#TDF13: the road to Gap opens a very tough last week

 

Doubtless it will be a relief for Chris Froome and the rest of Sky to get back on their bikes and head from Vaison la Romaine to Gap rather than fielding endless questions about doping following Chris Froome's very impressive ride up the Ventoux on Sunday. The offer by Dave Brailsford to turn over all of Sky's data to an organisation like WADA looks a good one. Assuming that Sky do indeed carry this through then it will be interesting to see if all the other teams follow suit.  

The stage to Gap is lumpy with two 2nd Cat climbs and one 3rd Cat. In 2011 Cadel Evans attacked Andy Schleck then in the Yellow Jersey on the final climb the Col de Manse above Gap. From the top of the Manse it's 11K downhill to the finish. Evans gained more than a minute on Schleck. 

Team Sky will need to be wary but after Froome's emphatic win on Sunday his rivals may be more concerned to attack each other in the fight for a podium place. Still you never know as this has been such an unpredictable Tour.    

#TDF13: Chris Froome and Sky blow Tour apart

2010: Decorated bike shop in Pauillac

Chris Froome, Richie Ports and Team Sky took control of the 2013 Tour de France today on the stage to Ax-3-Domaines. In my previous post I speculated as to whether this first mountain stage would prove to be decisive and just be limited to some early sparring.

Little did I guess that it would be as dramatic as it was with such significant time gaps to Froome and Porte's rivals. Froome as he has demonstrated this year as well as giving hints last year likes to attack. The attacks are well calculated but he is prepared to go for it rather than taking the safety first option.

Although it eventually was snuffed out it was good to see Quintana attack well out from the finish, which made the race exciting. Sometimes these sort of attacks come off. Certainly if Froome's rivals are to claw back today's time losses them they will have to take risks like Quintana. 

ITV4 managed to put in a long advert break just at the crucial moments of the race on the last climb, so missed Porte bringing the greatly diminished leaders up to Quintana and then Froome's attack. Will have to take out a subscription to Eurosport!

Top Stage Placings and Top 10 Overall and other placings

Result Stage 8

1. Chris Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling

2. Richie Porte (GBr) Sky Procycling @ 51s

3. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team @ 1’08”

4. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling @ 1’10”

5. Laurens ten Dam (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling @ 1’16”

6. Mikel Nieve (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi @ 1’34”

7. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Team Saxo-Tinkoff @ 1’45”

8. Alberto Contador (Spa) Team Saxo-Tinkoff

9. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team

10. Igor Antón (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
11. Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) 2.06
12. Rui Faria da Costa (Movistar) 2.28
13. Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R) 2.28
14. Romain Bardet (AG2R) 2.34
15. Daniel Martin (Garmin Sharp) 2.34
16. Andrew Talansky (Garmin Sharp) 2.34
17. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) 2.34
18. Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) 2.34
19. Haimar Zubeldia (Radioshack) 3.04
20. Michal Kwiatkowski (Omega Pharma-Quick-Step) 3.27
21. Andy Schleck (Radioshack) 3.34
22. Pierre Rolland (Europcar) 3.47
23. Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) 4.04
24. John Gadret (AG2R) 4.08
25. Daniel Moreno (Katusha) 4.11
26. Cadel Evans (BMC) 4.13
35. Daryl Impey (Orica Greenedge) 7.50
38. Jan Bakelants (Radioshack) 7.50
39. Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin) 8.15
 
Others:

Standings after Stage 8

1. Chris Froome (GBr) Sky Procycling

2. Richie Porte (GBr) Sky Procycling @ 51s

3. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team @ 1’25”

4. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling @ 1’44”

5. Laurens ten Dam (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling @ 1’50”

6. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Team Saxo-Tinkoff @ 1’51”

7. Alberto Contador (Spa) Team Saxo-Tinkoff @ 1'51"

8. Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team @ 2’02”

9. Joaquim Rodríguez (Spa) Katusha Team @ 2’31”

10. Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Saxo-Tinkoff @ 2’40”
11. Rui da Costa (Movistar) 2.45
12. Andrew Talansky (Garmin) 2.48
13. Daniel Martin (Garmin) 2.48
14. Mikel Nieve (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 2.55
15. Igor Anton Hernandez (Euskaltel) 3.06
20. Romain Bardet (AG2R)
21. Andy Schleck (Radioshack) 4.00 
23. Cadel Evans (BMC) 4.10
25. Pierre Rolland (Europcar) 4.57
29. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) 6.39 

Chris Froome and Richie Porte have certainly stamped their authority on the race assisted by great work from Vasil Kiryienka and Peter Kennaugh. In contrast Alberto Contador had a dreadful time on the last climb and showed again, as he had in the Dauphine, that he is not the rider he was. Unless he gets back some time today Alberto is likely to be more than three minutes or more behind Froome after the time trial on Wednesday. Fortunately for Contador it is only 33K long but in the Dauphine he lost nearly two minutes to Froome in the 32.5TT. 

