Just before the Tour de France there has been a couple of announcements regarding the teams that will compete next season. The biggest news is that Garmin is abandoning their team and joining forces with Cannondale. Laurens Ten Dam's structure will probably get a good boost from the American support.
The current structure of Garmin - Sharp will be inherited by IAM Cycling. The presence of Mathias Frank in the team is a massive boost for the team, which has almost assured their presence in the World Tour next year.
Additionally, the Pro Continental circuit will have a new team: Cofidis, Solutions Credits. The French presence is increasing considerably in the last few years, especially in the Pro Continental tour.
Among the riders that will probably join the ranks of the World Tour or Pro Continental teams next years are: Fabio Aru, Rohan Dennis, Tim Wellens, Davide Formolo and Adam Yates.
I just felt my regular need again to stop by and compliment you on still going strong with this story after more than 4 years now.
Despite me being far from a regular reader, I can't help but honour your dedication to this unique idea.
The only flat time trial in the Tour de France 2015 will be the eleventh, between Avranches and Mont-Saint-Michel. After one block of mountains where the differences did not grow too much among the favorites in the GC this stage should leave a bit more clear who will be fighting for the podium at the end of the race. Tiago Machado has a good chance of retaining the yellow jersey given that he is not bad against the clock but some of the riders in the top 10 will suffer.
Cameron Meyer (Quickstep) is the perennial favorite in the time trials but this year he has not been able to convert that into wins so far. This is actually one of the last chances he has to prove that he is still the reference against the clock. Alexander Kristoff was first when Cameron Meyer started and the Australian completely destroyed his record, improving the best time by 57 seconds. With that register Meyer might well have a chance today.
Tejay van Garderen (Trek) did not think that Cameron Meyer winning was a good idea and managed to improve even further on his time and set a 41' 46'', 5 seconds faster. The American, wearing the national jersey, was 11 seconds behind in the intermediate step but was way quicker than his arch-rival in the time trials after turning towards the Mont-Saint-Michel. Tejay is quite far behind in the GC after crashing in Albi but this performance will put him higher up the GC.
Cadel Evans (Movistar) started the day in the 13th place but he had his sights on improving enough to get into the top 10 of the race. The Australian is a very good time trialist but was nowhere close to Tejay van Garderen. Nevertheless, he took the 3rd provisional place, 49 seconds behind. Unless some of the riders ahead produce some miracle performances it seems clear that Evans will finish the day on target, well inside the top 10 of the race.
Robert Kiserlovski (Lotto) was 7th ahead of the time trial but if there is some weakness of the Lotto riders for the GCs is their lack of time trial abilities. The Croatian did not have a very good day and ended up losing 2' 20'' to Tejay van Garderen, which means that his gap to the Trek rider is now less than 1 minute. Barring any catastrophic result from some of the riders remaining he will finish the day outside of the top 10.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) might not be as dominant as he was in the time trials of the Grand Tours but his performances are not too bad now. The Dutch, who does not seem to be a contender for the win anymore in the big races, managed to take the provisional 11th time losing 1' 23'' to Tejay van Garderen. This means that he will lose places to Mathias Frank, Chris Froome and Cadel Evans in the GC.
Another of the very strong riders in the time trials is Andrew Talansky (HTC). The 24 year old rider is increasingly likely to settle among the best riders for Grand Tours and week long races with a good weight on time trials. Additionally, we also saw him a couple of days ago winning in Ax3-Domaine. His performance today was outstanding and he took the 3rd provisional place in the stage, although 48 seconds behind his fellow American Tejay van Garderen.
The other national champion is the local Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery). He started the day 4th in the GC, 24 seconds behind Tiago Machado. Peraud will very likely overtake Rob Ruijgh and Hubert Dupont but Tiago Machado seems to be out of his limits. Additionally, he did not manage to beat Andrew Talansky's time, although he will still be ahead of the HTC rider by a small margin of 6 seconds. The differences at the top of the GC are quite small even after today's hard test against the clock.
