Today's stage: Rainy sprint stage before the mountains begin tomorrow
Who won the stage? Mark Cavendish (HTC-High Road) won another sprint for his third stage win of this year's Tour de France. He outsprinted Andre Griepel at the line, returning the favor after yesterday's defeat.
What matters in the GC race? Like yesterday, there was no change. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) continues to lead over Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank). The real contenders stayed safely in the peloton preparing for tomorrows first foray into the high mountains. For them, the real race starts tomorrow.
What matters in the other competitions?
Green Jersey (best sprinter): Previous leader Philippe Gilbert (Omega-Pharma Lotto) was nowhere to be found in the sprint and surrendered his lead in the competition. Cavendish is now the leader and JJ Rojas (Movistar) is still second with Gilbert down to third.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains): Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) still holds the jersey, but after the horrible crash, his objective is nothing more than get to Paris and finish the race. The contenders will reveal themselves tomorrow with high mountains on tap.
White Jersey (best young rider): Still no changes as Robert Gesink (Rabobank) continues to lead and feel better after his early race crash. Gesink fancies himself an overall contender so we will see tomorrow what kind of shape he is in.
Biggest surprise: Gilbert was nowhere to be found in the sprint. This was a pure sprinters stage and Gilbert is more of a classics guy who can sprint at times. He finished in the bunch surrendering the green jersey.
Biggest disappointment: This stage was rather dull like yesterday. With the mountains starting so late, this still feels like the first week of the tour even though we are halfway through week 2.
Other items of note: We lost another rider as John Gadret (Ag2r) did not take the start today because of fatigue. He probably should not have been in this race after his incredible Giro d'Italia in May where he won a mountain stage and finished fourth overall. Asking him to ride the Tour was ambitious at best and totally foolhardy at worst...There are eight teams remaining with all nine riders including Leopard-Trek, Saxo Bank, Liquigas and BMC of the GC favorites...There are a couple of probable sprint stages remaining in the tour. One on Sunday and the final stage next Sunday along with a hilly sprint transfer stage on Tuesday that the classics guys like Gilbert may have a shot at with a late Cat 2 climb.
What is coming tomorrow? High mountains, finally. Into the Pyrenees finally. The stage finish is at Luz-Ardiden, one of the more famous and difficult climbs in the Pyrenees. In addition, the peloton also has to summit the Col du Toumalet before that. The riders should know this climb well after summiting it twice last year. Between tomorrow and the Plateau de Belle stage on Saturday, we will know who the real favorites are.
 |
| Luz-Ardiden |
 |
| Col du Tourmalet |
No comments:
Post a Comment