Alejandro Valverde, currently the most credible challenger to Froome, is also likley to lose significant time to Froome in the time trial as he also lost nearly two minutes to him in the same Dauphine TT.

Cadel Evans' chance of a podium place must have gone. It looks like asking Cadel at 36 to ride both the Giro and the Tour is too much. It is difficult to believe that he will again be a serious contender for a Grand Tour. 

Good rides from Laurens ten Dam and Bauke Mollema. Daryl Impey put up a brave defence of his Yellow Jersey coming in at 7.50 along with Jan Bakelants.     

Given the Lance Armstrong revelations and confession allied with the other doping scandals, some are inevitably comparing Froome, Port and Team Sky to Armstrong and the US Postal Team. Froome has made it clear that he is clean and that their success is down to training and hard work. He says that his wins will not be taken away from him in the future. I think and hope that riders like Chris Froome, Mark Cavendsish etc. are telling the truth that they are riding clean. If they are not they could carry huge responsibility for I suspect that professional cycling would not now survive another wideranging major doping scandal.

This is not to say that there won't be some positive dope results this year as there were in the Giro d'Italia but with only minor riders being busted. The leading riders now have to ride clean otherwise events like Le Tour could be finished.    

Today's stage
This will be another very tough day in the mountains (169K) with five climbs – one Category 2 and four 1st category. With 31K from the top of the last climb to the finish the stage's dynamic is likely to be different. Will any of the GC 'contenders' try to break Sky or will a break with riders with no overall threat be allowed to succeed?    

2013 Tour de France ..... and the winner will be ...?

Will it be Froome and Team Sky?

Chris Froome last year's runner up to Bradley Wiggins (now Sir Brad) is the clear favourite.

He has had an impressive first half of the season winning The Tour of Oman, the Tour of Romandie and most recently the Critérium du Dauphiné. Froome has only been beaten by Vincenzo Nibali in very cold conditions in the Tireno-Adriatico.  Nibali, clear winner of the Giro d'Italia and perhaps potential the biggest threat to Froome, will not be riding the Tour this year. Froome is a great all rounder – fine climber and excellent time triallist.

Of the leading contenders Froome has shown that he is the strongest time trialler. Although I expect that Tony Martin will win the first time trial he is not a contender for overall victory. Froome might well take the hilly 17th stage time trial in the Alps that has two category 2 climbs.

Alberto Contador is the other favourite. However, he was comfortably beaten by Froome in the Dauphiné. Contador appears to have lost some of that killer acceleration that he had previously in the 2009 Tour for example. Certainly he has lost his time trialling ability - this has been evident since 2011 both in the Dauphiné and the Tour that year. In the crucial final time trial that year from Bordeaux to Pauillac, Andy Schleck threatened for a time to take Tour victory from Contador, who in the end put enough seconds into Schleck to hold on. But it wasn't an impressive performance. In the event Contador was later disqualified and stripped of his victory as he failed a doping control with Schleck being declared the winner. Then this year in the Dauphiné Contador rode a stinker of a time trial. Fortunately for Contador there are 65km of individual time trialling this year compared to 110 last year.

It is possible, of course, that Contador will hit peak condition for the Tour. Impressive form in the Dauphiné is not necessarily replicated in the Tour as Iban Mayo and Lance Armstrong showed in 2004, when Mayo comfortably beat Armstrong on a time trial up Mont Ventoux but then disappointed in the Tour. In those days, of course, it may have been a question of ensuring that Armstrong's EPO treatment was designed to deliver him in top form for the Tour, and Mayo had misjudged his! Last year Wiggins won the Dauphiné and then went on to win the Tour, so perhaps with today’s cleaner racing the Dauphiné is a better guide to Tour form than it was previously.

Some of the other contenders include Cadel Evans, who is a threat but I think at 36 is more likely to be a contender for a podium place rather than overall victory. His young team mate Tejay Van Garderen could be a winner, although it depends upon whether he has to support Evans rather than go for victory himself.

Ryder Hesjedal, the 2012 winner of the Giro, has had a difficult lead up to the Tour having to abandon both the Giro and the Tour of Switzerland. Jurgen Van den Broeck and Columbian Nairo Quintana should be discounted. Robert Gesink has frequently been cited as a potential Grand Tour winner but has yet to produce the goods when it matters. It will be a major surprise if Andy Schleck does more than finish in the top ten – that already would be a triumph.

