2013 Tour de France Stages 6-7

Stage 6:

I know the picture above isn't actually of the stage, but I thought this was the most beautiful picture of the day. Simon Gerrans "passed" the Yellow Jersey on to his Orica-GreenEdge teammate Daryl Impey, and in doing this Impey became the first African, or South African to be more specific, to ever wear the Yellow Jersey. Impey now has a 3 second lead over Edvald Boasson Hagen and 5 second lead over Gerrans.

Andre Greipel was the winner of the stage. He has led the peloton over the intermediate sprints for most of the stages this Tour, but today he took his first win of the 2013 Tour de France. He beat Peter Sagan, Marcel Kittel, and Mark Cavendish respectively.

I was sad to see that Nacer Bouhanni had to abandon during this stage. He got caught up in a crash at the end of Stage 5, and couldn't make it to the finish of Stage 6. This is the first Tour de France for the 22 year old, who is quickly becoming a contender in the mass sprints.

Stage 7: 

Apparently, even World Champions have tight leashes on. This morning, and article came out about Philippe Gilbert not being allowed to try to get in a breakaway and win this stage, which is suited for a rider like him. Although the article isn't in English, Google translate helped me get the gist of it. The team's decision is to keep Evans safe and all team members around him. This is a race for Evans and no one is to go on their own (Sporza.be). Haven't we seen this before? Oh, right...in last year's Tour de France with Mark Cavendish on Team Sky. He wasn't allowed to sprint for himself, it was all about protecting Wiggins.

More came out today about Frank Schleck's release from Radioshack Leopard Trek. He had been training with them even during his suspension, but yet the team still released him. His own country, Luxembourg, believes that Frank didn't intentionally take this diuretic, and even the UCI admitted that the suspension had nothing to do with doping. Yet, the team still released him. Frank is hoping he can find another team before the Vuelta, although with it being mid-season, that may be difficult. His brother Andy even came out and said, "I will not ride in another team with Frank" (CyclingWeekly, and Sporten.tv2.dk with help of Google Translate).

But anyway, back to Stage 7. Jens Voigt was part of a 6-man attack very early into the stage, but the break only got about 10" ahead before being caught. Then Voigt attacked again, this time with Blel Kadri, and that became the break of the day. Unfortunately, as the two broke away, a crash happened in the peloton involving several riders. Because of his injuries from a crash two days ago, and now this crash, Christian Vande Velde abandoned. This was to be his last Tour de France before retiring, and it's sad he couldn't make it all the way to Paris.

Voigt and Kadri, who earned the KOM Jersey today, were caught 94km from the finish as the sprint teams kept the pace of the peloton high. The problem with that was some of the sprinters fell off the back with the mountains; Andre Greipel, Mark Cavendish, and Marcel Kittel all lost sprint points today to intermediate sprint and eventual stage winner Peter Sagan.

After the intermediate sprint, Jan Bakelants make an attack, which ended up giving him Most Aggressive Rider for the stage. He was quickly joined by Cyril Gautier and Juan Jose Oroz. However, their lead of just over a minute was cut fairly quickly when Daryl Impey's Yellow Jersey was threatened. This breakaway was caught just after the 3km flag.

And as I already said, the winner of the Stage 7 was Peter Sagan, and Daryl Impey stays in Yellow for another day.

2012 Criterium du Dauphine Stage 6

The Queen's stage of the Criterium du Dauphine was not a good stage for the more known RadioShack Nissan Trek riders. Although this should come as no surprise, but Andy Schleck abandoned the stage. Also, with his 2nd place finish, Cadel Evans was able to take the Points Jersey from Tony Gallopin. But, on the plus side, a RSNT rider, Haimar Zubeldia, crossed the finish line in 10th place today and Tiago Machado crossed the line 14th. Machado was also part of a 19-man breakaway today.

In the Dauphine today, Brice Feillu managed to get a good lead on the peleton, but he was caught before the end. I was hoping he would win because I randomly chose him on my Road.cc fantasy cycling team when I changed up my roster last night. He had a good run, I'm just sad he couldn't hold off to win. However, the Sky Team is doing an amazing job keeping Bradley Wiggins in the lead.