Rob Ruijgh (Belkin) maintained quite surprisingly the third place in the GC before today's stage, especially considering that he came to the Tour de France to support Hubert Dupont. However, the Dutch took a reality check today and realized that he is not fit enough to fight against the best after losing a massive 3' 05'' against Tejay van Garderen. He dropped like a stone outside the top 10 in the GC and, even though he might maintain a top 15 place at the end of the race his main role will probably be supporting Hubert Dupont from now on.
His teammate Hubert Dupont (Belkin) was much better in today's time trial. The French managed to limit his losses and took the provisional 14th place, 1' 24'' behind Tejay van Garderen, who is already almost celebrating as winner of the stage. Dupont will fall behind Jean-Christophe Peraud and Andrew Talansky in the GC but the gaps among them are really small, below the 30 seconds mark.
Tiago Machado (Tinkoff) had high hopes on retaining the yellow jersey for a few more days but he did not manage to complete a good time trial. The Portuguese had to settle for the 18th position on the stage, 1' 33'' behind Tejay van Garderen. This will leave him 3rd in the GC 17 seconds behind. It seems like Machado had not fully recovered from the efforts that he made over the weekend in the Pyrenees because in a normal stage he should have been able to retain the jersey.
The new leader is therefore another French, Jean-Christophe Peraud. The Discovery Channel rider will most likely retain the lead for at least three days as the stages are quite easy and no surprises are expected. We hoped for a bit more clarity in the GC but it seems like this Tour de France will go down to the third week in order to be decided.
The race will take the riders from Bretagne to the surroundings of the Alps in the following three stages, which will most likely be for the sprinters, especially today and tomorrow. This stage has no difficulties in principle and finishes in Tours, although not in the Avenue de Grammont. The route is particularly flat and for many riders today's 198 kilometers will be almost a rest day.
The intermediate sprint was placed in Laval, 132 kilometers from the finish line. A group of 6 was already completely settled at the front of the race, enjoying a gap of 7 minutes on the peloton. The group included Juan Antonio Flecha (Euskaltel), Lars Boom (Belkin), Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil), Warren Barguil (Garmin) and Sylvain Chavanel (Giant). The break was formed in the first 5 kilometers of the stage and there was not a lot of fight from the bunch. When the peloton arrived to the sprint it was Marcel Kittel ahead of Ben Swift in the sprint.
Cadel Evans crashed from in the main bunch with around 70 kilometers to go but the Australian, 7th in the general classification, seemed unharmed and did not have trouble coming back to the main bunch. The gap to the break was still 7' 30'' so he was quite lucky that the bunch had not started chasing hard yet. Discovery Channel is the team setting the pace on a day with quite a lot of wind.
The wind and the rain discouraged the peloton from chasing and they basically gifted the win to the break today. However, Trek was trying to make people uncomfortable in the last kilometers and maybe generate a few echelons. Fabian Cancellara and Philippe Gilbert were at the front with Tejay van Garderen very close to them. Van Garderen has to take time on many riders and this might be a good way to do it. The peloton was much stretched and they could well leave riders behind.
Once it was clear that the stage win was in the break Juan Antonio Flecha knew that he could not wait for the final sprint, given that he is not quick enough to beat the riders in the break. The Spaniard successfully made his move and had a gap of 25 seconds with 3 kilometers to go. However, the group was organized on trying to catch and his chances of making it to the line were slim. Meanwhile, the peloton actually broke in two parts and it looks as though the favorites are all at the front. However, there is much confusion over who is where.
Juan Antonio Flecha's move finally came to an end as the riders entered the last kilometer of the stage. Sylvain Chavanel was the first to make his move and took the lead of the sprint with 800 meters to go. However, he was closely followed by Lieuwe Westra and Lars Boom. Jeremy Roy tried to follow, ahead of Flecha but they both seemed not strong enough to fight in the final sprint.
Sylvain Chavanel wins in Tours! The French takes the first ever win for a Pro Continental team and, logically, the first ever win for Giant - Shimano. This is a day that will be remembered by all the members of the team as there could not be a better place to open their wins count than in the Tour de France. Chavanel was clearly the fastest in the final sprint and beat Lieuwe Westra and Lars Boom. It was unlikely that a break managed to take the win today and it as a surprising win.
