Stage 11 was a day for the sprinters and the requisite breakaway. Although to be fair, this breakaway of 6 worked well together and put the peloton through quite a bit of pain to catch them just before the finish – so kudos to the breakaway.

Kudos to Mark Cavendish too, who on a perfect bunch sprint kind of stage (albeit a rainy one) made the win look pretty easy, it certainly wasn’t close.

The real fun starts tomorrow –  MOUNTAINS.

And, not just any any mountains, but the Pyrenees.

Tomorrow is a particularly tough day with 3 major climbs, starting with a category 1 climb, followed by the HC rated (so bad, it is beyond category) Col du Tourmalet and then just to make sure no one has anything left, another beyond category climb, the Luz Ardiden with the finish line at the summit.

Whew!

Another factor that will play into Stage 12 is tomorrow is Bastille Day, France’s national day. That means the French riders and teams will want to make a good showing and if they can’t do that at least get in a breakaway so they can get camera time. Look for French national champion, Sylvain Chavanel, to be in the mix too.

For Tour leader and Frenchman, Thomas Voeckler, Bastille Day will play out differently. It will certainly serve as extra motivation to keep the yellow jersey; tomorrow will be so challenging he’ll need all the help he can get. For any rider losing the yellow jersey is tough, but for a Frenchman to lose it on Bastille day would be especially grim. Voeckler is one tough bike racer and will try his hardest to keep the lead and the malliot jaune.

Other things to look for:  Contador will try to gain minutes to reduce his deficit to the Schleck brothers and Cadel Evans as well as other well placed GC (general classification) riders. The Schlecks and Evans will most likely cover those so I don’t expect a major shakeup between the favorites. The favorites will most likely just check each other out, looking for signs of vulnerability and bide their time.  But who knows, in this Tour anything can happen.

The thing we can count on happening tomorrow – a grueling and exciting day of racing.

This was the first boring stage of the 2011 Tour de France. Although it wasn’t great for this fan, I’m sure the riders enjoyed it.

Things did get exciting when a late breakaway occurred with the yellow and green jersey in it. The sprinters teams reeled them in though and the end of the stage culminated in a bunch sprint. Yawn.

The surprise ending was that Mark Cavendish didn’t win. His ex-teammate, Andre Geipel, beat him at the line. In a rare event for any sprinter, Greipel actually came off Cavendish’s wheel and out sprinted him to the line. It had to be a very satisfying win for Greipel since he played second fiddle to Cavendish when they were on the same team.

That was about all the excitement of the stage. I was hoping for green jersey wearer, Phillippe Gilbert to win and for Tour Leader, Thomas Voeckler, to pick up a little more time on the favorites but it didn’t happen. I was surprised Voeckler got away; just wish they would have worked together better because they possibly could have held the sprinters teams off. Oh well, there were no accidents to speak of – so a good day all in all.

Stage 11 will be similar to today’s stage, even less hilly so the sprinters will come out to play. Put your money on Cavendish he will be chomping at the bit to win after today’s loss to Greipel.

Tour de France Fantasy Cycling Challenge

For the Love of Bikes team (4loveofbikes) scored just 94 points in Stage 10 with riders Thomas Voeckler (50) and Phillippe Gilbert (44). Unlike most people playing this game, I didn’t change my rider roster during the practice stage. Personally, I don’t think there should be a practice stage, I think all the points earned during the Tour from the beginning to the end should count. Plus, four of my riders being out due to injuries didn’t help either. Oh well, play on and hope for better results in the mountains!

This is how the yellow jersey wearer relaxes on a rest day at the Tour de France. (photo from VeloNews)

I didn’t watch the stage until this evening.

Will write more tomorrow, but must say chapeau to current Tour leader and of course, yellow jersey wearer, Thomas Voeckler!

I’m a fan, and had the good fortune to meet him last September in Quebec City when he raced in, and won, the Grand Prix de Quebec.

Today’s stage was an exciting stage, but for many bad reasons – crashes. The first crash was incidental and no one was seriously hurt. The 2nd crash was very serious, knocking out of the race: Vinokourov, Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Frederik Willems and Dave Zabriskie. Andreas Kloden the “by default” leader of Team Radio Shack, was also injured (lower back) and could hardly walk after finishing the stage.  It is unknown whether he will continue.

The 3rd crash was completely insane. A French TV car, after being told not to pass the riders in the breakaway group passed them anyway, hitting Juan Antonio Flecha and causing Johnny Hoogerland to crash into a barbed wire fence. Flecha was knocked off of his bike onto the road and Hooglerland’s skin was shredded by the barbed wire. Amazingly but still the norm for the riders of the Tour de France, both men got back on their bikes and finished the race. Both men may co-own that television station in the not too distant future. The driver knowingly acted against the instruction of race radio and the whole thing was caught on live television – their television cameras no doubt.

Johan Bruyneel , race director for Team Radio Shack, stated after the race that there are just too many vehicles on the road this year and that it is putting riders at risk. It does appear there are more television cameras just based on the quantity and quality of race coverage. It has changed a lot just in the past 3 years or so. Prior to that the race action was often covered mainly by helicopter (think of all the picture break up we used to have to put up with when there was dense tree coverage) with one or two, maybe 3 motorbike cameramen. It also seems there are more cars with so-called dignitaries –  more accurately known as fat-cats.

Tour officials will probably be “encouraged” by the riders and teams to revisit these issues during the off-season.

Last, but certainly not least was another smart and savvy ride by new Tour Leader, Thomas Voeckler. Voeckler is a smart and opportunistic racer. He has been since bursting onto the Tour scene in 2004 when he made a name for himself  wearing the yellow jersey for 10 days.

Those of us who have watched him race for a while know his style and knew that Stage 9 was the type of stage he could win. It was similar to Stage 15 in last year’s Tour, which he won. He has that reputation in the peloton and the riders like and respect him. He didn’t win Stage 9, Luis Leon Sanchez did (Voeckler did too much work in the breakaway to have enough left to sprint for the finish), but he took the yellow jersey from the equally terrific bike racer Thor Hushovd. Both Voeckler and Hushovd are tough and aggressive bike racers, Voeckler will bring honor to the yellow jersey just at Hushovd did.

Voeckler has serious time on Tour favorites:

2:26 on Cadel Evans

2:29 on Frank Schleck

2:37 on Andy Schleck

4:07 on Alberto Contador

When I selected Voeckler as the first rider on my Tour de France Fantasy Cycling Challenge team I did so with the thought that he was a serious contender to win the Tour de France. He is the team leader on Europcar and has had a great year of racing – 10 victories at my last count, his best year ever. We saw him win the 2010 Grand de Quebec where Canadian Ryder Hesjedal was heavily favored to win.

Voeckler’s great form may be peaking at just the right moment.

His team is not the quality of the Schlecks’ or Contador’s no doubt about it. But Voeckler himself, can fight and win against the best of them. I truly believe he can keep the yellow jersey. Is it likely, of course not. But this has been an “unlikely” Tour thus far. I’ll be pulling for him that’s for sure.

Tour de France Fantasy Cycling Challenge

For the Love of Bikes team (4loveofbikes) scored 240 points in Stage 9 thanks to Thomas Voeckler ( 141) and Phillippe Gilbert (99).

The bad news is that the team was further decimated by injury resulting from the endless crashes occurring in the Tour. Today we lost Alexandre Vinokourov and Juan Manuel Garate, we are now down to 10 riders. Stay safe guys and watch out for those stupid cars – just like we have to!