All… for the Love of Bikes

Another win for the French team, Europcar. The small team (continental team) that could and did.

Stage 11 was a tough stage albeit short, at least by Tour standards – 92 miles long, but 40 of those miles were uphill – 15,000 feet of climbing on the 2 HC (beyond category- most difficult) climbs, a category 2 and a category 1. Just another day at the office for most of these guys.

There were attacks and counter-attacks from the start. A break of 26 riders had formed at 30 kilometers out on the first climb, the Col de la Madeleine . Several of the teams had more than 1 rider in the break, there were big names there like yesterday – Gesink, Valverde, Horner, Leipheimer and BMC riders, Burghart and Gilbert. It was good to see Garmin-Sharp’s climber, Martin also there.

Team Europcar had 3 riders in the break and immediately went to the front to set the pace, presumably for the guy most likely to win the stage – Rolland. Once they went to the front and turned up the pace, riders started dropping off the back – among them Gesink, Rabobank’s leader and Gilbert, BMC’s disappointment.

Meanwhile back in the peloton, Boasson Hagen was at the front driving the Sky train. By the looks of the size of the main group the pace wasn’t too high. Sprinter extraordinaire, Sagan was also there to soldier on for his Liquigas leader, Nibali. If a sprinter can hang on a HC climb, even Sagan, the pace isn’t blistering fast.

It was too fast however, for the polka-dot jersey wearer, Voeckler, who was struggling to maintain contact with the main field.

At the summit of the Madeleine, Astana’s Kessiakoff, previous mountain jersey holder, raced Peter Velits to the top for the points – Velits crossed 1st (25pts), Kessiakoff 2nd (20), and Kern 3rd (16). On the descent Kessiakoff and Velits opened a small gap but a small chasing break including Rolland, Valverde, and Scarponi quickly caught them and then they were all caught by the remainder of the break (minus a few riders).

Then it was on to the next climb, the Col de la Croix de Fer, another HC category. The race was taking its toll, three riders abandoned – Westra (Vacansoleil), Mollema (Rabobank) and sprinter, Renshaw. As predicted, Cancellara did abandon prior to the start.

At the front of the leading group Europcar was driving a hard pace. If you didn’t know it before it was certainly clear now – they were setting Rolland up to win the stage. I mentioned Rolland in my predictions for Stage 11 yesterday.

The main group descended the Madeleine with Tour leader Bradley Wiggins and teammates in front, there was no attack by Evans or Nibali. As they started the 2nd climb, Wiggins had 4 teammates protecting him. Cadel Evans (BMC) 2nd overall, must have been happy with 3 teammates along side of him.

With 64k to go, Evans and teammate Van Garderen attacked Wiggins. Van Garderen went first and Evans followed. Neither Nibali nor Sky pursued but Sky turned up the pace causing riders to drop off the back – and the peloton got smaller.

It was a great plan and execution, but Evans didn’t have the legs to follow through. He had difficulty staying on Van Garderen’s wheel and it became obvious, they were going nowhere except back under control of the Wiggins group.

Evans rejoined Wiggins, et al, with perhaps the thought that  he would save any remaining matches he had for an attack on the last climb of the day. Van Garderen appeared to be in no difficulty on the attack, but he stayed alongside Evans (as he should) as they continued up the Col de la Croix with the Wiggins group.

While all the excitement was occurring with the heads of state, there was a tightening of the screws by Europcar’s Kern as he was just relentless setting a high pace where only a few riders in the break could stay with them (among them Horner and Martin) – further selection occurring both in the break and the peloton. That is the nature of a day like today.

Rolland and Kessiakoff sprinted to the summit, Kessiakoff narrowly edged Rolland for the first points and the bonus of 5000 euros for the highest finish. Initially Rolland was awarded first because referees felt Kessiakoff interfered with Rolland but they reversed their decision and Kessiakoff received first.

On the descent Rolland went down in a turn, but quickly remounted and with moves that would have scared his mother to death, caught the two leaders (Kiserlovski and Kiryienka) near the start of the last climb.