The bunch followed more than 4 minutes behind the break and in the sprint for the 7th place Fran Ventoso managed to beat Andre Greipel and Ben Swift. Less than 80 riders made it to the finish in this group and the sprint was very chaotic. The biggest news in the bunch was that Mathias Frank was either involved on an incident or could not follow the main group and was in the second big group. The Swiss lost almost 6 minutes against the rest of the favorites as a result and dropped to the 30th place in the GC.
A day that was supposed to be quiet and finish in a mass sprint turned out to be much more interesting and resulted in one of the favorites losing almost all his chances of a podium in Paris. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from today's stage.
The trip through the central part of France and towards the Alps continues with another completely flat stage between Tours and Saint-Amand-Montrond. It seems like the wind that allowed the break to take the win yesterday is not there anymore and the chances of a mass sprint are considerably higher today. Additionally, the stage is about 30 kilometers shorter than yesterday.
The break of the day was formed really quickly. Only 3 riders joined the group: Martin Elmiger (Orica), Wilco Kelderman (Giant) and Enrico Gasparotto (Quickstep). With 125 kilometers to go they had already built a gap of 5' 30'' over the main bunch. This was a proof of how quiet was the day in the bunch so far. Discovery Channel was at the front of the pack but the pace was quite easy to follow.
The intermediate sprint was placed in Levroux, halfway through the stage. The peloton was already maintaining the gap at a manageable distance at that point and it was around 5' 30''. In the actual sprint it was Marcel Kittel who took the points available, ahead of Ben Swift and Alexander Kristoff. The points' jersey has turned out to be a very close competition between Kristoff, Kittel and Andre Greipel. The Norwegian is still ahead but the gaps are really small.
It was a quiet stage all in all and even though Wilco Kelderman tried a late attack in the break the gap to the bunch with 9 kilometers to go had come down to 30 seconds. Trek and Astana are the two teams that have put the most riders to work at the front of the pack. It was Peter Kennaugh and Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg who were doing the work in these last kilometers. The mass sprint in Saint-Amand-Montrond seems unavoidable at this stage.
The break was finally swallowed by the main bunch with about 7 kilometers to go. Soon after the sprint trains started to take shape. Trek surprisingly changed their setup and it is Tejay van Garderen, last year's Tour winner, who will lead Andre Greipel. They had the lead at the 3 kilometers mark Greipel was followed by Fran Ventoso. Sky was next, on the right hand side of the road, with Tom Boonen ready to lead Ben Swift out and Jurgen Roelandts right behind the British. On the other side of the road it was Astana, with Robbie McEwen ahead of Marcel Kittel, while Vacansoleil's Chris Sutton had Kittel's wheel. Other sprinters that were at the front were Yauheni Hutarovich, Stefan van Dijk and Alexander Kristoff.
Robbie McEwen again would have done a perfect lead out if it wasn't for Marcel Kittel being blocked and losing the wheel of the Australian. It is a bit absurd to see McEwen go on sprinting from that far out. Almost at par with him Tejay van Garderen was surprisingly keeping up with Tom Boonen and not far behind McEwen. It seems that Andre Greipel might have found a good lead out man in the absence of Giacomo Nizzolo.
Marcel Kittel did a great effort to catch Robbie McEwen and take a bit of his tow but with 500 meters remaining it seemed like Andre Greipel was in a much better position to take the stage win in Saint-Amand-Montrond. The two Germans were fairly matched but they were under threat from Ben Swift and Yauheni Hutarovich, who were progressing on the right hand side of the road. It was going to be a close sprint whoever took the final win.
Marcel Kittel wins in Saint-Amand-Montrond! It was a very nice effort from the German, who lost the wheel of his lead out man, Robbie McEwen, but nevertheless proved that he was the strongest sprinter today. The winner was difficult to guess at first, given that Andre Greipel only lost the stage by a very narrow margin, while Alexander Kristoff recovered many places in the last meters to take the 3rd position. The top 5 was completed by Yauheni Hutarovich and Fran Ventoso.
The sprinters could not let another day go without a mass sprint, like yesterday, given that they will not have many more opportunities. Tomorrow's final kilometers are quite difficult and the sprint is not assured, while the only other chance they'll have will be Paris. The bad news of the day for some riders were that there was a cut in the middle of the bunch and riders like Cadel Evans, Laurens Ten Dam and Robert Gesink lost 1 minute against the leader.
