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Tour de France stage 3 – live (part 1)

July 6, 2010 2 Comments

Stage 3: Wanze > Arenberg Porte du Hainaut (213 km)

Hello! Welcome to my first live-blog of the 2010 Tour de France, which today covers stage 3 starting at Wanze in Belgium and crossing the border back into France before finishing at Porte du Hainaut.

At 213 km, today’s stage is the third-longest of the 2010 Tour. It will take us over some of the famous cobbled roads used in the Paris-Roubaix classic, and will be an adventure into uncharted territory for many of the riders, including defending champion Alberto Contador.

Here is today’s stage profile:

The last time a similar (but much shorter) cobbled section featured in the race back in 2004, Iban Mayo, one of the race favourites that year, crashed and lost four minutes, effectively ending his challenge for the yellow jersey. With that in mind, and after all the crashes over the past two days, this is going to be a nervy, bumpy ride. Hold onto your helmets!

Sad news this morning that Garmin-Transitions‘ Christian Vande Velde had been forced to abandon overnight. He crashed on the Stockeu descent and broke two ribs. This comes after a broken clavicle sustained at May’s Giro d’Italia. Last year, he also broke two ribs at the Giro, which severely compromised his 2009 Tour.

Vande Velde said:

I worked really hard to get myself ready to be here again and I was just starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m indescribably disappointed to not be starting. I don’t ever want to have to see another day like today, whether I’m in the race or not.

He also posted the following on Twitter:

Laying in bed beat down, full of painkillers. Thanks for all the well wishes. I am gutted to have to leave in this fashion.

I’m still waiting on official news about any further abandonments. Tyler Farrar reportedly has a broken wrist, so he must be a doubt.

10.30 am: Here’s BMC team leader Cadel Evans on Twitter:

Busy time here at [the Tour de France]. Preparing/repairing damaged bikes and riders from yesterday’s carnage for today’s … err … ‘interesting’ stage.

Chris Horner

10.40 am: Still sifting through the aftermath of yesterday’s crash-laden stage. You can read my stage review here for a host of quotes from various riders. In the meantime, here is an extract from RadioShack‘s Chris Horner‘s fascinating daily blog, providing a first-person view of what happened on the Stockeu descent:

Andy Schleck yelled something at me that generally meant, “Let’s not take any risks!” I was descending on the right side of the road with Levi on my left, when riders just kept squeezing by us. Half way down, after at least 20 riders had passed Levi and I, there was a huge crash with riders everywhere – left side, right side, and in the middle of the road. When I hit the brakes to slow the bike down, I could hear the riders behind me starting to crash. Their bikes were sliding so fast that they were passing by me as they slid down the road. There wasn’t much space left on the road with bodies and bike in all directions. The bikes that were sliding by me were now hitting the bikes and the bodies that had crashed in front of me. I squeezed through a small opening in the road, with one leg out and one leg still in the pedal. I finally came to a stop on the left side of the road, where Lance had gone down.

By the time Lance and I had gotten his bike fixed enough to ride again, we had been passed by a lot of riders. We took off in pursuit of the front group, but 200 meters later, there were another 20 riders down in the next corner. They were spread all over the road again, but this time a motorbike was down with them as well. The very next turn was more of the same, with bikes and bodies covering the road yet again. When we finally got to the bottom of the hill and away from the chaos, we were greeted with some cobblestones to remind us of how much fun we were having, just in case we had forgotten …

11.30 am: Some wise words from the veteran Robbie McEwen ahead of today’s stage:

There is a natural selection of the rider who actually wants to ride on the pavé and who knows how to ride on it. Then there’s the natural selection of the race too. At the Tour we’ll have the classics riders wanting to win the stage, the overall contenders trying to make sure they don’t lose time and then all their domestiques, some who won’t have a clue about the cobbles, doing everything they can to help them. It’s going to be carnage.

11.45 am: The riders are under way! Christian Vande Velde and Nicki Terpstra of Milram (fever) are the two overnight abandons, in addition to Mickaël Delage of Omega Pharma-Lotto, who withdrew mid-stage yesterday. Tyler Farrar is banged up, but starts. An immediate attack is quickly reined in by the peloton.

