Melbourne's 'Cadelebration'

What a day for Melbourne cycling fans!  The city, closed to traffic, had the deficit more than made up by the pedestrian crowd.  As Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu said, more people turned out for today's 'Cadelebration' than for any other event ever held in the city's Federation Square.

And what a home-coming it must have been for Cadel.  On arriving in Australia yesterday, the 34-year-old commented that in concentrating on each day's racing, he sometimes forgets about the 20 million fans cheering him on at home.  The message has surely sunk in today, after seeing the crowds gathered in the CBD and hearing how much noise several thousand excited Aussies can make!

The parade started at the bottom of St. Kilda Rd, where Cadel and 20 young Victorian riders in BMC-red 'Team Cadel' shirts began their 15-minute ride up to Flinder's St and the amassed crowd at Fed Square.  Speculation soon began on how long it would actually take Cadel to 'ride' up the road, given 'ride' in this context meant 'shake the hands of every person on the side of the road whilst I scoot along with one foot on the ground'.  Team Cadel was struggling to go sufficiently slowly!

Cadel finally made it up to Fed Square, and it was easy to tell where the man in yellow was simply by following the cheers of the crowd.  Making his way under the 'Australia Congratulates Cadel' banner, he stepped up onto the yellow-bedecked stage for an exhaustive cheer from the crowd.

After the Welcome to Country and the singing of the national anthem, Cadel sat down briefly for an on-stage interview with sport journalist Gerard Whateley, discussing life after becoming the first Australian in history to win the Tour de France.  Cadel's sense of humour certainly won the crowd over, as well the quiet way in which he seemed to take it all in.  He left the stage after being presented with a trophy by Ted Baillieu, following which most of the crowd dissipated, meaning I was able to get to the front and saw:

Yes, Gabriel Gate was there as well!  He was more than happy to talk to fans along the barricade (those who recognised him, that is), and naturally I had to get a photo.

After Cadel emerged from the rest tent sidestage he strolled down the Yarra River with his wife Chiara Passerini and mother Helen Cocks, accompanied by about 20 police and security guards, shaking hands with fans along the way and posing for a few photos.  They disappeared into a nearby building for a press conference, which was my cue to take a lunch break beside the Yarra.  While we were waiting, they brought up that cars that will ferry Cadel around the city...

Even the cars around here are yellow!  I mean...Cadellow.

It was a while before the press conference finished and Helen and Chiara appeared, followed by Cadel.  Though they didn't stop to greet fans before they hopped in the cars and headed off, Chiara was happily waving her kangaroo at the crowd.

But there was still more fun left in my day.  On my way back to Fed Square from the river, I came across a familiar face and had to stop and ask for a photo.  Five minutes later I walked past the same place and found another of Australia's top cycling journalists having a chat to a friend!  So here's me with SBS journos Scott Sunderland and Dave McKenzie.

What a great day overall!  It's hard to know whether to be sad that Cadel Evans can't stop by his home country without needing a police escort, or gratified that the whole nation is both supporting an Aussie sporting legend and finally taking a national interest in a predominantly European sport.  With any luck the furore will die down soon enough and Cadel can go back to being his modest old champion-rider self, along with his girls Chiara and Molly.  Either way, I will be standing at the end of the Champs-Elysees in July next year with an Australian flag and a safety pin ready to hand to Cadel before he ascends the top step of the podium for the second time.  Yell for Cadel!

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 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 1 - Passage du Gois => Les Herbiers

I wonder if the Tour de France has ever had such a dramatic or traumatic start as it did today.  To begin with, this year's Tour went straight to the first stage of racing, without a time trial prologue the day before as it usually does.  This meant there was an inordinate amount of pressure and prestige associated with today's stage - for once the stage winner was guaranteed the maillot jaune, and due to the type of stage and the new points system, the green jersey and the polka-dot jersey as well.  How are you meant to wear them all?  Layer them like tank tops, maybe?

Anyway, it began like any old Tour de France stage, a breakaway leaping off at the 0-kilometre mark and pulling away from the peloton, who were happy to take it easy today.  The three at the tete de la course, Perrig Quemener of Europcar, Jeremy Roy of Francais des Jeux and Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil, had an excellent run, sitting up to 7 minutes ahead of the main peloton for almost four hours, until the peloton finally reeled them in at the 20 kilometres to go mark.  And that was when the chaos began.  Around the 13-kilometre mark an errant spectator on the side of the road caused Astana's Maxim Iglinsky to swerve and crash into the rider next to him, causing a domino effect right across the road, bringing down several riders and building a roadblock that stopped all but 30 riders in the main peloton.  Taken to the front of the peloton by their teams, top GC contenders Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans both escaped the carnage, but not so for defending champion, Spaniard Alberto Contador.  Contador was caught up in the chaos and while thankfully unharmed, he finished the stage one minute and 20 seconds behind his two main rivals.

Ahead of the crash zone, 30 lucky riders were still racing towards the finish line in Les Herbiers.  Despite being touted as a good stage for Omega-Pharma Lotto's Phillipe Gilbert or one of the sprinters, chances had suddenly opened up for the other teams with most of the sprint lead-out trains still caught up back at the 13-k mark.  Then remarkably, half the front group of riders crashed again just inside the 3-kilometre mark, and while Andy Schleck went down this time, Cadel was still up the front of the pack, being protected by BMC teammate George Hincapie and waiting for the finish line to appear.  At 1 kilometre to go Phillipe Gilbert was getting in position when time-trial world champion Fabian Cancellara (Leopard Trek) shot out like a bullet, forcing Gilbert  to go for the sprint earlier than planned.  Cancellara disappeared from sight at 400 metres to go, and suddenly Cadel Evans had broken off the front and was chasing down Gilbert for the stage victory.  Though making up ground rapidly, Cadel hit the finish line before he could catch Gilbert, and had to settle for second place three seconds behind Gilbert and 3 seconds ahead of the rest of the main group, as well as Gilbert's green jersey the following day (as Gilbert will be wearing the yellow jersey and Cadel is second on the green jersey points table).  The main peloton limped in over a minute later, Contador looking rather glum.

Despite going down in the second crash and losing time, Andy Schleck recorded a finishing time 6 seconds behind Gilbert along with the rest of the front group of riders, thanks to a rule that ensures that anyone who crashes within the final three kilometres is given the same finishing time as the group with whom they were riding.  Pretty dramatic day overall.  Question is now - can Contador recover?

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!