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July 12, 2009 —
Nine stages into the 2009 Tour de France and there’s already been three breakaway victories by French riders. Something surely must be amiss.
The French have notoriously fallen flat in the national tour. The last time a Frenchman won the Tour was Bernard Hinault, the hard-fighting Badger who won the last of his five Tours in 1985.
Richard Virenque finished twice on the podium in the 1990s, but it was later discovered that he was more gassed up than a top-fuel dragster.
Virenque was a notorious figure in the Festina Affaire, a scandal in the 1998 Tour that revealed how far the depravity of doping had gone in the sport. Nearly the entire team was doped to the gills, thanks to a slush fund to underwrite the purchase of EPO, human growth hormones, corticoids and a cornucopia of other performance-enhancing products.
Since then, the French government and cycling officials have done a lot to clean up cycling. French teams cannot hold training camps beyond French borders, a ruling designed to eliminate “high-altitude” training camps that were viewed by some cynics as being little more than a euphemism for blood doping.
Since 1999, French riders have been subject to strict, quarterly anti-doping testing, a practice that the UCI has finally applied universally across the peloton a decade after the Festina scandal blew the lid on organized doping within the ranks of the peloton.
For years, the French riders complained of a peloton “at two speeds,” one for the riders who still enjoyed a full pharmalogical arsenal of support, and the French riders.
Now it appears that cycling is cleaning up its act across the board, regardless of where a rider holds a passport. So perhaps it’s no surprise that French riders are starting to win more.
In Sunday’s 160.5km ninth stage, Pierrick Fedrigo upstaged Italian climber Franco Pellizotti as the two rode alone across some of the Pyrénées most famous climbs. The Aspin and Tourmalet were too far from the finish – more than 70km – to be much of a factor for the GC riders, but the attacking pair made the most of their opening.
A large group was breathing down their neck, almost reeling them in on the long, flat run into Tarbes, but Fedrigo was able to sweep past the Italian to score France’s third stage victory in a week, just 34 seconds clear of the pack.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like a Frenchman is going to win the Tour any time soon.
The top-ranked French rider is Brice Feillu, sitting 25th overall at 4:26 back, a Tour rookie who gained a lot of time when he won out of a break up the Arcalis summit Friday who is expected to slide backwards next week.
So if the peloton is racing all at the same speed these days, what excuse will the French come up with now to explain why they can never come close to winning the Tour?
Former Vail Daily editor Andrew Hood now lives in Spain and covers cycling. His reports on the 96th Tour de France will appear daily on RealVail.com. Also follow him on twitter at twitter.com/eurohoody.
Sánchez shows how to win in break as Tour de France rolls through Pyrénées
July 11, 2009 —
Winning in breakaways is perhaps the most difficult way to win at the Tour de France.
The sprinters have trains to set them up, the mountain goats can drop all but a handful on the steeps and the time trial specialists are experts in the art of racing against the clock.
So take away the sprints, the TTs and the summit finishes, and that leaves about a half-dozen opportunities for the rest of the pack in the three-week battle that is the Tour.
Luís León Sánchez (Caisse d’Epargne) gave an exhibition in Saturday’s 176.5km, three-climb stage across the Pyrénées on how to win in a breakaway.
The spindly Spanish rider out-kicked a four-man break that held off the main pack by nearly two minutes, out-dueling his fellow escape artists to claim his second career Tour stage win.
“Finding the right combination riders is always a challenge. You have to have the legs, but you also have to be lucky,” a happy Sánchez said. “I knew this course was good for me. I studied this route when I was here training in June, so I had it marked on my calendar. I knew it was perfect for me.”
Sánchez worked into a promising early move that cleared on the Cat. 1 Port d’Envalira in the opening 30km, but the presence of GC threat Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) nearly derailed the effort.
Evans is a two-time Tour runner-up and was trying to find some allies in a daring raid, but the escape artists knew that the Australian’s presence would doom their chances.