Rolland and Kiserlovski were caught by Sorensen and Velits, the gap to the main field of Wiggins and company was coming down – under 3 minutes at that point.

Worried that they would be caught by the peloton Rolland made a hard attack quickly getting a gap on the remaining riders about 14k from the finish.

Back in the Wiggins group, Vanden Broeck, Brajkovic and Pinot attacked and got a gap. Nibali soon followed and put several seconds into Wiggins before they caught him and pulled him back.

Nibali attacked again, Froome and Wiggins pursued, Evans and Van Garderen stayed with them.  Momentarily it was too much for Froome, he dropped off which left Wiggins to take care of himself. Finally! Wiggins was isolated, or so it seemed.

Wiggins pursued Nibali on his own with Evans and Van Garderen in tow, but quickly Froome managed to get back to the front, relieving Wiggins of having to do his own work pursuing Nibali. With Froome at the front Evans couldn’t hold the pace. As he dropped off the back, Van Garderen fell back to pace his leader back. Evans was gone though, he just couldn’t pace back to the group.

About that time Wiggins told Froome (at least that’s how it looked, I haven’t heard any interviews) Evans was dropped and to pick it up. They quickly caught Nibali, et al, and then the regenerated Froome took off – without his leader – and quickly got a gap. There was however the minor problem that his teammate and yellow jersey wearer couldn’t follow and was caught out. Oops.

Next thing the cameras showed was Froome getting a call from the team car telling him to “cease and desist” which he did. It was funny, but it showed that the guy with the yellow just might not be the strongest rider on the team. Froome in that move exposed Wiggins’ vulnerability more than any one else has at any other point in the Tour. I would love to have been on the Sky bus after the stage.

Rolland pushed on to the finish in what was a brilliant effort and took another stage win for team Europcar -  back to back stage wins for this small but mighty team.

The yellow jersey group of Wiggins, Froome, Pinot, Vanden Broeck and Nibali finished next, Pinot narrowly edged Froome for 2nd place. When Wiggins finished he patted Nibali on the back, Nibali reciprocated. It appeared Wiggins said something to him – perhaps apologizing for being a jerk yesterday at the finish line. Evans finished 11th on the stage, currently in 4th place overall at 3:19. Hindsight is of course 20/20, if Evans hadn’t attacked you have to wonder would he still hold 2nd? Perhaps not, but he would probably be in 3rd. Nibali who now sits in 3rd is :56 ahead of Evans. There’s still time for Evans to recapture 3rd if he has the legs and mindset to do it. And what about Froome, will he stay the faithful lieutenant to Wiggins or make another move like he made today… now that would make for a really exciting Tour. Stay tuned, Stage 12 preview will be posted a bit later today.

Stage results

• 1. Pierre ROLLAND, Europcar in 4:43:54
• 2. Thibaut PINOT, FDJ-BigMat +55
• 3. Christopher FROOME, Sky +55
• 4. Jurgen VAN DEN BROECK, Lotto-Belisol +57
• 5. Vincenzo NIBALI, Liquigas-Cannondale +57
• 6. Bradley WIGGINS, Sky +57
• 7. Chris Anker SÖRENSEN, Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank +1:08
• 8. Janez BRAJKOVIC, Astana +1:58
• 9. Vasil KIRYIENKA, Movistar +2:13
• 10. Frank SCHLECK, RadioShack-Nissan +2:23
• 11. Cadel EVANS, BMC Racing +2:23

General classification

• 1. Bradley WIGGINS, Sky in 48:43:53
• 2. Christopher FROOME, Sky +2:05
• 3. Vincenzo NIBALI, Liquigas-Cannondale +2:23
• 4. Cadel EVANS, BMC Racing +3:19
• 5. Jurgen VAN DEN BROECK, Lotto-Belisol +4:48
• 6. Haimar ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, RadioShack-Nissan +6:15
• 7. Tejay VAN GARDEREN, BMC Racing +6:57
• 8. Janez BRAJKOVIC, Astana +7:30
• 9. Pierre ROLLAND, Europcar +8:31
• 10. Thibaut PINOT, FDJ-BigMat +8:51

I closed yesterday’s blog by saying I hoped there would be good racing today – and boy was there ever!

