2012 Tour de France Stage 8, 7/08/12

July 8, Stage 8: Belfort - Porrentruy 157.5km

Pinot rides to glory in Porrentruy

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stage-8/results)

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat) pulled off a famous home victory in stage 8 of the 2012 Tour de France. The Tour’s youngest competitor passed leader Frederik Kessiakoff (Astana) with 17km to race and launched a bold attack that left him with enough of a gap to hold off a host of big name challengers who pursued him intensely, but ultimately in vain, over the final kilometres. There were ecstatic scenes of jubilation from the home fans and from Pinot’s team as he crossed the line with 26 seconds to spare.

Cadel Evans (BMC) took second place ahead of Tony Gallopin (RadioShack-Nissan). Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins kept his GC rival Evans comfortably in his sights and retained the yellow jersey with his fourth placed finish.

"Those were the longest ten kilometers of my life," Pinot said afterward. "When I saw 10km to go and the peloton was coming back, I was really afraid."

Pinot was able to take advantage of having a teammate in the breakaway all day, and he dedicated the victory to Jeremy Roy. "When Jeremy [Roy] was away I wasn't really riding, and then he truly sacrificed himself for me. I'm really happy."

The young Frenchman looked set to take over the white jersey from Cofidis's Rein Taaramae, but the Estonian battled back to come in 2:21 behind the winner to save his best young rider classification.

Pinot was overjoyed with his stage victory, but played down his chances for the overall classification. "Tomorrow my legs will really hurt so I have no real plans for the rest of the Tour, I will take it day by day."

The tone for the 157km stage, which contained a grand total of seven categorised climbs, was set very early on as Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Nissan) led an early break of ten riders. Within a few kilometres Voigt was on his own but a few minutes later he was passed and dropped by Roy.

As Roy ploughed a lone furrow up the road, 60km in there was a major crash involving three Spaniards – Samuel Sanchez, Jorge Azanza (both Euskaltel-Esukadi) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). In the end it was Sanchez who came off worst, with the 2008 Olympic road race champion having to withdraw with injuries that include a broken collarbone and a dislocated shoulder. It will take a miracle for him to be declared fit to defend his Olympic title in London at the end of this month.

Meanwhile, further up the road, Roy was caught by Kessiakoff with just over 80km to go and the two men worked together to build a healthy lead over the rest of the pack. Pinot then made his first significant move of the afternoon, attacking from the main peloton and forming part of a large 22-man group that went off in chase of the two leaders.

Shortly before the fifth categorised climb of the day – the Cote de Saulcy – Pinot launched a successful bid to bridge the gap to the leading duo, joined by Kevin de Weert (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Steven Kruiswijk (Rabobank). Kessiakoff responded immediately and attacked, opening up a lead that peaked at 1:45 and one that he would hold until well inside the final 20km.

Pinot and Tony Gallopin (RadioShack-Nissan) burst clear of the pack and Pinot eventually proved the stronger, passing Kessiakoff with 17km left – just at the top of the final Col de la Croix climb. He then made a daring bid for the winning line on the fast descent into Porrentruy, chased by some of the race’s biggest favourites. Evans, Wiggins, Nibali, Menchov and Frank Schleck were amongst the names that went off in hot pursuit of the youngster.

With these stellar names bearing down on him, it would have been excusable if such a relatively inexperienced rider buckled. But the 22-year-old, who rode through his home town on yesterday’s seventh stage, held his nerve impressively and had time to savour the final 200 metres before celebrating what is easily the biggest win of his highly promising career to date.

As for Wiggins, he find himself in a commanding position - tomorrow's stage is a 41.5km individual time trial that should play to his strengths. But as he revealed on the Team Sky website after the finish, today's stage wasn't as easy as he had anticipated.

"That stage was a lot harder than I expected it to be," he said. "The boys were incredible again today and really marshalled the race. They set us up to be able to go with the others on that last climb.

"Early on we had to wait to let the right break go, and that took a long time and a lot of work. We were racing from the off and that didn’t stop for two hours really. The peloton was decimated and it was a tough day for a lot of people. We’re still in a fantastic position after this first week and that’s two tough days down now. We’ve got a time trial ahead of us now and then a rest day."