The last stage before the mountains finishes in Lyon, close to the Massif Central and already quite close to the Alps. Even though the stage is classified as flat it is difficult to say if some rider will be able to upset the sprinters in the last couple of short hills within the last 12 kilometers of the stage. Both of them are already in Lyon, where the stage will most likely be decided. If it comes down to a sprint the bigger chances would be for someone like Lloyd Mondory, who already took a stage in Corsica.
There was no fight to form the break of the day and a group of 5 managed to get away from the bunch within the first 10 kilometers of the stage. The riders in the group were Tony Martin (Astana), Gregory Rast (Orica), Bradley Wiggins (Katusha), Diego Ulissi (Lampre) and Jeremy Roy (Ag2r). They had a gap of 5' 30'' at the intermediate sprint of Rovanne, while in the main bunch Andre Greipel beat Ben Swift and Alexander Kristoff in the sprint for the remaining points. It had been a quiet stage for the riders in the bunch so far.
Discovery Channel was making the stage uncomfortable for the rest of the pack in the middle part of the race. The team of the leader had reduced the gap to the break to 4' 30'' at the Col du Pilon but, even though some riders were starting to suffer at the back, all of the sprinters were still at the main bunch. Philippe Gilbert got himself to the front of the pack for the last 500 meters of the climb, knowing that the route to Lyon was much easier and that the danger was now over for his sprinter, Andre Greipel.
Gregory Rast was the first to cross the KoM of the Cote de la Croix-Rousse, already in Lyon. With 12 kilometers to go the gap of the break had gone down as expected and they only enjoyed 25 seconds. Euskaltel, Trek and Sky were the teams making the hard work as once again Astana put someone in the break (Tony Martin this time) and could have an easier day. In the short climb it was David Lopez at the front of the pack. Euskaltel is probably trying to leave some sprinters behind knowing they have Lloyd Mondory, who can go over the hills and sprint very well.
The break was eventually caught in the flat between the last couple of climbs and it was David Lopez again leading the pack at the top of the Cote de La Douchere (5 kilometers to go). The Spaniard was increasing the pace so much that his teammate Alexander Kristoff was having trouble following him and the rest of the pack was also losing contact. It seems like the Spaniard is way too strong for the rest of the group. Jean-Christophe Peraud is alert at the front of the pack not to let Lopez take an advantage in the GC.
Alexander Kristoff managed to follow the amazing David Lopez and the two Euskaltel riders opened a gap with the rest of the bunch of 25 seconds with 3 kilometers to go. Samuel Sanchez initially tried to follow but the Spaniard realized that Jean-Christophe Peraud was not following him and had to slow down. Tejay was leading the chase on the main bunch, given that Andre Greipel had managed to remain at the front during the climb. Chris Sutton and Lloyd Mondory are also well positioned at the front of the group.
Simon Gerrans was leading the main bunch to prepare the final sprint for Andre Greipel but they are still 20 seconds behind David Lopez and Alexander Kristoff when they are about to enter the last kilometer of the stage. It seems like Euskaltel is going to take another win in the Tour. The main bunch is quite stretched and the line behind Andre Greipel is formed by Chris Sutton, Cameron Meyer, Theo Bos and Stefan van Dijk.
Alexander Kristoff emerged from the tow of David Lopez and took the lead with about 500 meters to go but the win for them is not clear anymore as they seemed to lose much pace inside the last kilometer. The main bunch was getting very close and Andre Greipel started his sprint from behind Simon Gerrans. Ben Swift was progressing very fast but he started his sprint from quite far back, while Marcel Kittel seems to be also gaining positions.
Ben Swift wins in Lyon! The British started his sprint from very far out but managed to keep a good speed through the whole last kilometer to be able to take his third win of the season. Swift has not won many times this season but he has picked them well, as his other wins where in the Tour de Romandie and the Giro d'Italia. The second place in the stage was for Marcel Kittel, who will increase his lead at the front of the points' classification.
