Second Time Lucky for Plucky Norseman; Sky Soar to Victory; Other Norwegian Wags His Totem at the French Publique;Vin Nicaraguyen for Naomi W July 8, 2011
Posted by atomicsaddles2011 in Tour De France 2011.Tags: Boasson Hagen, Geraint Thomas, Mark Cavendish, Sky Procycling, Thomas Voeckler
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Bonjour amis d’embrocation et vin de terre(ible)!
Let’s begin with a lovely quote from our hero, Jens Voigt, after Stage 5. “To do this, you have got to be as insane as the insanity around you”. Yes indeed, Jens, we know what you mean. If you wish to read his description of the Tour as a Mel Gibson movie (“I started to feel this impending doom with each field that we past”) read on here.
Atomic Saddles is a wee bit en retard (you can say that again – Ed) this morning, so please forgive the even more blatant than ever swiping of text from real journalistic sources. Here’s a report on Stage 6 from Cyclingnews: “Another dramatic day at the Tour de France, another tough finale and another thrilling sprint finish, with Edvald Boasson Hagen taking both his and Team Sky’s first stage win at the Tour. The talented Norwegian beat HTC-Highroad’s Matt Goss and countryman Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervelo), who held onto the maillot jaune of race leader for another day.
The younger of the two Norwegians – who successfully worked together to deliver their nation a road world championship in October last year – went close to winning the stage on Wednesday but mis-judged his effort. This time was a different story and he had a perfect lead-out from teammate Geraint Thomas before accelerating close to the barriers and throwing his arms up in celebration.
“I felt good yesterday but it went wrong and I really wanted to work hard to do well in today’s stage,” said Boasson Hagen. “G (Geraint Thomas) did a good lead-out and it’s just fantastic to win a stage of the Tour.”
Boasson Hagen’s family was in attendance in Lisieux and the talented Norwegian was a little choked with emotion during the post-stage interview.
“It’s hard to say anything right now,” he explained. “I’m just really happy and winning my first stage of the Tour [in front of my family] is really great.”
Team Sky bid their time and waited for the final two kilometres to their key: Boasson Hagen, Thomas and Ben Swift, hit the front.
“It’s great – we’ve been knocking on the door for a while and the team’s been riding well so far this Tour,” said Swift, who was also an outsider for the win today. “It was the longest stage but it felt like one of the quickest. I tried to position Edvald and G and it was a tough climb at the finish so I went a long way up the climb for the two of them before they did their thing.”
Thomas paid tribute to the efforts of Swift, saying: “Swifty sacrificed himself for us and I delivered Eddy (Boasson Hagen) to the last 500 metres. It was a massive team effort. We’ve been up there or thereabouts all week and we knew we were in with a chance today.”
Geraint Thomas, pictured here with his MBE for being an all-round good feller, was described yesterday by ITV as ‘the only nice man in Wales’ (No he wasn’t, Saddles! It was the nicest man in Wales. There are others. Er, it sez ‘ere – Ed). Straight after the Tour de France, instead of putting his feet up with a good book and a crate of Dom Perignon, Monsieur T and his girlfriend will be riding a tandem 160 miles to raise money for stroke and dementia charities. A brief net search Mark+Cavendish+Charity+2011 turns up… well, maybe you can guess.
Teammates Thomas and Boasson Hagen are rivals for the White Jersey for best young rider (Punter #20 Naomi W vs Punter #21 Eric J). Thomas said yesterday “Edvald wants it so much, he tried to push me off. But he’s not getting it just yet”. All in all a great day yesterday for the much-chastened Sky Procycling team, criticised for arrogance and disrespect in their Tour debut seasons, now rapidly becoming a force to be reckoned with. Bradley Wiggins’ eighteenth-place finish in such a toughly contested stage as yesterday’s suggests he is on top form.
Saddles must On Y Va-off now, but we must leave you with this snippet, (nearly) verbatim from the TdF official page:
“The reigning world champion Thor Hushovd got into the act emerging from below wearing a long Viking wig and wielding his mjölnir”. I know the Scandinavians are broad minded, but I thought there were laws against such things. Funnily enough, the French version of the site left this bit out, and the German site left out Thor altogether. Read more about Maillot Jaune-holder Thor’s totemic wotsit and Tommy Voeckler’s appraisal of his team’s chances in the 2011 race here.
Stage results:
- 1. Edvald Boasson Hagen, Sky Procycling, in 5h 13′ 37″
- 2. Matthew Harley Goss, HTC – Highroad, at s.t.
- 3. Thor Hushovd, Team Garmin – Cervelo, at s.t.
