A Look Back: 2011 Tour de France

With 1 week left until the 2012 Edition of the Tour de France, I wanted to make a special post:

I went through all the pictures I saved from the 2011 Tour de France, and chose one from each stage that I want to share with you. Some of them are just cool pictures, while others the tell the story. It was so nice going back and re-living last year's Tour de France. July is my favorite month, and this is why. I hope you enjoy!

(All pictures were taken from Cycling on Yahoo! Sports during the 2011 Tour de France)

Stage 1: July 2, Passage du Gois – Mont des Alouettes, Flat Stage

I love this picture because it shows how close the peloton rides. And, if you look close enough you can see some of the top riders like Andy and Frank Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, George Hincapie, Cadel Evans, and Thor Hushovd, as well as many more.

Stage 2: July 3, Les Essarts – Les Essarts, Team Time Trial

Everyone knows that Thor Hushovd is my favorite rider, and this is such a great shot of the God of Thunder. This was taken after his team, Garmin-Cervelo, won the team time trial.

Stage 3: July 4, Olonne-sur-Mer – Redon, Flat Stage

This wasn't my first choice for a favorite picture, but the more I thought about it, the more I wanted this one. On America's Independence Day, American Tyler Farrar wins the stage and gives a sign for his best friend Wouter Weylandt, who was in a fatal crashed during the 2011 Giro d'Italia

Stage 4: July 5, Lorient – Mûr-de-Bretagne, Flat Stage



This was just a neat picture of the weather before Stage 4 began. Alexandre Vinokourov was warming up in the rain before the start.

Stage 5: July 6, Carhaix – Cap Fréhel, Flat Stage

After a nasty crash, in which Tom Boonen was caught in, his teammate Addy Engles helps him to the finish line.

Stage 6: July 7, Dinan – Lisieux, Flat Stage



Here is another weather shot. The day's breakaway, Malori, Duque, Roux, Hoogerland, and Westra, had to ride through a mix of rain and snow.

Stage 7: July 8, Le Mans – Châteauroux, Flat Stage

I had to include this picture. El Diablo goes hand-in-hand with Le Tour de France. He is here every year, and in multiple stages.

Stage 8: July 9, Aigurande – Super-Besse, Medium Mountains

American Tejay van Garderen won the King of the Mountain jersey for the stage.

Stage 9: July 10, Issoire – Saint-Flour, Medium Mountains

Johnny Hoogerland is the new KOM leader after the crash that pushed him into a barbed wire fence. He finished the stage, and lead the KOM points.

Stage 10: July 12, Aurillac – Carmaux, Flat Stage

Andre Greipel out-sprints Mark Cavendish to win the stage.

Stage 11: July 13, Blaye-les-Mines – Lavaur, Flat Stage

The riders ride through the rain during Stage 11. This hasn't been the year for nice, sunny weather.

Stage 12: July 14, Cugnaux – Luz Ardiden, Mountain Stage

Luxembourg Champion, Frank Schleck rides up a mountain during the stage.

Stage 13: July 15, Pau – Lourdes, Mountain Stage

Hushovd wins a mountain stage!!! The former sprinter now shows that he can climb as well.

Stage 14: July 16, Saint-Gaudens – Plateau de Beille, Mountain Stage

Leading the Sprint classification, Mark Cavendish is getting used to wearing the Green Jersey.

Stage 15: July 17, Limoux – Montpellier, Flat Stage

And if earning the Green Jersey wasn't enough, Cavendish won another stage.

Stage 16: July 19, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux – Gap, Medium Mountains

Hushovd wins again in the Mountains, proving why he is the World Champion!

Stage 17: July 20, Gap – Pinerolo, Mountain Stage

This is a beautiful shot of the peloton riding with the mountains next to them.

Stage 18: July 21, Pinerolo – Col du Galibier / Serre Chevalier, Mountain Stage

This was one of the best birthday presents I could have received! Although he didn't earn the Yellow Jersey from it, watching Andy Schleck win the stage on top of Col de Galibier was amazing. Okay, so I only saw it on TV, but that is almost like a front row seat.

Stage 19: July 22, Modane – L'Alpe d'Huez, Mountain Stage

The final mountain stage in the 2011 Tour de France ended on top of my favorite mountain, L'Alpe d'Huez! Pierre Rolland won the stage, and Andy Schleck took the Yellow Jersey from Thomas Voeckler.

Stage 20: July 23, Grenoble – Grenoble, Individual Time Trial



Its not a secret that I am not a fan of Cadel Evans, but we all knew the 2011 Tour de France was won by him as soon as he started his time trial on the second to last stage. His complete aerodynamic position from the beginning showed that he was the best rider this year.

