Tag Archives: Jens Voigt

Tour de France 2012 – Stage 4

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“Whatever limits us, we call fate,” wrote Ralph Emerson, words that were resounding loud in the Tour yesterday. A fateful crash inside the final 3 kilometers prevented Mark Cavendish’s chance to equal Armstrong’s record of 22 stage wins in the Tour, and in his expressions if not words, he seemed to blame lady luck. But as the quote above would remind him, it is not for great men to blame fate, even so when on numerous occasions it has been kind to him.

Yesterday, it was smiling on André Greipel, the German who had narrowly missed out on victory in stage 2. He was delivered to perfection by his team’s lead out men, and once in the clear with 250mtr to go, never had a problem holding off Alessandro Petacchi and Tom Veelers. Matt Goss was the expected challenger, but he could only finish fourth, ahead of Peter Sagan.

Despite the strong finish, much of the focus remained on the big pile up caused by Robbie Hunter, who seemed to have clipped a fellow rider’s wheel as the peloton was steaming in for a sprint finish. At 40mph there is no chance for anyone to take evasive action, and the entire lot behind him either succumbed to a fall, or were held up with nowhere to go. Worst to come out were Cavendish and his teammate Bernard Eisel.

Both men remounted and seemed to suffer only superficial injuries as a result of the tumble. Eisel needed stitches over his right eyebrow, while the world champion’s torn jersey hinted at quite a bit of painful road rash underneath. Their team’s directeur sportif, Sean Yates later said about Cav, “He’s covered in cuts, all over. On his back, on his legs, on his shoulder, on his hip, so yeah, he’s beaten up.”

All the top GC men too were held up in the crash, though fortunately none took a tumble and since the incident happened inside the 3km mark, all of them received the lead pack’s timing. It is the primary reason riders always try to stay at the head of the pack, as crashes generally happen towards the middle or rear of the peloton. For Greipel all the hard work of his Lotto-Belisol teammates was worth the trouble, firstly keeping him out of the chaos, and then guiding him in text-book fashion for an uplifting victory.

Even before the race started on Tuesday, the dark cloud of stage 3’s crashes hung over the competitors, as Maarten Tjallingii of Rabobank did not make it to the start line due to injuries sustained on the previous day. Yesterday’s breakaway came right at the start, this time three men, Yukiya Arashiro (EUC), David Moncoutie (COF) and Anthony Delaplace (SAU) surging to the lead. While the stage featured four climbs, Michael Morkov, who is comfortably ahead in the King of the mountains classification, chose to take a breather having attacked for three straight days previously.

First action of the day came at the intermediate sprint, which whipped up a frenzy among the sprinters in the peloton to accumulate points for the green jersey. With no incident, Cavendish beat Goss, Renshaw and Sagan to close the gap narrowly on the Solvak. Rolling ahead there was a minor crash when Australian Jonathan Cantwell catapulted into the grass margin, taking GC contender Vicenzo Nibali along with him. No panic for the Italian though, as he escaped without any injury and with the help of teammates caught up with the peloton a short while later.

There was hardly any event to talk of for most of the distance and on such days you really have to feel for the commentators as they try hard to keep the viewers entertained and engrossed in the proceedings. From castles en route to cheese to the fancy dress of road side fans, small talk of varying topics seems to be the solution, which if nothing is food for idle thought at best.

Dumb Tour fact for the hungry: Did you know Radioshack-Nissan rider Maxime Monfort has a cheese named after him in his native Belgium. Maybe its laced with extra carbs to sate those hungry muscles.

Entering the last 10kms, the peloton had more on their mind than cheese as the initial attacks started to emerge. Gilbert, Dumoulin, Bouet, Pineau and Grivko all tried their luck, but none could open up a gap more than 20 odd meters over the hungry pack of wolves (read sprinters) behind. That man Sylvain Chavanel has been obsessed to don yellow since the prologue this year (trailing a mere 7 seconds behind Cancellara), and yesterday too his gave his all. Sadly yet again he timed the attack a bit too early and did not have the legs to sustain the pace till the finish line.

Ultimately the crash partly decided the result, making the finish a three-way fight between Greipel, Petacchi and Goss. Though the man of this Tour, Peter Sagan too gave it a shot, he was always an outside chance, and eventually could not match the burst in pace of the specialist sprinters. His fifth place finish at least consolidated his place further in the points table.

After the stage Tour leader Fabian Cancellara had an explanation to the chaotic finish, “In my opinion there is not one team making a train like [Mario] Cipollini or Cav had in the past. That is probably the difference, there is no sprinter team with six or seven riders putting everything in line. With 3km to go there was a mass of riders and someone touched someone else. It’s not done on purpose, just everyone fighting to get the best spot.”

For sure such crashes are not intended and mere accidents, but affected riders always feel a tinge of being cheated by fate. Fortunately for Cavendish, he won’t have to wait long to test his ability (or fate) again, as today’s stage 5 is even more suited for his ilk. At 196.5km it is shorter than yesterday, and with no climbs en route, it should be one really fast day. Which also means we have to bear more talks of cheese and other such topics as the peloton ambles for 185 of those 196km. The last 10km is all that will matter and with egos bruised, prepare for an explosion extraordinairé.

