Sprinter extraordinaire, Mark Cavendish did something today that would have resulted in most other sprinters being disqualified from the stage at a minimum or from the Tour as has happened in the past  (Mark Renshaw in 2010 for one). For Cavendish though, there were no consequences to his actions.

A video is worth a thousand words so see for yourself in this video by NBC Sports and Steephilltv:

Breaking sports news video. MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL highlights and more.

Here’s a video from YouTube (CanalF10) from the 2010 Tour when Renshaw, Cavendish’s teammate at the time was disqualified from the Tour and sent home for head-butting:

In my mind Cavendish should have been disqualified from the sprint (resulting in no place and no points) at a minimum. What he did was far worse than Renshaw’s behavior in 2010 yet Cav gets off scott-free.

Excitement and drama kicks off the 2nd week of the Tour today in what we expected to end in a “normal” bunch sprint.

Stage 10 started with a break of 5 riders getting away early. The peloton let them go and then proceeded to bring them back – the usual cat and mouse game. The break never had a chance unless there was either a peloton pileup or a peloton breakup by crosswinds. Neither happened so when the time was right the peloton caught the break and the sprinters teams came to the front.

The wind played a factor in that the GC favorites teams wanted to keep them at the front, sprinters teams wanted to keep their sprinters at the front and had to catch the break – all of which meant the peloton was tightly packed and pace was high. Tensions were definitely high.

Lotto-Belisol and Argos-Shimano have well organized leadouts for their sprinters. Cavendish for the most part does not. Today Greipel and Kittel were delivered perfectly, while Cavendish had to fend for himself. He didn’t have much trouble doing it did he. Regardless though, he has to be frustrated with his team QuickStep and his lack of stage wins. That frustration had to play a part in his shoving Tom Veelers.

Cav being Cav, he said he did nothing wrong. Tour officials doing what they do, protecting the Tour, confirmed through their actions (lack of) that he did nothing wrong. I don’t know how anyone can watch that first video and say he didn’t deliberately put his shoulder into Veelers. Make sure to see the front angle at 1:25.

Stage 11 is a 33k individual time-trial. You have to expect Chris Froome to take more time. Tomorrow should be beautiful, finishing at Mont Saint Michel. Hope they all finish before the tide comes in.

Brilliant video! Worth a watch by Tour fans and novices alike. (via crankpunk.com)

Stage 9 was filled with excitement and great racing. Jonathon Vaughters said that Garmin-Sharp’s riders would cause chaos in the peloton and they delivered on that promise today. Their reward for their attacking style was the stage win for Dan Martin.

There were fireworks from the beginning of Stage 9. Saxo-Tinkoff and Movistar worked together at the front; setting a high tempo they isolated GC leader Chris Froome on the first Category 1 climb as his lieutenants (including the second placed Richie Porte) dropped by the way side.

Between the attacking tactics of the Garmin-Sharp riders and the Spanish armada formed by Saxo and Movistar Sky didn’t know what hit them.

All the strength and control Sky exhibited yesterday was non-existent today. Needless to say I was happy about that as were most Tour fans I would guess.

The yellow jersey was already isolated and it was early in the stage. Movistar and Saxo had Froome right where they wanted him – all alone – while Movistar leader Alejandro Valverde still had 3 of his lieutenants and Saxo-Tinkoff leader Alberto Contador had 2 of his.

As you would imagine there were a number of attacks off the front before things settled down somewhat into a 4 man break including Pierre Rolland and Ryder Hesjedal. Rolland picked up enough points to take back the polka-dot jersey from Froome. Other chase groups formed then faded, getting swallowed up or dropped by the main group with the yellow jersey and most of the favorites. Froome’s teammates were never able to catch back up.

Valverde and two teammates attacked the yellow jersey group, only Froome gave chase, easily catching them. Valverde and company and Froome came together before the start of the 2nd Category 1 climb, Col de Peyresourde. Next up was the Col de Azat, the 2nd to last climb of Stage 9.

In my mind it was do or die for Valverde/Movistar and Contador/Saxo. They had Froome just where they wanted him – solo – and Movistar particularly had the manpower to hurt him. Regardless, they didn’t attack, instead they rode tempo, and not surprisingly Froome was more than happy to sit back while Saxo and Movistar took turns at the front.