Stage 21: July 24, Créteil – Paris (Champs-Élysées), Flat and Final Stage



Congratulations to the 2011 Tour de France winner, Cadel Evans! He really did earn the Yellow Jersey this year.

The Next Astana Team Leader?

Vinokourov: Maxim Iglinskiy won Liège-Bastogne-Liège "the Vino way"

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vinokourov-maxim-iglinskiy-won-liege-bastogne-liege-the-vino-way)

Alexandre Vinokourov showed up at the start of stage 2 in the Presidential Tour of Turkey in Alanya with a large smile, as did Valentin Iglinskiy because of the win of his elder brother Maxim at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. Both Astana riders watched the last fifty kilometres of "La Doyenne" from their hotel room near the Mediterranean coast.

"We have awaited our first victory for a while but this is a wonderful time for our team," Vinokourov told Cyclingnews.

Janez Brajkovic opened the team's account at stage 3 of the Volta a Catalunya and now Astana has three wins including two major Classics back-to-back with Amstel Gold Race (by Enrico Gasparotto) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

"Our start of the season was far from our expectations but these two Classics have put an end to our hard time," Vino continued. "It proves that Kazakh cycling is not only about myself. I've told Iglinskiy that after what he did yesterday, I can retire quietly."

The soon-to-be Astana team manager played his part in Iglinskiy's victory in Belgium. "I called Maxim yesterday morning before the start," Vino added. "I had noticed that he had good legs at Amstel Gold Race and Fleche Wallonne. ... He rode to perfection. He did it the Vino way! I told him to wait for the Roche-aux-Faucons and go with [Joaquim] Rodriguez. When he did it, I was confident that he'd finish on the podium. He dropped Rodriguez on St-Nicolas and turned the turbo on to catch [Vincenzo] Nibali."

Vinokourov revealed why Iglinskiy didn't win a big Classic until the age of 31. "He lacked motivation," the (substitute) member of the Kazakh Parliament said. "When he won the Strade Bianche and a stage of Tirreno-Adriatico in 2010, I told Maxim: ‘you can ride like Valverde' but he said: ‘no!!! I'm not at this level'. This year he's gone to altitude training camps here and there and he's motivated again. After this victory, he can step up to another level. He'll go back to Kazakhstan tomorrow and take some rest prior to training for the Tour de France and why not the Olympic Games."

On the eve of the Amstel Gold Race, Vinokourov reassured the president of the Kazakh cycling federation Kairat Kelimbetov that a great win was around the corner. "I'm even happier that a Kazakh rider is the winner. It shuts the mouth of the people who haven't believed in Kazakh riders. I reminded Maxim last night when we spoke again at 11pm: ‘I've always believed in you.'"

As a result of the revival of the motivation at Astana, Vino himself went on the attack at the Tour of Turkey after 48km and won the intermediate sprint at Manavgat.

Tour de Langkawi: First All-African Team & Vino Comes Full Circle

Two interesting articles caught my eye regarding the upcoming Tour de Langkawi:

First of all, the first African team will be competing in it. Its really good to see that cycling is becoming more of a world-wide sport than just a European sport. With the Santos Tour Down Under, as well as a handful of major races in the States, it nice to see that it is beginning to appeal to other countries.

First ‘truly African team’ set for Tour de Langkawi

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/first-truly-african-team-set-for-tour-de-langkawi)

With the Tour de Langkawi boasting one of its strongest line-ups in recent years one might be forgiven in glossing over some of the so-called smaller teams, but the MTN-Qhubeka team posses some of the most exciting talents in the race, and have been dubbed the first ‘truly African team’ by their team manager.

The race squad comprises of athletes from around the African continent, including four black African riders (Adrien Niyonshuti from Rwanda, and Jani Tewelde, Meron Russom and Tesfai Habtariam from Eritrea) and two South African riders (Jacques Janse van Rensburg and Dennis van Niekerk).

Van Niekerk and Janse van Rensburg are no strangers to the race, with Van Niekerk finishing fourth overall in 2011 and Janse van Rensburg finishing sixth in 2009.

Douglas Ryder, MTN-Qhubeka Team Principal, rode the Tour de Langkawi seven times as a member of the South African National Team, finishing fifth overall in 1996 and winning the KOM competition in 1998.

“I have always enjoyed the people and the hardness of the event in which South African riders have always done well,” said Ryder. “2012 sees the first truly African team participate, and with this event favouring the climbers, it will be great to see how our team will perform against one of the best fields ever assembled.”

The team will be looking for a strong performance in the GC, and will also be targeting the key mountain stage to Genting Genting Highlands.

"Janse van Rensberg, Niyonshuti and Van Niekerk are amongst Africa's best climbing talents,” she the team coach.