Meanwhile, the third position was for the local Tony Gallopin. The French, who three years ago seemed would become the dominant force in the sprints, has been more than 1 year without a win and completely wasteful this season. The top 5 was completed by Andre Greipel and Fran Ventoso. The flat stages are over for now and it is the time of the climbers. The battle will begin tomorrow at the Mont Ventoux.
After a dull second week of the Tour de France the mountains start in the day before the second rest day of the race with a very long stage finishing at the top of the Mont Ventoux. The stage is basically flat for 200 kilometers before tackling the iconic climb of the Provence. The climb is hard enough to separate the greatest riders from the rest and the GC should be clearer after the stage. All the climbers seemed pretty much similar in the Pyrenees but today it should be a different story.
The start of the stage was a frenzy of attacks looking for the break of the day but Discovery Channel had a different idea. In the end they had to allow a break of 10 riders to go, including Stefano Garzelli (Lampre), Sylvain Chavanel (Giant), Dani Moreno (Euskaltel), Danilo di Luca (Cannondale) and Rein Taaramae (Katusha). At the intermediate sprint, in Bourg-les-Valence, they had a gap of 2' 30'' on the main bunch but still 145 kilometers to go. The presence of Stefano Garzelli in the break was a bit unsettling for some riders as the Italian was only 5 minutes behind in the GC.
Dries Devenyns and Jerome Coppel tried to get away from the main bunch with around 50 kilometers to go. They are both outsiders and need a bit of a gap in a climb like the Mont Ventoux to contend for the stage. However, as soon as they attacked Discovery Channel started to chase harder. HTC and Belkin had made the stage quite uncomfortable for many riders by increasing the pace, which also meant that the gap of the break was only 4 minutes, clearly insufficient for them to hold on to the lead in the final climb.
Dries Devenyns and Jerome Coppel were caught back at the bottom of the Mont Ventoux but many riders tried to make the climb hard from the very bottom. Tejay van Garderen, last year's winner of the race, was the first to attack. However, he was quickly followed by others, like Cadel Evans, Laurens Ten Dam and David Lopez. The gap to the break had reduced to only 1 minute with 15 kilometers to go. Jean-Christophe Peraud was going to suffer if he wanted to hold on to his yellow jersey as it seems like the best climbers in the race are willing to make it difficult for the French.
Tejay van Garderen and Laurens Ten Dam managed to leave the rest of the favorites behind and opened a gap of 30 seconds over the group of the leader with 12 kilometers to go. Jean-Christophe Peraud seemed not to be very comfortable in the group and the battle started really early among the best in the final climb. He was being protected by Luis Leon Sanchez but the Spaniard will not be able to take him far. Dani Moreno was working at the front of the group, followed by Andy Schleck and Jelle Vanendert.
Tejay van Garderen tried to hold on to the wheel of Laurens Ten Dam but the Dutch was way stronger in this part of the climb and left him behind under the 10 kilometers mark. A bit further up the road the group of the favorites started to break up and the leader could not follow the first group of chasers. Ten Dam had 40 seconds over the first chasers and 1' 15'' to the group of the leader and Tiago Machado. Other important riders like Rob Ruijgh and Rinaldo Nocentini are even further behind.
Tejay van Garderen was a bit too optimistic when he followed Laurens Ten Dam at the start of the climb and dropped from the first chasing group. With 6 kilometers remaining only 4 riders were chasing: Hubert Dupont, Cadel Evans, Peter Stetina and Mathias Frank. Stetina seems to be completely recovered from his crash in Albi but he will have to focus on the stage wins from now on. Only Hubert Dupont and Cadel Evans will play a role in the fight for the podium in that group. They were already losing 1' 10'' with 6 to go. Chris Froome and Andrew Talansky followed 1' 35'' behind.
It seemed before the stage that Andrew Talansky would finish the stage in the yellow jersey but with 4 kilometers to go that option was fading for the HTC rider. Talansky and Chris Froome were losing 1' 55''. Cadel Evans was suffering in the first chasing group and eventually lost contact as Hubert Dupont took the responsibility to chase for Laurens Ten Dam. The climb was much harder than previously expected and the gaps in the finish line are going to be substantial.