Evans found himself getting attacked by the group at the front and then being chased from behind by the GC favorites and he finally sat up on the descent, giving legs to the attackers.
Even without Evans in the break, the group never gained more than three minutes as Ag2r kept it close to defend yellow.
With the break taking their chances up the road, the overall favorites slogged their way over three challenging climbs in the run from Andorra to Saint-Girons, but there wasn’t anything steep enough to trouble the top GC riders.
Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) gave it a stab on Cat. 1 Col d’Agnès with 45k to go that stretched out the pack, but a group of nearly 60 riders came in together.
Despite getting gapped under the Schleck attacks, overnight leader Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r) regained contact with the front group to maintain his six-second lead to Alberto Contador to defend the yellow jersey. Lance Armstrong (Astana) also finished safely in the pack to remain third at eight seconds back.
Among the day’s abandoning riders was 2006 Tour winner Oscar Pereiro, who pulled out in the stage. The Spanish rider was awarded the 2006 yellow jersey after winner Floyd Landis was disqualified for doping.
The 96th Tour de France will wave goodbye to the Pyrénées in Sunday’s 160.5km ninth stage from Saint-Gaudens to Tarbes. The relative lack of distance will be compensated with two of the most difficult climbs during three days of racing across the Pyrénées.
The course tackles the first-category Col d’Aspin before approaching the eastern side of the famous beyond-category Col du Tourmalet at 90km. After a long descent, the final 45km are down a long, wide-open valley to the finish in Tarbes.
Former Vail Daily editor Andrew Hood now lives in Spain and covers cycling. His reports on the 96th Tour de France will appear daily on RealVail.com. Also follow him on twitter at twitter.com/eurohoody.
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Tour de France rookies shine at Arcalis; Armstrong drops to third
July 10, 2009 —
Two Tour de France rookies took center-stage in Friday’s summit finish at Arcalis that saw Alberto Contador’s bid to claim the yellow jersey fall six seconds short.
Brice Feillu and Rinaldo Nocentini were both late additions to their respective Tour squads, so their bosses will feel like they made the right decisions.
Neo-pro Feillu took the flowers out of an all-day, nine-man breakaway in the 224km march from Barcelona to Andorra while 31-year-old Nocentini becomes the first Italian to wear yellow since 2000.
“This is like a dream come true,” said Feillu, who was a surprise selection for Agritubel. “I couldn’t believe that was even starting the Tour and now I have been able to win the first mountain stage. It’s just incredible.”
Thanks to the victory, Feillu also takes the polka dot jersey, 49 points to Christophe Riblon’s (Ag2r) second place 46 points. Riblon was chasing the climber’s jersey, gobbling up first-place points in the opening four climbs of the stage, but sacrificed his hopes to help pace teammate Nocentini up the final Arcalis climb.
Nocentini – who started the stage 32nd at 3:13 back -- was also hoping to win the stage and never thought the break would carve open enough time to claim the yellow jersey.
“Taking the maillot jaune is one of the biggest things a rider can do and I think they will take notice back in Italy. I will try to defend the jersey as long as possible. We have two hard stages coming up in the mountains, but I am feeling good and the team is strong,” Nocentini said. “Maybe we can carry it into the rest day and then after that, but I know I won’t be able to win this Tour.”
Behind the breakaway, the main contenders for the Tour showed their first stripes in the Tour’s first of three summit finishes.
Fabian Cancellara’s six-stage run in yellow ended as the big Swiss time trial specialists wilted on the 10.6km beyond-category summit.
Seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong (Astana) started the stage just 0.22 seconds back, but the team eased off the pace to allow Nocentini to take yellow so the Astana squad wouldn’t have to ride to defend the yellow jersey across two more days in the Pyrénées.
There were some fireworks when Alberto Contador shot away from a baker’s dozen of GC contenders in a daring bid to grab the yellow jersey in an attack that defied team orders.
The Spanish climber bolted with just over 2km to go, leaving Armstrong to mark the wheels of any counter-attacks. Contador’s gamble fell short, but he gained 22 seconds on such rivals as Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) and … Armstrong.
