Today was an exciting day of racing but not because of what transpired between those in the hunt for the final podium  – it was the breakaway that provided the exciting racing we are used to seeing in the Tour de France and which has been strangely absent this year – except for the riders in the breaks with no GC aspirations but determined to get a stage win.

The 2012 Tour de France will be remembered as the year of the breakaway as the star of the race. It certainly was today. You’re not surprised I see it that way, are you.

A huge break of 38 riders formed early on in the race, before the climb of the Col d’Aubisque started. They stayed together more or less until a selection took place on the climb of the big mountain – the Col du Tourmalet (French for big mountain). Full-throttle or nothing, Dan Martin (Garmin) went to the front and most of the 38 fell off the back. Voeckler, Kessiakoff in the polka-dot jersey, Feillu and Sorensen were together for a while, then the 3 – Martin, Voeckler and Feillu and then Martin popped. Jonathon Vaughters told him to ease off earlier on, but Martin is young and hasn’t learned to pace himself yet. I’m sure today’s stage was a great lesson in that.

So then there were two in the lead break – two Frenchman – Voeckler and Feillu – which meant we saw little of the main group with Wiggins, Nibali and Evans while the French TV cameras rejoiced in their luck.

The group of favorites ascended the Tourmalet all together with the pace of Sky not hard enough to really splinter the main field. There was no reason for Sky to do anything other than set tempo at the front, they had what they wanted – the lead.

On the climb of the Col d’Aspin Liquigas for their leader Nibali went to the front to toughen the pace. Evans was dropped but had a teammate (not Van Garedern, he was allowed to stay with the main group of Wiggins and Nibali) to help pace him back and reduce the gap. The Aspin was the “easiest” of the climbs but it was the cumulative effort of the Aubisque and Tourmalet that did him in. On the descent of the Col d’Aspin Evans was able to rejoin the main group with one climb left to tackle.

Voeckler and Feillu worked together to keep their lead all the way to the final climb, the Col de Peyresourde until Voeckler proceeded to attack and drop his compatriot.

You have to love the crafty Voeckler. As he made his way along the Peyresourde and descended toward the finish he pushed fans away and directed fans to get out of his way with hand gestures that looked like a priest performing mass – and of course all the usual facial expressions with maybe a few new ones.

As much as I enjoyed watching Voeckler win Stage 16, his 2nd of this Tour, I hated what happened to Evans. On the climb of the Peyresourde he was dropped again, this time permanently, losing over 4 minutes to Wiggins, Froome and Nibali. Nibali did attack on the final climb as was expected  but was never able to shake Wiggins or Froome. The three finished the stage together 7 minutes after Voeckler’s winning time.

Voeckler’s win today was reminiscent of his Stage 15 win in 2010 and his fight last year to keep the yellow jersey in Stage 18 last year. His style of racing epitomizes what I love about the Tour – and him – Vive la Voeckler!

Stage results

• 1. Thomas VOECKLER, Europcar, in 5:35:02
• 2. Chris Anker SÖRENSEN, Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank, at 1:40
• 3. Gorka IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 3:22
• 4. Alexandr VINOKUROV, Astana, at 3:23
• 5. Brice FEILLU, Saur-Sojasun, at 3:57
• 6. Jens VOIGT, RadioShack-Nissan, at 4:17
• 7. Daniel MARTIN, Garmin-Sharp, at 6:08
• 8. Simone STORTONI, Lampre-ISD, at 6:08
• 9. Giampaolo CARUSO, Katusha, at 6:08
• 10. Laurens TEN DAM, Rabobank, at 6:08

General classification

• 1. Bradley WIGGINS, Sky, in 74:15:32
• 2. Christopher FROOME, Sky, at 2:05
• 3. Vincenzo NIBALI, Liquigas-Cannondale, at 2:23
• 4. Jurgen VAN DEN BROECK, Lotto-Belisol, at 5:46
• 5. Haimar ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, RadioShack-Nissan, at 7:13
• 6. Tejay VAN GARDEREN, BMC Racing, at 7:55
• 7. Cadel EVANS, BMC Racing, at 8:06
• 8. Janez BRAJKOVIC, Astana, at 9:09
• 9. Pierre ROLLAND, Europcar, at 10:10
• 10. Thibaut PINOT, FDJ-BigMat, at 11:43

Experiencing Tour blog post withdrawal so here I am.