The climb to the Mont Ventoux by Laurens Ten Dam was absolutely outstanding today and his attack will make things much clearer in the GC. However, he seemed to be losing a bit of traction in the last part of the climb as his legs started to feel the pain of the effort. With 2 kilometers to go he had a gap of 1 minute over Peter Stetina and 1' 10'' over Hubert Dupont and Mathias Frank. Stetina was clearly back to his best and proving that he will be much stronger in the last week of the race. He might opt to a top 10 position in the GC if he riders like this the whole last week.
Peter Stetina was cutting the gap to Laurens Ten Dam quite quickly and the Dutch only 25 seconds as he crossed the flame rouge. It would be quite unfair if such a brave attack would not be rewarded by a win but Stetina also deserves a compensation for not giving up on the race after his crash. Hubert Dupont and Mathias Frank were 1' 15'' behind. The yellow jersey was going to be a close thing between Dupont and Ten Dam. Cadel Evans was still 5th on the road, 1' 50'' behind Ten Dam.
Laurens Ten Dan wins in the Mont Ventoux! It has been an outstanding performance by Ten Dam, who takes his 3rd win of the season and the most important one by far. There will be only a few candidates for the podium in Paris after today's attack by the Cannondale rider. Nevertheless, the win was not easy to take for Ten Dam as Peter Stetina finished only 18 seconds behind. Stetina will be enjoy freedom to go for stages in the last week of the race and he could condition the outcome of the race.
Mathias Frank and Hubert Dupont lost 1' 14'' at the finish line after a good effort by the French, who will take the yellow jersey with a narrow margin of 8 seconds over Laurens Ten Dam. Cadel Evans was 5th in the stage, 1' 54'' behind. In the end, the leader lost 4' 36'' and will drop to the 7th place in the GC before the second rest day of the race.
The last week starts with a stage that might be suitable for a break to take the win. The route is not too complicated but the Col de Manse, which top is only 12 kilometers from the finish line in Gap, means that the teams of the sprinters will not bother with controlling the race. Therefore, it will be down to any team that is chasing stage wins to control the race if they cannot make it in the break. The favorites might also have something to say in the last climb.
The break was surprisingly small today, with only 4 riders: Gregory Rast (Orica), Philippe Gilbert (Trek), Wilco Kelderman (Giant) and Alexandr Kolobnev (Tinkoff). They reached the second climb of the day, the Col de Macuegne, with a gap of 5 minutes on the peloton. The gap had grown very rapidly considering that they had raced only slightly over 40 kilometers. The climb had slopes of up to 9% in the second part and Philippe Gilbert took the chance to get close in the KoM classification. Belkin is setting the pace in the bunch. They had to bring back an earlier attempt due to John Gadret featuring in it.
The middle part of the stage was pretty much uneventful as it was basically flat towards Gap. The intermediate sprint was placed at the first passage through the finish line, where the route started a 21 kilometers loop around Gap. Marcel Kittel was the quickest in the peloton, which led him to increase his lead in the fight for the green jersey. The German beat Ben Swift and Stefan van Dijk in the sprint. Meanwhile, the gap still enjoyed a gap of 4' 10'' as Belkin was maintaining the pace in the bunch but not chasing. Philippe Gilbert should be the favorite to take the stage win in Gap.
David Lopez was determined to take back time in the GC today and attacked from the bottom of the climb. The Spaniard is one of the climbers that gets best performances in the hills. He was soon joined by Cadel Evans. Almost halfway through the climb they had cut back the lead of the break to 2' 20''. A group of 4 had formed right behind them with two Lotto riders (Jelle Vanendert and Robert Kiserlovski) plus Mathias Frank and Simon Gerrans. The group of the leader was progressively losing time and their gap to the front was 3' 30''.
Hubert Dupont was playing the conservative card today and letting others do the chasing but that could backfire on the French. Nevertheless, only Cadel Evans among those in front was a bit threatening to his position. The Australian was 2 minutes behind on the GC but it would be unwise to let David Lopez come back with a chance to fight for the win. The gap between the two groups was 1' 20'' at 3 kilometers from the top of the climb. Meanwhile, Robert Kiserlovski did not manage to follow the pace of his teammate Jelle Vanendert and dropped from the second chasing group.
