Tour de France, Stage 2 Recap, Coaches Concerns Confirmed

Photo by George Hurst

After years of having to travel through 6 time zones to catch a stage of the Tour from the US, it was great this morning walking six blocks from my current home in Brussels to watch the peloton meander passed in a slow cruise around the beautiful fountain at Montgomery Circle having left from the Royal Palace on their way to the beautiful city of Spa (famous for hosting Formula 1 races), some 199 kilometers away.

Having it all so close afforded some time to do some pre-race scouting to find the hotel where the team stayed and to speak briefly with the coaches, Johann Bruyneel, Dirk Demol and Alain Gallopin before today’s stage.  While everyone was in a good mood and upbeat about the Team’s excellent placement and prospects, there was a noticeable edginess concerning the day’s stage and the possibility for crashes.  Dirk mentioned that with 4 riders having already had serious spills, two causing some damage – Levi and Janez – today’s stage and tomorrow’s were amping the stress level a bit.  Placing some 200 riders on narrow downhill cobble stone roads, in potentially rainy, slick conditions, early in such a race, there was a real concern about possible crashes and rider injury. Well, those fears were not unfounded. As it turned out, they were quite prophetic right from the start.  Actually, before the official start.

As the group took a sweeping turn at slow speed onto a slightly narrowing funnel street out of Brussels onto a larger avenue leading to the next town of Tervurin, I saw the yellow jersey almost crash into the official’s car!  It’s hard to make out on this video, but watch close and you might catch Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara grimacing as he jams on the brakes centimeters from the rear bumper of Race Director Christian Prudhomme’s car.  This was in the morning on dry roads at slow speeds, with everyone rested and ready.  It was a bad omen for things to come.  And wow, did some bad things come.

The decent into Spa down the Col de Stockeu, actually quite a storied climb when taken in the opposite direction, was as slippery as ice going downhill.  There were actually riders falling down while they were out of their pedals, going slow, trying to balance with both feet on the ground!  Many, including Lance Armstrong and Johann Bruyneel used the word ‘oil’ slick to describe what it was like.  Johann went on to say it was like ice-skating.  Christopher Horner took it a step further blasting the Tour organizers for putting a junior league stage like this into such a major event.   He was quoted as saying, “They [the organizers] got all their drama on the descent and they lost it all at the finish and they got what they deserved.” He went on to say, “Everybody went down.  I had bikes going down behind me that slid in front of me.  That descent is dangerous in the dry and in the wet, it’s suicidal… The stage was too dangerous to be in the Tour de France.”  He articulated what everyone else felt – that the only thing more stupid than the stage is the pro cycling federation and Cedric Vasseur for ever having something like it exist in the first place.  In fact, though there did not seem to be any real verbal agreement among the riders, everyone started doing the same thing, going slow, and not putting on a sprint finish show after such a harrowing segment.  All of the riders lined up and crossed the finish in unison, slow-pedaling in a show of solidarity.  As Phil Liggett, the legendary British commentator for Versus later commented, “It’s the riders that make the race, not the organizers.”

With the sprint finish uncontested, Quick Step’s Sylvain Chavanel was rewarded not only with the win, but with the yellow jersey on the day.  He earned it, breaking away throughout the day, more than once, to push forward for the victory.  He was well up on the field before the ‘go slow’ rider action and by the end of things he finished 3:56 ahead of the field.  With the field so tightly bunched, they were given the same time.  Of course, there has to be someone who decides who really finished in what order, so somehow the officials came up with the following:  Chavanel first across the line, in second place Maxime Bouet of Ag2r-La Mondiale, third was Fabian Wegman of Milram, fourth was Robbie McEwen of Katusha, and fifth was Christian Knees of Milram.  Watch any video recap you can find, I defy you to conclude the same result – maybe there’s some arcane formula instead of video results.  Of course I may have been distracted by watching the usually jovial Cancellara, raising his hand in disgust as he rides across the line, mouthing words that probably were something like…’Which organizer would like to take credit for that disaster?”

Watching the riders limp back to the team buses after the finish, there was ample evidence of the folly of this stage.  There was enough worn off flesh, damaged gaping uniforms and blood, than one plans on seeing in a whole Tour, let alone one stage.  If you get a chance, catch the Versus recap from the helicopter.  It’s almost comical how many riders are on the paves; at one point, slipping to even stand back up.  Crazy.  Lance went down, hard.  Andy Schleck went down, hard.  Christian Vande Velde went down (and perhaps now out of contention).  Petacchi went down, Team Sky Riders went down, BMC, HTC-Columbia, Astana, everyone suffered, heck at least one of the motorcycles crashed – while filming.  Weird watching the world tilt as the paves come up to meet the lens!

To be clear though, Quick Step was not handed a victory today.  Chavanel deserved the stage with his exceptional ride.   It’s debatable whether he deserved a 3 minute and 56 second victory, but he road hard and well.  He’s good enough to hang on to the yellow jersey perhaps for several more stages…but alas, it won’t be his to keep.   There’s a lot more to play out in this Tour before anyone gets comfortable in the Maillot Jaune.

By George Hurst, staff writer
5 July 2010, Brussels/Spa