Contador slotted into second at six seconds back, nudging Armstrong into third, now eight seconds back.
Armstrong didn’t hide his displeasure at the line.
“It wasn’t really to the plan, I didn’t expect him to go with the plan, so that was no surprise,” Armstrong said. “It was windy, so it was hard to go alone. Like I said, I wasn’t surprised.”
Whether the tension spills back into public view remains to be seen.
The 96th Tour de France continues Saturday with the 176.5km eighth stage from Andorra to Saint-Girons in an ideal opportunity for breakaway riders.
The route climbs out of Andorra over the Cat. 1 Port d’Envalira in the opening 23.5km and features two more climbs, including the difficult Cat. 1 Col d’Agnes at 132.5km, which could produce some surprise splits in the bunch.
Former Vail Daily editor Andrew Hood now lives in Spain and covers cycling. His reports on the 96th Tour de France will appear daily on RealVail.com. Also follow him on twitter at twitter.com/eurohoody.
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Hushovd storms to sprint win in stage 6 of Tour de France
July 9, 2009 —
What’s the easiest way to win a sprint at the Tour de France these days?
Find a hill just steep enough to eliminate Mark Cavendish and then punch the accelerator. That’s what Norwegian flier Thor Hushovd (Cervélo) did in Thursday’s 181km sixth stage from Girona to Barcelona that ended atop the Montjuic hill.
A winner of the first two sprint finishes so far in the 2009 Tour, Cavendish got gapped on the short, but steep run to the Olympic Stadium finish line used in the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games, opening the door for others to take the spoils.
Spanish favorite Oscar Freire (Rabobank) looked to have the victory in his grasp when Hushovd powered past his shoulder to win. Freire settled for second and Spanish rider José Joaquin Rojas (Caisse d’Epargne) was third.
“We knew this would be a good opportunity for me when we studied the route,” a happy Hushovd said. “I am usually pretty good on uphill finishes and we thought that Cavendish might not be able to make it.”
A breakaway effort by David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream) was neutralized in the closing kilometers to set up the uphill mass gallop.
Cavendish still played spoiler, coming across 16th to earn just enough points to keep the green jersey, but Hushovd is closing in fast, with Cavendish leading 106-105.
Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) sprinted to 10th to retain his slender 0.22 lead to seven-time Tour champ Lance Armstrong (Astana) going into Friday’s first decisive mountain summit.
Some thought Armstrong would attack Cancellara and try to open up enough gap on the short climb to snatch away the maillot jaune, but Armstrong never tried.
Armstrong’s next – and perhaps last chance – to grab yellow comes in Friday’s 224km seventh stage finishing high in the Pyrénées at the Arcalis summit in the principality of Andorra.
Armstrong’s Astana team is hogging the GC, with four riders in the top 5, so it will be up to the other riders to try to keep the Texan out of yellow. Cancellara is expected to fade on the 10.7km final climb, opening the door for Armstrong to regain the prized yellow jersey.
“I think the others will have to attack before we do,” Armstrong said. “We’re in a position where we can wait and watch the others, Sastre, Evans, the Schlecks. I don’t know if we need to attack.”
The wildcard will be Armstrong’s teammate and 2007 winner Alberto Contador. If he sits in, Armstrong takes yellow and takes control of the team.
Contador will likely wait to follow attacks from other riders. If that’s the case, then the world will see if Armstrong has the same legs as his younger rivals.
“I’ll try to be good. There are no guarantees. It’s been awhile since I raced a big mountain stage, but I will be ready,” Armstrong said. “I know Alberto wants to assert himself in the race. I don’t need a team meeting to tell me that. I know he’s ready to go. If he does – and no one can go with him – I will just hang back and stay with the other leaders.”
Former Vail Daily editor Andrew Hood now lives in Spain and covers cycling. His reports on the 96th Tour de France will appear daily on RealVail.com. Also follow him on twitter at twitter.com/eurohoody.
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