A Tour For The Ages

After three weeks of punishing pedalling the torture is finally over and the 167 finishers can rest easy in their beds, safe in the knowledge that they don’t have to get up and ride another 180 km over the toughest roads in France in the morning. This Tour will go down as one of the most fiercely contested in recent history, the yellow jersey was settled in the penultimate stage’s time trial, the green jersey on the Champs-Elysees and the polkadot jersey went down to the final climb up l’Alpe d’Huez. It was a year of firsts as well, Australia got its first Tour Champion with Cadel Evans, Britain got its first green jersey winner with Mark Cavendish and a true climber and GC contender won the KoM jersey, Olympic road race Champion Samuel Sanchez, for the first time since Richard Virenque in 2006 (I’m not counting Michael Rasmussen’s ‘titles’ in 2005 and ’06).

The yellow jersey or 'maillot jaune' in the Tour de France is the biggest prize in cycling. Photo: Stewart Dawson

Before I look at the star’s of this year’s race let’s have a quick recap of how the last week’s racing unfolded:

Stage 16

Thor Hushovd got his second win of the race and tenth in total, outwitting fellow Norwegian Edvald Boasson Hagen to win the final sprint into Gap.  The real action came behind though as Evans, Contador and Sanchez stole time from the Schleck brothers with some aggressive riding on the descent from the Col de Manse which left Andy complaining of dangerous race routes.

Yellow – Voeckler, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Vanendert

Stage 17

A second consecutive stage for Norway and a second for Boasson Hagen and Team Sky. The race ventured on to foreign soil for the only time this year as the peloton crossed into Italy, Boasson Hagen attacked from the breakaway on the ascent of the final climb and distanced Jonathan Hivert and Bauke Mollema with a combination of aggressive descending and mistakes from those in pursuit. Contador and Sanchez attacked again on the final descent but didn’t have enough in their legs to stay away as they were caught in the final 500m by the group containing all the race favourites.

Yellow – Voeckler, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Vanendert

Stage 18

The climbing got serious today, three hors category climbs, all over 2350m and the highest summit finish ever in le Tour on top of the Col du Galibier. Fresh from the criticism he faced over his comments made earlier in the week, Andy Schleck attacked on the Col d’Izoard and no-one could go with him as he rode up the road to find support in the form of two teammates from the day’s early breakaway. They couldn’t help him for long though as he powered past them and up the Galibier to win the famous stage with one of the gutsiest rides in modern Tour history. Meanwhile behind Evans effectively rode solo up the Izoard and Galibier as Contador struggled to stay in touch with his group and Frank Schleck understandably hitched a ride on Cadel’s back wheel. Andy’s lead over the Evans and yellow jersey group was up around the four-minute mark at the foot of the Galibier but the tireless work from Evans and a final burst from Voeckler saw the heroic Frenchman reduce his deficit on the line to 2 mins 21 secs, meaning he kept the yellow jersey by just 15 secs.

Yellow – Voeckler, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Vanendert

The Cold du Galibier gave the Tour its highest ever summit finish. Photo: Guido Bellomo

Stage 19

Not content with one trip up the Galibier, the Tour organisers scheduled another gruelling stage as the riders hauled themselves over the Col du Telegraphe before tackling the Galibier once again and finishing atop the iconic Alpe d’Huez. Contador, out of the GC reckoning after ‘hitting the wall’ on the previous day’s final climb, attacked on the first climb of the day and was followed by Andy. Evans, Sanchez and Voeckler couldn’t, or didn’t, follow the attack and the two attackers rode to the head of the race, leading the field over the Telegraphe and the Galibier. They could never establish a significant gap over the chasing pack though and the whole field was back together at the foot of l’Alpe d’Huez. Yellow jersey holder Thomas Voeckler knew he didn’t have it in him to follow the attacks that would come so his right-hand man Pierre Rolland was set free to steal some glory for himself as he attacked on the Alpe along with Canadian Ryder Hesjedal. Contador countered the attack and compatriot Samuel Sanchez followed, last year’s champion caught and passed Rolland and Hesjedal and looked like the Contador of old as he set a tempo that no-one else could live with. Sammy Sanchez wasn’t done though and he worked with Rolland to claw his way back to Contador only for Rolland to spring another attack and ride away from both of them to the finish line. Sanchez crossed the line in second to seal the KoM jersey ahead of Andy Schleck, who in turn took the lead in the race as Thomas Voeckler finally surrendered the maillot jaune.