Jersey Holders

  

General Classification

Maillot Jaune

Fabian Cancellara

     Fabian Cancellara

20h 04’ 02”

Maillot Vert

Peter Sagan

     Bradley Wiggins

20h 04’ 09”

Maillot à Pois Rouges

Michael Morkov

     Sylvain Chavanel

20h 04’ 09”

Maillot Blanc

Tejay Van Garderen

Stage Result

  

Team GC

André Greipel

5h 18’ 32”

Sky Procylcing

60h 12’ 40”

Alessandro Petacchi

5h 18’ 32”

Radioshack-Nissan

60h 12’ 44”

Tom Veelers

5h 18’ 32”

BMC Racing Team

60h 12’ 46”

Yukiya Arashiro

Dossard Rouge
ps: to bring a good cheer on bored faces (for the guys at least):
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Tour de France 2012 – Stage 3

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Not many were impressed in the manner with which Peter Sagan claimed his maiden Tour victory on stage 1 couple of days ago (yours truly being one among the critics), but there could be no criticism whatsoever about his win yesterday as he decimated everyone, finishing more than comfortably ahead of second placed Edvald Boasson Hagen. The Slovak in fact had enough time to perform a jig (in his words imitating the running style of Forest Gump), reminiscent of Usain Bolt’s shenanigans after destroying the field on a Chinese track in 2008.

Unlike the finish on Sunday, Peter did not hitch a ride behind a fellow rider, instead bullied his way up the steep incline, leaving all the rest for dead. He surely has arrived on the Tour with a loud bang now and already comparisons are being made with the iconic Eddy Merckx. Looking at his performance till date – two stage victories and lead in the green jersey classification – he might live up to those expectations.

One knows he has made an impact when your main rivals start applauding you, and furthermore, compare you with contemporary genius. Team Sky’s chief, Dave Brailsford was so impressed with the 22-year-old rider, he said, “Its like watching Messi play football, you tip your hat and smile.”

But behind this victorious youngster, the peloton was in a state of disarray. Today’s stage was expected to throw the cat among the pigeons causing a few hairy moments, and it surpassed those expectations – not in an altogether pleasant way. By the end of the day we had our first painful withdrawals from this year’s race, Sky’s Kanstantsin Sivtsov (fractured tibia) and Movistar’s José-Joaquin Rojas (broken collar-bone).

In comparison Thomas Voeckler, Philippe Gilbert, Daniel Martin, Christian Vandevelde and Tom Danielson were luckier to have finished unscathed, though losing big chunks of time on the leaders. All this does raise a few questions against the organiser’s insistence on introducing an element of thrill and unpredictability by means of such stages. Yes we all like a few twists in the script, however at what cost? Some have even began to blame such routes on making the race a “lottery”, and forcing top riders to exercise more caution than they otherwise would have.

No such worries for Peter Sagan though, who seems to be in great terms with lady luck as he managed to escape a huge pile up within the final kilometer of the finish. It was initiated by the Spaniard Oscar Freire, who tried to squeeze through a gap that didn’t exist. The resultant chaos held up nearly 51 of the 63 riders in the lead group, thankfully there were no major injuries to come out of it. None of the riders lost any time either as the crash came within 3km of the finish, ensuring all riders were awarded the time of the finisher.

Yesterday was our first day in France, and if nothing else, this cheered up the Russian Denis Menchov quite a bit, who tweeted, “Happy to be in France. Beetroot much better quality than in Belgium. More pink. Now Katusha can have proper borscht in bidons!” At the 5km mark, five riders broke free of the peloton with the polka dot jersey wearer Michael Morkov again part of the breakaway for the third day running. He must have some serious energy in those legs to run at the head of the field every single day this year.

As the pace quickened , first big crash of the day came at around the 79km mark, when a Lampre rider went to ground, taking with him Astana’s Janez Brajkovic and Alexander Vinokourov. However no major damage was done, with only Brajkovic needing treatment on his elbow (while rolling alongside the medical car), and was paced back to the group by teammates Vino and Bozic.

Sadly the next crash wasn’t as harmless. This came after 140km had been done for the day and involved, among others, Sagan (LIQ), Farrar and Vande Velde (GRM), Urtasun (EUS) and Sivtsov (SKY). Everyone except Sivtsov got back on their bikes, licking their wounds drafting behind their respective team cars, but the Belarusian sustained nasty injuries, and despite trying to remount was forced to retire. This would be a minor set back to his team leader Bradley Wiggins as Sivtsov was a useful domestique for him.

Among all this panic, Movistar had moved to the head of the peloton, and were pushing the pace, much to the annoyance of Sky riders who confronted Jose Gutierrez asking him to slow the pace down. For people new to cycling, it is one of those few sports where rivals look after each other even in today’s cynical age. It’s an unwritten rule in the sport that no team takes advantage of a major crash, and the peloton eases its pace to allow the stricken riders a chance to catch up.

Nevertheless the Spanish team weren’t in the mood to slow down much, with the five men breakaway still tearing ahead of them. However as they say karma is a bitch, and just about 20km later, another big crash caused Movistar’s Joaquin Rojas to take a nasty fall. Unfortunately the Spaniard too had to abandon his fight for this year with a broken collar-bone. Simon Gerrans (OGE) was another rider affected by the fall, which eventually cost him a huge 10 minutes in arrears to the leaders.

Up ahead Morkov was once again in his own on the climbs, capturing a major chunk of the points to retain his lead in the King of the mountains classification. In addition his performance yesterday earned him the dossard rouge for the stage as well. Ultimately he could not respond to the frequent bursts in pace by Andriy Grivko and eased into the peloton with 8km to go (the Ukrainian himself was caught just a kilometer later).

With 5km remaining on the day, Chavanel yet again attempted for glory, breaking away solo and he continued to fight till being caught inside the last kilometer. He might have been good enough to claim the stage, had he not been so close to Tour leader Cancellara. Once he broke free, Cancellara’s team Radioshack went crazy at the head of the field to  close the Frenchman down at any cost.

