Predictability continued at the 2012 Tour de France, with Stage 2, a 207.5km ride from Vise to Tournai, representing the first chance for the pure sprinters at this year’s race. And has been the case for the last 4 years at Le Tour, when a sprint stage is there for the taking, Mark Cavendish wins. Resplendent in the World Champions jersey, and ominously wearing a gold helmet in this Olympic year, Cavendish powered over the top of German Andre Greipel to record his 21st career stage win. Australia’s Matt Goss was third, having led the peleton at the intermediate sprint earlier in the stage.
Other than that there is not too much to add to be honest on what was a bread and butter day in the Tour. The bunch finished as a group so there was no GC change. New sprint sensation Marcel Kittel had stomach problems and thus didn’t participate in the sprint finish, but Shimano’s back up sprinter Tom Veelers did manage 4th so you’d have to think Kittel would have been there and there abouts had he been fit. A semi surprise was Sagan finishing 6th in the final sprint to take the lead (Mark Cavendish is now second) in the Green Jersey competition from Fabian Cancellara. If Sagan can regularly finish top 10 on dead flat stages than it may be hard for the pure sprinters to catch him in the points classification. Michael Morkov participated in the days break and thus padded his lead in the mountains classification by a juicy 1 point.
Early rant for the day is the farcical use of yellow at this year’s tour. Obviously the yellow helmets are a new innovation – they look awful and will clash with pretty much every teams outfit. And in reality the race for the teams classification garners about as much interest as the Foxtel Cup – i.e. no one cares! The one team who’s outfit may match the helmets (and they will be zero chance of ever leading the classification) is Saxo Bank, who have somehow transformed their team colours in 12 months from classic white and black to some hideous combination of dark blues and yellows.
Anyway – tonight’s stage looks a corker with a true classics style profile across the north of France. I suggest it’s one that is worth staying up to watch.
Yellow Jersey – Fabian Cancellara
Green Jersey – Peter Sagan
Polka Dot Jersey – Michael Morkov
White Jersey – Tejay Van Garderen
Brock McLean tweet of the day
@Cyclopunk – So that’s 83 professional wins for Mark Cavendish & 196 for Marianne Vos. I wonder which one’s in the higher income tax band? #womenscycling
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