I woke up this morning thinking about what could have been if Hesjedal, Sanchez, Andy Shleck (and without brother Frank starting tomorrow), Danielson – who am I forgetting – were still in the Tour. Such a shame that stupid crashes took them all out. Our loss and of course theirs for not getting to race the race they all look forward to each year.

Any of the 4 could have been in the hunt for the final podium, and all of them would have raced and provided excitement and drama that this Tour has been sorely lacking.

The drama of the positive test of a banned substance by Frank Schleck doesn’t count. I was somewhat surprised that he left the race; it wasn’t required since the B sample hasn’t been tested. Certainly RadioShack doesn’t need any more bad press and maybe that’s how they made the decision or maybe they know the B sample will be positive too. Damn doping.

I hate that once again professional cyclists are being put in an unfair and inaccurate light – the general public has the idea all Tour riders dope. If other professional athletes were tested half as much as cyclists they would fare far worse in testing for banned substances, in my opinion. No, I don’t want performance enhancing drugs used by any athlete, but we know they are and yet cycling is the only sport that makes a serious effort to detect athletes using banned substances. So instead of bashing the sport of cycling we should ask the professional football, basketball and baseball organizations why they don’t implement similar anti-doping measures.

In the meantime we have two pivotal stages to look forward to – here’s to tomorrow and a fiercely contested stage 16 in the Pyrenees – I hope.

Just when I thought the Tour couldn’t possibly get more boring Stage 15 happened.

The first part of the stage provided great racing as we saw break after break attempt to get away. The peloton refused to let anyone get away chasing them all back until the winning break got away after a very fast hour+ of racing. It was interesting to watch the riders try to get away. Uncharacteristically this year breaks have formed easily but not today. Boasson Hagan (Sky) tried to bring order to the breakaway train as did Eisel but until the peloton was spread across the road – white line to white line – the attacks didn’t stop and even then one rider attacked and got through – Sorensen. Until his race director threatened to send his other riders up front to bring the break back was Sorensen able to join the break. 

Once that happened it was nap time in the peloton and nap time for us viewers. Truly boring “racing”. A pace was set by Sky that was so slow it seemed they were practicing their processional for their presumably victorious march into Paris.

Seriously slow.

The fast pace in the beginning of the stage appeared to be too much for some because 7 riders abandoned the Tour today – one of them Sylvan Chavanel who is on my fantasy team. He’s the 4th rider I’ve lost (Gesink, Mollema, Hesjedal). I’m in slightly better shape than Rabobank who has only 4 riders left.

That’s a total of 42 riders so far in the 2012 Tour de France – way more than previous years. For 2011 – 31 abandoned, 27 in 2010, 24 in 2009 and 35 in 2008. Since they haven’t gone into the Pyrenees yet you would expect the number to go up. It’s especially unusual for riders to abandon on a relatively flat stage before a rest day.

Usually on a day like today the sprinters teams go hunting for a stage win and get it, but they seemed to have needed a pre-rest day before the actual rest day tomorrow.

Sagan was the only rider in the peloton to even race for the intermediate sprint points. Neither Greipel, Goss or Cavendish even sprinted for them – when is the last sprinters didn’t sprint for points? Probably the last time the green jersey race was sewn up this early.

Since the sprinters teams didn’t elect to race today the 6 riders in the break got to go for the win, with Fedrigo another French rider edging out Garmin’s Vande Velde to take his 4th Tour stage. If a Frenchman was to win, I, of course would have preferred Voeckler. It was Fedrigo who attacked though and got the jump on the others, only Vande Velde was able to bridge. Unfortunately he was no match for Fedrigo’s sprint to the line. It was still a good day for Vande Velde and Garmin to finish 2nd.

The peloton moseyed in about 12 minutes later.

We won’t see another stage like today for a while – Hallelujah! We are headed to the mountains!

There are just 2 stages left where Nibali and Evans can hope to crack Wiggins and Froome and gain time on them – Stages 16 and 17 – where we will surely see attacks by Nibali and Evans and aggressive racing by any and all trying to move up in the overall classification and contend for the polka-dot jersey.

I can’t wait!

