Tour de France Stage 11, Flat – Hot – Sprint

Pretty much from the day the 2010 Tour de France route was unveiled in Paris way back in mid October of last year, today’s stage was recognized as ideally suited to the sprinters in the peloton.  Yeah there was a mountain in the way, 56.5 kilometers from the start of today’s stage in Sisteron, the category 3 Col de Cabre, but for the next 128 kilometers to the finish in Bourg-lès-Valence it was a nice gradual downhill that had to catch the sprinter’s eye.  The teams with the explosive riders planned for it, those big riders were counting on it, and the peloton seemed today to be completely controlled by that single thought.  The main pack allowed a small break to pull ahead a little bit, but they would not let them free-roam as in yesterday’s stage.  The break would be kept on a tight leash, gaining more than 4 minutes early, but for most of the day afforded only about 2 minutes to pedal upfront of the serious contenders for this stage.

The moment the ceremonial pedaling stopped and the official start began at about 12:45 this afternoon, 3 antagonists tried their luck pulling away from the pack and gaining some 4:15 on the field rather quickly.  Française des Jeux’s Anthony Geslin, Cofidis’ Stéphane Augé, and Footon-Servetto’s Jose Alberto Benítez had their lead tolerated for most of the day, but their chances were so slim that I’m not really sure how devoted they even were to the effort.  Ah, but to win a stage in the Tour, even seemingly illogical efforts become a bit more practical when one factors in the potential prize.

The pace was much higher today averaging some 45 kilometers an hour compared to yesterday’s 34 k/ph and the only thing that seemed to resemble yesterday’s stage was the heat.  Once again the temperatures hovered at about 33 Celsius (91 Fahrenheit), surely warmer on the pavement, but at least there was some wind today that seemed to help.  The heat continues to play a role in this year’s event with more improvised water packs being affixed to necks and helmets than has been seen in recent memory.

The big sprinter’s teams held most of the focus on the day; HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish, Garmin-Transition’s Tyler Farrar, Lampre’s Alessandro Petacchi, and Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd, maintained a close watch on the break which allowed many of the others teams to relax a bit and simply pedal through the day knowing there were others who would control events to their advantage which would likely be of little detriment to any general classification positions.

Team RadioShack, rightly saw no advantage in contesting any part of this sprinter’s stage today and stayed out of trouble, and used as little reserves as possible to finish the 184.5 kilometers in today’s blistering heat.  It was all pretty straight forward and the only real issue would be staying out of the way of any incidents at the race’s conclusion when there was sure to be a major bunch sprint where elbows, pedals, and errant efforts can cause some unpredictable high-speed crashes.  Always the issue is deciding where to be when the sprinters unleash their explosiveness.  If you stay back, you can avoid a crash, but you could also get caught back and lose valuable time.  If you jump to the front your chances are better at avoiding crashes throughout the peloton, but if something does happen in front, you’re flying at high speed and have less chance to avoid things.  RadioShack chose the later – attempting to protect Levi they put 5 riders up front surrounding him.  Saxo Bank chose the same strategy.   Astana tried but didn’t have the horses to fully complete the task, but Alberto hung with the other teams at the front and stayed out of trouble.  The crosswinds also had a lot to do with getting the key GC riders protected in the pack as it started to blow riders out of the sheltering draft of the peloton.

The 3 break riders showed unusual tenacity refusing to relinquish what little lead they had right to the end.  Finally Geslin threw in the towel and it was just Augé and Benitez, but at 23 kilometers to the finish, they quit pedaling, shook each other hands, and let themselves be swallowed from behind.  They were consumed very quickly.

The peloton started getting jumpy at about 15 kilometers to the finish and the speed was immediately increased to close to 60 kilometers an hour.  The big GC teams were dictating the pace and you would have thought they were trying to contest the finish with the sprinters teams, but it was simply to keep their leaders out of trouble and out of the wind.  The incredible speed started to splinter the field with many riders completely unable to maintain the high speeds that were employed for so long.  At 8 kms from the finish the peloton was strung out like a wire.

Then, at 7 kms out Quick Step’s Sylvan Chavanel thought he might try something and jumped forward and gave it a go.  RadioShack’s Yaroslav Popovych jumped out after him, but the winds and the peloton would not allow such an individual effort on this day.  These two were caught after only a kilometer or so and then the riders started ‘rebunching’ and upping the speed.  Turning so the crosswind became a tailwind the speeds were getting near 70 k/ph at this point.   Just as the [almost choreographed] bunch sprint got into full flight the craziest dust-up occurred at about 500 meters out when Mark Renshaw thinking Garmin-Transition’s lead-off man was trying to crowd out HTC-Columbia’s sprint lane starts head-butting him out of the way while pedaling at close to 80 k/ph! Thankfully no one went down, but there’s sure to be penalties assessed for that dangerous stunt.

The ‘Manx Missile’ took his third stage making it look almost easy, with Petacchi close behind and Farrar right on their backs. Hushovd was the big loser of the day, not in a good position at the end, finishing 7th and losing the Green Jersey to Petacchi.  It would be the only change in the ‘jerseys’ and there was again no change in the general classification.  RadioShack’s Levi Leipheimer is still in 6th place, and Team RadioShack is still in second place in the team classification, lurking just behind Caisse d’Epargne.

By George Hurst, staff writer