Sagan though timed his acceleration to perfection, claiming the day’s honours ahead of compatriot Peter Velits, whose third place finish made a day to rejoice for the small European nation. Top men Wiggins, Evans and Nibali must have been pleased to finish unscathed, both physically and with respect to their overall timings. No changes then in any of the leader boards, meaning a thrilled Cancellara continues in yellow. He later tweeted, “Hard day will ending now.awesome job from @RSNT boys.nice result on the finish,sagan is just to strong. #yellowDay25.”

Fifth day of racing takes us today along the Normandy coastline for a considerable stretch, providing some breathtaking landscapes. It is one of the longest stages this year, covering a distance of 214.5km from Abbeville to Rouen. No major trouble expected en-route as yesterday, though cross winds coming from the coast can cause a few worries in the peloton at times. Overall its a routine sprint stage which means we get to see another face off between the likes of Cavendish, Greipel and Goss. The German would still be smarting from his loss on Monday and would be keen to get one over the Sky rider. Can anyone defeat the Manx missile??? That should be answered by the end of the day.

Jersey Holders

  

General Classification

Maillot Jaune

Fabian Cancellara

     Fabian Cancellara

14h 45’ 30”

Maillot Vert

Peter Sagan

     Bradley Wiggins

14h 45’ 37”

Maillot à Pois Rouges

Michael Morkov

     Sylvain Chavanel

14h 45’ 37”

Maillot Blanc

Tejay Van Garderen

Stage Result

  

Team GC

Peter Sagan

4h 42’ 58”

Sky Procylcing

44h 17’ 04”

Edvald Boasson Hagen

4h 42’ 59”

Radioshack-Nissan

44h 17’ 08”

Peter Velits

4h 42’ 59”

BMC Racing Team

44h 17’ 10”

Michael Morkov

Dossard Rouge
ps: An interesting tweet from Jens Voigt on yesterday’s stage.

Tour de France 2012 – Stage 1

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Honour – it is one of the heaviest six letter word, yet some may say is used almost nonchalantly in today’s day and age. However this word has long been associated with the Tour, almost since its inception 99 years ago. Yes there is honour in finishing – let alone winning – such a gruesome event, but right now am talking of the honour these riders feel for the race and its traditions.

When Henri Desgrange introduced the maillot jaune in 1919, the Tour leader was immediately conspicuous among the peloton and had to abide by a code of conduct to justify his exalted status. This has evolved over the century and today not only the rider, but his team follow certain unwritten rules to honour the jersey and justify wearing it (many in the past have refused to wear the hallowed jersey when they have considered themselves unsuitable for it).

Fabian Cancellara and his team maintained that sanctity yesterday as they guided the stage almost from start till finish in style. It was the Radioshck outfit which did most of the chasing at the head of the field, putting their body on the line to protect their team leader. Special mention must be made of that veteran fighter Jens Voigt (40), who has always been a figure of suffering & determination, dutifully putting in long turns with his nose in the wind to keep the breakaway in check.

But then some might say it is less out of tradition and more out of pragmatism that the teams do this. Riding at the head of the field ensures they can control the pace of the race, while also keeping their leader out of troublesome crashes (which generally occur in the middle of the pack). Certainly true, but even that line of argument would not hold weight considering the way Cancellara led the finish in the final kilometer.

He attacked with venom just under the red kite, when none had expected it, and continued to fight alone till the finish. It is generally not expected of the Tour leader to attack towards the end of a routine stage, when he is already assured of a safe finish to keep the lead at the end of the day. But what was even more surprising is that the Swiss attacked at the steepest part of the climb, which is his Achilles heel.

Only Peter Sagan and Boasson Hagen could respond to the big man’s challenge, with the Slovak playing a cheeky tactic of riding in the slipstream of the Radioshack rider till just before the line. Cancellara urged Sagan to share the work at the head, only to be disappointed; and to rub insult to injury, was pipped to victory in the last 150mtrs. But his actions were worthy of a deserving maillot jaune, and though have lost out on a stage victory, he gained further respect of the field, and millions watching.

Even the Tour’s official site had this to stay about the defending Olympic champion, “With his second place today, Fabian Cancellara has proven how versatile he is. He might not have been able to beat Peter Sagan in the stage but he’s still the leader of the Tour de France.” In fairness to the Slovak, he played a typical predator’s ploy, waiting in the slipstream and pouncing right at the death (and is said to have apologised after the race). In doing so he became the youngest rider to win a stage since Lance Armstrong in 1993 (his pre cancer days).

The day began at an awkward note when the peloton was forced to a halt in the neutral zone by people blocking the road for some kind of a protest. It wasn’t for long though, and when the race director dropped the white flag to start the day’s racing, six men immediately launched into a breakaway. Of the leaders, only Michael Mokrov was close to Cancellara (24” behind him), hence they elicited no response from the main field.

This year’s first crash came early, a mere 11km into the stage when Tony Martin and Robbie Hunter were caught in a fall. Both remounted and continued to finish, with Martin  requiring regular medical attention on his wrist and elbow. He visited a hospital at the end of the day, and according to the team will continue with a plastic cast, but there are doubts if he can risk his body and continue for long (especially with the Olympics just round the corner). The rider brushed away his injuries in his typical fashion, “If necessary I would have come to the finish as the last rider.”

There was a lighter incident at the 24km mark as the leading pack of six had to wait around 45sec for a level crossing. According to the rules, level crossings are considered part of the race and therefore the riders had to build up the gap once again the harder way. This year race organisers have introduced a new rule requiring the leaders of the team classifications to wear yellow helmets. This meant all Sky riders donned yellow lids, and this caused much debate among the riders, commentators and twitterati (with the general consensus being that the organisers had gone a little overboard with the yellow effect, and should revert to just the yellow bibs for the leading team).

