Today's stage: A seemingly
innocent looking procession to a bunch sprint finish (it was a bunch
sprint, it wasn't an innocent procession).
Who won today's stage? Peter
Sagan (Liquigas) came around Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) at the end
to take the bunch sprint and his 3rd stage win of the
race. Notably missing from the sprint was Mark Cavendish (Team Sky)
who was caught behind the massive crash that occurred 25-30 km from
the end of the stage.
What matters in the GC race? The
current leaders didn't change much. Fabian Cancellara (RSNT) still
leads the race by 7 seconds over Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) and
Sylvain Chavanel (OPQS). Below all of that though, the GC field was
decimated as many were caught in the crash. The first chase group
lost around two minutes today That group included Bauke Mollema
(Rabobank), Jani Brajkovic (Astana), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar),
Michele Scarponi (Lampre), Frank Schleck (RSNT) and Pierre Rolland
(Europcar). Another 1-2 minutes later, Rabobank teammates Robert
Gesink and Steven Kruiswijk came home. Considering that, Rabobank's
hopes for this race and probably the season are shot now. Still, the
biggest losers on the day were Garmin-Sharp. GC leader and Giro
d'Italia winner Ryder Hesjedal lost over 13 minutes, but then again
so did the entire team other than Dave Zabriskie (he was in the
breakaway). The Garmin roster that was looking for GC success is not
searching for that any longer. Hesjedal is still the team leader on
GC in 108th place, 13' 38” behind.
As for those who managed to stay
upright after the massive pile up, they are still in good GC shape,
all six of them (this may not be an exaggeration). Wiggins is still
2nd overall. Defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC) is still
in the top 10. Former Giro and double Vuelta winner Denis Menchov
(Katusha) is also in the top 10 as is 2010 Vuelta and twice Giro
podium finisher Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas). Further down among GC
contenders, Samuel Sanchez (Euskatel), Jurgen Van Den Broeck
(Lotto-Belisol) and Levi Leipheimer (OPQS) remain within a minute of
the lead. With all of this, the overall standings will be turned
upside down again tomorrow. There are mountains and a summit finish
tomorrow.
What matters in other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) – Sagan
extended his lead by taking the stage victory. He now leads Matt Goss
(Orica-GreenEdge) by 31 points and Greipel by 42 points. Cavendish is
much further back and, in all likelihood, out of the green jersey
chase. Let the Olympic prep begin.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains) – With only one category 4 climb today, Michael
Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) retained the jersey. Tomorrow brings the
likely end of his run as the stage winner is likely to overtake
Morkov unless he can get himself in the break again.
White Jersey (Best Young Rider)
– Tejay van Garderen (BMC) retained his white jersey finishing with
the main group. Former second place Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky)
was caught behind the crash and finished with the Schleck group over
2 minutes down. Sagan has improved to second though he will likely
drop tomorrow. In third is Rein Taaramae (Cofidis). Taaramae is a
real threat having held the white jersey for much of last year's tour
having won a mountain stage at the Vuelta last year as well.
Team Classification (Calculated by
adding the three best times on each team each day) – The bunch
sprint finish meant no changes at the top. Team Sky is still the
leader followed by RSNT 4 seconds behind. The big news here is the
fall of Garmin-Sharp. The defending champion in this classification
lost a ton of time today even with Zabriskie in the breakaway and now
sits last, over 35 minutes behind.
Biggest surprise: Sagan's sprint
win. While Sagan had won the uphill finishes so far, he had not shown
the same top end speed as the other sprinters. This left him with a
ton of green jersey points, but nothing to show on the flat lands.
Today should have been more of the same, but Cavendish wasn't around
to contest the sprint and Greipel wasn't quite full strength after
crashing twice during the stage. Still, beating a slightly weakened
Greipel and full strength Goss with the Lotto leadout train also in
play is a shock.
Biggest disappointment: The
giant crash and the end of Garmin-Sharp and Rabobank, at least as far
as GC goes. For Rabobank, if riders are healthy after hitting the
tarmac (and that's a big question considering their team director
said it's like a MASH unit on the team bus right now), expect an
aggressive bunch searching for stage wins and animating the race in
the mountains trying to get back into the race. On GC, the three
Rabobank GC hopes all still have top 10 aspirations even if winning
or the podium is unlikely at best.
For Garmin, the questions are numerous.
The first is if there are any medical supplies left since the entire
team except for Zabriskie has been on the tarmac at least once (their
team says the bus is like a hospital). Among the crash victims, Tom
Danielson abandoned after hitting the ground hard (he was already
riding injured after an earlier crash). Tyler Farrar hit the deck
again. That is five times in seven days of racing. Johan van Summeren
looked like he had been in a bar fight when he finished. And
everybody else on the team roster was scraped up from the
crash.Second is the refocus the goal. Dan Martin wanted to win the
King of the Mountains and that seems a viable possibility if he's
healthy enough to climb since the GC leaders won't worry about
marking him if he is up the road (similar to Jelle Vanendert last
year who was six minutes down and attacked for high mountain points
and stage wins). Also, Hesjedal will want to get a stage win if
nothing else as he still does not have one in his tour career.
Remember that last year Hesjedal was in the breakaway a couple of
times on medium mountain stages after losing time and was leading the
race up Alpe d'Huez early on the climb.
Other items of note: There were
four abandonments from the crash today. There was Danielson of
course, but also Wout Poels (Vacansoleil), Davide Vigano (Lampre) and
Mikel Astarloza (Euskatel). I suspect there will be more tomorrow in
the form of either non-starters after the crash or those who can't
hack the climbing because of their injuries.
What is coming tomorrow? The
mountains, kind of. I say kind of because the stage is two category 3
climbs and then a category 1 summit finish. It is not the continuous
mountain insanity that is coming later
Tomorrow's prediction: 1. Jerome
Coppel (Saur-Sojasun) 2. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) 3. Chris Horner
(RSNT)
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