Stages 6 and 7 in the Pyrenees should be the first real indicator of who are actually the leading contenders this year. 

Giro d'Italia: an eventful 2nd week

Round up of the second week in the Giro 

Much has happened over the past week as is quite often the case in a grand tour but especially this one that has subjected the riders to much such challenging weather - cold and often torrential rain.

The week has seen Vincenzo Nibali take over and look very comfortable wearing the leader's pink jersey. His closest rivals are now Cadel Evans at 41 seconds and Rigoberto Uran at 2.04 Unless Nibali has a bad day Uran looks to be the best bet for taking the fight to Nibali, while Evans will hang in there though I doubt if he can break Nibali.

Bradley Wiggins gradually slipped from contention undermined initially by nervousness in descending in the wet. Then he failed to take significant time from his rivals in last Saturday's long time trial, though he did show very strongly in the second half. Finally Wiggins' hopes of winning the Giro were KO'ed by a lung infection and withdrew from the race yesterday. Also out is Ryder Hesjedal suffering with a mysterious illness and already way out of contention.

Last Saturday saw a first stage victory for Alex Dowsett, who won the time trial by 10 seconds from Bradley Wiggins. It was also good to see three winners from long breakaways - Alexis M, Adam Hansen, Maxim Belkov and Ramunas Navardauskas. Mark Cavendish has racked up another two stages taking his career total to 101. Certainly impressive but still well behind Eric Zabel's total of over 200. His third stage win came from a great lead out by Gertrude Steegmans, while at the end of yesterday's stage he was left to his own devices, although his team had worked very hard to control and bring back the break.

From now on it is real crunch time with the big mountain stages to come, where we are likely to see to see a significant number of withdrawals from the race. On the evidence so far my guess is that by this time next Saturday Nibali will still be in the lead but then I had Ryder Hesjedal as one of my favourites!

A new Italian classic: Strade Bianche

Chianti landscape

Today sees the 7th edition of the Strade Bianche, which has very quickly became a modern classic bike race. It runs from Gaiole in Chianti and finishes after 190 kilometres in Siena and includes some 70 kms of unmade up roads – the famous white roads of Chianti. It is a very tough race made particularly tough if run in wet conditions. The forecast for today is dry so there may well be more dust than mud this year. The final kilometre has a 18% climb up through the narrow old streets of Siena.

Potential winners include: 

Fabian Cancellara – on for a hat trick as he won in 2008 and 2012. 

Peter Sagan: showing impressive early season form with wins in the Tour of Oman and took the GP Camaiore on Wednesday. 

Cadel Evans: hasn't won the Strade Bianche but did win the stage of the 2010 Giro d'Italia here run over the same roads and in quite appalling conditions.     

Details here on steephill.tv.

Weather update: some overnight rain, which should have settled dust. Dry weather forecast for today. 

Update: result –
1) Moreno Moser (Cannondale)
2) Peter Sagan (Cannondale) at 5 seconds.
Details here and video of final kilometre into Siena here.

Fine win by Moser who attacked and caught the long time breakaway of four riders. He then attacked and dropped his three remaining companions on the final very steep climb into Siena. He is the nephew of the great Francesco Moser, and is the first Italian to win the Strade Bianche.

This was another demonstration of how strong Peter Sagan is in an uphill finish, catching, with the pursuing group of favourites, the remaining breakaways and then pulling away to finish second to his team mate Moser. It must be very likely that Sagan will win one or more of the coming spring classics.  

Tuscan landscape (above and below) 

2012 Tour de France: Great stage victory for Thomas Voeckler + Bradley Wiggins closes in on Victory

Thomas Voeckler won today's classic stage in the Pyrénées in the grand tradition cresting all of the four climbs in first place taking over the Mountains Jersey and then riding away from his breakaway companion Brice Feillu on the last climb – the Peyresourde. Although Chris Anker Sorensen took up the chase he was unable to catch Voeckler, who finished 1.40 ahead. Voeckler showed all his spirit of adventure and gutsy determination and may well now keep the Mountains Jersey to Paris, even though he has a lead of only 4 points.  

In terms of the overall classification the race was rather a procession led by Sky until the climb of the Col d'Aspin when an acceleration by Ivan Basso put Cadel Evans and others in difficulty. Although Evans managed to get back to the Yellow Jersey Group before the start of the last climb, as soon as the road went up again he was in difficulty again and started to lose a lot of time. By the time Evans reached Bagnères de Luchon he had lost 4.47 minutes to Wiggins, Froome and Nibali. Although he attacked three times on the Peyresourde, Vincenzo Nibali was unable to break either Bradley Wiggins or Chris Froome and together the three took time out of all of their rivals – in particular 58 seconds to Jurgen Van den Broeck.  

