Tour de France Stage 10: Post-Stage Thread
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 14, 2009 11:41 AM EDT
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Piano stage today, partially in response (one would think) to the riders' distaste for the no-radios experiment. Too bad... it could have been a curious little stage. It also could have been another Bastille Day French escape. But it was none of the above, with a slow peloton chasing a slow breakaway. Some rumors of riders with radios, despite the ban -- possibly the only interesting event today. Results:
- Mark Cavendish, Columbia-HTC
- Thor Hushovd, Cervelo Test Team, s.t.
- Tyler Farrar, Garmin-Slipstream, s.t.
- Leonardo Duque, Cofidis, s.t.
- JJ Rojas, Caisse d'Epargne, s.t.
No changes to the overall, whatsoever[update] Apparently a small, late split cost a few guys 15 seconds, including Levi Leipheimer and Bradley Wiggins. Anyway... 1. Nocentini; 2. Bad Bert, at 6"; 3. Lance, at 8", etc. Nice ride by Hushovd, limiting Cavendish's gain to five points (35 for first, 30 for second), which is what Thor needs on these obvious Cavendish stages. Columbia, to their credit, seems to have forced some of the other sprint teams to pitch in with the work. Slow-mo sprint... kind of uphill, nothing doing once Cav hit the front. As BradBordeaux would say... "BAH!"
I love screencaps...
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Damn you slow peloton
It means all my live feeds have to cut to other programs so no podiums for me
"When he accelerates, he's like Superman emerging from the telephone booth!" La Gazzetta journo Paolo Condo talking about Edvald Boasson Hagen.
Tommo converted
He’s now a big fan of race radios, because of how dull today’s stage was.
He said it with such earnestness…
Eh?
Tom Boonen you mean? He said just the opposite: he really liked it w/o radios, much more relaxed and chatty in the peloton.
He does best if he doesn't have to talk about details related to actual cycling
There was a great moment in his interview with Frank Schleck before the start of the Tour when Frank asked him how many days Cadel Evans spent in yellow last year…. the pause was loooooooong.
I'm built for descending...
by omnevelnihil on Jul 14, 2009 11:53 AM EDT up reply actions
actually looks like some minor changes to the gc
unless they apply the 3 km rule, which hasn’t happened yet.
official results show a split at 53rd of 15 seconds, both leipheimer and wiggins got caught out.
Cav & Thor are most interesting battle in the TDF right now, i reckon
I love them both as riders. Cav’s the young upstart, Thor a proven legend for years now.
Very happy to see them head to head in open competition
Fascinating competition between them to Paris
Do we see Thor go out for intermediate sprints tomorrow?
Given the inevitability of a Cav win at the line, it seems Thor needs a couple points to preserve his green jersey lead.
If only Robbie was here
I would still love to see McEwen vs. Cav in a sprint. McEwen was always amazing to me since he didn’t have the leadout train and often came from nowhere to win. This leadout train of Cav’s is bordering on unstoppable.
tour last year?
same results..
There was that one stage win of Cav’s last year which was very McEwenesque, with no train to speak of… (the one into Nîmes?).
Why is Boonen there?
Davis was obviously more motivated and would have been a participant in the sprints. I imagine Boonen is waiting for the sprinters to get tired or he’s waiting for some luck or he’s just parading around in his national jersey. Either way, a big boo for Boonen’s participation.
same can be asked of Devolder?
at least Chavanel has been in a break and was up front today. These Belgian boys must miss the rain, dust, cobbles, and attention of April.
by Yossarian12 on Jul 14, 2009 12:03 PM EDT up reply actions
I have questions about the
Quick step team. Where is Velo? Isn’t he Tom’s lead out man? I also noticed that QS isn’t taking care of Tom like Columbia takes care of Cav. You notice in the mountains Cav is never alone? I’m guessing QS was hedging their bet on their team. Devolder came out yesterday and admitted he is not going to be able to be a tour contender and a Classics rider. This was in Sporza yesterday.
by cyclingdiva on Jul 14, 2009 12:35 PM EDT up reply actions
Yes??