For much of the stage, action was limited to the leading pack fighting for points in the “king of the mountains” classification (Mokrov coming out on top eventually) and the intermediate sprint points. Yohann Gene was the first man of the leading six over the green line, and behind him there was a stiff fight among the peloton, with Matt Goss beating hot favourite Mark Cavendish on the day. Both would be happy to collect some points, ahead of all major contenders for the maillot vert.

The breakaway were comfortably reeled in with around 40km to go, thanks majorly to Cancellara’s Radioshack team. There was a big pileup however as an enthusiastic (read stupid) spectator got too close trying to click photographs and clipped a rider. Among those who fell were Valverde, Monfort and Voeckler, thankfully with no injuries sustained. Certainly its is a bit idiotic to see such incidents every year, conversely it is one of the charms of the Tour that fans are able to get up-close to the action like no other sport. They should use this privilege with caution though, lest come a day when we have to watch the race from behind fences as in most motorsports.

The stage finale was a steep 2.5km climb and all top riders were present among the leading bunch; some gunning for a win, while most just ensuring they lost no time on each other. France’s Sylvain Chavanel was the first to attack with under 2km to go, but was pulled in immediately by Albasini. And as the pack was looking towards riders like Gilbert, Sagan and Boasson Hagen to attack, it was Cancellara who shocked one and all by surging ahead with a serious attack.

It was the sheer unpredictability of his move that stupefied everyone but Sagan and Boasson Hagen. The best that home favourite Philippe Gilbert could do was to finish fourth in the wake of the three attackers. Cancellara though was not pleased with Sagan’s poker tactics, and the (debatable) cheeky manner in which he brought up his victory. The Swiss champion tweeted after the day’s events:

Big losers on the day were Sky’s Chris Froome and Euskaltel’s Samuel Sánchez. Froome suffered a late puncture costing him 1’ 25” on the leaders, and while he is working for Wiggins, Sky would still prefer to have two riders in the GC leader board. Sánchez though suffered far worse, finishing a huge 4’ 05” behind Sagan, and his GC hopes are all but over for this year (barring a miracle).

World champion Mark Cavendish too could not sustain the pace on the steep climb and finished 2min in arrears to the leader. His eyes though would be on today’s stage which keeps us in Belgium and is as flat as they come. The solitary category 4 climb is quite early in the stage for it to have no effect on the end, and the finish is all downhill making it  a classic sprinter’s stage. Though I would not risk a prediction today (after Gilbert embarrassed me on stage 1), however it is safe to say that we will definitely get to feast our eyes on a mad dash to the finish. How mad, well that can be gauged by Matt Goss’ statement couple of days back, “Tour de France bunch sprints are always brutal. They could be even more brutal.” Bring it on then…

Jersey Holders

      

General Classification

Maillot Jaune

Fabian Cancellara

Fabian Cancellara

5h 5’ 32”

Maillot Vert

Fabian Cancellara

Bradley Wiggins

5h 5’ 39”

Maillot à Pois Rouges

Michael Morkov

Sylvain Chavanel

5h 5’ 39”

Maillot Blanc

Tejay Van Garderen

Stage Result

  

Team GC

Peter Sagan

4h 58’ 19”

Sky Procylcing

15h 17’ 10”

Fabian Cancellara

4h 58’ 19”

Radioshack-Nissan

15h 17’ 14”

Edvald Boasson Hagen

4h 58’ 19”

BMC Racing Team

15h 17’ 16”

Nicolas Edet

Dossard Rouge

ps: If you want an idea how tough is it to ride a stage in Le Tour, Cancellara’s body language at the end of yesterday’s stage is a good judge (and remember he is nicknamed ‘Spartacus’ for being one of the toughest men on the Tour):

Tour de France 2011 – Stage 17

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Sa majesté le Galibier (which google translates to “His majesty the Galibier”) shouted today’s L’equipe. That pretty much narrates that yesterday’s stage was seen as nothing more than a little inconvenience to be tackled enroute to the monster stages 18 and 19. Wednesday’s route took us into Italy, the only other country part of Le Tour this year, till we return back to France today.

However try telling that to any Norwegian and he won’t care for what is in store. Not when they are celebrating their second consecutive stage victory, this time Edvald Boasson Hagen the winning rider. He came second to compatriot Hushovd only a day ago, and yesterday brought up his second win in this year’s Tour, taking Norway’s tally to four. An amazing feat considering Thor and Edvald are the only two riders from Norway. What kind of success ratio is that, you do the math.

“I wanted to win this stage because I came so close the day before,” said Edvald. “I wanted to get revenge. My team-mates did a good job early on to get me in the break and I felt quite strong all the way.” The Norwegian also brought much-needed joy to Team Sky, who despite the vagaries of their title sponsors are performing better than expected (considering how early they lost their leader Bradley Wiggins).

Stage 17 started from Briançon, which boasts of being the highest city in Europe, and half way across moved into Italy to finish in Pinerolo. Four categorised climbs – highest being a category one – lay spread across the 179km, finishing with a precarious descent labelled ”fatally dangerous” by Andy Schleck.

This was just a day after Contador had set the Tour on fire. He had attacked against common wisdom on stage 16, timing it to perfection and dropping both Schleck brothers in the process. The Luxembourg rider’s concern then seem slightly genuine, because called on to cover any attack today, he (and other riders) would have to take risks on the descent of Côte de Pramartino.