- 4. Romain Feillu, Vacansoleil-Dcm, at s.t.
- 5. Jose Joaquin Rojas, Movistar Team, at s.t.
GC:
- 1. Thor Hushovd, Team Garmin – Cervelo, in 22h 50′ 34″
- 2. Cadel Evans, BMC Racing Team, at 00:01
- 3. Frank Schleck, Team Leopard-Trek, at 00:04
- 4. David Millar, Team Garmin – Cervelo, at 00:08
- 5. Andréas KlÖden, Team Radioshack, at 00:10
Evans Prevails in Brittany but fails to de-jaune Thor; Cobra shows his Fangs July 6, 2011
Posted by atomicsaddles2011 in Tour De France 2011.Tags: Alberto Contador, André Greipel, Cadel Evans, Geraint Thomas
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Cadel Evans took yesterday’s stage by several spokes’ width from a charging Albert Contador in a thrilling finish atop the Pimple Enormé of the ‘Mûr de Bretagne’. In what cycling aficionados term ‘un right old ding-dong’ the attacks came thick and fast as all the top contenders for the GC made their presence felt on the Alp de Huez of Brittany. Pre-race favourite Philippe Gilbert, Kazakh muscle-head man Alexandre Vinokourov and Sky’s Rigoberto ‘Mr Coolio’ Uran were all there in the mix, but it was Evans and Contador who blasted away in the final metres, the Aussie just snatching victory on the line. Thus a fine bottle of Paraguayan Pinot Noir goes to Cadel’s compatriot, Monsieur John H.
What the odds that one of these bods will be in yellow on the Champs Élysées?
Contador didn’t recoup a lot of time on his main rivals (he nabbed 8 seconds on Andy Schleck), but as he took off up the climb comme s’il avait un rocket up sa derrière, it was a clear statement of intent. Evans had the strength to hold him off this time, but hostilities shall be renewed tout de force come the Alps. The mildly-ecstatic Aussie said “This is the first time that I won a road stage at the Tour de France… I am very content. I am still in second place, but the impressions are good right now. We had good preparation for the Tour this year and the team is very motivated to help me, so everything is going very good right now” plunging an entire Press room full of cycling correspondents into a torpor from which they may never recover. Louis Portillon, chief cycling correspondent of Paris Ce Soir, told Atomic Saddles, “It is as if, as one, we were smitten by Hypnos’ mighty sword. I was forced to consume two-thirds of my Deux hache-B to avoid becoming, ‘ow you say?, inconscious”.
Atomic managed to view yesterday’s étape on a live Eurosport feed of dubious legality provided free and for nothing by the charming free-spirited folks of www.cyclingfans.com. This provided my favourite piece of commentary so far this year from, I think, Gary Imlach. Apropos of nothing the Eurosport pundit suddenly said, “André Greipel must be the scariest looking rider in the Peleton. If he had a lantern on his head, he’d be quite comfortable living in the ocean depths”. .
Left: Horrible scary creature from the deep; Right: Team HTC-High Road’s André Greipel.
Today’s stage 5 is a short 165.4km hop from the wholly unpronouncable Carhaix to Cap Fréhel, passing through Gurunhuel, Guingamp, Plourach, Binic, Plouha, Pordic, and Plangenoual. No, really. There is probably also an intermediate sprint between Bolocq and Bumcrac-sur-Mer.
We can expect the charming Monsieur Cavendeesh to be prominent in the finalé (and the post-race interview). Will he bag Monsieur Charlie R his first of many bouteilles, or will he find himself sandwiched between a large Norwegian and an ugly East German sea creature? (Cavendish, not Charlie, that is).
Watch out too for the nice tussle going on for the White Jersey, currently sported by Geraint Thomas, but with team-mate Edvald Boasson Hagen, Teejay Van Garderen and Robert Gesink all vying to remove it. Literally, as they say.
Enjoyez, mes amis!
Tyler wins it for the W as Garmin-Cervelo rule the roost in Redon; Gilbert seeks to scale the heights once more as the race heads into bike-bonkers Brittany; Joe B bags the Booze July 5, 2011
Posted by atomicsaddles2011 in Tour De France 2011.Tags: Cadel Evans, Geraint Thomas, HTC-High Road, José Joaquín Rojas, Lampre, Linus Gerdemann, Romain Feillu, Thor Hushovd, Tommy Voeckler, Tyler Farrar
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Bonjour mes amis de shaven legs and drunken vino!