Yellow jersey Sylvain Chavanel

11.55 am: After the decision to neutralise the chase and final sprint yesterday, Sylvain Chavanel has the honour of carrying the maillot jaune back into France. He leads former yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara by 2:57 and Tony Martin by 3:07.

Andy Schleck, who was lucky to escape serious injury yesterday, is the lowest-placed of the main contenders, 4:06 behind. He can ill afford to lose further time to his rivals today.

Chavanel also leads the green jersey competition. After yesterday’s sprint was nullified, the fast men will be itching to get back into action today.

Chavanel’s Quick Step teammate Jérôme Pineau leads the King of the Mountains classification with 13 points. With just one fourth category climb today, Pineau will retain the polka dot jersey no matter what. The competition here doesn’t really start until we reach the Alps in a few days.

12.30 pm: A breakaway of seven riders has established itself. The escapees are Steve Cummings (Sky), Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Roger Kluge (Milram), Pierre Rolland (Bbox Bouygues Telecom), Imanol Erviti (Caisse d’Epargne) and Stephane Auge (Cofidis). Their lead over the peloton is currently 4:25.

1.30 pm: I’m back. Let’s catch up with what’s happened in the past hour.

The first intermediate sprint came at Saint-Servais after 35 km. The first three across the line were:

1. Roger Kluge (6 pts), 2. Ryder Hesjedal (4 pts), 3. Steve Cummings (2 pts).

At 48 km, we also had the fourth category Côte de Bothey, the only categorised climb of the day. First over the summit were:

1. Ryder Hesjedal (3 pts), 2. Steve Cummings (2 pts), 3. Stephane Auge (1 pt).

Just to confirm, Jérôme Pineau will continue to wear the polka dot jersey tomorrow.

And here are the results of the second intermediate sprint at Nivelles, which came at 71.5 km:

1. Roger Kluge (6 pts), 2. Pierre Rolland (4 pts), 3. Imanol Erviti (2 pts).

So, significant changes at the top of the green jersey competition. Not yet, anyway. The escape group’s lead has come down slightly to 3:27. I would think the peloton will keep them on a fairly tight leash. Things will be bad enough over the cobbles without having to worry about a desperate chase. The onus is on Quick Step here to defend Chavanel’s yellow jersey.

1.50 pm: Here is a bit of info about today’s start town, Wanze. It’s situated in the province of Liège in Belgium, has a population of 13,000 and today is its first time as a Tour start.

Wanze is close to Huy, where the Flèche Wallonne race finishes every year. The town hosts an international flea market for cycling collectors and enthusiasts. (At least, that’s what it says on the Tour website.)

No commercials here, but if you don’t mind I’d like to give a few shout-outs to friends and fellow bloggers. In no particular order, let’s start with:

You’re going to what? – Adventures in cycling from an average gal.

2.00 pm: Alessandro Petacchi stopped to change a wheel, but no problem.

Here’s Bradley Wiggins, never a man to mince his words, on the decision to neutralise yesterday’s final descent and sprint finish:

I think it was just bulls**t, to be honest. That’s bike racing. No one waited for me when I crashed at the Giro. If it is a dangerous time trial prologue, Fabian ain’t going to slow down and wait for everyone else.

Today’s finish town is Arenberg Porte de Hainaut, the first time it has featured in the Tour. With the finish here, the Tour pays homage to Paris-Roubaix with a run over the famous cobbled sector Drève des Boules d’Hérin – also known, more prosaically, as the trouée (trench).

Situated in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France, Porte du Hainaut is an urban district community of 150,000 people. Its 39 towns and villages offer a wide range of attractions: architecture inherited from the industrial era, waters with beneficial properties used in thermal baths, gastronomy based on local produce and colourful festivities celebrating the Giants. The finish at the mining site of Arenberg has been proposed by France as a UNESCO world heritage site. So now you know.

The peloton has just passed through the feed zone. 114 km to go, 3:27 is the gap to the escape group, which is now holding fairly constant as Quick Step measure the pace at the front of the bunch.

2.10 pm: Of the lead group of seven, Hesjedal is the biggest threat to Chavanel’s hold on the yellow jersey. He is 3:43 behind, so that is the safety margin for Quick Step if they want to keep their man in the jersey.

