2012 Tour de France Stage 2, 7/02/12

July 2, Stage 2: Visé - Tournai 207.5km

Cavendish claims first Tour de France stage win of 2012

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stage-2/results)

Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) claimed the honours in the first mass sprint of the 2012 Tour de France. The Manxman came around arch rival Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) to claim his 21st Tour stage win in a photo finish. Third place went to Orica-GreenEdge's Matthew Goss. Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) finished in the group to easily maintain his overall lead.

Cavendish proved he could win alone, as he came into the finale without his sprint train. "I knew that there was some headwind, and it was clear to me that I could also have a chance if I started from a bit further back," he said.

He was more than satisfied with his victory, noting that he had come to the race as an auxiliary to team captain Bradley Wiggins, which meant he would have to be opportunistic and take other riders' wheels. Interestingly, it was his first Tour stage win outside of France.

Lotto Belisol looked to have everything under control, as they led the charge into the final km, espeically since Cavendish was on his own and far enough back to be almost unnoticeable. Greipel was in the best position, with the ever-dangerous Peter Sagan on his wheel.

Greg Henderson, in his first Tour de France, pulled hard and delivered Greipel to the 200m marker. Then the mighty German took off on his own, grinding away with his powerful legs.

But he was not alone. Cavendish had come up behind him, picking out the perfect wheel to be on. He didn't panic at being without his sprint train, or attempt to go too early. The world champion pulled out and went for the finish line. It was neck and neck, with both sprinters giving their all. At the end it was Cavendish who had his wheel forward.

"I was alone in the last kilometre. I told Edvald [Boasson Hagen] with five kilometres to go just do your own thing. We haven’t worked enough together when it's so hectic like that. If it had just been the sprinters then it would have been okay but there were climbers and GC riders at the finish. I’d rather just go alone,” he said on the team's website.

"I knew (Oscar) Freire always goes up in the last kilometre so I stayed [with him] and it was just perfect - with the headwind I knew you could come from behind."

Cancellara called it "business as usual" and was happy there were no crashes. "We spent as little energy as possible. The final was pretty intense, pretty hard. I didn't have my best day, but I think that is normal."

Use this on all articles. The player is narrow enough to fit next to the article gallery images box on the right.

All 198 riders were again at the start of the stage in Vise, including several wearing splints, braces and bandages. The biggest name invalids included Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) who suffered a fractured scaphoid in his crash early in Sunday's stage, and Luis Leon Sanchez of Rabobank, with a brace on his left hand, where he also had a broken bone.

It took about 24km for the day's break group to form. It was a small one, with only three riders: Anthony Roux (FDJ-Big Mat), Christophe Kern (Europcar) and once again, Michael Morkov (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff). Roux was another of the wounded, and noticeably rode one-handed over the many cobblestone passages.

The gap jumped quickly to 7:40, but that was enough. The field brought it back to the five-to-six minute mark, and let it stay there for a long time. Even the climb up to the magnificent citadel in Namur brought no changes.

There was one ranked climb on the day, that same Cote de la Citadelle de Namur at 82.5km Morkov went over the top first, to cement his lead in the King of the Mountains competition. From there, the gap started slowly coming down.

The first real action of the day came in the day's only intermediate sprint at 153km. There was a wild sprint for points from the field. After the three leader calmly rolled through, the sprinters from the peloton showed their stuff. Not all of them though - Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol) and Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) didn't participate in the intermediate sprint.

Daniel Oss led the way for Liquigas teammate Peter Sagan, but he didn't have a chance against Matthew Goss (Orica-GreenEdge), Mark Renshaw (Rabobank) and Mark Cavendish (Sky), who crossed the line ahead of the previous day's stage winner.

From there the job was to bring the gap down and catch the break group at the proper moment. That moment came with 29.7km to go. Roux had jumped earlier, leaving his two companions to fade back into the field. He held on to a 45 to 50-second lead, but finally he too was caught and passed with just over 14km left.

Immediately the sprint teams started forming,with Orica-GreenEdge and Omega Pharma-QuickStep at the head of things. Argos-Shimano's Marcel Kittel, said to be having stomach problems, was back amongst the team cars and out of contention.

Lotto Belisol led the way under the flamme rouge, Greipel took off from Greg Henderson's lead and drove hard. Cavendish came around and the two fought for the win in a photo finish, with the Briton taking the win. Goss was a distant third.

About four minutes later, Martin and Sanchez, with their broken bodies, rolled across the finish line.

Full Results

#	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky Procycling	4:56:59
2	André Greipel (Ger) Lotto Belisol Team
3	Matthew Harley Goss (Aus) Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team
4	Tom Veelers (Ned) Argos-Shimano
5	Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre - ISD
6	Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale
7	Yauheni Hutarovich (Blr) FDJ-Big Mat
8	Juan José Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank
9	Mark Renshaw (Aus) Rabobank Cycling Team
10	Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Sharp

Other favorite picture of the day:

Sagan and Cancellara before the start of the stage

UCI, Elite Men's World Champship Results

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/uci-road-world-championships-2011/elite-men-road-race/results)

Great Britain won the world road race championship for the first time in 46 years when Mark Cavendish finished off an incredible demonstration of team work and pace-making by his seven teammates with a perfectly judged sprint on the drag up to the finish to beat Australia's Matt Goss by a wheel. Germany's André Greipel took the bronze medal, just edging out Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) by a tyre's width.