They had a shot and they didn’t take it. By the time Movistar did attack (with Quintana) it was late, on the last climb and easier for Froome to fight off than it would have been on the Azet.

It was a missed opportunity and one they may not get again. Instead of riding tempo, Movistar should have attacked Froome repeatedly, forcing Froome to give chase and thus wearing him down until he couldn’t follow any longer.

Apparently Valverde/Movistar was happy to drop Porte and move Valverde into the #2 spot rather than to go for the top spot and yellow jersey. With an individual time-trial on Wednesday Froome will surely increased his hold on yellow over Valverde. Don’t say you didn’t have a chance to take time Movistar.

---

Garmin-Sharp on the other hand played every card they had. They saved their last best card, Dan Martin, for a final move. After the attacks by Quintana had played themselves out and Froome had apparently saved the yellow Martin attacked, with only Fuglsang following. They quickly opened up a gap on the main group as they worked together heading for the finish.

Martin played it perfectly, sitting on Fulgsang’s wheel until just the right moment when he attacked and took the stage win. A thrilling finish to an exciting stage.

There’s a rest day tomorrow (yeah!) and then the Tour heads north for a sprint stage.

More fireworks next Sunday when the Tour goes to Mont Ventoux. Team Sky will have one less rider protecting their hold on yellow; Vasili Kiryienka was the only rider to not make the time cut. Sky had a bad day, could have been a really bad day, but it no doubt was a wakeup call.

Makes me smile.

When I bemoaned the opening week of sprint stages yesterday I didn’t expect someone would do something to make this last one exciting. Someone did. Actually a team of somebodies: the team of Peter Sagan, Cannondale.

There was no bluff to Cannondale’s plan for Stage 7 – get Sagan the win. How? By dropping all of his competitors before the finish.

They executed their plan to perfection.

Cannondale, with some help from Orica-GreenEdge the team of the yellow jersey holder Daryl Impey, set a blistering pace at the front. If the peloton thought they were going to be able to take it kind of easy before tomorrow’s tough stage in the Pyrenees, they were sorely mistaken!

The first break of the day was old man Jens Voigt (Radio Shack) and Blel Kadri (AG2R) getting out in front, with Kadri picking up KOM points on the first two climbs and Kadri’s teammate outsprinting Pierre Rolland who had held the KOM jersey ensuring Kadri would capture the polka-dot jersey which he did.

Meanwhile OGE could sit behind Cannondale and let them do the work, good for them. No need to work when another team has an agenda. They managed to split the peloton dropping all the other main sprinters on the category 2 climb and continued to drill the pace until the intermediate sprint. I have to believe that was Cannondale’s plan is to get Sagan points to increase his hold on the green jersey, but when they saw they had dropped the likes of Mark Cavendish, Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel, they decided why not go for the stage win.

So basically Cannondale gave Sagan a 190k lead-out. Their work at the front was nothing short of phenomenal.

Later in the stage Cannondale/OGE had to chase down a more threatening break with previous yellow jersey wearer Jan Bakelandts. Since Bakelandts was within striking distance of taking back the yellow jersey OGE shared in the work of chasing them down, although Cannondale still did the majority of the work. They caught them 3k from the finish and the race for the stage win was on.

Somehow Sagan and his teammates had enough left to take care of business. Sagan had to start his sprint from a long way out and in a less than optimum position. It didn’t matter. Argos-Shimano’s sprinter Degenkolb nearly caused him to go into the wall getting ahead of Sagan, but Sagan rocketed past him to take his much deserved first stage win of the 2013 Tour de France.

No choreographed victory salute for Sagan this time, just an acknowledgement to team sponsor Cannondale. He looked exhausted, I’m sure he was, along with his team no doubt. They gave us a great display of teamwork and perfect execution,it was a joy to watch.

I was equally happy that Impey kept the yellow jersey. For a new team, OGE have had a phenomenal week at the Tour, and just think, it was their bus that got things going.

In other news Christian Van de Velde had to abandon the Tour today after suffering another crash early in the stage. Hopefully he will be all healed up and ready to defend his US Pro Cycling Challenge championship in August.

Since I have Peter Sagan on my Fantasy Cycling Challenge team I picked up 125 points today, bringing the total thus far to a not-so-great 463.

Stage 8 is a doozy,the first day in the Pyrenees and it is a tough one. We should see a major shakeup in the GC  and jersey competitions. Just please don’t let Sky get yellow.