Stage 17 - History Repeating....Again

Breakaway wins mountain stage – Thomas Voeckler battles Frederick Kessiakoff for the King of the Mountains Jersey – Chris Froome drags Bradley Wiggins up the final climb when he could have exploded away to a stage victory himself. No this is not a recap of the previous stage, but a description of Stage 17, a short 143.5km sojourn in the Pyrenees. Former alleged doper Alejandro Valverde won the stage from Froome and Wiggins but who really gives a f**k by this stage – I was watching Adam Scott storm his way to a first round lead in the The Open at Royal Lytham and St Anne’s.

The stage pretty much went the same way as EVERY OTHER SINGLE MOUNTAIN STAGE THIS YEAR. Voeckler and Kessiakoff got in the day’s break and Voeckler was able to outsprint his Swedish rival at the top of every mountain pass to extend his lead in the mountains classification to an unassailable 11 points. He will now where the jersey all the way to Paris and I doubt there has been a more deserving winner in recent times. Tejay Van Garderen and Thibault Pinot both finished with the other main favourites (about 15 seconds behind Froome and Wiggo) and the game between them for the White Jersey remains just over 3 minutes.

In terms of GC – Vincenzo Nibali lost about 15 seconds after being unable to go with the Sky duo in the closing stages and in the process put paid to any chances of moving up to second overall in Paris. He had earlier managed to sneak into the day’s break but the relentless evil empire would not let the gains extend beyond 20 seconds so he sat up and returned to the peleton. Froome could have actually gained more time on Nibali but when he attacked in the closing km’s Wiggo could not keep up and he had to slow down to allow his millstone teammate to catch up. The big loser was Haimar Zubeldia who cracked big time and lost 11 minutes. He slipped down to 7^th allowing the BMC duo of Tejay Van Gardern and Cadel Evans to move up one spot each, despite Cadel losing another 2 minutes on the stage.

Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins

Green Jersey – Peter Sagan

Polka Dot Jersey – Thomas Voeckler

White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen

Brock McLean Tweet of the Day

@SC_Cycling – If the jury had any sense of humour, Froome would have been awarded most combative. #TdF

Stage 16 - V Is For Voeckler

Thomas Voeckler is the only thing making the 2012 Tour de France even worth watching. The plucky little Frenchman led over all 4 epic Pyrenean climbs last night, romping away to a stage victory and getting himself the lead in King of the Mountains jersey classification in the process. It was a ride and performance truly worthy of the great race, something we have not seen enough of in the 2012 edition. Voeckler was victorious after outlasting the day’s 38-man strong break, winning by over a minute and a half from Chris Anker Sorenson with Gorka Izaguirre third.

There was also a shake up in the GC as Cadel Evans was dropped on the final climb of the Col de Peyresourde and lost over 4 mintues to the leaders. He was later found to have ‘intestinal issues’ which is cycling code for destroying the toilet on the team bus after the race. He has dropped from 4^th to 8^th overall and now actually trail Tejay Van Garderen his teammate in the overall standings. TJ has been quick to declare that BMC now has co-leaders which is a nice little punch in the kidneys for the defending champ. TJVG has increased his lead in the Youth classification to 3:48 from Thibault Pinot. The podium now looks settled as Wiggins-Froome-Nibali (in that order), as an attack from Nibali on the Peyresourde initially dropped the entire peleton, only for Froome to again drag Wiggins back to the Italian’s wheel by the top of the climb. That elite trio finished around 40 seconds ahead of the rest of the favourites.

For mine the other GC contenders have got their tactics all wrong this year. A single attack on the final climb has proven insufficient to dent the strength of the Team Sky armada. The only chance they had was to hit Sky again and again to see if they could shatter the team and Wiggins on one of the earlier climbs, and put real time into him. But instead they led Sky dictate the pace over the first three Cols and by the time they got to the Peyresourde it was too late. It is this lack of ingenuity that has made this Tour an absolute procession for Wiggins and he has been basically served the race on a platter.

That is the beauty and contrast of Thomas Voeckler though. He is old school and rode the day’s stage without a race radio as he wanted to let his body, mind and instinct do the talking – which it did to aplomb. He is arguably the second greatest hero of the Tour de France over the last decade, behind only Lance Armstrong in his important to the race. He will be a sad loss to world (and especially French) cycling when his career comes to an end. He now leads the mountains classification by 4 points from Frederick Kessiakoff (the previous leader) who was also in the days break but crumbled over the last 2 climbs. The only interest left in the race for me this year is to see if Voeckler can hold on to the polka dot jersey.

Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins

Green Jersey – Peter Sagan

Polka Dot Jersey – Thomas Voeckler

White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen

Brock McLean Tweet of The Day

@saddleblaze – Jean-Rene Bernaudeau on Voeckler: “There aren’t enough superlatives to use for what Thomas has achieved. It’s like winning a monument.”