“They have been training hard over the past two months, and their SRM power data confirms their current form. Eritrian neo-pros Russom, Tewelde and Habetarium joined our team mid-January. They have rapidly adopted our team's high-tech training methods and their performances in hard, specific interval training sessions confirm their depth in conditioning. The Tour de Langkawi will be their first major international stage race outside of Africa. They're aggressive, fearless competitors and will be eager to earn the respect of their global competition."

Team for Tour de Langkawi:Adrien Niyonshuti (Rwa), Jani Tewelde Weldegaber (Eri), Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (RSA), Meron Russom (Eri), Tesfai Habtariam (Eri), Dennis Van Niekerk (RSA)

The second article that I found interesting was about Alexandre Vinokourov and how he will be racing in the Tour de Langkawi, which 15 years ago essentially began his professional career:

Vinokourov back in Langkawi after 15 years

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vinokourov-back-in-langkawi-after-15-years)

It's been 15 years but Alexander Vinokourov still remembers the first and last time he raced the Tour de Langkawi in 1997, as a member of the Kazakh national team. This week, the leader of the Astana squad is back in Kuala Lumpur to start his final season in the pro-ranks.

Le Tour de Langkawi triggered Vinokourov's career as a professional bike rider, as it was during the 1997 event that the Kazakhstan caught the eye of Gilles Mas, directeur sportif at Casino, who brought him to the French team as a stagiaire in August that year. Vinokourov signed his first professional contract in 1998 with the squad directed by Vincent Lavenu.

"It's fantastic to be here once again in my final year as a professional," Vinokourov told Biciciclismo. "I've always remembered my first time here in 1997 and I've always wanted to come back. But it was never included in my team's calendar, or suited to my race programme."

The 38-year-old returns to racing after fracturing his femur in a crash at the 2011 Tour de France. He competed in the Chrono des Nations last October but to him, "This is the first big race since I crashed in the Tour de France last year and it will be a good start into the new season for me, to get back to full fitness before travelling to Europe for the Classics."

Vinokourov is set to leave his mark on the race, together with his teammates Valentín Iglinskiy, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Assan Bazayev, Andrey Zeits and Dmitriy Gruzdev. "We have a strong team with the potential to win the general classification. My work here will be to help my teammates achieve the victory," he said.

After Le Tour de Langkawi, Vinokourov is scheduled to compete in Italy at the Settimana Internazionale di Coppi e Bartali at the end of March.

Ringing in 2012

In celebration of 2012, here are some New Year's #cyclingresolutions via twitter:

JulieHarden JulieHarden
Boonen: become a professional cyclist #cyclingresolutions


JulieHarden JulieHarden
Alberto Contador: Go Vegan #cyclingresolutions


dwuori Dan Wuori
Phillipe Gilbert: Share. #cyclingresolutions


JulieHarden JulieHarden
Andy Schleck: not wear underoos under my cycling kit #cyclingresolutions


dwuori Dan Wuori
Alexander Vinokourov: Delete more emails. #cyclingresolutions

Hope you and your families have a happy and healthy 2012!! See you next year!!

Brotherly Love vs Tour de France

Klöden: Schlecks must forget brotherly love to win Tour de France

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kloden-schlecks-must-forget-brotherly-love-to-win-tour-de-france)

Andreas Klöden has welcomed the arrival of Andy and Fränk Schleck to the newly-merged RadioShack-Nissan squad, but warned that the Luxembourg duo will have to put fraternal loyalties aside in order to win the Tour de France.

The Schlecks finished second and third in the 2011 edition of the race, but Klöden believes one or other brother will have to sacrifice his own chances if they are to conquer the top step of the podium.

“One brother needs to say next year, ‘ok, I will go on the attack and you go on the counter-attack’ but this year, they rode like brothers,” Klöden told Cyclingnews. “Each looked for the other, and this is not the right tactic. It was nice for the Schlecks to be second and third, but it’s not our goal to be third and second – we want to win.”

The merger of Leopard Trek and RadioShack sees the Schlecks come under the stewardship of Johan Bruyneel in 2012, and as well as tweaking their preparation, he and Leopard owner Flavio Becca will demand a different approach from the Luxembourgers next year.

“I know also Johan a little bit,” Klöden said. “This situation is not the same as this year, because we want to win this Tour and we’ll try to win. It’s not possible to be first, second and third. Maybe Andy can win, or Fränk, but it’s not good to be second third, fifth, sixth, and not first. I think this isn’t the goal for Flavio either. He wants to win. It’s not sure that we can win, but we’ll try it, and with a different tactic maybe.”

Forced out of the Tour de France through injury on stage 13, Klöden watched the final week of the race on television, and he felt that the Schlecks ought to have put Cadel Evans under pressure earlier and more often. “Cadel was always on the wheel, and there was only one climb where he needed to ride [on the Galibier on stage 18 –ed.], when Andy was in front, but at the end.”