Philippe Gilbert attacked with 2 kilometers to go in the Col de Manse and grabbed enough points at the top to wear the KoM jersey tomorrow. The Belgian has 35 seconds over the rest of the break and 50 on Cadel Evans and David Lopez. It might well be enough for him to take the win at the bottom of the descent. Hubert Dupont's group, which had lost lots of riders in the climb, was losing 2 minutes. The leader has had to take the responsibility to chase behind mainly Cadel Evans.
David Lopez and Cadel Evans joined forces with the riders from the break but at the bottom of the descent (4 kilometers to go) they were still 25 seconds behind Philippe Gilbert. The stage win was getting closer for the Belgian. The difference of around 1 minute with the group of the leader stayed constant during the descent. Tejay van Garderen and Chris Froome tried to attack in the descent but it did not work. Cadel Evans might well take the third position in the podium from Andrew Talansky.
Philippe Gilbert still had 30 seconds on his chasers as they started the final sprint for the second place in the stage. It seemed like Alexandr Kolobnev was the quickest in the group initially, slightly ahead of David Lopez. Meanwhile, Jelle Vanendert's group was about to be reeled back in by the group of the leader, leaving the favorites to worry only about David Lopez and Cadel Evans, who were going to cut back time on the GC.
Philippe Gilbert wins in Gap! The Belgian was the best rider of the break and his attack at the top of the Col de Manse was enough to hold off both the rest of the riders from the break and the favorites from the main bunch. This is the first win of the season for Gilbert, who has had quite a good season so far. The sprint for the second place in the stage was won by Gregory Rast, ahead of Alexandr Kolobnev, David Lopez and Wilco Kelderman.
The main bunch crossed the finish line 1 minute behind and, given that Cadel Evans' group was awarded the same time as Gilbert the Australian climbs to the 4th place in the GC, only a few seconds behind Andrew Talansky. It will be interesting to see tomorrow's time trial, which should give us a better idea of the strength of the riders before the Alps.
There are not too many featured riders sections on sprinters so far in the story but today this section is dedicated to Andre Greipel, Trek Factory Racing's star sprinter. Greipel is one of those sprinters that is always close to the victory but that leaves the spectators that he seldom converts the good positions into victories. Nevertheless, the German has already won 3 times this year and has the achievement of having taken wins in the three Grand Tours. Actually, he has 4 stage wins in Grand Tours out of 6 wins in his career so far.
Greipel's career started in the Lotto structure, where he stayed for 5 years. His performances there were mixed, with very good performances together with seasons when he was completely anonymous. The German came to the spotlight in the World Championships of 2009, when he got close to the podium. However, this performance was clearly surpassed next year, when he took the 2nd place of the Milano - Sanremo. Greipel did win the sprint of the main group but Filippo Pozzato managed to break away from the bunch to take the win in the Monument.
All in all, his years in Lotto only gave him one stage win in the Vuelta a España. This sound as quite a poor performance for a rider that had finished as high as 27th in the World Tour in 2010. His transfer to the then Radioshack - Leopard was a turning point in Greipel's career. He was given more freedom to choose his calendar and crucially had a very good lead out man in Daniele Bennati. This translated into his first win in the Tour de France and another stage in the Eneco Tour. It was enough to match his best 27th final position in the World Tour.
This year has been even better. Trek has a sprint train with Daniele Bennati and Giacomo Nizzolo and this basically guarantees that Greipel is almost always in the best position ahead of the final sprint. Even when his sprint train is absent, like in the Tour de France, Greipel has a very good chance. It is difficult to put a cap to Greipel's performances but at 30 he will not have many more years at a top level as a sprinter.
The second individual time trial in the Tour de France has nothing to do with the first one. The stage is almost a mountain time trial but instead of one climb it is two consecutive 3rd category climbs that are actually quite hard. At 29 kilometers the differences should not be massive but there will be relevant time differences. The stage is designed for the strongest riders and being a good time trialist will not be a decisive factor on the outcome of the stage.
