Today’s 198 kilometer (123 miles) stage from Salies-de-Béarn to Bordeaux was as flat as a pancake, and toward the end, the sprinter’s teams ate it up with amazing speed as they hunted down a tenacious solo breakaway rider who refused to quit pedaling right up to the end. Team RadioShack saw no change in any of their rider’s standings and in fact there was no change in any of the general classification standings either, nor in the main 5 racing categories which tonight look like this and probably won’t change:
Maillot Jaune: Astana’s Alberto Contador is still in yellow, 8 seconds ahead of Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck and very likely to stay there, with an even bigger gap by tomorrow night.
Maillot Vert: Lampre’s Alessandro Petacchi is in green with 213 pts, 10 more than Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd and 16 ahead of HTC’s Mark Cavendish. It’s probably his to keep.
Polka Dot: Bbox’s Anthony Charteau has taken the mountain climber’s jersey with 143 pts to Caisse d’Epargne’s Christophe Moreau’s 128. This one’s decided.
Maillot Blanc: Andy Schleck will beat Rabobank’s Robert Gesink and Liquigas’ Roman Kreuziger for the white young rider’s distinction.
Fluorescent Yellow Bib Number: Actually, I think it’s officially called the ‘Overall Team Standings’ and Team RadioShack has likely sewn this one up, taking it from Caisse d’Epargne by less than 10 minutes
Starting in the southwest corner of France today, and heading almost due north, the racers had a beautiful day to contest this pancake of a stage heading up into wine country, with temperatures ranging from 23º to 25ºC (73º-77ºF), and mostly sunny skies. They started pedaling for real at 12:55 pm and didn’t stop for about 4 ½ hours, with many of the climbers and general classification contenders trying their best to stay safe in the draft and coast as much as possible resting very tired legs and saving as much energy as possible for tomorrow’s show-down in the time trial.
Early in the day, the inevitable breakaway started with 4 men so far down in the overall standings that their combined gap to the leader’s time was something like 12 hours. Needless to say, the sprinters’ teams were left to manage the day, and everyone else relaxed into a rolling rest for more than 90% of the stage. The riders were smiling and carrying on conversations and cutting up like the race was over and this was some type of ceremonial lap for the cameras, complete with Hollywood stars. Topping off yesterday’s visit by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, today, the celebrity visitors were Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz – no doubt promoting their latest film (what a great job to have!).
The 4 breakout riders, Liquigas’ Daniel Oss, Quick Step’s Jérôme Pineau, Saxo Bank’s Matti Breschel, and FDJ’s Benoît Vaugrenard would have no impact on the outcome of the race, other than as a dramatic peloton magnet toward the end when HTC-Columbia, Lampre and Milram gave chase, at times pulling the peloton in excess of 70 kilometers an hour to hunt them down. Daniel Oss was the only break rider with legs at the end, and rode on in a solo effort from about 13.5 kilometers out. He somehow found enough reserves to keep his speed up for another 10 kilometers, but watching the poor guy just meters up the road from the hungry peloton’s gaping maw, you wouldn’t have bet a nickle on his survival.
He indeed did not survive and was swallowed by the bunch at about 3.5 kms from the finish – and then the fun started. HTC-Columbia, Lampre, Cervélo, Milram, Sky – all the big sprinter teams really started upping the pace to give their sprinter the best positioning. It was the predictable mad dash to the finish with all the usual suspects there and the usual winner at the end Mark Cavendish, followed by Julian Dean, Alessandro Petacchi, and Robbie McEwen. After contesting for the Green Jersey the entire race, Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd will certainly be very disappointed with his 14th place today.
They don’t call Cavendish the Manx Missile for nothing. He keeps showing the other sprinters his backside in an explosive detonation of power and timing that leaves the rest of these otherwise champion speedsters scratching their heads wondering how to beat him. He was so far ahead at the finish today that he looked back…twice(!) before crossing the finish line perhaps in disbelief himself at how much he’d decimated the field. If I were a betting man, I’d put a bunch of nickels on him to take the final stage in Paris. No one can beat him in a fair match up right now, and perhaps for years to come.
Well tomorrow we finally get to the long awaited individual time trial covering 51 kilometers from Bordeaux to Pauillac. Watch for RadioShack’s Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Klöden and Janez Brajkovic to do well tomorrow along with Fabian Cancellara, Tony Martin, Bradley Wiggins, Luis Leon Sanchez and maybe David Zabriskie, Bert Grabsch, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Christophe Moreau. But most eyes will be glued on the outcome of the Contador/Schleck time gap and the Denis Menchov and Samuel Sanchez gap. These 4 efforts will come late in the day, in fact, the last four. But they’ll be well worth the wait. These riders will be propelled with extra motivation because their time on Saturday will decide who gets to step where, or at all, on that podium in Paris.
By George Hurst, staff writer