Yellow – A. Schleck, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Sanchez

Stage 20

Heading into the decisive 42.5 km time trial Andy Schleck had a lead of 53 secs over brother Frank and 57 secs over Cadel Evans. They were the only 3 with real ambitions of wearing the yellow jersey on the Champs-Elysees, the big question was whether 57 secs was a big enough buffer for notoriously shaky time-triallist Andy. The question was answered emphatically by Cadel Evans on the route around Grenoble with the outcome being a resounding no. The stage itself was won by German Tony Martin but the ride of the day came from Evans as he rode the time trial of his life to come in just seven seconds behind the HTC rider and 2’32” ahead of Andy. The Aussie was finally wearing the yellow jersey on the day it really mattered, on the final roll into Paris and on to the Champs-Elysees. The Schleck brothers occupy the remaining steps on the podium with Andy ahead of big brother Frank, Contador put in a champions ride to finish the stage in third and haul himself back up to fifth overall, leaving new French hero Voeckler to keep hold of his fourth place.

Yellow – Evans, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Sanchez

Stage 21

The roll into Paris now regularly sees celebratory sipping of Champagne by the team of the yellow jersey and this year was no different as Cadel Evans and the rest of his BMC team toasted a job well done  as the peloton ambled its way through the Paris suburbs. The real action started once they reached the capital and it finished as it has done for the past two years, HTC caught the breakaway in the final lap and set up a procession win for Cavendish, only this year it had the added bonus of a green jersey for the fastest man on two wheels at the end of it.

Yellow – Evans, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Sanchez

Stars Of The Tour

Cadel Evans had prior knowledge of the TT course having ridden it in the Dauphine Libere in June. Photo: Petit Brun

Cadel Evans – The oldest post-war Tour winner at 34 years and the 2009 World Champion becomes the first Southern hemisphere rider, not just Aussie, to win the yellow jersey. The nearly man finally emerged victorious in the world’s biggest bike race after plenty of attacking riding in the first week, consolidation in the second week, and mountains of solo work in the Alps as those around him refused to help him drag attacks back. It was then all finished off with a stunning time-trial to take the yellow jersey when it really mattered.

Mark Cavendish – Only the second Brit to ever win a jersey at Le Tour, the first since Robert Millar won the climber’s polkadot jersey in 1984 and the first Brit to win the coveted green jersey for sprinters. A change in tactics to target the intermediate sprints paid off and another five stage wins capped a near faultless tour for the Manx missile.

Samuel Sanchez – Olympic road race champion and last year’s 4th placed rider was Mr. Consistency in the mountains and his second place on the final climb up l’Alpe d’Huez clinched the polkadot jersey for the Spaniard. A change in the points allocation for this competition meant the jersey went to a true climber who finished high up the GC instead of an opportunist who simply racked up the points over the early climbs of the day.

Pierre Rolland – France may have stumbled upon their next star of road cycling as Thomas Voeckler’s chief helper in the mountains turned in a virtuoso performance in the final mountain stage of the race to win on l’Alpe d’Huez. He followed it up with a solid time trial to hold off Estonian Rein Taaramae and win the young rider’s white jersey competition.

Thomas Voeckler – The new hero of French cycling, surpassing his deeds of 2004 to hold on to the yellow jersey for another ten days through the Pyrenees and the Alps, finally giving it up on the final climb of the race.

Thor Hushovd and Edvald Boasson Hagen – Two stages apiece for the Norwegian duo and a 1-2 in stage 16 as world champion Hushovd got the better of his heir apparent. Their achievements were widely celebrated as a large contingent of Norwegian fans lined the streets of every stage to cheer on their heroes.

Johnny Hoogerland and Juan Antonio Flecha – Victims of the Tour’s most bizarre incident as a television car crashed into Flecha who inadvertently bundled Hoogerland off the road and into a barbed-wire fence. Both riders got up and finished the stage, had the next day off on the first rest day and then emerged battered and bruised to ride to the finish in Paris.

So it’s all over for another year, it’s hard to imagine how next year could match the tension, competitiveness and excitement that this year’s edition has brought us but it will give it a go anyway. 2012 will hopefully see a fully fit Contador and a motivated Wiggins back to battle it out with the Schleck brothers and reigning champion Evans, and who knows there might even be another French contender for the GC in the shape of an older and wiser Pierre Rolland.

Photos: Yellow jersey – Stewart Dawson, Galibier – Guido Bellomo, Evans – Petit Brun

Voeckler Comes of Age

Former French champion Voeckler is getting used to standing on the podium. Photo: Petit Brun

I mentioned in my preview to the Tour de France that the French had been searching for a real GC contender since Laurent Jalabert won the Vuelta a Espana back in 1995. Well it seems they had simply been looking in the wrong place for the last seven years since a 25yr old Thomas Voeckler surprised everyone by hanging on to the Maillot jaune for ten days in the 2004 Tour before relinquishing it to eventual winner Lance Armstrong.