Andy Schleck abandons Criterium du Dauphine

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/andy-schleck-abandons-criterium-du-dauphine)

Andy Schleck's Criterium du Dauphine has gone from bad to worse, and the RadioShack-Nissan captain threw in the towel on Saturday's sixth stage, abandoning the race. He had come into the penultimate stage in 129th place, over 29 minutes behind race leader Bradley Wiggins.

Schleck had not performed well in any stage, but his worst stage was the fifth, when he lost nearly 14 minutes. He explained his early poor performance was due to knee problems which cost him a week's training in May.

He then crashed heavily in Thursday's windy time trial, and suffered a heavy blow to his right aide and ribcage, as well as severe road rash. After Friday's stage, he declared his intentions to continue in the race, saying, “I’ve abandoned too many times this year already.”

June 9, Stage 6: Saint-Alban-Leysse - Morzine 166.5km

Dauhpine: Wiggins and Sky dominate the Joux Plane

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/criterium-du-dauphine-2012/stage-6/results)

Nairo Quintana (Movistar) won the sixth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine, holding off not only Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) but also Team Sky. Evans broke from the small group of favourites to finish second, 16 seconds down, with Daniel Moreno of Katusha leading the group across the finish line another eight seconds later.

Bradley Wiggins easily defended his lead, but there were changes behind him. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) had fallen back on the brutal final climb, and also fell off the podium. Evans attacked near the end but it was not enough to bring him a significant gain, but with Martin gone Michael Rogers moved up to second and Evans to third.

A large escape group had broken away early and stayed away much of the stage. Brice Feillu (Saur-Sojasun) broke from the group on the penultimate ascent, and was able to stay away until near the top of the final climb. The rest of the break group had been caught earlier on the climb.

The day saw a number of riders abandon, but the most significant was Andy Schleck. The RadioShack-Nissan rider was suffering from injuries caused by a crash in the stage four time trial, and had to drop out after 65 kilometres.

However, the stage was a masterful piece of work by Team Sky, with three riders staying with Wiggins until the end, and never showing any signs of weakness. Christopher Froome climbed in to fourth place, giving the British team first, second and fourth places overall. Still, the stage also showed that their competition was weak. Evans was left to fend for himself on the final climb, and top names like Martin and Vincenzo Nibali were unable to conquer the final climb.

Six climbs on the race's queen stage

The race started with the ascent of the category one-ranked Col de Plainpalais, and almost immediately Andy Schleck had difficulties. He only made it to the third ascent of the day before leaving the race.

Others were luckier, and a large escape group formed on that first climb. Petr Ignatenko, Alberto Losada and Yuriy Trofimov (Katusha), Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Blel Kadri and Christophe Riblon (AG2R), Tiago Machado (RadioShack), Maciej Paterski and Cayetano Sarmiento (Liquigas), Rémy Di Gregorio and David Moncoutié (Cofidis), Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel), Mario Marzano (Lampre), Jesus Hernandez (Saxo Bank), Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma), Brice Feillu (Saur - Sojasun), Alexandre Geniez (Argos) and Matteo Carrara (Vacansoleil) formed the large group which had a lead of up to three and a half minutes on the early part of the stage.
The day's course was not an easy one, as it featured six ranked climbs, including the opening Col de Plainpalais. the category one Col de Colombiere and closing with the Col de Joux Plane (hors categorie), although there was no mountaintop finish.

At around the feeding zone, Andrey Grivko of Astana attacked out of the peloton. It took a long time, but he was able to meet up with the escape group on the descent of the Colombiere.

The category 3 Cote de Chatillon popped up between the two final larger climbs, and Feillu took advantage of it to break from the group.

The expected – or at least, hoped-for – fireworks for the GC never happened. Team Sky had the peloton in full control, with race leader Bradley Wiggins well protected. He kept a close eye on second-placed Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep).

The gap between the peloton and the large escape group remained fairly constant, but Feillu built up his lead over the group. His lead got to be too much for Lotto Belisol, who moved up to help Sky with the lead work. The chase soon showed effect, as the gap fell by about a minute.

