Today's stage: The traditional
transition stage leaving one of the big mountain ranges and headed to
the other.
Who won today's stage? David
Millar (Garmin-Sharp) won a two-up sprint against Jean-Christophe
Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale) after the two of them and three others
escaped early on the two big climbs to start the day.
What matters in the GC race?
Nothing, nothing at all. Everyone finished in a bunch nearly 8
minutes behind the breakaway. No movement on this stage.
What matters in other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) – Matt
Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) beat Peter Sagan (Liquigas) in a sprint for
6th place to cut a few points off of Sagan's lead. Sagan
still leads the competition though. UPDATE: Goss was relegated for cutting Sagan off making Sagan's lead huge in this competition. That is a big swing of points.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains) – No changes here. The breakaway absorbed all the
major points along the way and nobody really cared to go for the
lesser points on the early category one climbs after emptying the
tank yesterday. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) retains the polka dots.
White Jersey (Best Young Rider)
– Tejay van Garderen (BMC) still leads Thiabult Pinot (FDJ) by
1'54”. To update from yesterday, Rein Taaramae is now 3rd
in this category (he was still on the road when I posted yesterday).
He is now 23'50” behind van Garderen.
Team Classification (Calculated by
adding the three best times on each team each day) – RSNT still
leads by over 12 minutes. The only threat will be from Team Sky if
their Time Trialers who slow pedaled in the first TT go all out in
the final TT.
Biggest surprise: No surprises.
This was destined to be a breakaway and it was. Those two early
category one climbs made it so.
Biggest disappointment: There
was no chase by the sprinters. On stages like this, it gets really
dull really quick if the sprinters don't want to chase and after
Peter Sagan was was brought back to the group by Matt Goss and
Orica-GreenEdge, there was no need to chase. Nobody wanted to use the
energy on a non-sure thing and tomorrow is a sure sprint stage.
Other items of note: Millar's
win salvaged a miserable Tour for Garmin where nothing had gone right
(owing mostly to that huge crash on stage six). Now Rabobank and
Vacansoleil are the big losers of this Tour. Rabobank is now down to
four riders after more abandonments overnight. As for Vacansoleil,
they are down to five but expectations weren't nearly as high. Their
young rider Wout Poels who was seriously injured in the stage 6 crash
was transferred back to the Netherlands today and remains in stable
condition. For these three crash-riddle teams, there are different
goals upcoming. Garmin already got its huge win for the season at the
Giro d'Italia, winning the overall with Ryder Hesjedal (who abandoned
the Tour after the stage 6 crash). Vacansoleil head to the Vuelta
bringing Thomas de Ghent, 3rd overall and the Queen Stage
winner at the Giro. Meanwhile, Rabobank's season is in shambles. They
were not up to par in the Ardennes classics including the home Amstel
Gold and they put all their Grand Tour eggs in the Tour and they all
cracked in the crash. Now they head to the Vuelta and need everything
to go well to salvage their season. Gesink will be there and I expect
Mollema will be there as well. Still, this season has been a mess for
them.
What is coming tomorrow?
Sprinter stage and they won't let the breakaway get away entirely
with so few breakaway chances.
Tomorrow's prediction: 1. Andre
Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) 2. Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) 3. Mark
Cavendish (Team Sky)
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