As well as being a possible sprint, today’s stage presents opportunities for some of the Classics riders who are familiar with riding over the cobbles to launch themselves clear of the main field to contest a finish among themselves. Today’s run-in shares sections of pave with Paris-Roubaix, and the top three from this year’s edition are all present today: former yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank), Thor Hushovd (Cervelo) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Sky). Don’t be surprised if one or more of them edges their way towards the front as we approach the final 30 km.

2.20 pm: Garmin’s Tyler Farrar, who had been a question mark to start this morning, has just dropped back for a bike change. He’s up and running again now. 100 km to go, and the gap has slipped back out to 3:48. Dangling on a string.

2.25 pm: Crash!

While I’m sorting out what happened, here’s another blog you might like to read:

SportPH – Covering every sport under the sun … and artificial light for that matter.

2.30 pm: The who, how and why of the crash still isn’t clear. It looks like so many people were so keen to get up the front in advance of the first cobbled section that someone went down in the gutter at the edge of the road. Anyway, everyone’s back on their bikes, with the exception of AG2R‘s David Le Lay, who has abandoned. It looks like the rest of the peloton has reformed.

2.35pm: Approaching the first section of pavé now, which is only 350 metres long. Nevertheless the peloton is stretching right out at high speed regardless. No one is being complacent about the dangers today, obviously. Consequently, the lead group has seen its advantage slashed to 2:25.

A quick shout-out for:

Micaiah sells out – Jeremy’s personal blog includes regular coverage, thought and insights on the Tour.

2.40 pm: Looks like the bunch is through that short first cobbled section safely. RadioShack and Saxo Bank drove the front of the group, with Astana dotted around behind them. Clear statement of intent by the teams of Armstrong, Leipheimer and the Schleck brothers – they will look to be aggressive today and see if they can dislodge Contador on the longer pavé sections closer to the finish. Take a deep breath – 40 kms to the next set of cobbles.

2.50 pm: Good God, ITV4 are going to commercial pretty much every ten minutes. They had better be doing this so they can give us uninterrupted coverage of the closing kilometres!

Which reminds me. And now, a message from our sponsors …

Todd Kinsey’s TDF blog – Great depth of knowledge from a cyclist and endurance athlete.

The gap has stretched back out to 2:46 with 75 km left – having dipped under two minutes over the cobbles – as the peloton relaxes a bit.

3.00 pm: Sky team principal Dave Brailsford explains that it was always the team’s intention to get Steve Cummings into the break today to hedge their bets tactically, just as we cut to images of one of his riders, Simon Gerrans, on the ground after an accident at the back end of the peloton. Oh dear. He’s back on his bike, but he’s on his own and faces a long solo chase to re-establish contact with the bunch.

3.10pm: Gerrans has been receiving treatment from the doctor’s car on the go. He looks like he has got plenty of cuts and scrapes for his troubles, and he will be needing a brand new racing kit tomorrow, unless he’s happy with the moth-eaten look.

Right, that’s enough for one post. For commentary on the final 60 km including the critical final sections of pavé, switch over to part two of my live blog here.

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Chavanel takes yellow jersey as GC contenders lick their wounds

July 5, 2010 10 Comments

Stage 2: Bruxelles > Spa (201 km)

Honestly, it’s not always like this. After the last two days, anyone new to the race might think the Tour de France is the two-wheeled equivalent of a demolition derby, with the winner being the last man standing. And while crashes, particularly in the first week of the Tour, are hardly an unusual occurrence, I am struggling to remember the last time the race featured so many crashes on consecutive days. And while yesterday’s accidents had no significant impact on the general classification, today’s resulted in the handover of the yellow jersey, as Quick Step‘s Sylvain Chavanel - a French rider on a Belgian team – produced a fine solo win on the last stage finish in Belgium, meaning he will wear the coveted maillot jaune across the border back into France tomorrow.

