Tough Week at the Tour

Friday saw massive carnage in the form of a crash 20 km from the finish and Saturday saw even more carnage from the first mountain stage of this year's Tour de France -- a Cat-1 finish that wasn't supposed to destroy the field but thanks to an unstoppable Sky squad absolutely did.  After the two stages we went from two race favorites and a boatload of potential contenders (see my Tour preview) to two massive favorites and a single potential contender, Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas.   Robert Gesink?  Part of the crash Friday and dropped on Saturday, done.  Frank Schleck?  The same.  Sammy Sanchez?  Not part of the crash but dropped early and often on Saturday's final (and only) climb.  Done.  Ryder Hesjedal?  Did not start on Saturday due to crashing on Friday.  Officially done. Jurgeon Vandenbrouck?  Flat on Saturday just before the climb, raced his ass off to get back and had nothing left for the climb.  Done.  Denis Menchov?  The last of the major contenders to hold onto the Sky explosion but lost 50 seconds in the final kilometer.  Could come into a podium spot but done as far as winning this thing.  Pierre Rolland?  Gone before Menchov.  Andreas Kloden?  Gone before teammates Haimer Zubeldia and Maxime Monfort, who are now Radioshack's best hopes for contention -- and by contention, I mean a "top 10".  The team is done.  Valverde?  Also flatted (or had a mechanical) just before the final climb.  Done.  Levi Leipheimer?  Fell right on out the back at the start of the climb, finishing 3+ minutes behind Sky.  Done.   Janez Brajkovic?  Actually did better than expected, I think he was 8th on the stage.  But done.  No, after a week of relative quiet other than sprinters crashing, Friday and Saturday whittled the field down to three contenders for the overall victory: Team Sky protected rider Bradley Wiggins, who moved into the yellow jersey after Saturday's stage.  Defending champion Cadel Evans, 10 seconds back.  And Nibali, 16 seconds back in 3rd place but without the time trial skills of Wiggo or Evans and dropped at the final stretch of Saturday's climb by a few seconds, which means unless his descending skills are enough to do something -- anything -- to disturb the status quo, this is the 2-man race that everyone everywhere was predicting coming in.  And that's more than a bit disappointing, one week into the 3-week event.  And sad to say, I actually have to root for Evans now, the defending champion.  Because he is a definite underdog to the remarkably (cough, cough) dominant Team Sky.

Saturday saw Sky move to the front in the miles running up to the final climb and then race up the mountain led by Michael Rogers, who was once a GC contender but never fulfilled those hopes, and gave it his all today, demolishing major contenders like Sammy Sanchez and Frank Schleck before giving way to Richie Porte, who managed to shred the field further for several more miles of the climb.  A very select group of 8 riders were left about halfway through the climb -- Porte and Sky teammates Wiggins and Chris Froome -- yes, even after Rogers pulled off, Sky still had two helpers for Wiggo -- a lonely Cadel Evans, Nibali, Menchov, Rolland, and last year's runner up for best young rider Rein Taaramie of French team Cofidis.  Porte eventually gave way to Froome to take over in support of Wiggo and Rolland and then Menchov were dropped.  Five riders remained, Froome, Wiggins, Evans, Nibali, and Taaramie.  All the great supposed contenders to the throne were long gone down the mountain.  With less than a kilometer to go, Evans made a move on a brief flat stretch, passing Wiggins and Froome and making a break, but Froome quickly grabbed onto his wheel and closed the gap.  Wiggins didn't have to do anything but follow.  Taaramie got dumped out the back and Nibali was struggling to hang on.  Froome sensed weakness in the defending champion and decided to attack, moving around him as the slope shot up to an unconscionable 20% within sight of the finish line.  Cadel tried to follow but failed and Wiggins stayed with him (although maybe just an inch or two behind for those of us who are hoping that Team Sky isn't pulling a "USPS domination" performance this year).  Nibali got dropped, struggling behind.  And Froome -- the team's "helper" to Wiggo -- cruised past the line for the victory, a couple seconds ahead of Evans and Wiggins.  Wiggins moved into yellow.  And the British had their best cycling day in history -- bar none -- with only Nibali remaining as any other overall hope to contend.  Below are the standings going into Stage 8 on Sunday, a mid-mountain stage that might not see any action before the massive time trial on Monday that should solidify the two-man race between Wiggins and Evans.  By the way, Vincenzo, if you somehow happen to be reading this and can actually read English, please attack on the downhill finish tomorrow... if Evans and Wiggo are up by 2+ minutes on everyone after Stage 8, this is going to be a hell of boring Tour.  That is all.

1.	GBR WIGGINS Bradley	101	SKY PROCYCLING	34h 21' 20''
2.	AUS EVANS Cadel	1	BMC RACING TEAM	34h 21' 30''	+ 00' 10''
3.	ITA NIBALI Vincenzo	51	LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE	34h 21' 36''	+ 00' 16''
4.	EST TAARAMAE Rein	81	COFIDIS LE CREDIT EN LIGNE	34h 21' 52''	+ 00' 32''
5.	RUS MENCHOV Denis	131	KATUSHA TEAM	34h 22' 14''	+ 00' 54''
6.	ESP ZUBELDIA Haimar	19	RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	34h 22' 19''	+ 00' 59''
7.	BEL MONFORT Maxime	16	RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	34h 22' 29''	+ 01' 09''
8.	IRL ROCHE Nicolas	79	AG2R LA MONDIALE	34h 22' 42''	+ 01' 22''
9.	GBR FROOME Christopher	105	SKY PROCYCLING	34h 22' 52''	+ 01' 32''
10.	AUS ROGERS Michael	108	SKY PROCYCLING	34h 23' 00''	+ 01' 40''
11.	SUI CANCELLARA Fabian	12	RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	34h 23' 03''	+ 01' 43''
12.	ESP SANCHEZ Samuel	31	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	34h 23' 22''	+ 02' 02''
13.	BEL VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen	111	LOTTO-BELISOL TEAM	34h 23' 31''	+ 02' 11''
14.	FRA CHAVANEL Sylvain	192	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICK STEP	34h 23' 42''	+ 02' 22''
15.	POR COSTA Rui Alberto	163	MOVISTAR TEAM	34h 23' 45''	+ 02' 25''
16.	GER KLÖDEN Andréas	15	RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	34h 23' 49''	+ 02' 29''
17.	SLO BRAJKOVIC Janez	181	ASTANA PRO TEAM	34h 24' 24''	+ 03' 04''
18.	USA VAN GARDEREN Tejay	9	BMC RACING TEAM	34h 24' 29''	+ 03' 09''
19.	FRA GALLOPIN Tony	13	RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	34h 24' 33''	+ 03' 13''
20.	ITA BASSO Ivan	52	LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE	34h 24' 33''	+ 03' 13''

Comments

[Bill]

I meant to write a little bit about the heroes of the first week - Fabian Cancellara, who held yellow for the entirety of the week and who now has had 28 yellow jerseys in the Tour de France, most ever for anyone who hasn't won one (and because he can't mountain climb, he never will -- but Fabian held his own today); Peter Sagan, who won a remarkable 3 stages in the first week, outsprinting other contenders on the slight uphill finishes and taking a big lead on the Green Jersey competition; and Andre Greipel, who won 2 stages in a row on flat-out group sprints, showing that he may very well be the fastest in the world right now instead of his rival Mark Cavendish, the world champion who had no support from his Team Sky (who have other concerns this year) and only won a single stage in the opening week.

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