The Dutch commentator said that Boonen said that Cav was too strong for him and that he would prefer to try something different. Bizarre. He wants to win a stage but knows that he can not win a sprint. Right now it looks like Quickstep’s top two riders are Seeldrayers and Davis. Why enter a team?
van Hummel was 7th after two straight last places. At least someone is trying. The last place finishes were good because he had to fight to get under the time limit.
deVolder was trying hard two days ago – he pulled the breakaway the most but the group wouldn’t let him go – he then go left by Pellizotti on the first climb. He is trying though.
I agree
with Kevin Seeldrayers being one of their best riders. I was surprised he wasn’t on the roster. I figured for sure they would bring him for the white jersey. But, I guess after the Giro they figured it would be too much for him? Weird that Hulsmans isn’t on the roster either.
Yes, Devolder did try but got dropped. Sylvain and Jerome will try to get in some breaks also.
by cyclingdiva on Jul 14, 2009 12:47 PM EDT up reply actions
I agree, though it must be tough not to know if you’re in until the day before – I don’t see how you possibly prepare under those conditions. I think we’re seeing the results now.
by plinytheelder on Jul 14, 2009 12:43 PM EDT up reply actions
I'm not giving up on him yet.
But I am frustrated. I’m happy Thor is in there giving us a show. Love that guy.
by cyclingdiva on Jul 14, 2009 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions
Maybe Quick Step made a mistake in preparation. I would normally expect Pineu to contest every sprint also. There is no question the S. Chavanel always pushes hard. But he wanted to win the mountains jersey the year. This year is a big disappointment. Something must have gone wrong somewhere. Also his first time trial was not up to his standards.
About Seeldrayers – Evans was not included in T-Mobile’s Tour team in his first year with T-Mobile. Mick Rogers was the same. I have do not have a good memory, but I think he won the Tour of Catalonia before just the tour? They looked very strong going into the Tour but were not included in their teams. Tony Martin should not be in this years Tour but there was a last minute change. This looks normal for good riders.
Sporza is much better, but at work I can only get NOS. :-)
Tom said
right after stage "Tom Boonen could not again interfere in the mass sprint. De Belg kwam als 94e over de finish. The Belgian was the 94th on the finish. “Ik heb geprobeerd maar het is simpel: ik was niet goed genoeg”, zei de Belgische kampioen achteraf. “I tried but it is simple: I was not good enough,” said the Belgian champion afterwards." Source Sproza
He also said they are two men short. I think I figured out why no Velo. If they didn’t know if Tom could ride the Tour they didn’t want to have Velo because Davis doesn’t use Velo. Right?
Chavanel wanted to win the mountains? Can I ask where you read that? Seems strange to me.
by plinytheelder on Jul 14, 2009 2:20 PM EDT up reply actions
A moment for KAA, please?
100km with a busted clavicle. Nails. (and, it must be said…. loony!)
+10 Yep!
"When he accelerates, he's like Superman emerging from the telephone booth!" La Gazzetta journo Paolo Condo talking about Edvald Boasson Hagen.
hmm
still going with the official site, until i hear otherwise.
steephill may be jumping the gun on this one.
Polemica!
Steephill style!! Go! Go! Go!
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
Roll on Columbia, Roll on!
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 14, 2009 1:29 PM EDT up reply actions
Gav,
is it true that Steve is mean to small, cute animals?
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
Roll on Columbia, Roll on!
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 14, 2009 1:29 PM EDT up reply actions
steephill website
is at odds with its own link to the official site. Must admit to being sorry about Wiggins but not Leipheimer.
the official site still has him and Levi having lost 15 seconds..
"When he accelerates, he's like Superman emerging from the telephone booth!" La Gazzetta journo Paolo Condo talking about Edvald Boasson Hagen.
Looks like a mistake at Steephill
looks like Steephill just cut and pasted GC results from stage 7. Their standings are just screenshots from the official site. The image of the overall is called “07-gc.jpg” while the image of today’s results “10-results.jpg”.