Feillu started up the final climb with a three minute lead. And the start of the climb was the cue for Evans' BMC team to move to the head of the field. The pace was high enough that many rides started dropping off the back of the field, as Lotto Belisol and Sky reclaimed the head of the peloton.

The field splintered entirely, with Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana), Philippe Gilbert (BMC) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) all dropped.

Feillu clung doggedly to his shrinking lead, and the one-time break group shattered as well. They were finally caught by the Sky-led group, just as Tony Martin had to drop back.

Richie Porte and Edvald Boasson Hagen were the main locomotives for Sky on the climb, putting in monstrous efforts.
Quintana made his move with some 15km to go, trying to bridge up to Feillu. Wiggins still had three teammates with him, including Michael Rogers who looked to move up to second after Martin’s capitulation. Evans had only one teammate at his side, but was soon alone in the small group.

Feillu didn't make it alone to the top of the climb. Quintana caught and passed him and Feillu quickly fell back through the Wiggins group. The Movistar rider took a 22 second gap into the descent.

Evans finally jumped on the descent, with 12km to go. He never had more than a few metres, and Sky quickly and calmly gathered him back in.

It was a fast and dangerous descent. Quintano went all out and wobbled a few times on the tricky curves, but was able to add a few seconds to his narrow lead.

Evans pulled away again with just over 5km to go. But he had left it too late to put in enough time to take the overall lead, and Sky was more concerned with coming down the mountain in one piece.

The Australian was hoping to catch and pass Quintana for the stage win, but the Colombian was in fact increasing his lead on the Wiggins group with every corner. Quintana took the win with a comfortable gap over Evans, with the Wiggins group coming in a few seconds later.

Full Results

1	Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team	4:46:12
2	Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team	0:00:16
3	Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Spa) Katusha Team	0:00:24
4	Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling
5	Pieter Weening (Ned) Orica GreenEdge
6	Christopher Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling
7	Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Movistar Team
8	Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Lotto Belisol Team
9	Michael Rogers (Aus) Sky Procycling
10	Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) RadioShack-Nissan



2011 Tour de France, Stage 12

Today’s stage takes the riders into the high mountains of the Pyrenees. The 209km stage runs from Cugnaux to Luz Ardiden. However, the first 130km are relatively flat, but there are 3 major climbs: one category 1 and two HC climbs!

There was an abandon today; Feillu dropped out due to tendinitis.

The first breakaway of the day was formed by six riders: Gutierrez , Kadri, Mangel, Perez, Roy, and Thomas. With 122km to go the attackers had 8’00” on the peloton, and was over 9’00” by the time the six men hit the intermediate sprint. The best placed rider in the group is Thomas.

Mangel gets the most points at the intermediate sprint, while Cavendish again brought the peloton over the sprint line.

The 2nd attack of the day involved three riders: Chavanel, Hoogerland, and Kreuziger.

At the same time that riders are breaking away, riders are also being dropped; Galimzyanov is the first of the day.

At 75km to go, Gutierrez was dropped from the original breakaway. He couldn’t keep up with Thomas’s pace. Hoogerland was also soon dropped from the chasing group. He got caught by the peloton and then dropped off the back. Gesink soon fell back too.

At the first summit, Mangel get KOM points ahead of Perez, and Kadri. Thomas crashed on the descent and landed inches from the edge of the cliff. He was able to get back up on his bike, but then had to catch up to his fellow attackers.

The second crash of the day happened in the peloton on the first turn of the descent. Gadret, Urtasun, Velits, Kloden and Voecker involved but they all got back up eventually.

Thomas and Gutierrez did catch back up to the front 4 by the end of the first descent. Kreuziger almost caught the original 6-man breakaway but couldn’t and Gutierrez had to let go again. Gutierrez and Chavanel got caught by the peloton while Kreuzinger continued to hang between.

More riders are being dropped on the 2nd climb: Hincapie, Van Garderen, Fuglsang, Vande Velde

Thomas is pushing also at the front with 3km left to the 2nd summit. Roy is chasing but can’t seem to reach him until just before the summit, and was able to take it first. A nice prize awaited the Frenchman at the top for Bastille Day. Voigt led the peloton over the climb with Mangel and Ten Dam a few seconds in front after attacking the peloton. They join Kreuziger on the descent, trying to catch the leading duo.