There was no change in the first five places in the General Classification – nor in time gaps but there was still plenty of exciting racing.

Almost from the drop of the flag a break of 3 riders formed followed with counter-attacks. A 25 man breakaway ended up forming with 15 teams represented. They were going hunting for points (Peter Sagan and Matthew Goss) and a stage win. In the break were riders who had previously won a stage at the Tour: Burghart (BMC), Popovych and Voight (RadioShack) Miller and Zabriskie (Garmin), Voeckler (Europcar), Casar (FDJ) and Sanchez (Rabobank). The highest ranked rider in the break was Scarponi (Lampe) at 10 minutes back. As the break started the first climb they had built up a gap of just under 7 minutes over the main field. The pace of the stage was the fastest of the Tour so far.

At the sprint Sagan, Goss and Hutarovich raced for points with Goss taking maximum, Hutarovich taking 2nd and Sagan 3rd. Sagan’s lead over Goss in the green jersey competition is now 27 points.

The lead group started the climb of Colombier with Europcar at the front. The gap to the peloton was 6:29. Almost immediately riders started falling off the back as the road kicked up on the long climb (17.4k). The lead group was reduced to just five riders: Voeckler, Scarponi, Sanchez, Peraud and Devenyns (Quickstep), then a second group of a handful of riders.

Voeckler did most of the work at the front of the small lead group. He seemed content to do it – and of course the others were happy to let him. To reward him for his efforts no one contested his race to the summit and the 25 points for the polka-dot jersey – which he got. The lead breakaway’s gap at this point was about 5 minutes over the peloton.

Once the peloton summited the climb, Vanden Broeck went off the front, and Evans and Nibali moved to the front, ahead of Wiggins. Team Sky was in control and Evans sat on letting them do the work. I thought he might go with Nibali but for whatever reason he didn’t.

Nibali caught up to teammate Peter Sagan who had been dropped by the breakaway and used Sagan to pace him through the descent until Sagan could no longer stay with him on the final climb of the day. It was a great effort by Sagan, helping himself to more points in the green jersey sprint and providing support to his team leader. Nibali increased his gap on the peloton to almost a minute before it started coming down.

With Sky driving a hard pace they caught Nibali on the final climb (guess that’s why Evans didn’t go). The 4 man lead group summits the last climb, Voeckler picks up a few more points giving him the “king of the mountains” jersey.

Once the peloton started the descent, Vanden Broeck and Voeckler’s teammate, Rolland took off the front and opened a gap. Van Garderen, in the white jersey, used the descent to catch up to the peloton, including the rider next in line for the white jersey, Taaramae, thus protecting his hold on the white for at least another day.

Meanwhile on the front the lead group of 4 becomes the lead group of 5 when somehow the old man of the Tour, Jens Voight, caught and then passed them. Voeckler chased him down, then Devenyns who had been conserving his energy at the back took off. No one wanted to chase but Voight finally does, then Voeckler. The gaps were about even and it looked like Devenyns would get himself the win. About that time he ran out of gas, and Voight closed in.

But lo and behold Voeckler, who didn’t panic with Devenyns attack, dug deep and quickly closed the gap to Voight and Devenyns and then passed them.  About that time it looks like Voeckler had the win, but the road kicked up and he started to slow and Scarponi started to close in.

At that point just meters from the finish – everyone loses gas and Voeckler managed to hang on for the win.  It truly was a brave and brilliant ride today by Voeckler. As you all know I’m a big Voeckler fan and seeing him take this stage and the polka dot jersey was thrilling!

As the peloton neared the finish Evans and Nibali attacked but Wiggins and Sky quickly shut it down. No gains today for Nibali or Evans but Vanden Broeck did reduce his deficit slightly.