Stage results

• 1. Pierrick FEDRIGO, FDJ-BigMat, in 3:40:15
• 2. Christian VANDEVELDE, Garmin-Sharp, at 0
• 3. Thomas VOECKLER, Europcar, at :12
• 4. Nicki SÖRENSEN, Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank, at :12
• 5. Dries DEVENYNS, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, at :21
• 6. Samuel DUMOULIN, Cofidis, at 1:08
• 7. André GREIPEL, Lotto-Belisol, at 11:50
• 8. Tyler FARRAR, Garmin-Sharp, at 11:50
• 9. Peter SAGAN, Liquigas-Cannondale, at 11:50
• 10. Kris BOECKMANS, Vacansoleil-DCM, at 11:50

General classification

• 1. Bradley WIGGINS, Sky, in 68:33:21
• 2. Christopher FROOME, Sky, at 2:05
• 3. Vincenzo NIBALI, Liquigas-Cannondale, at 2:23
• 4. Cadel EVANS, BMC Racing, at 3:19
• 5. Jurgen VAN DEN BROECK, Lotto-Belisol, at 4:48
• 6. Haimar ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, RadioShack-Nissan, at 6:15
• 7. Tejay VAN GARDEREN, BMC Racing, at 6:57
• 8. Janez BRAJKOVIC, Astana, at 7:30
• 9. Pierre ROLLAND, Europcar, at 8:31
• 10. Thibaut PINOT, FDJ-BigMat, at 8:51

No change in the yellow, green, polka-dot or white jersey competitions.

Stage 16 Profile:

What a long strange Tour it’s been. 

Here’s what stands out for me after watching Stage 14:

• Sprinter Mark Cavendish at the front of the peloton setting the pace on the beginning of the most difficult climb of the day, escorting a huge peloton. How is it that they are going so slow that a sprinter can not only be with the group on the climb but at the front setting the pace?

• The most exciting part of the stage was the atTACK at the summit. Either a hoodlum or a fan bored with the racing – I almost put racing in quotes because it’s a stretch to call much of what we’ve seen lately racing (other than the guys in breaks) – put tacks along the summit causing numerous flats. Cadel Evans had more flats on today’s stage than I’ve had in my 22 years of riding.

• Peter Sagan is the most exciting rider to come along in… forever and thank goodness he’s here providing some excitement. Call me crazy but I think this guy could be a GC contender in a few years (3-5) if he loses a few kilos and learns to TT. He has amazing talent and the type of personality to maximize it.

• Tip of the helmet to Wiggins and Sky for slowing down the pace to allow puncture-prone Evans to catch up and ride in with the main group. Lotto and Liquigas continued to race – to pursue Rolland who didn’t wait but once Rolland was caught the race was neutralized.

• Tip of the helmet to Tejay Van Garderen for telling the truth when he easily could have lied about knowing that Evans had punctured and not waiting (he thought there might be another teammate nearby to help Evans-which is how it looked to me from the video) and admitting he should have. I like Van Garderen a lot, he has huge potential.

• Great effort and win for LL Sanchez and team Rabobank. With only 4 guys (of 9) left in the race they won the stage.

• The biggest difference in this Tour is not Wiggins, but his team. If you didn’t realize how true it is that teams not riders win jersey’s you should certainly understand it now. Lotto illustrated it perfectly yesterday when they picked up Greipel who was 2nd to last getting up the climb and escorted him to the finish for the win. We get to see how true it is with Sky everyday. What would the race be like if Nibali and Evans had similar teams. We would see them race more aggressively for one thing and we would see a tighter race.

• What would Garmin-Sharp have been able to do if they had their two GC hopefuls – Hesjedal and Danielson.

• What would the race look like if RadioShack had Andy Schleck – and money?

  ---

Stage results

• 1. Luis Leon SANCHEZ GIL, Rabobank, in 4:50:29
• 2. Peter SAGAN, Liquigas-Cannondale, at :47
• 3. Sandy CASAR, FDJ-BigMat, at :47
• 4. Philippe GILBERT, BMC Racing, at :47
• 5. Gorka IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Euskaltel-Euskadi, at :47
• 6. Sergio Miguel MOREIRA PAULINHO, Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank, at 2:51
• 7. Sébastien MINARD, Ag2r La Mondiale, at 2:51
• 8. Martin VELITS, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, at 3:49
• 9. Eduard VORGANOV, Katusha, at 4:51
• 10. Steven KRUIJSWIJK, Rabobank, at 4:53

General classification

• 1. Bradley WIGGINS, Sky, in 64:41:16
• 2. Christopher FROOME, Sky, at 2:05
• 3. Vincenzo NIBALI, Liquigas-Cannondale, at 2:23
• 4. Cadel EVANS, BMC Racing, at 3:19
• 5. Jurgen VAN DEN BROECK, Lotto-Belisol, at 4:48
• 6. Haimar ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, RadioShack-Nissan, at 6:15
• 7. Tejay VAN GARDEREN, BMC Racing, at 6:57
• 8. Janez BRAJKOVIC, Astana, at 7:30
• 9. Pierre ROLLAND, Europcar, at 8:31
• 10. Thibaut PINOT, FDJ-BigMat, at 8:51

No change in the yellow, green, polka-dot or white jersey competitions.