Stage 15 - SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!!!

The second rest day came a day earlier at the Tour de France, with a breakaway coming home around 12 minutes ahead of the peleton. To take the absolute piss out of the repetitiveness of this year’s event, Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo won his second career stage into Pau and his 4^th Tour Stage overall. He defeated Christain Van de Velde in a heads up sprint, while for once magical Frenchman Thomas Voeckler could not conjure a miracle and could finish only third. Obviously there was no change to the GC.

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Token Bradley Wiggins hate

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Question whether The Shire is the biggest crime against humanity since Apartheid?

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Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins

Green Jersey – Peter Sagan

Polka Dot Jersey – Frederick Kessiakoff

White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen

Brock McLean Tweet of The Day

@StueyOG – Durin TDF’s I’ve ridden thru-roads laid down by moses, flares, mustard gas, champagne showers, blind spectators, now tacks. Imagine that in motoGP

Stage 14 - Puncture-gate

Is it just me or is this Tour the most ho-hum in living memory? There were a couple of half decent climbs last night but a gigantic breakaway got away to lead the peleton home by over 15 minutes. Erstwhile barradoeur, Luis Leon Sanchez was finally rewarded for hanging in the Tour despite his crashes and injuries early in the week, breaking away in the closing kilometres for a deserved victory. Second, for the second straight stage was Peter Sagan, who has been absolutely everywhere at this year’s, and only further cemented his stranglehold on the green jersey by getting in the day’s move. France’s Sandy Casar was third.

All the main GC favourites finished together, but their distance from the winning break was exacerbated by the biggest news story of the day – punctures! Cadel Evans had put it yet another futile attack (God bless him!) on the Mur de Peguere that was reeled in by the evil empire, only to discover he had a rear puncture. He had to wait over a minute to steal the wheel of his first teammate to arrive (quality support BMC – where was TJVG FFS!?) – but Steve Cummings also had a puncture! Finally the neutral service car arrived and Cadel was on his way – only to puncture again on the descent and need a bike change!!! The man can attract drama. It turned out that the main field had been obliterated by tyre troubles with the story soon surfacing that someone somewhere had strewn tacs all over the road – one can only guess in the hope of creating their own real life Mario Kart stage (obviously banana’s were unavailable). Wiggo was kind enough to slow down the peleton to give Cadel and BMC at least a chance of chasing back on (we can still hate him though). Pierre Rolland showed some true French class by attacking on the descent anyway but Liquigas and Lotto chased him down like he was an escaped convict to put him back in his place.

Other than those shenanigans there was not too much too the day’s stage (feels like I’ve said that a lot this year).

Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins

Green Jersey – Peter Sagan

Polka Dot Jersey – Frederick Kessiakoff

White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen

Brock McLean’s Tweet of The Day

@nyvelocity – Pierre Rolland can look forward to about 4 years of getting his every move shut down by BMC

Stage 13 - Lucky For Some

July 14 – Bastille Day. Back in the EPO era, intermediate stages like this used to be the domain of breakaways. But over recent years the sprinters have wanted even more glory and so we often see the day’s break chased down in the battle for the green jersey.  And that is exactly what happened on Stage 13, a 217km journey from Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateux to Le Cap d’Agde. Andre Greipel was the winner in a semi-depleted peleton, defeating Peter Sagan in a photo finish with Edvald Boasson Hagen third. With the majority of the sprinters shelled off the back on the day’s final cat-3 climb, they were absent of the finish, allowing Sagan to extend his lead in the green jersey competition to over 80 points from Greipel and Matt Goss. He is now certain to win it as long as he makes it to Paris.

In what would otherwise have been a non-event of a stage, the reason the sprinters were blown out on the final climb was an unexpected attack from Cadel Evans. While he led over the top of the climb, he was unable to hold off the evil empire who slowly paced leader Bradley Wiggins back to Evans over the remainder of the climb. It is good to see Cadel trying something though to break up the complete and utter boredom and predictability that this race is going to provide over the final week.

Other than that there is not too much to add. I’m sure many Brits will be creaming themselves over seeing Bradley Wiggins lead out the sprint for Boasson Hagen in the yellow jersey but I don’t care. In fact my interest in the race is often severely diminished on any day that Greipel wins.

Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins

Green Jersey – Peter Sagan

Polka Dot Jersey – Frederick Kessiakoff

White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen

Brock Mclean Tweet of the Day

@englishwhistler – Good to see Le Tour visiting one of the Teletubbies on Monday, Po will be pleased. #tdf #Letour

Stage 12 - Redemption

Pretty regulation intermediate stage of the Tour de France, with Stage 12, 226km from Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne to Annonay Davezieux, won by a breakaway. In yet another feel good story at this year’s race, victory on the day went to journey pro David Millar, who won the fourth Tour stage of his career, and his first since 2003. Millar was the most vaunted rider in the day’s break, and had enough nous in the finishing sprint to defeat Frenchman Jean Christoph Peraud with Egoi Martinez in third.