Now flanked by the likes Klöden and Chris Horner, however, the onus will be on the Schlecks to put Evans on the back foot by having their team set an aggressive tempo from further out.

“You need to attack earlier,” Klöden noted. “Maybe I could go on the attack before because then Evans’ team needs to react. I think we have a lot of opportunities to do other tactics with big riders because I think also that this year the Leopard Trek guys were a good team but not strong enough on the climbs.

“You have a limited tactic with what you can do if you have only two strong guys. I remember in 2009 [at Astana – ed] with Alberto, Lance, Levi and me, we had a very good team and there were more things you could do.”

With nigh on 100km of time trialling on the agenda, however, the 2012 Tour route appears to pose a significant handicap to the Schlecks’ yellow jersey aspirations. Yet Klöden reckons that the lack of obvious set-piece summit finishes might ultimately play to their advantage, and that the tactical stalemate of this year’s Pyrenean stages is unlikely to be repeated next July.

“You saw this year, I think we had four uphill finishes, but on the uphill finishes, nobody attacked and everybody had almost the same time on the top,” he said. “I remember in 2009 when the Schlecks went on the attack on Le Grand-Bornand. They attacked before and then again on the last climb, so sometimes it’s better if you don’t have a mountaintop finish and you have some big climbs beforehand instead. Everybody is saying it is not a Tour for the Schlecks but I don’t think so.”
Back in a familiar role

The veteran Klöden insisted that he was happy to see the Schlecks join the team, even if it meant that his personal ambitions would once again have to take a back seat, a recurring theme through a career that has seen him ride in the service of Jan Ullrich, Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong.

“For me it’s always better to have big riders on the team,” he said. “I rode in the past with a lot of big riders but if you are good, you’ll get your chance and you’ll have more opportunities tactically in the race. For me, it doesn’t change things – I want to be fit for the Tour and then we will see.”

One of the RadioShack veterans who enjoyed a startling run of wins in early 2011, and finally freed of domestique deluxe duties in July, the 36-year-old Klöden’s frustration at crashing out of the Tour de France while in such a rich vein of form can surely only have been heightened by the arrival of two marquee overall contenders at his team for 2012.

“For sure it’s a missed opportunity, but what can you do?” he said. “I had the same time as all the leaders and I came through the first week well even with all the crashes, but then I had this mistake on the descent with Vino and Van Den Broeck.

“But I look to the future. I could say now, ‘ah, I lost the opportunity,’ but in the end, there is nothing I can do now.”

Vino Involved in Kazakhstan's Election

Vinokourov a candidate in Kazakh elections

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vinokourov-a-candidate-in-kazakh-elections)

Kazakhstan’s ruling Nur Otan party has named Alexandre Vinokourov among its list of candidates for the country’s forthcoming general election, which takes place on January 15.

Vinokourov’s name was greeted with generous applause when it was announced before delegates on Friday during the unveiling of the party's 127 candidates. Nur Otan is currently the only party represented in the Mazhilis, the lower chamber of the Kazakh parliament.

“It’s an honour for me to participate in the election as a candidate for a position as a deputy,” Vinokourov said, according to dhnet.be.

Kazakhstan uses a list system to elect its members of parliament, meaning that if elected, Vinokourov would not have to take up his seat immediately and could replace a sitting Nur Otan deputy at a later date.

The Astana rider, who had previously announced that he would retire in 2011, is now expected to take part in the London 2012 Olympics and he hinted that he would not enter parliament until after he calls time on his controversial career.

“I want to finish this year in the saddle, and maybe next year participate in the Olympic Games, concentrate on them and afterwards help Kazakhstan as I can,” Vinokourov said.

Vinokourov took silver in the road race in Sydney in 2000, but missed the Beijing Olympics as he was serving a two-year suspension for blood doping. He is joined on the Nur Otan electoral list by two of Kazakhstan's gold medallists from Sydney, Olga Shishigina (100 metres hurdles) and Yermakhan Ibraimov (boxing).

Nur Otan is widely expected to dominate the election and consolidate the rule of president Nursultan Nazarbayev. However, changes to the electoral system are set to guarantee the second-placed party a presence in parliament even if it fails to gain the 7% of the popular vote previously necessary to secure representation.

Allocations for the Olympics

UCI releases Olympic road race allocations

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/uci-releases-olympic-road-race-allocations)

The UCI today announced the number of elite men's road cycling spaces each National Olympic Committee has been offered for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Host country Great Britain earned the maximum number of places to support world champion Mark Cavendish in his goal of taking home the Olympic gold.

Each country can earn a maximum of five spots in the road race and two in the time trial, but only six countries claimed the maximum in both events. World silver medalist Matt Goss helped earn the top spots for Australia, while defending Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez helped Spain to five spots. Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland also took the maximum allocation.