On the road, no one seemed to have faced any problems with the Italian authorities, all passports seemingly in order as the peloton rode over the border climbing up the category-one Sestrières. Ahead of them in the breakaway, Ruben Peréz launched the first attack of the day, racing over the highest peak on the stage in the lead. Too early to hope for a victory, the Spaniard continued nevertheless till Dmitriy Fofonov decided to chase him down.

Attacks continued unabated thereafter. First it was Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel who caught Peréz, but was then caught himself by Boasson Hagen, 2km from the last climb. The Norwegian continued ahead with the assurance of knowing the descent all too well. That credit goes to his mastermind performance director Dave Brailsford who had the Sky rider recce this route twice and look at it further on film, thereby arming him with the best data to consolidate his position.

Behind in the peloton Contador was back to his antics, attacking as surreptitiously as the day before. But this time all his rivals were better prepared, more attentive and neutralized the move immediately. There were no further “moments” till the main group scaled the summit, and then Contador set off again with Sanchez for company.

We did have a crash on the precarious slope as Jonathan Hivert - in his bid to catch up with Boasson Hagen – took a risk too many and misjudged a corner. He was very lucky to have a soft landing and continue with no injuries. Not one to take heed from this, he continued in the same maverick mode, being lucky for a second time as he missed his apex, this time an open parking lot coming to his rescue.

That same little run off zone (parking lot) again proved to be a saving grace very soon as the maillot jaune himself had to take refuge after misjudging the turn. But for the noble soul who thought of leaving the door wide open, we would have had two nasty crashes, one of which could have brought a tragic end to the fight of Thomas Voeckler.

One rider who did not put a wheel wrong was Edvald Boasson Hagen. He continued to the line unchallenged and finished a comfortable 40 seconds ahead of second placed Bauke Mollema of Netherlands. Edvald has impressed everyone this year and Jens Voigt had this to say of the Norwegian on his blog. “Now I have known how good Thor is for a long time, but I don’t even think Edvald knows how good he is yet. He doesn’t know if he wants to be a sprinter, a climber or a time trailer. And the thing is, he’s really good at all of them!”

Contador and Sanchez worked together for the entire descent and seemed to have put in a few seconds between themselves and the Evans + Schleck group. But despite their best efforts, they were caught right on the line with everyone being awarded the same time. Only loser on the day was Voeckler, whose mistakes on the descent eventually costing him 27 seconds.

“Mountain biking is not my specialty,” said Voeckler, but he continues to defiantly hold on to the maillot jaune. Today he has to survive a different beast altogether. As the Tour celebrates the centenary of its first visit to the Alps, the organisers have rewarded us with a gruelling stage consisting of three Hors Catégorie climbs.

It starts with a relatively peaceful 50km till the intermediate sprint, and then all hell breaks loose. First comes the searing Col Agnel peaking at 2744m. Then the slightly lower (2360m), yet equally brutal Col d’Izoard, with its famous Casse Déserte (a barren desert-like patch just before the summit). Finally we have the killer ascent of Col du Galibier, which at 2645m will go in the record books as the highest finish on the Tour – ever.

At the end of the 200km the first man over the line can claim to be the closest descendant of Clark Kent and probably the strongest claimant to the overall victor’s crown. There cannot be any chess moves on such brutal mountains because the amount of suffering these riders will go through won’t leave any room in their mind for “games”. It will be all out racing, hopefully the likes of what we saw at the Tourmalet last year.

This last phase of the Tour has seen incessant action, both among smaller teams and the big guns. Tomorrow is the day everyone had bookmarked in their Tour diary and what the riders dream of. I don’t think any breakaway will have it in them to go all the way to the finish, hence we should see a top rider win the stage, probably after a day of heroics. I can hardly wait. So till tomorrow then…

ps: Stage 17 was one of the most scenic yet, enjoy :)

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Jersey holders:                                                           General Classification:              Maillot Jaune –  Thomas Voeckler                                           Thomas Voeckler – 73h 23’ 49” Maillot Vert –  Mark Cavendish                                                Cadel Evans – 73h 25’ 07”       Maillot à Pois Rouges –  Jelle Vanendert                                 Frank Schleck – 73h 25’ 11”       Maillot Blanc –  Rigoberto Uran

Tour de France 2011 – Stage 14

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“Prepared to wound, but afraid to strike” – perfect metaphor for the mind games played by the top GC contenders on the climb of Plateau de Beille. Well in fairness, Andy Schleck did try four times to break free of the clique, however none of his attempts carried the venom to drop anyone. And when young Jelle Vanendert burst ahead with just under 7km to go, and comfortably claim his maiden stage, it was evident the best were not trying their best.

“On the last climb I saw that Andy was watching Contador a little bit and Contador was watching Frank. I thought that Contador could just answer the attacks of the Schlecks; Evans and Basso are also there for the general classification and it was only me who was not going for the classification so I thought that I could go and try to get an advantage,” said the Belgian later.

Until Saturday, all four past winners here had went on to claim the Tour in Paris. Vanendert surely does not have the capability to maintain that tradition (not since Laurent Fignon in 1983 has anyone won the Tour on his début), but no one can blame him for taking advantage of the mind-games and earn himself a stage victory he had narrowly missed on the summit of Luz-Ardiden. Incidentally he beat Sammy Sanchez to the line, reversing the result of two days ago.

Much was expected of this stage with the clichés like ‘separating the wheat from the chaff’ being used galore. It did begin to shape out well with Leopard Trek yet again trying to break most teams with their vicious pace at the head of the peloton. Their exertions had the desired effect and by the time the last rider of the Luxembourg team had sacrificed himself, the leading pack was down to just twelve men – the Schlecks, Voeckler, Contador, Evans, Jelle Vanendert, Ivan Basso, Jean-Christophe Peraud, Rigoerto Uran, Damiano Cunego and Pierre Rolland.