Stage 10 Results:

• 1. Thomas VOECKLER, Europcar, in 4:46:26
• 2. Michele SCARPONI, Lampre-ISD, at :3
• 3. Jens VOIGT, RadioShack-Nissan, at :7
• 4. Luis Leon SANCHEZ GIL, Rabobank, at :23
• 5. Dries DEVENYNS, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, at :30
• 6. Sandy CASAR, FDJ-BigMat, at 2:44
• 7. Egoi MARTINEZ DE ESTEBAN, Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 2:44
• 8. Pierre ROLLAND, Europcar, at 2:44
• 9. Jurgen VAN DEN BROECK, Lotto-Belisol, at 2:44
• 10. Dmitriy FOFONOV, Astana, at 2:52

GC after Stage 10:

• 1. Bradley WIGGINS, Sky, in 43:59:02
• 2. Cadel EVANS, BMC Racing, at 1:53
• 3. Christopher FROOME, Sky, at 2:07
• 4. Vincenzo NIBALI, Liquigas-Cannondale, at 2:23
• 5. Denis MENCHOV, Katusha, at 3:02
• 6. Haimar ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, RadioShack-Nissan, at 3:19
• 7. Maxime MONFORT, RadioShack-Nissan, at 4:23
• 8. Jurgen VAN DEN BROECK, Lotto-Belisol, at 4:48
• 9. Nicolas ROCHE, Ag2r La Mondiale, at 5:29
• 10. Tejay VAN GARDEREN, BMC Racing, at 5:31

Stage 11 Preview:

Queen Stage of the Alps

Regarding Stage 11, a picture is worth a lot of words. Tomorrow offers riders no time to warm-up the legs and then will punish them the rest of the stage. It will be difficult for a break to get the kind of time on the Sky driven peloton like it did today. If any one in the break is a risk to GC, Sky will reel them in, which means only low GC placed riders who are also strong climbers will be able to stay away. Pierre Rolland, another Europcar rider comes to mind. He won Alpe d’huez last year so he’s capable.

Those riders protecting their spot on the podium (Wiggins) or looking to move up (Evans, Nibali, Menchov, Vanden Broeck, Zubeldia) probably will ride together more or less until the two HC climbs are behind them. I expect most of the fireworks between the contenders to be on the last climb, if there even are any. It could very well go like today with no changes in the top 5. If Wiggins gets isolated – which based on what we’ve saw today and Stage 8 is highly unlikely – sparks will fly. Otherwise, we’ll have to look for someone(s) in the break to make the race interesting.

I’ve enjoyed my day of rest from the Tour de France and blogging. Yes I recognize I’m blogging now, but this is the equivalent of an easy warm-up ride – just a short post to keep my Tour-mind sharp-ish and ready for the next two weeks of racing.

I did take a 32 mile bike ride this morning  – no rated climbs – a course more like Stage 9, but a nice ride. Watching the Tour always makes me want to ride more, in spite of the heat. July is always one of my highest mileage months. 

Rest Day News:

Remy Di Gregario, who rides for Cofidis was arrested for doping and suspended from the Tour. Not quite what the former Astana rider had in mind for his rest (arrest) day.

Tony Martin pulled out of the Tour to heal up and prepare for the Olympics. Lampre’s Matt Lloyd also abandoned due to a fractured elbow that occurred in a crash on Stage 8. Rumor has it that Fabian Cancellara might leave too to join his wife who is expecting their 2nd child soon.

Stage 10 Preview:

Tomorrow the Tour boys get to climb that beast of a climb, the HC rated Col de Colombiere, the first true alpine climb in the Alps – and what a doozy!

We may see Cadel Evans and/or Vincenzo Nibali attack tomorrow on the Colombiere and then take all kinds of chances on the descents to gain time on Wiggins, same goes for Jurgen Vanden Broeck. Or we may see Sky setting such a hard pace on the climb that it’s just Wiggins and Froome alone at the summit. We’ll for sure see a breakaway and depending on who is in it, Sky might just let them go.

Hopefully we will see some good racing tomorrow. If not tomorrow though, we are bound to see it on Stage 11, the toughest stage in the Alps – complete with a summit finish.