New yellow jersey Sylvain Chavanel

Chavanel claimed his second career Tour stage after leading an early break of eight riders, eventually outlasting them all to ride alone over the final ascent of the Col du Rosier and soloing down to the finish in the historic town of Spa. (His previous Tour win had come late in the 2008 race, also courtesy of a successful breakaway.) By finishing 3:56 ahead of the main field, Chavanel became the new race leader with an advantage of nearly three minutes, a lead he can reasonably expect to maintain through to the Alps at the weekend.

In steady rain up and down the narrow, winding Ardennes hills used in the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège spring classics, a treacherous surface claimed several casualties. An early crash forced Mickaël Delage of Omega Pharma-Lotto to abandon after a hefty impact with a roadside barrier.

But that was just a taste of what was to come. Francesco Gavazzi slid off the road on the descent from the penultimate climb of the day, the Col de Stockeu, and the following camera bike went down trying to avoid him. As the next group of riders arrived on the scene, around 30 crashed on what some speculated was an oily surface. Among the victims were most of the GC contenders including Lance Armstrong, Bradley Wiggins and Andy Schleck, who rose gingerly clutching his left arm and waited for a team-mate to donate his bike, only to come down again almost immediately.

After the stage, Schleck at least saw the funny side of things:

There was something like oil was on the road. I crashed and I couldn’t find my bike, so I got Matti Breschel’s bike. I went 100 metres further and I crashed again. I had crashed on the right side so I thought I’ve got to get some scratches on the left too, otherwise I am going to look stupid.

At one point, the delay cost him four minutes, but the group ahead including teammate and yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara graciously slowed to allow everyone to catch up.

Sky‘s Simon Gerrans posted the following thoughts on the Stockeu crash on his blog:

On the descent of the Stockeu, there must have been some kind of fuel on the road because a third of the bunch fell, including myself. It was like riding on ice. A couple of guys went down right at the front so I just touched my brakes slightly to avoid them and the next thing I knew I was sliding down the road on my arse. By the time we got to the bottom of the climb the bunch was totally split.

It looked like we had been in for battle with blood, injuries and skin missing on most guys. I lost skin all up my right leg and butt so I’m going to be a little sore for the next couple of days but fortunately nothing was badly hurt. There will be a few guys who don’t take the start tomorrow with broken bones and serious injuries.

Lance Armstrong, after crashing on stage 2 (image courtesy of Team RadioShack)

And even Armstrong did not escape without some collateral damage, as he explained on Twitter (and as the accompanying photo demonstrates):

What a day. Crashes everywhere and I don’t use the term ‘everywhere’ lightly. Most of the GC guys hit the ground myself included. Got some good ‘road rash’ on the hip and elbow. Bike mangled, cleat on the shoe completely cracked in two. Hope it’s dry tomorrow.

Marshalled by Cancellara, the group decided to let Chavanel go and neutralise the sprint finish to avoid any further mishaps.

For Chavanel, victory compensated for a season disrupted by a fractured skull sustained when he was knocked over by a motorbike during Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a race which shares part of its route with today’s stage, in April:

The wheel is always turning. I have had so much bad luck, so many times. I’ve been caught a kilometre, two kilometres from the line. That’s life. I’ve learned from it. This is my most beautiful day on the bike.

20 km from the line, I knew that I had a great chance of winning the stage, but I wasn’t thinking of the yellow jersey. Now I want to keep it until Paris! No, I just want to keep it as long as possible. It’s something that I don’t want to let pass by. I have a reasonable chance [of keeping the jersey] as far as Rousses, why not?

The bulk of the field rolled slowly across the line in Spa four minutes later, presumably to the bemusement of the gathered fans. It was a spontaneous decision, fuelled by concerns over the safety of the peloton, many of whom are already sporting a variety of war wounds. Whether it was the right thing to have done with the benefit of hindsight is debatable, but it was certainly done with good intentions in mind. Among others, veteran sprinter Robbie McEwen and the Garmin-Transitions pair of Christian Vande Velde and Tyler Farrar all went to hospital after the stage, and many others were treated for a variety of scrapes and bruises. It remains to be see whether there will be further abandonments tomorrow morning.

Cadel Evans explained the decision to neutralise the final sprint on his website:

Today, because of the number of guys who went down, the group agreed not to sprint. Considering the number of guys injured [and] the danger of the last 10km, I’m sorry for the spectators but it was the right thing to do. Sorry, we are human as well. Don’t fear, for the masochists amongst you, there will be plenty of suffering/crashes/damage to come – probably most of it tomorrow.