Steephill page and their GC standings.
that’s really interesting, for obvious reasons, Contador must be happy with his unexpected gift
by plinytheelder on Jul 14, 2009 12:45 PM EDT up reply actions
I'd say a moment's inattention as they sped round to the finish,
having just seen it on the ITV highlights. A gap opened, not a terribly big one, with the “smart” riders i.e. Contador, Armstrong, Sastre on the right side of it and, er, Wiggins, Leipheimer etc. on the other, and a Lampre rider (Spilak?) floundering about in the middle (he was given 15s back with Wiggins et al). Possibly (because of where Spilak was?) they didn’t even think it would be timed as a gap (Wiggins looked a bit non-plussed when collared on the steps of the bus & asked what had happened), but really…
yeah, also didn’t Ivanov fall somewhere in there?
by plinytheelder on Jul 14, 2009 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Chris, remember that intro VDS post where you mocked
those who chose Menchov (incl. yrs truly)? Time to add Boonen.
All that bother for this?
F. Schleck's comments during rest day
Saw over on VN that F. Schleck said they have a plan going into the Alps. They need to be ahead of the three Astana riders by three minutes going into the last TT. So that means pulling back almost 5 minutes from Astana in the Alps. I think not. The more I see the GC gaps the more of lose hope of a non-Contador winner.
which further explains
Why Schleck is having second thoughts about supporting his brother. I would have second thoughts too if this is Bjarne had in store for me. This might also explain why Arvesen injured himself today because he figured a broken collarbone was better than a what might result from the Kamikaze incident.
Agreed
I didn’t want to seem like I was making light of his injury, even if the pic was sadly pophetic. I’m constantly impressed by the toughness of the riders and how they can finish a stage in such pain. I hate to see anyone injured during the race.
Calm down Yanni
yep, I’ll do what I can to make that one stick.
"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!
haha I'll take that as a compliment!
Go Gophers!
by plinytheelder on Jul 14, 2009 1:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Bad on Levi and Wiggo for losing those 15 seconds
If it was Bert or Schleckette, I don’t think those 15 seconds mean much because they can create separation on any climb. For levi and Wiggo, the only way they make up time on their rivals is in the Time Trial, and they already are starting 15 seconds back for hanging out in the back during the sprint.
Lack of team support?
They’re not the top guys on their team, so they probably don’t have a guy detailed to keep they well placed in the finale. Particularly on Garmin, where they’re working for Farrar
Plus this was a pretty crazy finish, with lots of fresh legs and far from straight
They probably didn't have 15 sec of empty road in front of them!
A 1 second gap, somewhere down the peloton, is enough. Everybody ahead of the gap gets the time of the winner (because they form 1 group) but the first man behind the gap gets his own real time (and all those in his wheel get his time again). The peloton is often all stretched out on the line, so 15 sec from winner to gapped riders is not strange.
That makes sense.
I had to think about that one for a couple seconds.
Robbie Hunter's comments on the finish from Twitter
He says that Quick Step should not have been pulling in the last 2k. Thinks if they had not done so Columbia might have run out of guys and someone could have beaten Cav to the line.
Interesting idea but I don’t think this will happen again. I think it was Dean’s move that interrupted the train and caused Renshaw to go a little earlier.
Dean's move
Phil/Paul (and later Craig/Bob) all called that Tyler Farrar had supposedly tried to go early and break up the Columbia train – but it was easy to see that the Garmin rider then dropped way way back and that another Garmin rider (who retrospectively was obviously Farrar) was sitting behind Hushovd during all of that. I was presuming that it was actually Julian Dean.
McEwens's comments to other teams
Get organized or keep getting beat!
I haven't watched any of these before,
but Hincapie linked to it, so I followed.
http://www.livestrong.com/lance-armstrong/video/cavgeorge-avi/40ba57d1-9445-4acd-aa75-325e8226f02f/
George and Cav talking with LA before the race, and dare I say it, Cav seems either incredibly shy or terrified of LA. Quiet, blushing, body language of a 14-year-old.
This is the side of Cav I like to see
Couldn’t agree more.
