Pursuit of Green - Final
by jsallee00 on Jul 26, 2009 12:41 PM EDT
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PrintThor does it. Despite a dominating performance in Paris by Columbia, capped by Cavendish's sixth stage win, Thor Hushovd claims the second Green Jersey of his career.
Todays Results:
| 1. |  CAVENDISH Mark |
71 | TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC | 35 pts |
| 2. |  RENSHAW Mark |
78 | TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC | 30 pts |
| 3. |  FARRAR Tyler |
53 | GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM | 26 pts |
| 4. |  CIOLEK Gerald |
182 | TEAM MILRAM | 24 pts |
| 5. |  HUTAROVICH Yauheni |
104 | FRANCAISE DES JEUX | 22 pts |
| 6. |  HUSHOVD Thor |
6 | CERVELO TEST TEAM | 20 pts |
| 7. |  ROJAS Jose Joaquin |
117 | CAISSE D’EPARGNE | 19 pts |
| 8. |  BANDIERA Marco |
132 | LAMPRE - N.G.C | 18 pts |
| 9. | BENNATI Daniele |
92 | LIQUIGAS | 17 pts |
| 10. |  BONNET William |
143 | BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM | 16 pts |
This was a truly impressive Tour by Thor, his consistency and intelligence surpassed Cav's flamboyance and six stage victories. Thor should enjoy this one, it might be quite a while before someone beats Cav again.
I don't think it can be stressed enough how impressive Columbia was in delivering Cav to the line. Having Renshaw finish second today just shows how dominant they are. It also shows very well that the Green Jersey is about more than winning stages.
The final points tally:
| 1. | HUSHOVD Thor |
6 | CERVELO TEST TEAM | 280 pts |
| 2. | CAVENDISH Mark |
71 | TEAM COLUMBIA - HTC | 270 pts |
| 3. | CIOLEK Gerald |
182 | TEAM MILRAM | 172 pts |
| 4. | ROJAS Jose Joaquin |
117 | CAISSE D’EPARGNE | 145 pts |
| 5. | FARRAR Tyler |
53 | GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM | 136 pts |
| 6. |  ROCHE Nicolas |
89 | AG2R LA MONDIALE | 122 pts |
| 7. | FREIRE Oscar |
44 | RABOBANK | 119 pts |
| 8. | PELLIZOTTI Franco |
91 | LIQUIGAS | 104 pts |
| 9. | CONTADOR Alberto |
21 | ASTANA | 101 pts |
| 10. | KLÖDEN Andréas |
23 | ASTANA | 89 pts |
| 11. | MONDORY Lloyd |
86 | AG2R LA MONDIALE | 89 pts |
Continued
Cav ended up with a total of 270 points, 210 of which came from Stage victories, 44 points for winning the field sprint on a day when a breakaway survived (Stages 5, 12), 10 for finishing 16th on Stage 6 and six for winning an intermediate sprint on Stage 12. By comparison, Thor won just one stage, but he factored into intermediate sprints (12 on Stage 8 , 12 on Stage 17, 4 on Stage 12), gained 28 points where Cav didn't factor in the Stage finish (Stages 13, 14) and scored points in every sprint that Cav won.
Thor's Stage 17 breakaway will be one of my highlights of this years tour. He didn't like hearing about how unfair it was that he would win due to an officials decision, so he went out and showed he deserved the Jersey the best way he could.
This was a great competition, won by the man that deserved it the most. Even so, Columbia and Cavendish have shown that they are the dominant team in finishing off a sprint. Everyone else has a lot of work to do to get into a competitive position.
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thx for all the updates during the Tour
this competition was certainly interesting this year.
sometimes life is a false flat
is it me
or does it seem that the Highroad train always pulls off onto the side where the other teams are coming up? Reminds me of dropping bananas in Mario Kart.
When you're in front
you get to take the line you want. Today was a good expample with Dean & Farrar trying to come around Coumbia late, they got moved by Hincapie pullling off, making them take a crappy line into the final corner which caused them to lose a bunch of speed. This disrupted everyone behind Cav and created the silly margin of victory.
It’s always good to be at the front. Great job by Hincapie to make sure they got to the front at the right time.
"I had a cameraman filming me on the back of a bike, I rode up to him and
said: 'hey, this is a pretty shitty situation, why don't you just leave me alone with my misery? I was close to punching him off his bike … but I didn't, of course."" Jens!
You don't think the Garmin-Columbia rivalry
had anything to do with george taking a tight line in the corner (and cutting off garmin in the process)? nah, couldn’t be
by elmundo_enfuego on Jul 27, 2009 11:34 AM EDT up reply actions
Not sure I totally agree that it was Thor's consistentcy wot won it
The final difference between the two of them was less that the points that Cav lost by DQ – if the Commissaires had done nothing, or even simply swapped Cav and Thor around, Cav would be in green tonight (although to be fair Thor might have worked harder today).