Places in the men's road race and time trial were based upon each country's ranking in the UCI WorldTour, Continental Tours, Continental Championships and rider rankings in the UCI tours.

Belgium, Italy and the USA earned five spots in the road race and one in the time trial, while Denmark and Kazakhstan were awarded the maximum number of places for the time trial.

While the top 10 of the WorldTour nations rankings earned five places and the 11th-15th placed countries earned four, each country could only qualify as many spots as it had riders in the 2011 WorldTour individual rankings. Therefore, Luxembourg, which was ninth in the WorldTour but only scored points with Fränk and Andy Schleck, was awarded just two places in the road race and one in the time trial.

Similarly, Norway (Edvald Boasson Hagen, Thor Hushovd and Alexander Kristoff) and Ireland (Daniel Martin, Philip Deignan and Nicolas Roche) were each awarded three places, despite taking 12th and 13th, respectively. Kazakhstan took 15th and claimed two places, qualified by Alexandre Vinokourov and Sergey Renev.

The top countries of each Continental Tour; Morocco (Africa Tour), Colombia (Americas) and Iran (Asia), were awarded three spots in the road race, while Italy (Europe) and Australia (Oceania) had already qualified the maximum through the WorldTour rankings.

Canada earned just one place in the road race and time trial, while China failed to qualify a single spot - however, Hong Kong was awarded one place in each event.

The allocations for women's road events will not be calculated until the end of May, 2012.

For the time trial, the top 15 countries in the WorldTour each earned one spot, while the top nations in the Continental Tours earned a single spot. Countries in the top 10 of the 2011 road world championships time trial earned one additional place in the time trial in London.

National Olympic Committees now have until November 17 to confirm they intend to use all of their spaces. If there are any unused spots in the 145-rider peloton, the UCI will distribute them between March and April 2012.

Not Exactly the Best Way to Retire...

This was going to be Alexandre Vinokourov's last Tour de France. However before he had a chance of crossing the finish line, fate took a cruel turn and he crashed in the 9th stage. With a fractured femur, this ended his career much more abruptly that he would have liked:

Vinokourov: "I never expected such a dramatic end on the Tour de France"

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vinokourov-i-never-expected-such-a-dramatic-end-on-the-tour-de-france)

Usually, positioning yourself towards the front of the peloton is enough to keep you out of trouble, Not so for veteran Kazakh Alexandre Vinkourov (Astana), who crashed out of the Tour de France on Sunday.

This 98th edition of the Grand Boucle was set to be Vinkourov's last before retirement, so it was with a sense of melancholy that the 37-year-old spoke following news of his race-ending injuries.

"I never expected such a dramatic end on the Tour de France," he said on a statement posted on the Astana website. "This is a terrible disappointment to me, I am so sad tonight. But I want to reassure myself by telling myself that it could have been much worse. The injury will stop me for quite a long time, and I will follow the Tour on television to support the entire Astana team. I know my friends on the team won't forget me and they will do everything to win at least one stage. "

Vinokourov was carried from the bushes in a ravine beneath the road from where he crashed around 110 kilometres into the ninth stage. Once transported to the hospital in Aurillac, x-rays revealed that Vinokourov had fractured the head of his right femur, an injury which given its recovery time is likely to bring a definitive end to his season. The Kazakh was later transferred to Hospital La Pitié Salpetriere in Paris where he underwent surgery by Professor Yves Catonne, Head of Orthopedic and Traumatology service.

Teammate Dimitry Fofonov explained that the Astana riders were forced to take a wide line into the slippery corner when one of the Omega Pharma-Lotto riders crashed, "and started to take us with him, and we found ourselves faced with a concrete column."

"We braked to avoid it and were forced to drop into the ravine," Fofonov continued. "Alexandre really hasn't been lucky, he was ahead of me and he was stopped in his fall by a tree. I've crashed down and I got up immediately, I felt I had nothing serious. I told Alexandre, 'Come on, we go!' He answered, 'Wait, not now, I think I have something broken!' So I came up to him and I wanted to lift him, but he was afraid that we make a bad move that could make him worse. I then saw the ambulance arrive at the top, next to the road and called for help."

Realising that their leader was down and would not be able to continue, the rest of the Astana team continued the stage, but Fofonov said "it's not easy to accept," that Vinokourov's Tour is over.

Rémy Di Gregorio was left shattered by the news, the Frenchman said it was a shame that it took incidents such as those seen on stage 9 to prove how dangerous the sport of cycling is.