The two big climbs of the day came to early to do any real damage to the peleton, and as a result there was no change to the GC, and neither of the leaders in the mountains classification scored points on the climb. The bigger controversy was the sprint finish of the peleton – with Australian Matt Gloss relegated to last in the bunch for dangerous sprinting. He had led the main group over the line but his interference with Peter Sagan was deemed illegal by the race committee. As a result, he sacrificed his green jersey points on the stage, allowing Peter Sagan to take an ominous 50 point lead in the competition.  If the competition wasn’t already as good as over, it is now.

In a fairly mundane stage it was good to see Millar finally get another win at the Tour almost 9 years after his last. He has been to hell and back in the world of professional cycling and there is no one more deserved of success.  The victory, 45 years to the day that arguably Britain’s greatest cyclist, Tom Simpson died on the climb of Mount Vontoux could not have been more timely.

Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins

Green Jersey – Peter Sagan

Polka Dot Jersey – Frederick Kessiakoff

White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen

Brock McLean Tweet of the Day

@richardbirdge7 – Wiggins won the 4km at Beijing and may win #letour – is that not the same as someone winning the 1500m and the marathon in athletics

Stage 11 - Civil War

Only one man can beat Bradley Wiggins at this year’s Tour de France. Sadly that man is teammate and fellow Brit Chirs Froome. Wiggins showed his first sign of weakness at this year’s Tour on Stage 11, an epic 148km trek from Albertville to La Toussuire. However the weakness was generated by an attack from Froome, and when Sky realised that they quickly called their lieutenant back to help drag Wiggins up the climb. The day was another triumph for France – they went 1-2 on the stage as Pierre Rolland won by almost a minute from Thibaut Pinot. Wiggins and Froome also went 1-2 on GC as Cadel Evans was cracked on the final climb. In his defence he had at least tried to animate the race on the earlier Cold de la Croix de Fer, attacking and trying to put Wiggins and Sky under pressure and paid for his attempts at the finish. Not much more can be asked of Evans – he has tried everything in his power to stay within touching distance of Wiggins but just does not have the legs to match his Commonwealth companion this year. Wiggo had a subtle dig at Cadel's attack in the post race press conference - a laughable call when your own teammate would have blown you out of the water had he not been called back to haul your anemic ass up the mountain because you were floundering as badly as The Falcon does on the Alpine passes in Winter. Wiggo - you are a grade A douchebag. Wiggins now leads Froome by over 2 minutes, with Nibali the closest non-Sky rider at 2:23 in third.

But the major interest on the stage will be the team dynamics as Sky – it would appear that Froome is the more inform rider (excluding the time trials) and if left to his own devices he would be potentially be able to challenge Wiggins for the title. In fact Froome’s ride but back memories of a young Andy Schleck toying with his rivals on L’Alpe d’Huez while teammate Carlos Sastre rode to a solo victory up the road. But it just won’t happen. This EXACT same situation occurred at the Vuelta last year, when Froome had to pace Wiggins up climbs DEPSITE WEARING THE LEADERS JERSEY!!! As a result Joaquin Rodriguez was able to steal the race from under their noses. And I would like to see Vincenzo Nibali do similar here I just can’t see it happening, not with Wiggo having another 50km time trial up his sleeve. I would also like to see Froome just ignore team rules and ride for himself ala Contadar with Astana and Armstrong in 2009, but given the massive lovefest that appears to be Team Sky I can’t see this happening either.

Props must also go out to the French who have had a banner three days in the lead up to Bastille Day on Saturday – Pinot on Stage 9, Voeckler on Stage 10, and then the Rolland-Pinot quinella overnight. The future for French cycling looks very promising and if either of those two can learn to put in a decent time trial the whispers of the next French tour winner will be growing into a dull roar. One disappointment for France was their loss of the Polka Dot Jersey – with so many big climbs on the stage the jersey was always going to pass to someone in the days’ break, and that turned out to be former wearer Frederick Kessiakoff who now leads the classification by 11 points from Pierre Rolland – hopefully Rolland can pull him back over the next week to take the title for France. France did move up to second in the Youth Classification however, thanks to Pinot’s performance – he now trails Tejay van Garderen by just under 2 minutes. This competition is now a race and 2 as Rein “pea-heart” Taaramae absolutely blew up and lost over 20 minutes on the day.

Yellow Jersey – Bradley Wiggins

Green Jersey – Peter Sagan

Polka Dot Jersey – Frederick Kessiakoff

White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen

Brock Mclean Tweet of The Day

@whityost – Froome might want to consider starting an anonymous Twitter account so he can continue attacking Wiggins after the stage