12 July 2013
How dare I think it would be a flat
uneventful stage? Well, I did. Small escape, brought back a few k
from the end, was what I thought. Big sprint. And I expect maybe
95% of all commentators, professional or not would have agreed. Was
I wrong! We got another surprise, and you all know how I love
surprises. I must review everything later, but it did look like,
with the wind playing a part, someone, not Froome, but someone just
ahead of him, lost the wheel of the last guy in the first group.
(Later I found out for sure it was Kwiatowski.) Clearly Omega or
Movistar made the pressure, but I wonder who lost the wheel. Froome
was right there, and did not panic, but called for his men after
making an effort on his own and realising it was not worth it. Sadly
for him, the help was not really there. His men were already far
behind, except a few. Stannard and Thomas did serious work to try to
bring back the break, but they could not compete with Saxo. There
were SIX Saxo riders in that break out of fourteen. BMC helped for a
bit to try and pull them back, but then decided to just leave it.
Greipel's team helped for a bit, but not much. All that was left ws
two exhausted Sky guys. So we got a demonstration of the power of
Saxo. Nice demo. So far, we have had a Sky demo, a Cannondale demo,
a Movistar demo and a Saxo, aside from the sprinter;s teams at the
end of stages. Bravo for everyone who made that stage interesting.
One major complaint. I really don't think that natural justice is
served by having Valverde lose any chance of winning the Tour with a
puncture. Not right. Not right at all. Still, that's the way the
wind blew. We certainly don't mind bold teams that attack on the
flat and surprise everyone. And Cav got his second stage. Great
stage. Suspense until the end.
The Belkin boys also made their
contribution and now find themselves in an excellent position (second
and fifth) to try some one-two moves in the mountains to come. In
case any of you are wondering what Belkin makes and where they are
(although the team is formerly Dutch),
“Belkin
International, Inc., is a California manufacturer of consumer
electronics that specializes in connectivity devices.” Mind
you, there are quite a few little climbs tomorrow.
Maybe something more than what most thought would happen tomorrow
will happen, a break will be allowed to get away. So now we have a
GC where besides a few miscellaneous good riders, there are at least
three strong teams with the possibility of moving up the GC, maybe
winning the Tour. There is every reason for anyone to attack, since
it is quite clear that unless they somehow take some serious steps,
and maybe not even then, they might win. Sky makes mistakes and
their riders are scattered all over the place. I really do wonder
what has happened to Porte. He was riding really well all season,
winning races, climbing well, TTing well, and suddenly after a bit of
effort up a hill on Saturday last, he faded completely. I don't get
it. I also wonder why they bothered to even bring Lopez.
The Omega team should be happy little
bunnies today, they won for Cav in a rather unusual way. They got
rid of every sprinter except Sagan, and Sagan is no match for Cav,
even after a long stage. This means 25 stage wins for Cav, which
means he is tied with Andre Leducq and has won more road stages than
anyone in Tour history (Cav can't time trial well). I guess tomorrow
it might end up with a sprint, but most likely the next sprint will
be on the Champs Elysée. Cav would like to win that badly, but he
has won four in a row and it might be time for someone else.
The wind, we often forget the wind in a
race like this. Those of us who ride in Languedoc-Roussillon never
forget the wind, but sometimes the other guys do. Not today. A bit
unusual to have serious wind in that part of France though, so I can
see they might have been surprised. Omega apparently had a good
weather consultant on hire.
Saxo team was strong and smart, led and
encouraged very well by Contador. A minute is a pretty nice chunk of
what he was missing. Smart riding.
Overall, no jersey changed hands, but
the GC was very slightly shuffled. Numerous riders moved up or down
one or two places in the top 20, but with a couple of exceptions,
nothing much was altered. Clearly Valverde was the big loser of the
day, dropping 14 places, and pretty much guaranteeing he is off the
podium this year. Mind you, this will leave him and Rui Costa free
to help out Quintana. Another big loser was Rui Costa, Valverde's
teammate, who dropped from ninth to 18th, due to being
brought back to try and help Valverde when he missed the break. Bad
day for Movistar. Fuglsang jumped up 6 places into the top ten, in
fact sixth. All that with only a minute gained on most top ten
riders. This shows that the gaps in the top ten are not immense, one
good or bad stage can mean a lot. Sylvan Chavanel, Daniel Navarro
and Andrew Talansky both made it into the top twenty. I would be
happy if they ended up in the top ten. With the last week having a
hilly time trial and four mountain stages, there are many minutes to
be gained and lost. For example, in my estimation Fuglsang and Ten
Dam and Peraud will drop from the top ten. Riders like Martin,
Evans, maybe even Schleck might replace them.
What a wonderful day of racing. Very
unexpected. The best kind of racing.
Good night. Off early tonight as I
went swimming for the first time in ages, and I. Am. Tired.