"I don't want to overdo it, but sometimes we risk our lives," the 25-year-old said. "It's a shame for the team because we had worked around him [Vinokourov]. And it's sad for Alexandre, because he is a great person and for his last Tour, he deserved to finish in another way, he really had no luck. But we will continue the Tour de France to honour the team and Alexandre. "

Tour de France, Stage 9

Today's stage was from Issoire to Saint-Flour for a total of 208km:

Again, to save time, I am just going to copy the summary from cyclingnews.com. I will be back with my summary on Tuesday for the 10th stage. Since tomorrow is a rest day, I will do a normal blog on a topic I have yet to decide, but it will have a Tour de France theme. 

Thomas Voeckler takes yellow

Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) claimed victory on a dramatic day of racing that saw Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) move into the yellow jersey and crashes wreak havoc in the peloton. On a tough uphill finish in Saint-Flour, Sánchez had too much in the tank for his French breakaway companions Voeckler and Sandy Casar (FDJ) and powered clear to take the third Tour stage win of his career.

Although well beaten by the Spaniard in the sprint, Voeckler received considerable consolation in the shape of the maillot jaune, which he took for the first time since 2004. "The last time I wore it, it was said they let me take the yellow jersey. But this time I went out looking for it," said Voeckler. "I made a clear choice. I sacrificed the stage to win it."

A race that has been packed with drama so far continued in the same vein almost from the start in Issoire. An early crash that resulted in Euskaltel-Euskadi's Amets Txurruka and Vacansoleil-DCM's Wout Poels quitting the race was, unfortunately, merely the prelude to two other serious incidents.

As the bunch descended the second climb of the day, the Pas de Peyrol, a number of riders went down, both on the road and into the ditch and woods on the right-hand side of it. The most seriously affected were Omega Pharma-Lotto GC leader Jurgen Van den Broeck and teammate Fredrik Willems, who both broke a collar bone, Astana leader Alexandre Vinokourov, who broke an elbow and his femur, and Garmin-Cervélo's Dave Zabriskie, who broke a wrist. All were forced to abandon, although Zabriskie did briefly attempt to continue.

Zabriskie's Garmin-Cervélo teammate David Millar was riding with race leader Thor Hushovd, and both just managed to avoid the crash, as Millar explained to ITV at the finish. "That crash was horrific. We were coming down the high-speed descent and there was a corner that kept tightening. The guy in front of Zabriskie just made it around, but Dave clipped the barriers and went flying over the edge. The Lotto guy who was on his wheel hit the barrier and stopped dead but was spinning on the floor. I just squeezed through. Thor jumped over the bike and just made it by and it all went piling down behind us. It was one of the scariest crashes I've seen. It was carnage."

More controversial was a crash in the breakaway group of five just 36km from the finish. As the riders sped down a descent, a car from French TV attempted to pass them going partly down the grass verge on the left-hand side of the road. The car driver swerved back into the road and the riders to avoid a roadside tree, hitting Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha and sending him cartwheeling down the road. The Spaniard clipped Vacansoleil-DCM's Johnny Hoogerland, who was sent somersaulting onto a barbed wire fence on the other side of the road.

Thankfully, both riders were able to continue, although both were bloodied, Hoogerland suffering what appeared to be deep wounds to his lower legs. The Dutchman received some compensation at the finish in the shape of the King of the Mountains jersey, having led over four of the day's eight categorised climbs.

"We can be happy that we're alive. It's horrible," said Hoogerland. "I can blame everyone but I don't think anyone does this sort of thing on purpose. I think the people in the car will have a very big guilty feeling and they will surely apologize to me and Flecha...I have three cuts that are about seven centimetres long and quite deep too. I'll go to the hospital now and I think I'll need about 30 stitches at least.

"I did what felt like a few somersaults. I don't know where the car came from. Before I knew it, Flecha was on the ground and there was nothing I could do. I landed on the fence and I looked at my legs and thought, ‘Is this what cycling is about?' I have the polka-dot jersey but I'm going to spend the rest day in a lot of pain."

The green jersey stayed firmly on the shoulders of Philippe Gilbert, who once again stormed clear on the main group to claim fourth place on the line, although he admitted he was disappointed not to have been in contention for the stage win.

"We had a bad day because we lost VDB and Willems, and we were hoping to win the stage today. Because of the big crash we had to stop [chasing], then Garmin didn't want to ride, then they did, then they stopped again. The atmosphere was very bad after the crash. I told my teammates that if we were in contention for the win today I would take it easily because I was very strong, and I'm disappointed because of the situation of the crashes and the situation of the race."

How it unfolded
Although numerous riders attempted to break the shackles of the fast-moving peloton in the first hour, no one managed to get a significant advantage until the summit of the first climb of the day, the 3rd-category Côte de Massiac. Voeckler led over the summit, followed by former KoM leader Hoogerland. This pair pressed on over the climb and were joined by Sky's Flecha, FDJ's Casar, Rabobank's Luis León Sánchez and Quick Step's Niki Terpstra.

