Stage 11: Avranches - Mont-Saint-Michel
The first individual time trial of this year's Tour gave Chris Froome a chance to put some distance between him and his main rivals in the general classification, and by the end of the stage he had done exactly that. His effort wasn't enough to get him the stage victory - that honour went to the World Time Trial Champion, Tony Martin - but it has put him in a rather commanding lead over the rest of the peloton.
Martin set the target quite early on in the day's proceedings as he is rather far down in the general classification. His time for the 33 kilometre course showed why he is the champion in this discipline, as he rode the course a full minute faster than the next best rider at the time. It was an advantage that would remain uncontested until Chris Froome took to the course, almost 3 hours later. When Froome took to the course it seemed that Martin's lead was under threat, but the yellow jersey wearer faded a little bit in the final few kilometres and finished 12 seconds behind Martin. This came after Froome had gone faster than Martin through both of the intermediate time checks. In the end, however, the headwind that had picked up during the course of the day probably worked in Martin's favour and he walked away with a stage win.
The showdown for the yellow jersey took place at the end of the day as the highest placed cyclists in the overall standings took to the course. When Froome took to the course it immediately became apparent that the time deficits at the end of the day would hinge on how well each of the riders could limit the damage done to their time. It was never a race to beat Froome, and instead it turned into a race for second in the overall standings. At the end of the day, Froome had ridden himself a further two minutes clear of the rider in second place, Alejandro Valverde.
Valverde rode a strong time trial, and maintained his place in the overall standings when the stage was done. However, the rider behind him in the standings, Bauke Mollema, fared marginally better on the course and finished 7 seconds ahead of Valverde, making him the highest placed overall contender at the end of the day besides Froome. Contador and Kreuziger have been seemingly inseparable in this year's Tour, and the time trial only reinforced that idea. Contador finished in fifteenth on today's stage, 2 minutes and 3 seconds behind Chris Froome; Kreuziger finished just one place further back, 3 seconds behind Contador. Kreuziger is in a perfect position to take over the lead of Saxo-Tinkoff should Contador find himself in trouble in the mountains, but until then he will likely be riding in support of his team leader.
Laurens ten Dam and Cadel Evans lost slightly more time on the day, finishing around 2 minutes and 30 seconds behind. Their loss of time was largely overshadowed by the huge loss of time by Andy Schleck. The Radioshack-Leopard rider has never been particularly good in the time trials and today showed that weakness once again. Schleck finished 123rd on the day, over 4 minutes and 30 seconds behind Froome. Schleck's chances for a podium finish in this Tour seem to have flown out the window with today's performance, but his strength in the mountains might yet bring him back into contention for a top finish.
In one of the surprise performances of the day, Michal Kwiatkowski rode himself to a 4th place finish, gaining almost 2 minutes on Nairo Quintana in the process. This result means that he takes a lead in the best young rider classification. It is a slim lead though (just 34 seconds) and Quintana's ability in the high mountains is unquestionable. With a lot of climbing still to get through before this Tour is finished, Quintana will fancy his chances at regaining the white jersey.
More Sprinting?
I feel as though I'm getting a little repetitive when I talk about the flat stages, but that may just be because the flat stages have followed a set pattern. A pattern, I might add, that is not about to stop repeating. Is tomorrow the flattest stage in the Tour this year? It could well be, and that means just one thing - it's a day for the sprinters.
Cavendish must be disappointed with his 3rd place finish on yesterday's stage because a win just never seemed to be on the cards. His lead out didn't come together as he would have liked, and he ended up knocking Tom Veelers off his bicycle in the sprint for the finish. No doubt he will want to silence his critics tomorrow with a well-executed, clean sprint to the line. The green jersey now seems out of his reach, but he will certainly be targeting stage victories whenever possible.
His rivals are not going to make his task easy tomorrow. Greipel still has a chance of winning the green jersey, slim though it may be, and will be desperate to get to the line ahead of all his competitors. After being pipped at the post yesterday, he will probably be in the same mindset as Cavendish. Greipel will probably aim to take control of the peloton early and leave nothing to chance in the final burst.
Somewhat unsung in the last few sprints is Peter Sagan. The green jersey wearer knows that he has a massive lead in that classification, and has seemed to be content with finishing just behind the other sprinters. Tomorrow's stage may give him the chance to set the race for the green jersey to rest, and a stage win will almost certainly secure his green jersey in Paris.
No comments:
Post a Comment