Today's stage: A true medium
mountain stage. Seven climbs (only the final climb a category 1) and
not a summit finish meant possible breakaway.
Who won today's stage? 22-year
old Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) was the only breakaway survivor holding off
the favorites and breakaway mate Tony Gallopin (RSNT) by 26 seconds
to take his first career stage win.
What matters in the GC race? The
top three remain unchanged. It's Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) in the
yellow jersey followed by Cadel Evans (BMC) and Vincenzo Nibali
(Liquigas). Former 4th place Rein Taaramae (Cofidis)
didn't recover well after emptying the tank yesterday and dropped
time today. He now trails by over 2 minutes. Other than the leaders,
Denis Menchov (Katusha) and Haimar Zubledia (RSNT) are the only ones
who remain within a minute of the lead.
What matters in other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) – With
the intermediate sprint points after five climbs with two more to go,
the sprinters were shed early especially with a lot of attacks being
unleashed by stage hunters all day long.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains) – Some of the stage hunters today were not really
stage hunters. They were looking for spots. The result was a new
leader, Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), who leads former lead Chris
Froome (Team Sky) by a point. This category will most likely go to a
fringe GC contender in the end, someone finishing in the bottom of
the top 10 who is there on all the climbs but not able take the time
needed to get back into the race.
White Jersey (Best Young Rider)
– While Taaramae lost time GC and here, he still leads this
competition. Still, it is by only 46 seconds over Gallopin and 1' 14”
over stage-winner Pinot.
Team Classification (Calculated by
adding the three best times on each team each day) – And
finally Sky is rid of the yellow helmets. Those ugly, horrifying
things pass on to RSNT tomorrow as that team now leads by nearly
three minutes after the 3rd Sky rider finished nearly five
minutes behind on today's stage.
Biggest surprise: Only one
breakaway rider was able to survive. This day looked like a breakaway
festival and the peloton agreed with 20 riders getting into the
initial breakaway. Still, only one man survived to beat the GC
favorites group to the finish with one other finishing in the
favorites group.
Biggest disappointment: No time
gaps. If the breakaway didn't survive, it was because of possible
attacks from the GC men. That didn't really happen as the GC men just
grinded down everyone else until there was a small, select group
remaining.
Other items of note: There was
another abandonment because of a crash and it was a big one.
Defending Olympic champion and Euskatel leader Samuel Sanchez was
forced to abandon and, more important than his Tour de France
campaign, his ability to ride in the Olympics and defend his title is
in serious doubt... In the team abandonment sections, Euskatel and
Garmin-Sharp have been decimated. Euskatel is down to five riders and
Garmin six with neither of them having any threat to the top 40 in
the race. The highest placed Garmin rider is Dan Martin in 69th
place while the highest placed Euskatel rider is Jorge Azanza in 78th
place... In the other race going, Jakob Fuglsang (RSNT) finished off
his win in the Tour of Austria today. It is a big win for Fuglsang, a
rider soon to be leaving RSNT for some other team in the offseason.
What is coming tomorrow? Time
trial. The day when Wiggins and Evans assert their authority even
more so, at least that is the pre-race script.
Tomorrow's prediction: 1. Fabian
Cancellara (RSNT) 2. Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) 3. Cadel Evans (BMC)
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