Today's stage: Big mountains and
a major GC battle. Descent finish.
Who won today's stage? Thomas
Voeckler (Europcar) went into the breakaway looking for King of the
Mountains points. He got a bunch of those and then dropped his
companions one by one over the climbs until going solo on the final
climb and descending home for his second stage win of this year's
Tour.
What matters in the GC race? No
changes in the podium. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) attacked three
separate times out of the GC group and shed everyone, except the two
guys he needed to shed: leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) and his
second place domestique Chris Froome. Most notably behind, Cadel
Evans (BMC) was dropped on both of the final two climbs and lost over
4 minutes. He will remain in the top 10 as Janez Brajkovic (Astana),
Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar) were all dropped by
the second GC group led by Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol). Van
den Broeck is now 4th overall followed by Haimar Zubeldia
(RSNT), Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and Evans.
What matters in other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) – No
changes, but that doesn't matter. As long as Peter Sagan (Liquigas)
remains in the race, he will win this category.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains) – Voeckler was in the break for the KoM points, and
he got enough of them to take the lead from Fredrik Kessiakoff
(Astana). The lead is only four points though with another huge
mountain stage tomorrow.
White Jersey (Best Young Rider)
– With Pinot dropped, Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) made his lead nearly
insurmountable unless he explodes tomorrow. Still, this is a head to
head battle.
Team Classification (Calculated by
adding the three best times on each team each day) – Even
without Frank Schleck (out of the Tour after doping positive), RSNT
extended its lead in the team competition. They now lead Sky by over
17 minutes and look likely to extend that lead again tomorrow before
surrendering at least some of the lead back to Sky on the Saturday
time trial.
Biggest surprise: The GC attacks
were saved for the end. The big climbs of the Aubisque and the
Tourmalet were early, possibly too early for an attack given the
strength of Team Sky. Still, it was a surprise that nobody tried
anything on the Col du Aspin to try and shed some Sky domestiques as
there were so many remaining on the Aspin that there was no hope of
dropping the Sky leadership on the final climb.
Biggest disappointment: Nibali
couldn't make any of his attacks stick. Everybody else either didn't
have the legs or had no desire to go. Nibali has obviously been one
of the strongest guys in this race, but he has had no help in his
attacks to stop the Sky train and today was no exception.
Other items of note: The
breakaway today started as a ridiculous 38 riders. Expect the same
tomorrow has Sky has no real reason to chase any breaks at this point
in the race... There was no obvious on road fall out after the Frank
Schleck positive test other than Schleck not being on the road...
With Voeckler's win, he became the first non-Sprint double stage winner of the
Tour this year. I suspect Bradley Wiggins will join him in the time
trial on Saturday (especially with Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin
no longer in the race)
What is coming tomorrow? Another
short climbing stage like the one to La Toussuire. This one also has
a summit finish and is the last chance to remake the GC before the
time trial on Saturday.
Tomorrow's prediction: Don't ask
me. Sky lets breakaways go everyday and predicting that correctly is
like trying to win a roulette with one number.
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