The descent had riders at speeds near 90km/hr!

On the final climb there were so many attacks and breakaways. With 4km to go the GC contenders are upping the pace.

Roy and Thomas caught about 2km before the end, but Gonzalez and Vanendert now are in front.

Situation right before the finish:
Leaders: Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma-Lotto)
Chase 1: Fränk Schleck (Leopard Trek)
Chase 2: Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank Sungard), Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team), Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre - ISD)
Yellow jersey: Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland (Team Europcar)
Arnold Jeannesson (FDJ) and Thomas Danielson (Team Garmin-Cervelo) at ?
Chase: Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank Cycling Team), Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack), Sylvester Szmyd (Liquigas-Cannondale), Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R La Mondiale), Rigoberto Uran Uran (Sky Procycling), Kevin De Weert (Quickstep Cycling Team), Rein Taaramae (Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne), Yuriy Trofimov (Katusha Team)
Gruppetto: Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil), Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad), Robert Gesink (Rabobank)

Sanchez started the sprint and Vanendert couldn’t follow. Sanchez takes the win!

Stage 12 Results:
1 Sanchez
2 Vanendert
3 F. Schleck
4 Basso
5 Evans
6 A. Schleck
7 Cunego
8 Contador
9 Voeckler
10 Rolland

2011 Tour de France, Stage 4

The fourth stage started in Lorient and ended  172.5 kilometers later in Mur-de-Bretagne, with a category 3 climb at the finish. This is considered a "lumpy" stage with one other climb, a category 4, just under the halfway point.

After just 9 kilometers, the breakaway happened. Roy attacked first and was followed by Kadri, Erviti, Hoogerland, and Izagirre. With 25km into the stage the leaders hit thier max advantage of 4:35. Erviti is the best-placed rider overall. He lies in 111th place overall,  but only 2:58 down on the Yellow Jersey.

We also had our first abandon today with Van de Walle. He crashed in the 1st stage first stage of the race and had to finally give in to his injuries. We are left with 197 riders.

After three days of beautiful weather and sunshine, today's stage started out under cloudy skies and heavy rain. Most of the riders were in race capes and jackets because of the wet conditions. However, Hoogerland and Roy, leading the break, aren't even wearing arm warmers. Below is Vinokourov with his rain gear on:

As the break reached the top of the first climb, Cote de Laz, Hoogerland attacked to gain the one KOM point. After he crossed the line, he waited for his companions to catch up.

By now, the peloton has begun a cat-and-mouse game with the attackers as they are reeling them in. When there is less than 2'30" of an advantage left, the peloton slows down to allow the attackers more freedom. When it gets above 2'30", the peloton speeds up.

The intermediate sprint results: Hoogerland, Roy, Kadri, Erviti, Izagirre, Farrar, Rojas, Bozic, Cavendish, Galimzyanov, Goss, Engoulvent, Gilbert, Greipel, and Oss.

The final climb to Mur-de-Bretagne is 2km long with an average gradient of 6.9%, however the first kilometer is the killer. Its gradient is an average of 10%! Yet, the steepest part comes midway up, with a section that reaches 12-13%, but then it flattens out considerably in the final kilometer.

With only 3.8km remaining, the break gets caught. And even with BMC controlling the peloton, Contador attacks with 1.3km to go. However, it was Evans that pulled off the win with just millimeters to spare...if that! Take a look at these two photos and see how close the finish was (Contador in White, Evans in Red):



So close infact, that Contador thought that he won! However, not only did the first 15 across get sprint points, but Evans earned 2 KOM points with Contador earning 1.

Stage 4 Results:
1 Evans

2 Contador

3 Vinokourov

4 Uran

5 Gilbert

6 Hushovd

7 F. Schleck

8 Sanchez

9 Van Den Broeck

10 Klöden

Favorite Pictures of the Day:

Voeckler at the beginning in the rain

A. Schleck drinking water while riding