Tour de France Stage 13 Review - Greipel survives to sprint for victory...again

Today's stage: Another transition stage along the Mediterranean coast, this one expected to end in a sprint.

Who won today's stage? Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) got himself over the very difficult cat. 3 climb (it was short but the average gradient was over 10%) in range of the leaders, ws apced back to the group and then beat Peter Sagan (Liquigas) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky) in the sprint.

What matters in the GC race? No changes. All the top guys finished with the front group while many others were dropped. No changes as the Sky combo of Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome are still 1-2.

What matters in other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – After Matt Goss' (Orica-GreenEdge) penalty, he was dropped on the climb today. With Sagan finishing second on the stage, this competition is nearly over in favor of Sagan.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – No changes here again with only one climb today. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) still leads. Tomorrow has a cat. 2 and two cat. 1's in a possible breakaway stage. This means someone far down on the GC like Kessiakoff could go in the breakaway and get a load of points tomorrow.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider) – No changes here either. Tejay van Garderen (BMC) still leads over Thiabult Pinot (FDJ).

Team Classification (Calculated by adding the three best times on each team each day) – Considering the top six teams had the same time today, there was no change here. RSNT still leads Team Sky by 12 minutes.

Biggest surprise: Bradley Wiggins on the front of the lead out train. Wiggins is the yellow jersey. It's not often you see him leading out a teammate looking for a stage win and while Edvald Boasson Hagen didn't finish the win off, it was still a nice gesture from Wiggins to give his teammate an opportunity.

Biggest disappointment: Where were the other sprinters? This stage was supposed to be a sprint battle royale in between the mountains, but that climb that Greipel and Sagan got over shed everyone else. Sagan is the best climber among the sprinters so him getting over was expected. But Greipel is an awful climber. If he can get over, everyone else should have managed to be close enough to bridge back as well.

Other items of note: Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) was also paying back a teammate with some extra work. Van den Broeck sits 5^th on GC, but he helped close down a short attack in the final kilometers for his teammate Greipel... Over the next few days, we are likely to see a few more abandonments along the way with more mountains. Tomorrow is a high mountain transitional stage again and Monday is mostly flat Wednesday and Thursday are both beastly stages in the Pyrenees.

What is coming tomorrow? The opposite of yesterday with a similar result. Breakaway will stay away after an early small climb and two late category 1 climbs that are too far to make a difference for the GC riders.

Tomorrow's prediction: 1. Jeremy Roy (FDJ) 2. Jerome Pineau (OPQS) 3. Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana)

Tour de France Stage 10 - Voeckler claims Spots and the Stage

Today’s Stage: The first foray into the high mountains, but a likely breakaway stage

Who won today’s stage? Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) got himself in the early breakaway and then attacked constantly up the Grand Colombier, dropping most of the breakaway that had a whopping 25 riders in it to start. Then Voeckler attacked in the final kilometer, winning a very slow sprint to the line from a reduced group that included Michele Scarponi (Lampre), Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank), Dries Deveryns (OPQS) and Jens Voigt (RSNT).

What matters in the GC race? Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) attacked on the final descent in an attempt to help his standing but made no real gains. His attack did spring RSNT to the front to protect the interests of Haimar Zubeldia and Maxime Monfort, giving Bradley Wiggins and his Team Sky teammates a rest after they used a ton of energy to chase down an attacking Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas).

What matters in other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Both Peter Sagan (Liquigas) and Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) got themselves in the large breakaway and both got to the sprint point just before the Grand Colombier. Goss won the sprint and Sagan was 3^rd leaving Sagan’s lead at 232-205.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Voeckler won the Grand Colombier climb with its huge 25 point cache at the top and also takes the lead in the King of the Mountains in addition to his stage win. He now leads previous leader Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) and breakmate Scarponi by seven points.

White Jersey (Best Young Rider) – Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) finished with the GC group while leader Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) finished just behind. This lowered the gap between them to 25 seconds with van Garderen still leading.

Team Classification (Calculated by adding the three best times on each team each day) – RSNT extended its lead over Team Sky to 4’ 58”. More importantly, RSNT is one of the two teams that didn’t bring those silly looking yellow helmets that Team Sky was forced to wear the whole first week. Therefore, they don’t have to look stupid like Sky did.

Biggest surprise: The attacks flew from the GC guys today. The summit of the Grand Colombier was a long way from the finish. That didn’t stop Van den Broeck from attacking on its upper slopes or Nibali from attacking on the descent. While both were reeled in, Van den Broeck attacked again later and made up 30 second on all of his GC rivals.

Biggest disappointment: RSNT did some of the chasing for Team Sky. In an effort to protect Monfort and Zubeldia, RSNT did a good chunk of the chase on the final run-in to the finish with Frank Schleck and Chris Horner on the front. This also gave Team Sky’s tired pacesetters a break, most likely much to the chagrin of Cadel Evans led BMC and Vincenzo Nibali lead Liquigas.

Other items of note: Tony Martin (OPQS) finally abandoned the race after all of his crashes and horrible luck through the early part of the tour. Martin will heal and rest before the Olympics…  In the annual rest day scandal, Remy di Gregorio (Cofidis) was arrested yesterday and ejected from the race. First thought, as is usual in this sport, is doping, but nobody knows for sure and the rumor going around is that de Gregorio was involved in some sort of cocaine ring.

What is coming tomorrow? Mountain pain. This is where the Tour really ratchets up the intensity. Two beyond category climbs (why on Earth is the sprint point after a HC climb though I guess it had to be somewhere) followed by a Cat. 2 and then a cat. 1 finish atop La Toussuire, famous for the Floyd Landis bonk in 2006.

Tomorrow’s prediction: 1. Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) 2. Cadel Evans (BMC) 3. Chris Froome (Team Sky)