Success is clearly habit forming. Fresh from yesterday’s maiden tour victory in the Team Time Trial, in which Thor Hushovd also took the Maillot Jaune, Garmin-Cervélo made it two out of two as the yellow-clad World Champion propelled his sprint ally Tyler Farrar to victory in Redon, ahead of Vacansoleil’s Romain Feillu and Movistar’s José Joaquín Rojas. Farrar has now won stages in all the major classics: the Tour, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta Espana, and yesterday’s victory must have tasted all the sweeter after his miserable year to date. As he crossed the line, Farrar made a “W’ sign with his two hands in tribute to his close friend and training partner Belgian Wouter Weylandt, who died after crashing on the third stage of May’s Giro d’Italia.
With 5km to go the Lampre team was lining up its train ready for the attack, with the crafty Danilo Hondo looking to set up Alessandro ‘Alejet’ Petacchi for the final attack. Team HTC-High Road responded in kind, bringing Cavendish up on the right. Then it all went haywire. The sprint broke early, Cav was blocked off by Feillu and Joaquín Rojas, and Petacchi stopped for a pastry and a Cappucino. The mighty Thor was on hand to lead Farrar to the kill zone, and the American pushed all the right buttons to win the stage. Vacansoleil’s Roman Feillu finished like a rocket but just ran out of road, with Movistar’s José Joaquín Rojas storming to third place to grab the Green Jersey.
Prior to this year’s Tour there was much chin-scratching by pundits wondering how Garmin would shoehorn two world-class sprinters into one team, but yesterday the Thor-Tyler axis looked pretty damn good to this observer. Quoth Farrar: “It just shows what a champion Thor is and how classy he is. A world champion in the yellow jersey doesn’t have to lead out the sprint for a teammate.”
Thus a bottle of cut-price Mongolian Muscadet goes to punter# , un certain Monsieur Joe B.
It was something of a chaotic sprint yesterday inRedon, with Cavendish’s HTC-Highroad team mistiming their attack and hitting the front too early. For once Cavendish did not get the smooth lead-out that suits him so well, and was swamped by the other sprinters. He then got tangled with Romain Feillu of France and José-Joaquín Rojas of Spain on the left-hand bend leading into the finish.”I finished with the front four so I stayed in contention for the points” muttered Blabbermouth before skulking off to the team bus, kicking a few harmless old French grand-mamans on the way. To add insult to injury he and Hushovd were both relegated to last place in the bunch for unnecessary shoulder-to-shoulder aggro when contesting the intermediate sprint.
From the Oirish Independent: “As American Tyler Farrar celebrated a first stage win a few metres away in the dusty bowl of the coach park, pre-race favourite Mark Cavendish was sitting on a step bemoaning his luck. The Manx rider accused officials of picking on him after docking him points in the intermediate sprint which he had gained in typically abrasive fashion.. Cavendish had a strong opinion, too, on Romain Feillu’s riding into the sharp left-handed corner 600 metres from the line, approached by the peloton at speeds approaching 70kph. “I was fighting with Jose Rojas into the last corner and kamikaze Feillu came flying in,” said Cavendish. “He causes havoc in every sprint. You ask every sprinter who causes havoc — you might get a couple of Garmin guys saying me — but most of the guys will say Feillu.”He took me out on the last corner. I thought I was going to crash.”
Wish he had. Tyler Farrar bears a Tibetan tattoo on his wrist that symbolises ‘inner peace’. Cavendish instead bears chips on both shoulders.
General classification after stage 3:
1 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Team Garmin-Cervelo 9:46:46 (Punter #9 Micah G)
2 David Millar (GBr) Team Garmin-Cervelo (Punter #26 Colin D)
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:01 (Punter # John H)
4 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:04 (Punter #21 Eric J)
5 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Leopard Trek (Punter #23 Tom B)
6 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Procycling (Punter #20 Naomi W)
7 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek (Punter #18 Jack H)
8 Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek (Punter #7 Dannie R)
9 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Leopard Trek (Punter #4 Kevin R)
10 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Procycling (Punter #5 Takako R)
Green points jersey standings after stage 3:
1 José Joaquín Rojas Gil – 60 points (Punter #6 Charlie R)
2 Tyler Farrar – 58 points (Punter #17 Joe B)
3 Philippe Gilbert – 52 points (Punter #14 Stefano B)
Thor Hushovd and Mark Cavendish currently sit in 4th and 9th respectively. In his piece in the Oirish Independent today (on the same page as the ad that recommends you to ‘Find an Irish lawyer’), Nicolas Roche tips Philippe Gilbert as a dark horse candidate for the points jersey in Paris, should he keep snatching stage wins and intermediate sprints. Let’s see what unfolds aujourd hui. He is certainly in the form of his life, having won all three Ardennes classics (Amstel Gold Race, Fleche Wallonne and Liege-Bastogne-Liege) this year.