Soon Andy attacked, and again, and again, and again, but every time to his frustration either Voeckler or Contador jumped up to his wheel almost immediately. By the end both Schleck brothers were quite unhappy with Cadel Evans for his lack of effort in trying to break the defending champion and the maillot jaune, and themselves made no efforts to cover either Vanendert or Sanchez when they broke free.

Andy did vent his frustration right before the end as he sprinted ahead to finish seconds ahead of everyone, gaining more a moral victory than any significant time advantage. As he pumped ahead in the last kilometer, it seemed too little, too late – a scant gain of two seconds should not matter in the final time sheet in Paris, but it can’t hurt his chances and we all know stranger things have happened on the Tour (LeMond pipping Fignon by a mere eight seconds in 1989 comes to mind).

Evans later justified the lack of attacks by him, “It’s under control. Everyone says that no one attacks and so on… but they also need to consider the wind and the closeness of the racing. The Schleck brothers were there and they’ve got the yellow jersey to gain and then they look at me to pull for them. I joke with them, ‘I’m not here to tow you to Paris.’”

But one has to doff his hat to Thomas Voeckler, who fought like a man possessed to keep in touch with the scorching pace being set by these top riders. He was to be the night-watchman (to borrow the phrase from cricket) of the yellow jersey, but not for a moment looked in trouble yesterday (and stands not-out at stumps). Infact to be fair it was mostly him that replied to Schleck Jr’s attacks and rode close to the head of the élite pack all the time.

“I would lie if I said that I expected to keep the jersey but I was more optimistic than I was two days before the Luz Ardiden stage. On the last climb today, I was really surprise [sic] that I was with all the favorites at the end and it was very hard for me but I understand that it was the same for them. I tried to give my all and it was okay,” said the Frenchman who is winning more friends in his home nation than ever before.

There was a bit of humour on the stage as Jens voigt – then part of the chasing pack – failed to take a corner and bounced off the ledge into shrubs. It was a soft fall and the rider was able to continue almost immediately, only to lose his rear wheel almost moments later. Worse than the earlier tumble (though nothing serious) the German seemed completely disgusted, though had no one to blame for it.

He had to forget the chase and fell back to his team for guiding the Schlecks up the final climb of the day. Up in the front was a lone Frenchman again, Sandy Casar, and with the passive infighting between the GC men, it seemed for a brief moment that he might provide the home crowd their first victory in this year’s tour (something team-mate Jeremy Roy so painfully missed out on yesterday).

Sadly history repeated itself and all his bravery came to no avail once Vanendert sprung late on the stage to claim final honours. Another young rider, Colombian Rigoberto Uran of team Sky managed to finish with the Evans group and took over the lead in the white jersey classification, bringing some joy to the British team who have only had bad news in the past week, both on and off the road.

The biggest winner on the day has to be Thomas Voeckler, who – like in 2004 – against all odds has managed to frustrate and surprise everyone by hanging on to yellow. He will stay in the overall lead till atleast stage 17 when the Tour hits the Alps for good. But if he can keep his form and the GC battle continues to be as passive as it is (hope not), he might be within fighting distance even in the individual time trial (not his specialty, but then neither was climbing).

Today’s stage 15 has a completely different profile where his – and the peloton’s – main rival will be the searing heat and crosswinds. Its pretty flat except for a solo catergory-four climb and more of a transition stage as the Tour heads on to the Alps from the Pyrenees. GC contenders will once again ride in the shadow of their teams, only aiming to reach the finish and look forward to a rest day on Monday. This is also the penultimate opportunity for the sprinters to earn some glory, so be prepared for another Cavendish-Greipel-Farrar photo finish. So till tomorrow then…

Jersey holders:                                                      General Classification:            Maillot Jaune –  Thomas Voeckler                                     Thomas Voeckler – 61h 04’ 10”   Maillot Vert –  Mark Cavendish                                          Frank Schleck – 61h 05’ 59”     Maillot à Pois Rouges –  Jelle Vanendert                          Cadel Evans – 61h 06’ 16”             Maillot Blanc –  Rigoberto Uran

ps: No it’s not a pic out of LOTR or any horror flick, it’s Laurens Ten Dam who hit an obstacle and flew over his hand-bars yesterday. No major damage was reported, but this is how he looked as he continued to finish comfortably!!!

Tour de France 2011 – Stage 13

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They don’t call him “god of thunder” for nothing. And thunder struck poor Jérémy Roy, pouring cold water over his – and all French – hopes of a stage victory. Thor Hushovd pulled in a gap of over 90 seconds on the descent after the Col d’Aubisque, treating us with one of the most captivating finish (to an otherwise mundane stage) in recent times.

The Norwegian attacked on the Hors catégorie climb – an unexpected move for any sprinter – and managed to survive till the summit in third place. From thereon it was all downhill and flats (except a slight climb of the Col du Soulor) guiding him towards the stage victory he had targeted since the beginning of the Tour.

“I said throughout the first week that although I had the yellow jersey, I wanted to win a stage while wearing the rainbow jersey. Now that’s happened. Now I’m content,” said the Garmin-Cervelo man. His ninth victory in the Tour de France added a mountain stage to the already existing time trial, sprint wins, escape victories and the pave stage of last year. That is an envious record in itself, even without considering his current (road race) world championship honour.

