Category: tour de france (Page 14 of 23)

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!

First off, as feared, Chris Horner had to abandon the Tour due to the injuries sustained in Stage 7. This was Horner’s 5th Tour, but the first as a GC contender and protected rider. Starting the Tour he was one of 4 for Radio Shack, but after crashes took out Brakovic and put Levi Leipheimer more than a minute down, Horner was sitting pretty when yesterday’s stage started. Such a shame, most likely at age 39 his chance to be in that position again may be over.

Stage 8 was an exciting one and a welcome relief after the crash filled flat-ish stages.

Movistar got their first stage win, and in their first Tour de France. They’ve had a tough year, it’s nice they won. I’m sure Vinokourov, Phillippe Gilbert and Tejay Van Garderen might disagree.

And, somehow Tour tough man Thor Hushovd, stayed with the Tour favorites and kept his overall lead and the yellow jersey.

Tomorrow looks like a stage for Thomas Voeckler, I was happy to see him not challenge Vinokourov today.

Forgive any typos, posting this from my phone.

Posted from WordPress for Android–

I hate days in the Tour like this.  Days where a favorite or serious GC contender gets knocked out of the race because of injury or illness. Actually I hate it when it happens to any rider.

Today we lost Bradley Wiggins, Team Sky, the British hopeful for the overall championship.  Wiggins was caught up in a crash and suffered a fracture of his collarbone.

Particularly sad for Wiggins, after winning the Tour of Switzerland just a few weeks ago, he appeared to be peaking at the right time and was in 6th place overall.  Team Sky was riding high after their first Tour de France victory yesterday in Stage 6 when sprinter, Edvald Boasson Hagen took it at the line.

Making matters worse, Hagen was caught in the crash although he did return, but several Sky riders waited minutes for Wiggins (as any team would if the team favorite/leader goes down) which made their time gaps even greater. Geraint Thomas fell from 3rd to 38th place… suffice to say – a very bad day for Team Sky.

We saw Tom Boonen, Quick Step sprinter, withdraw from the race today too due to injuries sustained in a crash two days ago.

Besides losing Wiggins and Boonen, several riders in the top 10 were also either involved or caught out by the crash. Roughly half of the peloton was caught by the accident, while teams HTC and Leopard-Trek drove the pace the rest of the peloton was left to sort through the carnage and get back on and try and continue.  Team Radio Shack’s Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner went down; Leipheimer’s second straight stage to hit the pavement and lose big chunks of time – Leipheimer now is in 50th place and Horner in 119th.

As expected Mark Cavendish sprinted to the line first to claim his 16th Tour victory (amazing) and his 2nd in Chateauroux – also the site of his very 1st stage win in 2008. Also, Tour leader, Thor Hushovd, Garmin-Cervelo, kept the yellow jersey for another day.

Just a horrible day in the Tour, and a stage that looked anything but problematic.  No hills, no narrow roads, no rain… nothing but the crashes happened anyway. It is said often, but obviously not overstated, riders are always nervous the first week of the Tour and the week is crash prone. Few years rival this one’s impact on the overall GC though.

Tour de France Fantasy Cycling Challenge

For the Love of Bikes team (4loveofbikes) scored 109 points in Stage 7. Riders Phillippe Gilbert, Romain Feillu and Nicholas Roche scored 19, 74 and 16 points respectively. We lost GC contender Bradley Wiggins.  

Another so-called sprint stage that wasn’t. 

Stage 6 was too lumpy and long to be a stage where the typical sprinters challenged for the win.

Edvald Boasson Hagen, Team Sky, took the stage narrowly beating HTC sprinter, Matt Goss, and yellow jersey wearer Thor Hushovd. Both Hushovd and Hagen are from Norway.

It was a rainy day on the road and although there were fewer crashes than yesterday, a couple of GC riders still managed to hit the pavement.  Unfortunately for the already banged up Radio Shack team, GC hopeful Levi Leipheimer, crashed with just 4k to go. Although he wasn’t seriously injured he lost 65 seconds. Alberto Contador had some kind of mechanical issue with his bike but was able to recover and finish the stage with the peloton.

Stage 7 is a true sprint stage, flat and fast, with a long finishing straight at the end – a sprinter’s dream.  Look for sprinter extraordinaire Mark Cavendish to win.  The finishing town is the same one where Cavendish got his very first Tour win back in 2008. Alessandro Petacchi and Tyler Farrar should be in the mix tomorrow, as well as Ben Swift and Romain Feillu – she said hopefully.

Today was another impressive ride by Thor Hushovd, not only keeping the yellow jersey, but challenging Hagen and Goss at the line for the stage victory.  He continues to be the most impressive rider thus far in the Tour.

Look for Hushovd to keep the yellow jersey tomorrow and to be in the mix at the finish.

Tour de France Fantasy Cycling Challenge

For the Love of Bikes team (4loveofbikes) managed to pull 151 points from stage 6.  Both starters Phillippe Gilbert and crazy man, Romain Feillu earned points.  Feillu finished in 4th place and Gilbert finished 7th.

Stage 6 points:  151