Voeckler (or Voikla if your name’s Phil Liggett) has climbed with the best in the world to get through three gruelling Pyrenean mountain stages, not to mention safely negotiating three tricky flat stages to keep hold of the yellow jersey he took from Thor Hushovd going into the first rest day last week. Most ‘experts’ were predicting that ‘little Tommy’ would surrender the jersey on the first high mountain stage but that wasn’t to be and he further confounded those so called experts by holding on to the jersey with aggressive riding, not just sucking wheels to drag him up the mountains whilst limiting his losses.

Stage 10

Cav loses! Yes the Manx missile is human, former teammate Andre Greipel beat the diminutive HTC rider into second by the slimmest of margins. It took what Cavendish admitted to be a ‘perfect sprint’ to beat him, Cav was not happy at losing having been set up so perfectly once again by his reliable team but conceded that Greipel was the better man on the day. Greipel’s teammate and Cavendish’s main rival for the green jersey, Philippe Gilbert, knowing that he can’t beat Cavendish in a bunch sprint, attacked off the front of the peloton in the closing kilometres. It was a suicide mission though and the peloton swallowed him up leaving the Belgian to come in 15th and lose a large chunk of points to Cavendish.

Yellow – Voeckler, Green –  Gilbert, KoM – Hoogerland

Stage 11

Revenge didn’t take long to be served up by Cavendish and his bunch of merry men, the pouring rain ensured it was definitely served cold as well. The stage into Carmaux was drenched by a torrential downpour but the gun-barrel straight approach to the finish line left Cav’s rivals surfing his bow-wave as he rode away from the field to bag his 18th Tour de France victory and 3rd of this year’s edition. Greipel was a distant 2nd and Gilbert a lowly 66th, so 45 points for the win added to the 4 he’d taken from the Belgian in the intermediate sprint gave Cavendish the green jersey in le Tour for the 1st time since 2009. On the podium he kissed the jersey and was still grinning when he walked off the podium to speak to ITV’s Ned Boulting, telling the reporter ‘Green suits me doesn’t it?’.

Yellow – Voeckler, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Hoogerland

Greipel has been receiving more of the limelight since his move away from HTC. Photo: kei-ai

Stage 12

The first high mountains of the Tour were tackled here and there were two brutes to contend with, after dealing with the 1st category Hourquette d’Ancizan the riders were faced with the Col du Tourmalet and then a race to the summit at Luz Ardiden. Without Wiggins it was feared that British interest would fade as the roads turned upwards but Geraint Thomas had other ideas as he got himself into the day’s breakaway and summited the Tourmalet in second place before being swallowed up and spat out by the GC contenders on the day’s final climb. Olympic road race champion Samuel Sanchez took the stage win ahead of Belgian new boy Jelle Vanendert, Frank Schleck looked the stronger of the brothers as he rode away from a group containing his brother, Evans and Basso in the final kilometres. The story of the day though was defending champion Alberto Contador being dropped by the lead group and losing further time to his rivals. The yellow jersey rolled in shortly after and maintained his time gap over second place with a defiant display of climbing that few had predicted.

Yellow – Voeckler, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Sanchez

Stage 13

A slightly easier stage the next day; only three categorised climbs, although one of them was the giant Col d’Aubisque, and a flat finish meant that the big boys were less likely to come out and play and a breakaway had a good chance at success. The breakaway was a large one, ten riders got clear after the first climb including world champion Thor Hushovd and the two Frenchmen Jeremy Roy and David Moncoutie. Roy attacked with 50km to go and built up an advantage over the splintered chasing pack but Hushovd wasn’t going to let the Frenchman away that easily. The Norwegian descended the Col d’Aubisque like a madman, hitting a top speed of 112kph, he eventually caught up with Moncoutie but the Cofidis rider was reluctant to help him chase down Roy and deprive the French public of a stage win. It was left for Hushovd to do all the chasing and he eventually caught Roy with just 2km remaining and rode straight by him to claim his most famous Tour stage win yet.