His chase on those final kilometers would go down in the annals of sport as one of the most thrilling. It will not have an impact at the top end of the general classification, but as far as nail-biting moments go, its right up there with the best attacks. It was a roller coaster ride as Hushovd’s chase seemed to have faltered in the final 15km and Roy managed to keep the gap steady at round 15 seconds, but the big man was only biding his time.

Despite getting no help from David Moncoutie (who probably did not want to become the villain in his nation, helping the Norwegian spoil a French victory), Thor kept pumping solo and made his move with 3km to go. Jumping on the pedals he left Moncoutie for dead and within 800m was up on Roy’s wheel. There was no catching him from there, and even if Roy had not been as exhausted as he was, the Frenchman would never have matched Hushovd in the final sprint.

But one has to feel for the FDJ rider who attacked for the second day in succession. Roy was part of the first breakaway this year and has also led the climb over almost all major summits in this edition. He won the polka dot jersey and most aggressive rider’s award yesterday, but that was scant consolation for losing out on a stage victory.

His pain (both emotional and physical) was clear as he crossed the line in third place, almost apologetic to the vociferous local supporters who were anticipating the first home victory this year. As he tapped his heart with a dejected expression, one wished that the sport could allow for two victors on such days.

“The disappointment is too great. I’ll find it difficult to digest. It doesn’t matter if you win by a little or a lot because it’s only the win that counts. I did not really care about the polka-dot jersey when I went in the break, I wanted the stage win. I know I’m not a great champion and I have to do what I can with my ability, so I try and it still failed.” Despite these comments, he has earned a lot of respect in the past couple of weeks, and along with Philippe Gilbert has been one of the revelations of this year.

Not much else happened on a stage where the top contenders were mostly recuperating from stage 12 and preparing themselves for the rigours of stage 14 today. Attacks were not expected from any team and as things went to plan, Thomas Voeckler managed to stay in yellow for the fourth day running.

There were a few withdrawals, the most high-profile being Andréas Klöden, who dropped out after 30km, unable to continue due to the damage sustained in multiple crashes in the previous days. Also dropping out were Geert Steegmans, Denis Galimzyanov, Vladimir Isaichev,and Lars Boom, leaving the tour with 171 survivours.

The intermediate sprint saw green jersey holder Mark Cavendish caught unawares and pipped to the line by Jose Rojas. The Manxman was not impressed and gesticulated at the Movistar rider to display his frustration of having lost a point to his nearest rival.

There was no further action till the sluggish peloton pedalled over the Aubisque, though on the descent Philippe Gilbert launched yet another attack. Catching the leaders was not a possibility, but the Belgian aimed to collect a few extra points for the green jersey classification. He made it home in tenth place inching closer to Cavendish, and going by the omens, its highly likely we will see the fight for the green jersey right till the final sprint stage in Paris.

But the sprinter everyone is talking of right now is the two-time winner of the maillot vert, Thor Hushovd, who finished miles ahead of his corresponding rivals. Even Cavendish himself admired the world champion’s efforts, “Thor is winning some incredible races now. He’s an incredible rider. You could see he was aggressive all day, even at the beginning when the race was full on, he was always in the breaks and then he finally got away and although the climb wasn’t for him – it was going to be hard – but with the shape he’s in it wasn’t going to be too difficult for him.”

Today will not be a day for him, nor Cavendish, and maybe not even for the current maillot jaune. It is the last of the big Pyrenean stages and the ground for the GC battle to resume – with enhanced vigour. There are six tough tests: the Col de Portet-d’Aspet, the Col de la Core, the Col de Latrape, the Col d’Agnes, the Port de Lers and the finish at the Plateau de Beille.

While none of these has the venom of the Tourmalet or the upcoming Galibier, however their cumulative effect will ensure that only the sternest survive. The finish of Plateau de Beille holds a special place, as every rider who has previously won here has gone on to win the Tour that year.

We should witness similar destruction as caused on the Tourmalet by Leopard Trek. But this time the hard work might be done by Saxo bank as Contdaor needs to pull time back soon. It will be a tough day for everyone, particularly for the team of the GC contenders, who will have to sacrifice themselves trying to break the other teams.

Based on current form Cadel Evans and Frank Schleck look the strongest of all, but I would not be surprised if both Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador have kept their cards close to the chest. All I can hope is for history to repeat itself and the man coming out ahead today go on to win the Tour. I say so to prevent the possibility of a repeat of last year, where Contador won overall honours without having a single stage to his name. Most of all I hope that unlike the chess-moves of Thursday, today should be the day of a classic Tour attack. So till tomorrow then…

Jersey holders:                                                      General Classification:

Maillot Jaune –  Thomas Voeckler                                     Thomas Voeckler – 55h 49’ 57”   Maillot Vert –  Mark Cavendish                                          Frank Schleck – 55h 51’ 46”     Maillot à Pois Rouges –  Jérémy Roy                                 Cadel Evans – 55h 52’ 03”             Maillot Blanc –  Arnold Jeannesson

Tour de France 2011 – Stage 12

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Lot was expected from Stage 12 and its two monster climbs, who as always rose to the occasion (pun intended) and helped clear the mist surrounding the GC contenders. By the end of the day Cadel Evans and Schleck Sr came out as the strongest men on the Tour this year, while Andy and Alberto failed to make an impression.

Defending champion Contador in particular looked in trouble and was dropped by the other leaders in the final kilometer of the day. The Spaniard is not used to such reversals on his own ground – the mountains – and is more accustomed to leaving broken riders in his wake. But even as he finished a lowly eighth behind compatriot and stage winner Samuel Sanchez, many around the world will be eager to see if and how he bounces back.