Although there is one more day in the Pyrénées it looks like today has decided the top three of the podium in Paris – barring accidents of course. Bradley Wiggins still has a lead of 2.05 over Froome and 2.23 over Nibali.  Van den Broeck is now 5.46 back, Haimar Zubeldia on 7.13, Van Garderen on 7.55 and Cadel Evans now back in 7th place on 8.06. 

Details of race standings here.          

2012 Tour de France; The great classic – Pau to Bagnères de Luchon

Today will be one of the toughest stages in the Tour. The route from Pau to Bagnères de Luchon with the climbs of Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Peyresourde is one of the great classics. Robert Millar famously won this stage in 1983 in his first Tour. Once the race reaches Laruns at the base of the Col d'Aubisque there is virtually no flat – the riders are either climbing or descending. 

This is the only stage where I have ridden up all the climbs – admittedly many years ago and I didn't climb them all on the same day though it was all in the same year. I rode Peyresourde, Aspin and then Tourmalet (from the eastern side) all in one day and felt wiped out at the end of the day. I have also climbed Tourmalet from the west, which I found a more interesting side to climb. The climb through the ski resort of La Mongie on the other side was pretty dispiriting.  

Will Vincenzo Nibali and Cadel Evans make any serious attacks? It would be good to see them attack on the Tourmalet rather than wait for the Peyresourde. But will they take the risk of losing their places in the top five? If they want to have any realistic hope of dislodging Bradley Wiggins or Chris Froome from the top two places, they will surely need to gain time rather than waiting for the last mountain stage tomorrow.

Frank Schleck has withdrawn from the Tour after having tested positive for the diuretic Xipamide.  Although a banned product it does not carry an immediate provisional suspension. However, the organisers clearly expected his team Radioshack to withdraw Schleck, which duly happened. Although there may be an innocent explanation for the presence of Xipamide, this is a disastrous end of the Tour for Schleck, who is becoming a figure of fun on Twitter. Xipamide can be used to lose weight or, more seriously, can be used as a masking agent.  

Schleck has denied taking the drug and has exercised his right to have the second sample analysed. If this sample should prove to be positive Schleck has suggested he might have been poisoned. It is not clear why anyone would want to poison him.        

2012 Tour de France: Luis-Leon Sanchez wins, while carpet tacks cause chaos

Luis-Leon Sanchez won the stage in Foix by 47 seconds from Peter Sagan, Sandy Casar, Philippe Gilbert and Gorka Izaguirre Insausti. Sanchez secured Spain a first stage win in the Pyrénées this year, while Sagan added to his Green Jersey points total. He now has 333 points with André Griepel closest on 236 and Goss (203). These were the remaining contenders from a large early break.

The race was marred by carpet tacks being put on the road towards the top of the Mur de Péguère. It is thought that the tacks were put on the road after the escape group had passed and before the Yellow Jersey group arrived. Out of some 50 riders still in the Yellow Jersey group by the top of the climb some 30 punctured – Cadel Evans three times, Bradley Wiggins once and Vincenzo Nibali once. Evans had big problems getting fresh wheels and Wiggins persuaded the Yellow Jersey group to stop racing. Only Pierre Rolland attacked but later stopped. It is said he did not know what the situation was when he attacked. Evans eventually managed to rejoin the Yellow jersey group, so there were no changes to the leading overall places. 

Hopefully tacks on the climb is an isolated incident. If they had been put on the descent it would have been terribly dangerous. As it Robert Kiserlovski crashed on the descent and has had to abandon. I hope his crash wasn't caused by a tack in his tyre.

Tour de France placings         

2012 Tour de France: intriguing first Pyrenean stage

Today's stage from Limoux to Foix is the first of three critical stages in the Pyrénées. These three stages will be the last real opportunities for the leading contenders to gain time on Bradley Wiggins before next Saturday's time trial. After starting from Limoux – the second sparkling wine town used in this year's Tour – the riders will tackle three categorised climbs within 191K. The Col du Portel (2nd Cat), the Port de Lers (1st Cat) and the tough Mur de Péguère which has some very steep sections – up to 18% – in the second half of the narrow 9.3k climb. 

Wiggins is likely to be attacked on the Mur by Vincenzo Nibali and Cadel Evans, although the top of the climb is nearly 40K from the first in Foix. The Mur climb starts in the little village of Massat, where in the early 80's we found a restaurant that had a cache of reasonably priced 1961 Bordeaux. I remember we chose a 1961 Figeac, which was fantastic, even though it was served in tiny glasses.