Today the race enters into France’s cycling heartland, Brittany, for the first time since 2008. Expect plenty of bike-mad Bretagnois to be lining the route. The 172km stage 4 from Lorient to Mûr-de-Bretagne, with its ２km uphill finish, looks perfectly suited for Monsieur Gilbert to repeat his heroics of day one, assuming that he stays clear of the argy-bargy, that is. The finish is a particularly technical one, so the fight to get to the front of the bunch for the final 10km will be even more gnarly than usual, making the risk of crashing even greater. Blood may well flow. If Atomic Saddles were a gambling man, he’d put money on a Rabobank or Europcar rider getting an asphalt sandwich today (though with Dennis Menchov no longer with Rabobank the odds naturally lengthen somewhat).
The finish is known as the “Breton wall” a.k.a the “L’Alpe-d’Huez of Brittany”. It is a two-kilometre climb, starting at one in 10, with sections at one in eight and ending with an 800m drag to the line. It entails about 90sec flat-out effort, and is preceded by a series of smaller climbs and a high-speed descent to the foot of the finish hill (it sez ‘ere – Ed).
We can expect a change in the leader’s jersey again today, as the giant Norseman won’t like the hilly finale to the stage. It would be great to see Geraint Thomas take the maillot jaune, though BMC will be putting pedal to the metal bigtime today to try to get Cadel Evans into yellow. Look out too for Leopard Trek’s Linus Gerdemann (pictured here) who will try to put his stamp on the race before it hits the Alps and the brothers Schleck come to the fore. Atomic Saddles would most like to see French favourite Tommy Voeckler of Europcar win today, as no doubt would the partisan crowd.
Garmin-Cervelo take the TTT as Thor Thunders to Yellow; Today the Sprinters Get it on in Redon July 4, 2011
Posted by atomicsaddles2011 in Tour De France 2011.Tags: Bernie Eisel, Cadel Evans, Garmin-Cervelo, Geraint Thomas, Mark Cavendish, Nicolas Roche, Sky Procycling, Thor Hushovd
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Bonjour mes amis de velo.
Yesterday’s team time trial saw Team ‘always the bridesmaid but never the bride’ Garmin-Cervelo finally make it to the TdF altar as they powered to the slimmest of victories over rivals Leopard-Trek, Sky, BMC and HTC-High Road on the pancake-flat 23km course in Les Esarts. The US outfit covered the course in 24 minutes and 48 seconds at an average speed of 55.6kmph which is about the same as Atomic Saddles’ Honda deux chevaux on a good day with a tailwind. As Atomic Saddles predicted, bébé!
David Millar, currently lying in second place overall, spoke to the Grauniad wot wrote: “Emotionally and physically, David Millar has been through the mill in his chequered 14-year cycling career and this team time trial was no exception. On his bike, he “suffered like a pig”. The outcome was something new for him: shared joy when his Garmin-Cervélo team took their first Tour stage win, after a host of near-misses.
They were seeded midway down the field (Not be me, alors! Zut! Egad Moriarty! etc – AS), and had a long wait before the win was confirmed, which meant, said the Scot, the day felt unlike any other win in his career, which has included three solo stage wins in the Tour.
“It’s not like winning an individual time trial, when you go through all the emotions on your own. This was a team experience, the tension was high, emotions were running. I love it. I’ve won plenty of time trials in my career but this was a whole different ball-game. (What did I say just hier soir, mes amis? did I not write ‘today’s TTT is a whole different kettle of pommes de terre.’? Whatever that means -Ed).
Thus World Champion Thor Hushovd wears yellow. It was incongruous seeing the giant Norwegian sprinter squeezed into a polka dot King of the Mountains jersey yesterday, a garment usually reserved for pipe-cleaner thin stick-insect lokalike grimpeurs. I wonder if his mum, Flora Hushovd, had to knit it for him specially?
Cadel Evans’s BMC team, the Schleck brothers’ Leopard-Trek squad, and those splendid British chappies of Sky Procycling gave the Garmin boys a run for their yankee dollar yesterday. Rod Stewart Wiggins (as Mrs Saddles has christened him), and the flying Welsh youth Geraint Thomas looked impressive in huge turns on the front of the Sky Procycling train. The Boyo from the Valleys who carries daffodils with him at all times and sings rugby songs on the team bus was rewarded with the white jersey for his pains (I for one would be delighted to see him retain it all the way to Paris, but I think he must surely get sunk by Monsieur Gesink). had the Skyboys flown just a wee bit faster, Geraint (below) would have woken up this morning as the first Welshman ever to wear the Maillot Jaune.