Thor’s stage 17 breakaway is enough for me to say that he deserved it (lugging his carcass over the climbs is serious tough guy territory) but Cav’s talent is pretty impressive too – and while he has this lead out train he is virtually unbeatable. Next year, with another year’s experience, I expect Cav to be comfortable in green in Paris.
In fact, there is a reasonable chance that the tour will actually be quite boring for the next five years – Contador in yellow and Cav in green every year between now and 2015 strikes me as more than possible. Lets hope AndyS learns to time trial, and / or Columbia gets a GC contender so doesn’t commit quite so hard to Cav’s stage wins
The DQ
technically it cost Cav the green, though I’m glad they didn’t restore the points later on. Thor knew how many points he needed, and got them. I suspect if not for the DQ he would have been forced to race differently.
It sucked that they DQ’d him, but Hushovd’s win was totally legit. Don’t think we disagree on that, really.
ABRUZZIAM...uh oh
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 27, 2009 3:15 PM EDT up reply actions
You think green jersey > six stage victories? I don't agree.
I’d much rather have six TdF stage victories than the green jersey.
Many top sprinters race the TdF for most of their career and never win six stages total, let alone six in one year.
Just wanted to say HELLO ALL!
I’m back in internet range…still in France, had a great time :-))
Adrenalina Italiana!
You are already a legend for surviving Ventoux
looking forward to your trip details
sometimes life is a false flat
Don't tell anyone but I only did the top 10km....that was enough for my first mountain!
The campervan was parked half way up so I climbed from there. only negative thing-some total idiot nicked my new helmet at the top! fuming!
Adrenalina Italiana!
I am very pleased for you!
that you cycled the top 10 kms ….. very impressive … I know you were a little nervous about it but I bet you will always remember it.
sometimes life is a false flat
Helmets are fungible
Climbing Ventoux — irreplaceable. well done!
ABRUZZIAM...uh oh
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 27, 2009 3:16 PM EDT up reply actions
Columbia
I’m worried about Columbia after this Tour. At what point does Cav’s invincibility result in Stapleton turning the squad into Fassa Bartolo 2.0? They’re already not competitive in grand tour GCs and lack any obvious way of turning that around (and don’t tell me about Tony Martin). I really like Columbia, but I don’t much like sprinting-only teams . . .
What's their win count now, 60?
True many of those are from sprints, but they’re not entirely a sprinting-only team. But as to the Grand Tour part, I’m not sure what they can do about it. Contador is likely to win every GT he shows up at for the next several years. Everyone else is just hoping they can get on the podium. I think Columbia is just ahead of the curve in building a team that can win 90% of the races they line up for. Look at Garmin, Quick Step, Cervelo, Lotto, CdE, Katusha… and tell me who any of them have now that will be competitive in any GT that Contador wants to win. Columbia is the best team by far over the course of the whole season, I’d hate to see them scrap that in order to fight for a top 5 in any GT.
"I had a cameraman filming me on the back of a bike, I rode up to him and
said: 'hey, this is a pretty shitty situation, why don't you just leave me alone with my misery? I was close to punching him off his bike … but I didn't, of course."" Jens!
62 wins for Columbia, from 14 riders and 2 TTT
19—Cavendish
14—Greipel
4—Albasini
3—Boasson Hagen, Henderson, Martin, Rabon
2—Grabsch, Kirchen, Lovkvist, Pinotti, TTT
1—Eisel, Rogers, Sivtsov
Next highest total is Serramenti PVC ETC ETC with 32. Only 3 (other) teams have more victories than Cav himself, just 13 have more than Greipel—but subtract every Cav and Greipel win and Columbia would still have 29 and be second in the rankings.
Just an awesome record.
Throughout the stage all I kept on thinking was: ‘don’t finish second, you can’t finish second again’.--Heinrich Haussler
Thor on stage 17
Was one of the finest moments of this year’s tour for me.
by Burgundy and Gold on Jul 27, 2009 9:16 AM EDT reply actions
me too
it was a cycling middle finger of a rebuttal from thor.. after which cav admitted to eating his words, major props to both
Thor
that was a TEXTBOOK demonstration of why the green jersey is so great. Guys turn themselves inside out for a day or two to get the spots, and for maybe 6-8 stages for yellow. But you see the points competitors doing it almost every day, and in a lot of ways. This is why the VDS emphasizes green over the other lesser jerseys.
ABRUZZIAM...uh oh
by Chris Fontecchio on Jul 27, 2009 3:18 PM EDT up reply actions
well said
Out of 18 stages (excluding the TT’s) Thor scored points in 13 of them, Cav in 9.
"I had a cameraman filming me on the back of a bike, I rode up to him and
said: 'hey, this is a pretty shitty situation, why don't you just leave me alone with my misery? I was close to punching him off his bike … but I didn't, of course."" Jens!
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