Sweeping into the final straight, Cavendish was a long way back in the line, behind a clutch of Australians, Germans and Norwegians, and had a huge amount of work to do. But, showing outstanding coolness considering the situation, the Manxman picked his way towards the front, before finally nipping though the narrowest of gaps along the right-hand barrier to launch his sprint with 150m to the line.

In typical fashion, his initial jump carried him clear of his rivals. Goss, who had hesitated very briefly as Cavendish flashed by on his outside, came hard at the Briton as the line neared, but the Australian's effort came too late as Cavendish held on to become the first British winner of the men's world road title since Tom Simpson in 1965.

Cavendish's victory crowned a hugely impressive performance from the British team. Right from the early stages of the 266km race, the British septet riding in support of Cavendish set the pace on the front of the bunch, looking very much in control until the mayhem of the final kilometre.

Cavendish was quick to pay tribute to them. "We had eight of the best guys in the world, and this is the first time we've come together. They were incredible. They took the race on from start to finish and we won. I can't believe it," said Britain's new world champion.

"We knew three years ago when this course was announced, that it could be good for us. We put a plan together to come with the best group of guys to this race and to come away from it with the rainbow jersey. It's been three years in the making. The guys have worked so hard throughout the season to get points so that we could have eight riders here and, as you just saw, they rode incredibly. I feel so, so proud."

High speed from the start

In the days building up to the race, many of those taking part had said that they expected the pace to be hot right from the off, and that was exactly how the race shaped up. The huge field started very quickly on the 14km circuit that had an altitude gain of just 40 metres per lap. The average speed was close to 50km/h for the first 30 minutes as breaks went and were brought back. Even at this early point, though, the Great Britain team was prominent on the front of the bunch.

Eventually seven riders did get clear, with only two of the strongest nations represented. Pablo Lastras was up there for Spain, with Anthony Roux representing France. Also in the group were Christian Poos (Luxembourg), Maxim Iglinskiy (Kazakhstan), Oleg Chuzhda (Ukraine), Robert Kiserlovski (Croatia) and Tanel Kangert (Estonia). As these seven riders went to work, the bunch eased off a tad behind, allowing their lead to stretch to more than eight minutes before Great Britain's Steve Cummings and David Millar began to push the pace a little more quickly on the front of the peloton.

With the gap down to a little over four minutes with 148km covered, the first attack from the main group finally came. Heading up through the finish to complete the 11th of 19 laps, Belgium's Johan Van Summeren accelerated on the right-hand side of the road. France's Yoann Offredo got on his wheel and Italy's Luca Paolini sprinted across to make three. Belgium's Oliver Kaisen and Australia's Simon Clarke also made it across to the move. These five riders quickly began to eat into the lead break's advantage, with Offredo staying mostly at the back of the line with his teammate Roux up ahead.

Hushovd's defence stymied by crash

Back in the bunch, the British riders continued to set the pace with occasional help from the US and German teams. Coming through to complete the 13th lap and with six still to go, a crash toward the back of the field left a number of riders on the deck and halted many others. Among those affected were defending champion Thor Hushovd (Norway) and new world time trial champion Tony Martin (Germany), who had been expected to play an important lead-out role for Greipel at the finish.

The incident split the peloton. Although Hushovd and New Zealand's Jack Bauer did attempt to close the gap, this second group steadily fell further behind and completely out of contention.

Approaching the 200km mark, the two groups ahead of the main field joined forces, giving France and Belgium two riders each up front. The 11-strong group - Poos having fallen back to the main pack - led by just two minutes now, with Great Britain happy to lead a steady pursuit and chase down any other sallies off the front of the peloton.

The tension increases with three to go

With four laps to go, it briefly seemed that the British team's relentless pace-making was taking a heavy toll. An attack by Denmark's Anders Lund didn't ultimately come to anything, but several nations took the opportunity to send riders across to the Dane in an attempt to weaken Cavendish's teammates. However, the British riders quickly regained their positions on the front of the bunch and the Lund-inspired attack was nullified. But the question was: would Team GB be able to remain in charge when the race reached its most crucial moments?

 

By now the gap to the 11 leaders was hovering around the one-minute mark. More attacks went and were countered, notably one instigated by Switzerland's Michael Albasini and containing two Belgian riders, Sweden's Thomas Lövkvist and Australia's Michael Rogers. As this group was chased down, Denmark's Lars Bak jumped away, no doubt hoping that others riders would join him, but pressing on nevertheless when no one did.