Today offered up one of those tricky little stages that Tour organizers must love to draw up:  pancake flat so seemingly a stage for the sprinters. Not so fast though… there was a small little (1.6k in length) pimple of a climb (to quote Paul Sherwen) about 15k from the finish, plus there are always those nasty crosswinds along the coast to contend with. Remember the 2009 Tour when Lance Armstrong gained time on teammate/nemesis Alberto Contador due to splits in the peloton from the crosswind?

This was just the kind of stage that under the right (or wrong) conditions there could have been guys high placed in the GC caught out from the peloton and maybe just tighten the race for the yellow and 2nd and 3rd place on the final podium in Paris. If not that, at least make for an exciting stage.

Defending Tour champion Cadel Evans, currently in 4th place 3:12 behind Tour leader Bradley Wiggins, did what probably many thought he would do – he attacked on that nasty little climb. Jurgen Vanden Broeck, 5th place overall, attacked too but the yellow jersey with that steady but deadly cadence pulled them all back.

It is starting to seem impossible to put Wiggins or Froome into trouble.

Not only did Wiggins take care of Evans and Vanden Broeck, but he also led out one of his worker bees, Boasson Hagen for the sprint finish. Wiggins may have decided he was safer doing that than being in the pack, but whatever the motivation it was a nice effort on his part to to try and help one of his dedicated teammates get a win.

It was actually a very good lead out by Wiggins but just a little early for Boasson Hagen to have a chance with Lotto drilling it at the front for their sprinter, Greipel. Sagan, my predicted stage winner, sat on Greipel’s wheel ready to pounce when Greipel started his sprint. Sagan pounced but Greipel threw his bike and narrowly edged Sagan out for the stage win.Cavendish and Goss were caught out and weren’t there to contest the sprint. It was a great sprint and win for Greipel, his third. Sagan took 2nd and Boasson Hagen third.

In one way it was good to see Evans try and get time on Wiggins and Froome, but in another way it wasn’t. Tomorrow they head to the almost-Pyrenees and while Stage 14 isn’t one of the tougher stages there are two category 1 climbs. Evans might have been better off saving that effort for tomorrow. Last year his timing and strategy was near perfect, this year he can’t get a break. Obviously that has something to do with the impenetrable Wiggins and Sky.

What has stood out for me the most in this Tour is the dominance of Sky. Not just of Wiggins (and Froome) but of the team. Unless something bizarre happens this team is going to continue their march into Paris and the top two spots on the podium.

Stage results

• 1. André GREIPEL, Lotto-Belisol, in 4:57:59
• 2. Peter SAGAN, Liquigas-Cannondale, at 0
• 3. Edvald BOASSON HAGEN, Sky, at 0
• 4. Sébastien HINAULT, Ag2r La Mondiale, at 0
• 5. Daryl IMPEY, Orica-GreenEdge, at 0
• 6. Julien SIMON, Saur-Sojasun, at 0
• 7. Marco MARCATO, Vacansoleil-DCM, at 0
• 8. Philippe GILBERT, BMC Racing, at 0
• 9. Peter VELITS, Omega Pharma-Quick Step, at 0
• 10. Danilo HONDO, Lampre-ISD, at 0

General classification

• 1. Bradley WIGGINS, Sky, in 59:32:32
• 2. Christopher FROOME, Sky, at 2:05
• 3. Vincenzo NIBALI, Liquigas-Cannondale, at 2:23
• 4. Cadel EVANS, BMC Racing, at 3:19
• 5. Jurgen VAN DEN BROECK, Lotto-Belisol, at 4:48
• 6. Haimar ZUBELDIA AGIRRE, RadioShack-Nissan, at 6:15
• 7. Tejay VAN GARDEREN, BMC Racing, at 6:57
• 8. Janez BRAJKOVIC, Astana, at 7:30
• 9. Pierre ROLLAND, Europcar, at 8:31
• 10. Thibaut PINOT, FDJ-BigMat, at 8:51

Stage 14 Preview:

Not particularly long or difficult, Stage 14 looks like something for an all-arounder like Sylvan Chavanel, or god help me, Thomas Voeckler.