Full Results

#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ-Big Mat	3:56:10
2	Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team	0:00:26
3	Tony Gallopin (Fra) RadioShack-Nissan
4	Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling
5	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale
6	Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
7	Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling
8	Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha Team
9	Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan
10	Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan	0:00:30

Vuelta a Espana: Stage 14

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/vuelta-a-espana/stage-14/results)

Rein Taaramae’s (Cofidis) mantra may well be, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again’, which paid dividends for the talented Estonian on Saturday afternoon as he won the Vuelta’s 14th stage on another summit finish in La Farrapona Lagos de Somiedo.

The 24-year-old Cofidis rider has been very active in this year’s Vuelta and finally took the reward for his efforts after what was an intense 173km in the saddle. He took his place in the breakaway early in the stage and managed to hold on to take his first Grand Tour stage win, something many pundits have been predicting for several years.

Showing dogged determination throughout the entire stage, he beat Geox-TMC duo Juan Jose Cobo and David De La Fuente, who finished second and third respectively.

It was a good day for overall leader Bradley Wiggins, the Brit finishing 45 seconds behind Taaramae and most importantly putting time into his rivals on general classification – he now leads Sky teammate Chris Froome by seven seconds, with Rabobank’s Bauke Mollema in third at 36 seconds.

Froome pointed to Wiggins as he crossed the line one place behind in sixth, an indication of the unity amongst Team Sky’s two best climbers and a sign of the pair’s confidence heading into the Vuelta’s final week – could today and tomorrow define who will be this year’s champion?

One man losing his grip on a chance at the title is defending champion Vincenzo Nibali, who now sits 1:25 behind Wiggins on the general classification and slipped from second to seventh overall on today's stage. The Liquigas-Cannondale leader finished more than a minute behind his main rival and suffered the consequences, giving himself plenty of work to do in the final week of racing if he’s to take another crown.

A weighty half needs a solid breakaway

The second half of today’s stage featured plenty of climbing, with the category two Puerto de la Ventana, the first category Puerto de San Lorenzo and a mountaintop finish at La Farrapona, Lagos de Somiedo in store for riders.

With limited opportunities in the sprints at this year’s Vuelta, HTC-Highroad youngster Leigh Howard decided to make the day’s move, taking off about a half a km into the stage. He was soon joined by the others, and after giving chase for nearly 30 km, the peloton finally decided to let them go.

He was joined by De La Fuente and Taaramae, Guilluame Bonnafond and Lloyd Mondory (AG2R-La Mondiale), Rabobank’s Luis Leon Sanchez, Jonas Aaen Jörgensen of Saxo Bank-Sungard, Sep Vanmarcke (Garmin-Cervélo), Alberto Benitez (Andalucia-Caja Granada), BMC Racing’s Karsten Kroon, Cofidis man Yohan Bagot, Jorge Azanza and Inaki Isasi of Euskaltel-Euskadi, Katusha couple Aliaksandr Kuschynski and Eduard Vorganov, Francesco Bellotti (Liquigas-Cannondale), and Daniele Righi (Lampre-ISD).

Nearing the top of the day’s first climb and with 77km remaining, the big break had 7:38, which would prove to be its maximum advantage as 27km later that mark had been cut to 4:55.

On the descent of the Ventana, Vanmarcke and Kroon found themselves being hoisted out of the forest, the pair crashing and forcing the Dutch veteran to abandon the race. Soon after the man who started the day’s break exited it, dropped on the way up the San Lorenzo; the Australian shut up shop and made his way back to the pack.

It all heats up…

With 40km to go and only 2:50 separating break from peloton, it was time for Katusha’s Alberto Losado to make a move of his own, dragging Sylvain Chavanel and several other riders with him; the bunch shut down the dangerous group that threatened to form but a kilometre later there was another attack that saw Movistar duo Beñat Intxausti and Marzio Bruseghin fly the safety of the peloton in pursuit of the leaders.

Just as this pair was gaining seconds on the field, the ever-aggressive Taaramae made what would be the race-winning move and was on his way off the front of the leading group, taking De La Fuente with him to form an attacking duo that quickly created a sizeable gap.