Yellow – Voeckler, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Roy

Stage 14

Voeckler had got this far in the yellow jersey but this really was the day he was expected to give it up to a real contender. A punishing day in the saddle saw the field climb over five mountain passes before facing the 15km long drag up to Plateau de Beille for a summit finish expected to provide some fireworks in the battle for yellow. The fireworks never really came though, the day’s breakaway was overtaken on the final climb and the main contenders seemed happy to mark each other as Sammy Sanchez and Jelle Vanendert rode away from them to the finish line again. It was Vanendert who emerged victorious this time but Sanchez pulled further time back on the rest of the field after his nightmare first week. The attacks in the yellow jersey group were all coming from Schleck the younger today with the odd spurt from Basso and Voeckler to test the legs of those surrounding them but no-one seemed to have the legs to put the hammer down and ride away from the group. The attacks were covered by Evans and eventually Contador but it was clear to see that Contador was simply trying to survive the Pyrenees in the hope that his ailments will have eased and he can attack hard in the Alps.

Yellow – Voeckler, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Vanendert

Stage 15

The final flat stage before Paris offered the sprinters one last shot at glory before facing up to the high Alps next week. It also presented the last real chance for Cavendish to build up a buffer of points over Gilbert and Rojas to take into the final sprint on the Champs-Elysees. Never one to miss an opportunity that’s exactly what Cav did, finishing ahead of both his rivals in the intermediate sprint and beating Farrar by a wheel on the finish line with Rojas back in 5th and Gilbert nowhere to be seen. The win boosted Cavendish’s advantage to 37 and 71 points over the Spaniard and Belgian respectively. Gilbert had once again attacked with 3km to go but with men from Sky, Garmin and HTC all working on the front of the peloton the attack was doomed and Mark Renshaw once again gave the perfect lead-out for Cavendish to do his thing and claim his 19th win in the Tour de France in 4 years.

Yellow – Voeckler, Green – Cavendish, KoM – Vanendert

Stars of the Week

Thor Hushovd is racing like a true champion in the Rainbow Jersey. Photo: richardmasoner

Thomas Voeckler – Held on to the yellow jersey against all odds, repeating his heroics of 2004 on the Plateau de Beille to finish the week with the same lead as he started it with. It’s not only the French who are now considering him to be a real contender, he leads both Schlecks and Evans by around two minutes, Basso by three and Contador by four. No his time-trialling isn’t brilliant but should he survive the Alps and still be in yellow then the chasing group aren’t necessarily the best time-triallers in the field either and the yellow jersey on a Frenchman’s back can make him do strange things.

Mark Cavendish – Won another two stages and should he make it over the Alps has more than a good chance of reaching Paris with his beloved green jersey on his back. A Brit has never won the points jersey in the Tour before so should he do it next weekend he would cement his place as a true great of British sport.

Thor Hushovd – Did the rainbow jersey of the world champion proud with a stunning stage victory, the former sprinter and two-time green jersey winner seems to have transformed himself into somewhat of a climber as he won in the Pyrenees.

Jeremy Roy – Present in most of the breakaways of the week, held the polka dot jersey for a day and was within touching distance of a stage win only for that big Norwegian to steal it at the last-minute.

Jelle Vanendert & Samuel Sanchez – When all around them seemed content with marking each others accelerations these two threw down the gauntlet and rode away from the pack to occupy the top two positions on both of the summit finishes in the Pyrenees.

Philippe Gilbert – May not have replicated the heroics of his early season and first week of the Tour but his aggressive riding style is entertaining to watch and it’s been a long time since a green jersey contender has flirted with the top 50 overall (he’s currently 28th).

Coming Up

The big boys can’t hide for much longer and if they want to take the yellow jersey off Voeckler’s shoulders then they’ll have to start riding like they mean business. Two more summit finishes are in store for the riders in the Alps as they climb above 2000m for the first time this year. The Galibier and Alpe d’Huez will give the opportunity for plenty of attacking riding and for those that have less confidence in their time-trialling ability will be the launch pad for their attack on the yellow jersey.

Cavendish seemingly just has to make it through the Alps (not an easy task by any means) to win Green, Gilbert will have to attack on both stages 16 and 17 if he is to stand any chance of clawing back those lost points and overtaking Cav before Paris.

The KoM competition seems to be between Sanchez and Vanendert now and they are only separated by two points. Both will fancy their chances of taking the prize but maybe Vanendert is the slight favourite as he is further back in the GC standings so will be let go more readily by the field than Sanchez.

Finally it was nice to see a week pass with fewer major crashes and less abandonments, and Kolobnev’s positive test is still the only one so far so that bodes well for the future reputation of the race.

One last thing, the Tour always provides some of the most photogenic sporting action of the year and this gallery illustrates just that: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/07/2011_tour_de_france_part_1.html

Photos: Voeckler – Petit Brun, Greipel – Kei-ai, Hushovd – richardmasoner