Voeckler and Hoogerland's duel for mountains points continued over the 2nd-category Pas de Peyrol, where the Frenchman beat the Dutchman. This pair and their three breakaway companions were already heading towards the third climb of the day, the 2nd-category Col du Perthus, with a lead of around three-and-a-half minutes when the day's biggest crash halted much of the peloton on the descent of the Pas de Peyrol.

Most of the field was held up as riders tried to pick their way past stricken colleagues. A gaggle of Astana riders headed into the foliage below the right-hand side of the road to aid team leader Vinokourov. The Kazakh was eventually lifted off his bike and back up to the road, but was unable to continue. Van den Broeck, Willems and Zabriskie were also forced out, and several others went down heavily too, including RadioShack leader Andreas Klöden, although the German did manage to continue.

A truce is called
After some brief discussion, a truce was called at the front of the peloton to allow those riders who had either crashed or been held up to get back up to the group. The drop in pace resulted in the break's lead ballooning out to almost eight minutes as Hoogerland led Voeckler over the fourth of the day's eight categorised climbs, the 3rd-category Col de Cère.

Little more than a minute down on yellow jersey Hushovd, Voeckler realised that the overall lead was now a serious possibility and allowed Hoogerland to take the next couple of climbs unchallenged in return for a degree of cooperation in between the summits. When the Dutchman led the leading quintet over the 2nd-category Prat de Bouc, he guaranteed himself the polka dot jersey at the end of the stage and would almost certainly have contended for the stage win if not for the intervention of France TV's car.

After remounting following extensive treatment, Hoogerland was caught by the bunch just before the day's intermediate sprint, where Gilbert took fifth place uncontested to extend his lead in the points competition. Garmin-Cervélo were by now working hard to defend Hushovd's yellow jersey. But inside the final 20km they realised his lead was gone and they let BMC and eventually Leopard Trek take over the pace-setting.

At the front of the race, Casar and Sánchez were happy to let Voeckler do the lion's share of the work heading into the finish. The Europcar team leader led the way until well inside the final kilometre, as his two companions rode side by side, eyeing each other. So intent were Casar and Sánchez on each other that Voeckler was able to drop back behind them on the 1.3km climb up to the finish, and it was he who made the first acceleration from 300m out.

Sánchez responded immediately, surging clear of Voeckler as Casar offered no challenge. Crossing the line, the Spaniard first sucked his thumb and then gave a sign to indicate his wife's pregnancy as he claimed Spain's first stage win of this year's race. The grimacing Voeckler came in five seconds later with the crowd roaring their approval.

Although he will probably not hold the maillot jaune for the 10 days he kept it in 2004, the Frenchman will be hard to shake from the race lead, especially after such a brutal first week that has taken a toll on the whole field. They will all be glad of tomorrow's first rest day.

2011 Tour de France Stage 8

Saturday was the first Mountain stage in the Pyrenees, It ran from Aigurande to Super-Besse Sancy for a total of 190km:

Due to time constrants, I am just going to copy the summary article from cyclingnews.com:

Hushovd unshakable on Super Besse

The first mountain stage of the Tour was also the first when a rider who had been in the main break of the day held on until the finish. That man was Movistar's Rui Costa, who had joined eight others on the attack after only 8km of racing and hung to win by just 12 seconds ahead of Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto), who had jumped away from the yellow jersey group that was rapidly closing in behind the 24-year-old Portuguese rider.

Going through the village of Besse, with six mostly uphill kilometres to the finish, Costa was in the company of Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad), Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Christophe Riblon (Ag2r La Mondiale), with Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky) chasing frantically less than a minute behind having attacked from the peloton 25km from the finish.

As the road ramped up, Gautier produced the first acceleration, which quickly saw Riblon drop out of contention. Costa chased, caught and then attacked the Frenchman, as Van Garderen vainly tried to get back on terms. From that point, Costa's main threat came from Vinokourov, who dropped Flecha soon after Besse in desperate pursuit of his much-stated dream to take the yellow jersey.

Two kilometres out, the Kazakh veteran was 18 seconds down and appeared to be closing as the road rose ramped up again towards the finish. But, rather than Vinokourov, it was the youngster Costa who produced the stronger finish, staying clear on his own as the Astana leader was engulfed by the yellow jersey group.

"This is the most important victory I've ever had. I still can't believe I've won a stage on the Tour de France," said Costa. "Obviously it's always been a dream to win a stage like this. It's incredible! I attacked at a crucial moment when I saw that my breakaway companions were starting to flag. That gave me a bit of a cushion and worked to my advantage.

"To be honest, when I saw Vinokourov coming I thought he was going to catch me, but at the end I gave it everything that I possibly could. To win is great for me and it's great for my team, who have had some difficulties this year, and I know this victory is going to help us."