Stop lieing to me Jens!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/jens-voigts-mixed-reaction-after-stage-ten-radio-ban
It’s bad enough that they kill the race – on Bastille day – but to then pretend that it was because “the riders were scared to make a mistake so they ended up doing nothing.”, rather than the organised mass sulk it blatantly was is insulting.
At least WWF give a good show, even if the result is known to the participants beforehand.
What gives?
So many of you are trashing the riders and tour organizers for what you consider to be boring stages. I don’t get it. And most of the complaints are like this one which are just conjecture. If you just don’t like flat stages in a tour that lead to a bunch sprint then that’s simply a matter of opinion, but every stage can’t be contested in the mountains or have 50+ km of twisting narrow roads or whatever it is you’re wanting.
I hope you don’t really think the WWF give a good show, scary.
I can put up with boring stages if they're boring because that is how they naturally turn out.
What I cannot accept is that the competitors conspire together to make the race as boring as possible because someone took their toys away.
I'm only coming from 3.5 Tours of watching,
and no experience with other races, but I also agree that yes, this year is heavy on the boring. It’s an opinion. Depending on the day, I slap the blame around differently: riders/teams who really don’t seem to be trying, a course that thus far seems designed for dullness (the Tourmalet! neutered!), and race coverage that bludgeons me with one story over and over.
If this was my first attempt to watch the Tour, I might have abandoned it by now (and, sadly, this is the first year that I haven’t been able to convince any of my friends to stay with the fun—the three who I talked into it have stopped watching already, as has one of the people I roped in last year). It’s like watching golf some days there is so much caution. Then again, I might have been spoiled by 2006, which was stunningly beautiful and exciting from the get-go.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion
Mine is that week 1 was pretty riveting, but week 2 inevitably slows down a bit before things explode all over southeastern France starting on Sunday. Frankly, I don’t see anything unusual about this. The Giro might warp one’s image of how entertaining a grand tour should be, but that’s unfair. The Giro is packed with fun stages because it’s so much less hard than the Tour (if the riders are to be unanimously believed), so they can stick a 2km climb on the end of every stage. Doesn’t hurt that there’s a 2km climb every 3km in Italy. Reality is, France isn’t that hilly except in a few distinct areas, and even if it was, the peloton could scarcely race any harder.
Your power is turning our darkness to dawn,
Roll on Columbia, Roll on!
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 14, 2009 7:32 PM EDT up reply actions
this post pushed me even closer to watching the Giro.
Other than the TdF, I have never watched more than 10 seconds of any other cycling race outside of a few minutes from the Olympics last year.
hah!
My reluctance up until now has been the decided lack of emptiness. It is a serious burden for me to free up the blocks of time necessary to sit in front of a screen watching the Tour—I just assume it would be about the same for other races.
I’m telling you, though, between you guys and this “Lance Armstrong’s War” that I’m reading, it’s getting hard to not consider popping in on the other races. CUT IT OUT.
just so you’re not offended, he’s paraphrasing a line from a well-known novel, The Rider by Tim Krabbe
by plinytheelder on Jul 15, 2009 12:42 AM EDT up reply actions
Ack, say it isn't so
Heh, really, you must do something about this. Some of the best races of the year are not the Tour, really.
Classics, so yummy. And the Giro. I so heart the Giro. I could easily give up the Tour, but the Giro, never.
I first got into cycling through the TdF
but it was the Giro that really got me hooked. The first time that I could follow a cycling ticker and not even be able to see the race, and find myself screaming at my computer.
Small group tactics
I really enjoy small group tactics, so for me a breakaway friendly course is good fun. I really enjoyed the Tourmalet stage – that was fab racing in the finale, right down to Pellizotti’s play for the sprint. Very fun times.
Today was a bore. But well, the ASO was stupid to try this no radio thing and the riders and team were stupid not to protest before the race and get it changed. Not a good day for cycling, anyway, to have the riders throwing a tantrum and refusing to race until the end. I only watched it because I had to, not because I had much interest at all. The finish was interesting, because technical, so there was that, at least.
