, and spectators held up replicas of Weylandt’s race number, 108, which has now been retired from use in the Giro.  Leopard Trek and Farrar, arms linked, were allowed to cross the line first, and Farrar announced that evening that he would be leaving the Giro that night, followed by a similar announcement from the riders of Leopard Trek the following day.  The team lined up for the Tour of Calfornia a few days later, saying they would be riding with Wouter as their inspiration.

Photographs courtesy of Team Leopard Trek at www.leopardtrek.lu