While Costa's was undoubtedly the ride of the day, not far behind was Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo), who went into the stage one second ahead of Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) on GC and came out of it with the same advantage. Although the Australian finished very strongly to take third place, 15 seconds down on Costa, the Norwegian sprinter was one of just 22 riders who were in that group with Evans.

"Today I surprised myself again, although I did not have a good day," Hushovd confessed. "But I just hung on, hung on, hung on, and it's just incredible that I'm still here in yellow. Cadel was the only rider I was looking for today, but I couldn't follow his move with 1k to go. I just did my tempo and managed to close a little gap at the end with a little sprint to get into his group. Tomorrow is another hard day and I'll just have to see what happens. Of course I would love to have yellow tomorrow night as well, but it's going to be really hard to control the race tomorrow."

Gesink is the major loser
While Costa was riding away to the best win of his career, the overall contenders used the final 2km of the stage to test each other out – or at least most of them did. Surprisingly, Rabobank's Robert Gesink had been dropped from that elite group with 5km remaining and was being paced by a number of his teammates into the finish. Although the Dutchman still managed to hang on to the white jersey as best young rider, he lost more than a minute on all his rivals for the yellow jersey.

Up ahead of the Dutchman, several of the likely contenders for the overall title made tentative attacks in the final 2km. After Gilbert had attacked going under the kilometre banner, Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank Sungard) countered, but was immediately closed down by Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) and Evans. The Spaniard had another dig 500m out, but once again failed to get clear. In the end, Gilbert's explosive power enabled him to get clear, as the overall contenders cancelled each other out. Gilbert's second place moved him back into the green jersey at the expense of Costa's Movistar teammate José Joaquín Rojas.

Defending champion Contador said he had felt good on the final climb, but explained: "The final wasn't hard in terms of the gradient and it was extremely difficult to get clear. But it's another day over and another day closer to the Pyrenees. I couldn't do much else on a stage like today. The best thing is that I got through it without falling."

Vinokourov was caught during that flurry of action and admitted at the finish he was very disappointed to have missed out. "I thought I had good legs today. I thought to myself. ‘I'm going to go for it,'" he said. "But in the very final kilometre it was just too much for me to bridge the gap. But I'll live to fight another day. I thought I was going to get up to Costa when I attacked, but he was just too strong today. Maybe next time..."

Riblon makes the first move
After several previous attempts had been neutralised, Christophe Riblon instigated the break of the day when he jumped clear after 8km. The Frenchman was quickly joined by Costa, Xabier Zandio (Sky), Addy Engels (Quick Step), Van Garderen, Romain Zingle (Cofidis), Gautier, Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha) and Julien El Farès (Cofidis).

At the top of the first climb, the 4th-category Côte d'Evaux-les-Bains – where El Farès took the KOM point on offer – their advantage reached almost six minutes, making Costa, who was 4:02 down on GC, the leader on the road as BMC set the pace in the bunch behind. The intermediate sprint followed at Auzances. Riblon clipped off the front of the break to take 20 points for the first man through it, ahead of Costa and Kolobnev.
That left the green jersey contenders in the bunch sprinting for 10th place. Gilbert took advantage of the rise up to the line to outkick Rojas. Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad), who had jumped to third in the standings on stage 7, was beaten for 12th place by Rojas's teammate Francisco Ventoso.

The sprint offered just a brief respite from the climbing that was the main order of the day. The break was soon onto the 4th category Côte du Rocher des Trois Tourtes, where Kolobnev took the single point on offer. In the peloton, Astana had joined BMC in pace-setting duties and these two teams had trimmed the break's lead back to 3:45 at this summit.

Van Garderen takes the KoM jersey
When Omega Pharma-Lotto added their weight to the peloton's pace-making, the gap to the break began to tumble rapidly, dropping below three minutes with 32km remaining. Up ahead, the break reached the first slopes of the penultimate climb, the 2nd-category Col de la Croix Saint-Robert, where Van Garderen produced two accelerations that split the group.

Only Costa and Gautier were able to stay with him, although the Frenchman dropped back before the summit, where Van Garderen bagged five points as first man over. This was enough to earn the young American the lead in the King of the Mountains competition at the end of the stage, although he later admitted his day might have gone even better if he'd held back a bit more before the final climb.

"I think I paid for my aggression a little earlier on because I think the others felt that I was a strong rider so whenever anyone attacked they would like to me to shut it down. So I think it probably would have been better to stay calm earlier on, and I just lacked a little bit at the end. But the Tour's been incredible. I'm having a lot of fun."

Van Garderen's strength showed when he chased down Riblon twice on the approach to Besse, but those efforts rebounded on the 22-year-old HTC climber when the slightly more experienced Costa made what proved to be the winning move on the other side of the town.

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