After a long drawn game of cat and mouse the Schleck brothers finally made their attack with 4km left to go on the last climb of the day. In their trademark “one-two” attacks, the duo from Luxembourg tested Contador, Evans, Basso and maillot jaune Voeckler. These short attacks were enough to filter the peloton to just about 15 riders, but fell short of seriously breaking any top contender.

Finally Frank made an attack stick couple of kilometers short of the line and with the GC contenders behind him in no mood to chase, embarked on a solo effort to catch the leading duo of Sanchez and Vanendert. Schleck did come tantalizing close to taking the lead, but the reigning Olympic champion had just enough in him to sprint ahead and take a deserved victory.

Despite all this man of the hour was Thomas Voeckler, who on Fête Nationale brought joy to the locals by fighting hard to keep his leader’s jersey. L’Équipe called him “The Lion” praising him for the pride and spirit shown on a day where no one was particularly confident of him staying in touch with the big names.

Voeckler had team-mate and compatriot Pierre Roland to thank, who stayed with him all the way till the end. Though he did lose a few seconds towards the finish as Evans chased Frank Schleck, but was safe by then to make sure the maillot jaune stayed under French possession on Bastille day. Quatorze Juillet is one of the main holiday in France and ensured there were in excess of a hundred thousand spectators lining the roads of Tourmalet and Luz-Ardiden.

They were treated to some wonderful display of high tempo pedalling and did their best to spur on the beleaguered riders. Its near impossible to find a parallel for spectator interaction in any modern sport compared to a mountain top finish at the Tour de France. BBQ’s and parties on the side of the road, the Gendarmerie trying to control thousands of fans who don’t take them seriously, helicopters buzzing overhead, the roar of the crowd getting louder as the riders approach - it’s all surreal.

Fans have access to run along with their heroes and many times get into their faces – literally. Its also mesmerizing to see in today’s hi-tech world of sport for top professionals to borrow newspapers from road side fans to use as wind protection during the chilly descent of the mountain. I would strongly suggest for anyone reading this to add “attending a mountain stage of Le Tour” on his/her bucket list. Take my word for it, you will fall in love (if still in doubt, see the gallery below).

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Sanchez’s move on the day was definitely premeditated; speaking to the official website before the start he declared his intentions to, “follow them [GC contenders] and try to win the stage win, this is the main objective of the team.” Tour newbie Jelle Vanendert of Belgium however did not make it easy for the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider and pushed him right till the end. The reward for the duo’s tenacious performance was the best stage finish of their careers.

There were memorable performances also from Jérémy Roy and Geraint Thomas who were the two riders to scale the Tourmalet before anyone. While Roy won the Prix Jacques Goddet for being the first over the top, Thomas earned himself the award for the most aggressive rider on the day. He later expressed his ignorance about the €5,000 on offer to the first man over Tourmalet, “Five thousand euros? No wonder he [Roy] went for it. You can buy a lot of beer with that.”

The Brit rider from team Sky had his brush with disaster yet again as he slid while taking a tight right hand bend during the first descent seeming to have lost the back wheel. He chose to tumble over the grass rather than drop over the edge and the timely reaction saved him from a lot of pain. He remounted only to hit the grass again a couple of corners later, but such is the perseverance of these riders that he brushed himself up and moved on to lead the next climb.

The peloton behind also struggled on exactly the same corner as Thomas had, and while Voeckler managed to escape with a wobble, Andréas Klöden took a rough fall that pretty much killed any hopes he might have had to attack on the Hors catégorie (HC) climbs.

Team Leopard Trek of the Schleck brothers turned the screws almost from the beginning of the second climb of the day. With their pace bordering on the brutal, riders kept dropping off the main bunch as dead leaves off a tree. The intention was to break as many teams as possible, but in the process the Schlecks lost all of their team except the perennial workhorse Jens Voigt.

If climbing in the Pyrenees is tough physically, the descent is equally taxing on skill. Leading duo of Roy and Thomas were recorded descending at a speed of 97km/h! Maintaining these manic speeds downhill on tricky hair pin infested roads requires immense concentration, bike handling skill and loads of luck. A little flinch, misjudged apex or technical snag could lead to horrifying accidents, but thankfully we saw none of that yesterday.

Despite their heroics both leaders were caught on the last climb and passed by the eventual winners and all GC contenders. The shadow boxing by the top men definitely caused ripples in the standings but could not prompt the tectonic shifts one would have hoped for. Voeckler probably fought the hardest just to stay in touch and that should have taken a lot out of him. Despite his exertions today’s stage should not trouble him enough to lose the leadership of the Tour.

Not that the Col d’Aubisque (today’s only serious climb) is easy, but the finish is some distance from the summit, all 30km of it downhill. Hence we should not see any major attacks, and any rider losing time on the climb will have opportunity to limit his damage on the descent (especially as no GC contender will risk too much going down). It is a relative – repeat relative – break because stage 14 is another sapping day in the mountains. Expect a specialist breakaway to win the stage, similar to what Sanchez did yesterday; someone who is not high in the standings yet has the ability to climb. So till tomorrow then…

ps: for anyone who missed out yesterday, check out the wonderful gallery of Col du Tourmalet over its 101 years of association with the Tour.

Jersey holders:                                                      General Classification:

Maillot Jaune –  Thomas Voeckler                                     Thomas Voeckler – 51h 54’ 44”   Maillot Vert –  Mark Cavendish                                          Frank Schleck – 51h 56’ 33”     Maillot à Pois Rouges –  Samuel Sanchez                         Cadel Evans – 51h 56’ 50”              Maillot Blanc –  Arnold Jeannesson