But not everyone agreed with the decision, with sprinter Thor Hushovd particularly angry:

I’m very sorry for the riders who crashed. It was a big mess. But yet, this is still a bike race. Crashes happen all the time. It’s been a really big mistake to agree to neutralise the end of the stage. I’ve been riding all day for the stage win and the green jersey and I end up with nothing. Will the same thing happen tomorrow? If Alberto Contador or another big rider crashes tomorrow on the cobblestones, he’s entitled to ask for the race to be neutralised too. So when will we race, really?

Other than Chavanel’s leap to the top of both the yellow and green jersey standings, there were no major changes in the GC or the sprinters’ competition. The King of the Mountains competition has now begun, though, with Chavanel’s Quick Step teammate Jérôme Pineau earning the privilege of donning the polka dot jersey.

In other news, HTC-Columbia‘s Adam Hansen did not start this morning, a significant blow to the green jersey challenge of Mark Cavendish, for whom Hansen was one of his key lead-out men. The Australian suffered a broken rib and sternum, and fractured his collarbone, but nevertheless rode for nearly 175km after his crash to complete yesterday’s stage before having the full extent of his injuries confirmed. They are a tough breed, cyclists. It is difficult to imagine, say, Cristiano Ronaldo continuing to play with so much as a broken finger-nail.

The riders will rest and recover overnight, and many will no doubt be feeling stiff and sore in the morning. But there is no opportunity for respite, as tomorrow’s stage takes us over the Paris-Roubaix cobbles as the race passes back into France.

Technology permitting. I am intending to liveblog tomorrow’s stage. I will be here from around 2pm UK time. Hopefully see you then!

For full coverage of the Tour de France, I would recommend either the official website or alternatively steephill.tv as your one-stop shop for race reports, photos and videos.

For other well-informed views on the race, my blog of the day is Marc’s sports blog. Alternatively, for a good read check out any of the links under ‘Cycling’ in the sidebar on the right.

Stage 2 result:

1. Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) 4:40:48

123 riders + 3:56

General classification (yellow jersey):

1. Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) 10:01:25

2. Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) +2:57

3. Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia) +3:07

4. David Millar (Garmin-Transitions) +3:17

5. Lance Armstrong (RadioShack) +3:19

6. Geraint Thomas (Sky) +3:20

7. Alberto Contador (Astana) +3:24

8. Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) +3:25

9. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) +3:29

10. Linus Gerdemann (Milram) +3:32

Selected others:

19. Cadel Evans (BMC) +3:36

53. Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo) +3:52

54. Denis Menchov (Rabobank) +3:53

57. Bradley Wiggins (Sky) +3:53

59. Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) +3:54

85. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) +4:06

Points classification (green jersey):

Note: Other than stage winner Chavanel (35 pts), no green jersey points were awarded at the finish. Points gained at the intermediate sprints still stand.

1. Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) 44 pts

2. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) 35

3. Jürgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto) 34

4. Mark Renshaw 30

5. Thor Hushovd 26

Climbers’ classification (polka dot jersey):

1. Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step) 13 pts

2. Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) 8

3. Rin Taaramae (Cofidis) 8

4. Maxime Monfort (HTC-Columbia) 5

5. Matthew Lloyd (Omega Pharma-Lotto) 4

Stage 3 preview:

Start & finish: Wanze > Arenberg Porte du Hainaut

Distance & type: 213 km, plain (includes seven sections of cobbles, totalling 13.15 km)

Prediction: Seven sections of cobbled roads, the last just 7 km from the end of the stage, will set up a tense finish as sprinters and GC contenders alike jostle at the front of the pack trying to stay away from trouble. Much has been made of Contador’s inexperience over this type of surface, so expect Astana to try and force their way to the head of the peloton to protect their leader and control the pace. Any crash is likely to decimate the field, and if any of the sprinters’ teams are involved this may open the door for a surprise winner to claim the stage win. If it is anything like as wet as it was today, there will be carnage – or, more likely, the GC riders may demand to neutralise the stage, to the chagrin of the sprinters.

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