Adding
I am also looking forward to seeing the race hit the final mountain stages with the general classification so close on time. That should be fun, also.
So far, I’m liking this Tour. It’s better than many of them, which are all rainy flat crap through Northern France. Meh.
My heart belongs to the Giro, of course.
LOL
Then, you really must watch the Spring classics in Belgium. It’s like all rainy Northern crap Tour stages all the time, but even better. Way, way better.
Sui came very close to talking me into one earlier this year
but I had a work thing (the constant problem) that prevailed.
i am enjoying the breakaways too - best part so far
i was ambivalent on the radio thing, though it seems a tad silly to introduce in the midst of the tour and on two stages – what’s the point and was has been proven? at the same time, the group sulk was not appealing.
and regarding those subtle GC changes, who moved down so that Cadel moved up one?
Wiggins and Leipheimer lost 15 seconds
so Cadel moves up.
Yeah, poorly played by everyone involved today in my view.
really surprised Astana and Garmin didn't officially protest the 15 secs
I have watched the finish over and over again and the gap of 15 secs from winning time is less than a second, in fact, there are gaps that appear to be bigger both in front of the 15 sec mark and behind. very curious nothing has been said in any of the media so far.
Amazing everyone makes a ton of noise on the Contador 20 seconds and not a peep about this.
Hate to see Levi get royally screwed again over seconds…remember 07 and the 10 sec penalty that cost him second?
personally I really like the no-radios thing – I’m very receptive to Joe Parkin’s argument about cyclists not simply becoming – how does he put it? – spacers, I think, the way F1 drivers are spacers between the steering wheel and the gas pedal, themselves being driven by race directors or whatever they call them. I haven’t said much about it because I respect that lots of the riders don’t like it, but personally I think it’s cool.
by plinytheelder on Jul 14, 2009 8:35 PM EDT up reply actions
F1 may not be a good example
or any racing sport, because outside of fuel strategy affecting how hard they go, they usually go all out all the time, they don’t slow it down like cyclists and then suddenly hit the gas. They can’t do anything about the gaps if the car in front of them is faster, while the peloton always will be quicker than the break if they work well together.
Vamos Alberto!!!(Contador not Ricco)
yeah I don't know anything about f1
or any car racing, frankly I despise it all ;) just using Parkin’s example, but my point is that anything that increases the thinking level in the sport is good news to me. This, to me, is what the removal of radios does above all else. Like I said above, I’m not an expert, and there are enough riders who don’t like the idea to make me think there’s something about it that I don’t get. But on the surface I find it really interesting.
by plinytheelder on Jul 14, 2009 9:37 PM EDT up reply actions
I could handle the radios
but they really need to remove the tvs from the team cars. THAT’s what kills the racing.
You are on to something there, I agree
Of course if you remove the TVs you will simply have a guy in the backseat with an open phoneline to a guy in front of a TV at home so…………………
I enjoy the small group tactics too
but when they are the highlight of a Tourmalet-stage it’s anti-climactic.
Even if you love big bunchsprints you don’t want to see one at the end of the Tour of Flanders because that is not what that race is about.
Can't the Tour organizers put in a long straight finish?
I want to see ALL the top sprinters battle and not just 2-3. but with all the turns in the final 400m something always goes wrong.
Vamos Alberto!!!(Contador not Ricco)
why stop there
do the whole tour on computrainers! /snark
"I get paid to hurt other people. How good is that? How good is that?
I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, that's good." Jens!
Levi + Wiggo get the 15 seconds back?
12:00 – 190km – Big news just announced by the race jury is that Levi Leipheimer and Britain’s Bradley Wiggins, who lost 15 seconds after a late crash split the peloton yesterday, have been given the same time as the first 52 riders who crossed the line. It means they revert to fourth and fifth on GC.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cycling/livematch/281269.html
So sayeth the Eurosport ticker
Yup. Official site ticker has it too.
Among his many talents, Mark Cavendish can make it rain in Southern California--Chris Jones, ESPN Magazine
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