Going into the penultimate lap, with the break now within sight of the peloton on the long straights and Bak in between, the powerful Frenchman Roux attacked from the front group. It was a well-timed move as the peloton were quickly on the riders Roux had spent a lot of the race cooperating with. But with just 20 seconds in hand and more than 20km to the finish, the French rider was never likely to stay out front for long.

Voeckler goes on the attack

In the end, Roux's long day was brought to a close by a familiar face. As the bunch closed, Thomas Voeckler (France) accelerated off the front, paused briefly with Roux to acknowledge his huge effort with a pat on the back, then pushed on again with Denmark's Nikki Sorensen and Belgium's Klaas Lodewijk for company.

This trio led by 18 seconds going into the last lap. A handful of kilometres into it, they were joined by Holland's Johnny Hoogerland, whose arrival saw Voeckler drop to the back of the line and significantly reduce his work rate.

Behind these four, time trial world silver medallist Bradley Wiggins was steaming along on the front of the bunch, cutting lumps off the small advantage the break had. Hoogerland gave all he had to drive the break along, but Wiggins had simply too much horsepower for the Dutchman and his three companions. Voeckler made one final effort with 7km remaining, but quickly eased off as Wiggins motored by.

Stunning Stannard paves way for Cav

By now the British team had plenty of company toward the front of the bunch. Australian, Italian and German jerseys were also massing, and it was the Australians who eventually took over from Wiggins with 3.5km to go. They had four riders working for Goss, and the Germans too emerged strongly, leaving the British team swamped and, for the first time all day, slipping back down the field.

Inside the final 2km, Britain's Ian Stannard, having done a stack of work already, manoeuvred his way up through the fast-moving pack with Cavendish on his wheel. Joined by Geraint Thomas, Stannard's effort took him to the very front of the line as the bunch swept around the final corner with 500 metres left up to the line.

Before Stannard pulled aside, Thomas looked back to see where Cavendish was. Realising that his sprinter was some way back in the pack, Thomas followed Stannard's example in swinging out of the way rather than upping the pace. For a moment it looked like the Brits had lost out in the very final kilometre, but the slight drop in pace at the front meant Cavendish was able to gain some vital ground as the Australians started to set up Goss for the finish.

As Goss prepared to move, Cavendish saw daylight to his right against the barriers, squeezed through the tightest of gaps and was gone. Team Great Britain's incredible day was about to reach the perfect conclusion.

2011 Tour de France, Stage 6

Today, the bunch will leave Brittany and travel 226km to Normandy. This is the longest stage in this year's Tour de France. Today includes two category 3 climbs and one category 4 climbs before a final climb 1.5kms from the finish line. Three kilometers from the finish, there is a 1.3km long climb at 6.3 percent, a perfect place for a late attack. Then there are 1.4 km of a false uphill flat and the 400m finishing straight which is flat.

An update on the two abondons from yesterday: Brajkovic broke his collarbone due to his crash yesterday and Kern hs been dealing with ongoing knee pain and pulled out of the race.

There was another abandon today: Velasco. He has a fractured collarbone due to his crash yesterday.

Westra was the first rider today to attack. He was followed by Roux. Hoogerland, Duque, and Malori soon caught up with the breakaway. Roux is the best place man, only 2.25 minutes back on the Yellow. The maximum lead of the attack was at almost 12 minutes. However, the first hour of the race was very fast: at about 50 km/h for the first 30 km even though the weather was much less than stellar:

Hoogerland takes the first KOM points of the day: Hoogerland - 2, Roux - 1. The intermediate sprint has the following results: Roux- 20, Duque - 17, Westra - 15, Malori - 13, Hoogerland - 11, Cavendish - 10, Rojas - 9, Farrar - 8, Renshaw - 7, Gilbert - 6, Petacchi - 5, Delage - 4, Ventoso - 3, Eisel - 2, Moinard - 1. The second climb gave the following KOM points: Roux - 2, Hoogerland - 1

With 56km remaining,  Westra attacked the rest of the breakawy. Malori followed. Sixteen kilometers late the three remaining are caught by the peloton. The next set of KOM points went to Westra (2) and Malori (1).

As soon as the gap hit 30 seconds, Malori took off on his own with 17km left. With a six seconds, Malori started the last climb, but was caught soon after that.

Then Vandendert opened a gap, followed by Voeckler. But that didn't amount to anything as they were both caught before the end with Hagen taking the win!

Stage 6 Results:
1 Edvald Boasson Hagen
2 Matthew Harley Goss
3 Thor Hushovd
4 Romain Feillu
5 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil
6 Arthur Vichot
7 Philippe Gilbert
8 Gerald Ciolek
9 Marco Marcato
10 Arnold Jeannesson

Favorite Picture of the Day:

Frank Schleck before the stage began

Note: I will not be able to post tomorrow or Saturday because I am going on vacation this weekend. I'll hopefully have time to catch back up on Sunday night with recaps of all missed stages. If not, Monday is a rest day so instead of posting another blog, I'll do recaps.