While these front groups continued to toil, Katusha’s Dani Moreno was another to flee the peloton with 35km remaining, followed by teammate Joaquin Rodriguez; meanwhile Leopard Trek strongman Fabian Cancellara continued to set tempo for Jakob Fuglsang and Maxime Monfort, who both sat in the top 10 of general classification and overall leader Wiggins maintained a comfortable rhythm next to them.

A kilometre after attacking, Moreno was soon within 25 seconds of Intxausti and Bruseghin, with the remnants of the break a further 2:20 up the road and rapidly splitting under the pressure of the mountain and the movement of Taaramae and De La Fuente ahead of it.

This latter duo crested the San Lorenzo together, 2:21 ahead of Moreno as the peloton topped the climb a further 13 seconds afterwards. On the descent the Spaniard caught the duo from Movistar to form a chasing trio that soon made contact with Moreno’s teammate Vorganov.

This new quartet set about building on the slender lead it enjoyed over the main field and slicing the two minutes that separated them from Taaramae, De La Fuente and what little was left of the break with the final 20km and the climb to Lagos de Somiedo approaching.

Heading to the finale

Soon Moreno and co had caught the remnants of the break – Righi, Mondory, and Bonnafond (sans Taaramae and De La Fuente) and set to work on the climb proper with the peloton still keeping the gap between itself and the Katusha rider to less than a minute. And with 15km left in the stage it continued to do that, as the leading duo still had over 60 seconds on the pursuers.

The peloton, led by Liquigas-Cannondale, Rabobank and Leopard Trek, tapped out its rapid rhythm while Movistar’s Italian stager Bruseghin carried out the workhorse duties – appropriate given that the 37-year-old famously owns a farm with donkeys.

As the leading duo crossed the 10km remaining banner, the gap stood at 57 seconds and a kilometre later that had only been cut by three seconds, with the peloton continuing its vigilance and keeping Moreno’s lead under a minute.

The Estonian-Iberian alliance at the front of affairs had 59 seconds, as Moreno’s men passed the banner indicating six kilometres remaining and were soon after caught by the peloton, providing the spark for Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Amets Txurruka to light the powder keg and explode from the main field.

The threat of Moreno negated, the peloton eased off the gas and with five kilometres remaining had allowed the leading duo a lead of 1:12, while Txurruka’s toil had only put him 10 seconds up on the main field. A kilometre later and it was time for Moreno to go again, taking Cobo with him and quickly overrunning the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider.

Behind them it was panic stations for Rodriguez and Nibali, the two overall contenders dropped from the group containing Wiggins and his faithful lieutenant Froome, plus Omega Pharma-Lotto’s Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Vacansoleil-DCM man Wout Poels and Denis Menchov (Geox-TMC).

And with Menchov’s teammate Cobo going alone it was time for Taaramae to do the same at the front of the race, dropping De La Fuente (who soon joined his pursuing companion) and heading for home with two kilometres left to ride.

Despite Cobo’s best efforts, he and De La Fuente remained 21 seconds off the Estonian with 1,000 metres remaining as Wiggins, Froome, Van Den Broeck and co continued their march away from the defending champion that could well have helped crown a new Vuelta king.

The man wearing the crown of the day was Taaramae however, kissing his jersey and raising his arm in the air to celebrate what was a well-deserved and popular win, crossing the line 25 seconds ahead of Cobo, with De La Fuente a further four seconds back on what was a good day for the Spanish squad.

1	Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne	4:39:01
2	Juan Jose Cobo Acebo (Spa) Geox-TMC	0:00:25
3	David De La Fuente Rasilla (Spa) Geox-TMC	0:00:29
4	Wout Poels (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team	0:00:40
5	Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling	0:00:45
6	Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling
7	Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team
8	Denis Menchov (Rus) Geox-TMC
9	Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi	0:00:55
10	Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto	0:01:00

GC Overall

1	Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling	55:54:45
2	Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling	0:00:07
3	Bauke Mollema (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team	0:00:36
4	Juan Jose Cobo Acebo (Spa) Geox-TMC	0:00:55
5	Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Leopard Trek	0:00:58
6	Fredrik Kessiakoff (Swe) Pro Team Astana	0:01:23
7	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale	0:01:25
8	Maxime Monfort (Bel) Leopard Trek	0:01:37
9	Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto	0:02:16
10	Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha Team	0:02:24