Also missing out on yellow by the smallest of margins was the Cadel guy, BMC’s Monsieur Evans, though his third place in the GC will be some consolation. One gets the feeling that if Evans doesn’t win it this year, he might as well go back to his former trade as cornflake quality controller in Gooliebongee, NSW. If the man with ‘the personality of an outback dunny’ doesn’t parlay his minute+ advantage over the Cobra into victory this time, one senses he never will. (He has twice stood on the second step of the podium in Paris – losing to the Cobra in 2007 by a mere 23 seconds, and by 58 seconds to Carlos Sastre in 2008).
Though Atomic never misses the opportunity to have an anti-Cavendish rant (readers will not be disappointed; see below), I must confess to feeling a little sorry for HTC- High Road and Bernie Eisel. It was a shame to see the Austrian sliding down the road arse first after he lost a wheel on a corner just several meters into the course – a shame not only because BE is one of the most personable blokes in the Peleton, but also because for the briefest of moments Atomic Saddles thought it was Mark Cavendish who was being treated to an asphalt enema. Herr Eisel was being treated to a nasty case of shadenfreude having predicted his own crash (and others’) prior to the stage. From Cycling News:
Did Bernie psych himself out?
Bernhard Eisel issued a public apology to his HTC-Highroad teammates after he crashed during Sunday’s team time trial, a day which the Austrian road captain described as “the worst day” of his career. “The boys did a great ride!” he said on his facebook page. “They didn’t expect too much from me today, I just had to stay upright and help them a lil, but I crashed in the first real corner and nearly tooked [sic] out 3 teammates. The team lost because of me today and I didn’t hear any bad word from them. Thanks boys, but I know that I fu…. it up! No excuses, it was my fault!” The statement was all the more pertinent after Australian broadcaster SBS showed footage of the HTC-Highroad team having what could almost be described as a heated argument, over what to do if Eisel were to crash as he was suggesting. Mark Cavendish and Matt Goss differed in their opinion over whether to attempt to hold Eisel up, with Mark Renshaw asserting it was best just not to crash in the first place.
Quel surprise, Cavendish vociferously expressing an opinion (I would like to see the no-nonsense Tasmanian Matt Goss clock him one).
Today’s 198km stage from Olonne-sur-Mer to Redon is tailor-made for the fast men, and has Blabbermouth written all over it. Indeed it is one of the stages ‘targeted’ by the Manxman in his pursuit of the Green Jersey. However, all may not be well in the Cavendish universe. He was outwitted (does outwitting a half-wit really count, AS wonders?) in the intermediate sprint on Saturday by Tyler Farrar, and though in the brilliant Mark Renshaw he undoubtedly has the best lead-out man in the business, Cav rivals –Petacchi, Boonen, Farrar – are no pushovers. Farrar will be catapulted towards the chequered flag by the mighty Norwegian in yellow. Watch out too for the new Yorkshireman sur le block, Sky’s appropriately monickered Ben Swift (pictured here).
BTW, If anyone doubts the Flying Dolt’s asinine nature, witness Cavendish’s cultured and critical evaluation of Philippe Gilbert’s Stage 1 victory, recorded for posterity on Twitter: “Just saw todays last kilometre. Gilbert humbled everyone with the equivalence of pulling down his pants to reveal a 13 incher. #YIKES”.
Classy.
And anyway, any fule kno that the most spectacular downtube in the Peleton must belong Paolo Longo Borghini.
Et finalement mes amis, may I recommend Nicolas Roche’s writing from the Tour that runs daily in the Irish Independent. Roche may not be the cycling giant that his father was, but like his dad he is clearly a top feller, and his insider writing often throws up some gems. It is his birthday today – Bonne fête, Nico.
Overall standings
1) Thor Hushovd (Norway/Garmin) 5hr 06min 25sec
2) David Millar (Britain/Garmin) same time
3) Cadel Evans (Australia/BMC Racing) +1sec
4) Geraint Thomas (Britain/Team Sky) +4
5) Linus Gerdemann (Germany/Leopard)
6) Frank Schleck (Luxembourg/Leopard)
7) Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland/Leopard)
8) Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway/Team Sky)
9) Manuel Quinziato (Italy/BMC Racing)
10) Andy Schleck (Luxembourg/Leopard)
Atomic Saddles’ prediction for today’s stage. Grudgingly:
1 Cavendish (Punter#6: Charlie R)
2 Petacchi (Punter#4: Mitsumi S)
3 Farrar (Punter#17: Joe B)
BTW, sorry the updates are taking so long to put up. Atomic is a bit busy these days.
Atomic Saddles' Tour de France 2012 Blog 