Robert Gesink (Ag2r) started the day in the 12th position in the GC. The French, riding at home, was supposed to threaten those inside the top 10. However, he was not particularly fast on the day finishing with the 6th provisional time, 53 seconds behind Mathias Frank, the provisional leader of the stage. Gesink is proving how difficult it is to do the double Giro and Tour. He almost got into the podium in the Giro and he is nowhere near in the Tour de France, even struggling to get into the top 10.
Tejay van Garderen (Trek) was once again outstanding in a time trial and, even though he would have much preferred a flat time trial, he took the first place in the provisional time table with a gap of 25 seconds over Mathias Frank. Van Garderen was especially fast in the last descent, the part of the time trial where a specialist might gain some time. He put 14 seconds over Frank in that stint. If it was not for the crash in Albi, Van Garderen would be among the very best in this Tour de France.
The biggest disappointment of the day was undoubtedly Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery). The French, in the national champion jersey, only managed to get the 16th provisional time, 1' 48'' behind Tejay van Garderen. Fortunately for Peraud, many of his rivals for the top 10 were far behind and he will only drop to the 9th place in the GC after today's stage. At some stage it seemed even possible for Peraud to fight for the podium when he was leader for 4 days but clearly it was not meant to be that way. He will be lucky if he keeps a top 10 position.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) started the day 8th, almost 3 minutes behind Hubert Dupont in the GC. The Dutch has a combination of skills that make him dangerous in this kind of stages but, even though he took a very respectable 3rd provisional time, he lost 46 seconds to Tejay van Garderen. This means that the American gets ahead of Mollema in the GC by only 1 second. The Vacansoleil rider, who was 2nd in the last Tour de France, seems far from getting to the podium again.
It might serve as a proof that in truth Bauke Mollema's time was not that bad that David Lopez (Euskaltel) could not match his pace and took the 4th provisional position, 48 seconds behind Tejay van Garderen. David Lopez always seems to be a potential candidate for the Grand Tours but for one reason or another he always falls short. This year he might not even get to a podium, as he did in the past couple of seasons.
Chris Froome (Sky) was the next rider to start. The British has had a performance that has surpassed the prediction of even the most optimistic. He started the day in the 5th position in the GC and took the 5th provisional place when he crossed the finish line. Losing only 51 seconds means that he will maintain that 5th place in the GC with a cushion of 1 minute over David Lopez. This performance might be the best from Froome in a stage race since he won the Tour de Suisse in 2012.
Cadel Evans (Movistar) is also having a great performance in the Tour. The Australian even threatened the first place of Tejay van Garderen in the time trial. However, Evans had to settle for the 2nd place when he crossed the finish line in Chorges, losing only 11 seconds. This is a threat to Andrew Talansky's third place in the GC. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see whether Evans is able to maintain this level of performance in the last stages of the Tour, given that he is fourth thanks to the time he won yesterday in Gap.
The third in the GC ahead of the stage was Andrew Talansky (HTC). The American was feeling the presence of Cadel Evans close to him in the GC but he responded magnificently the threat by beating the Australian in today's stage and taking the provisional 2nd place, only 7 seconds slower than Tejay van Garderen. It is clear that the USA have some of the best time trialists around and they could dominate the World Championships with the permission of Australia.
It seemed like Laurens Ten Dam (Cannondale) would repeat his win at the top of the Mont Ventoux but, even though he was the best rider in the second intermediate point, he could not maintained the lead at the finish line. He lost 7 seconds to Tejay van Garderen in the last stint of the stage and had to settle for the 2nd place in the stage 3 seconds behind. With the arrival of Ten Dam it seems like the stage win will go to Van Garderen as the intermediate times by Hubert Dupont don't seem good enough to beat the American.
The leader, Hubert Dupont (Belkin), did not manage to retain the leader's jersey before the Alps. The French had a very narrow margin of 8 seconds ahead of the stage and lost 41 to Laurens Ten Dam in the time trial, which means that the Dutch will lead the race and is clearly the favorites to take the overall win of the Tour de France after the exhibition in the Mont Ventoux. Nevertheless, Dupont will keep the second place and is only 33 seconds behind so he may not relax at the front of the GC.
The riders will have to face the Alpe d'Huez twice tomorrow in probably the most attractive stage of the whole Tour. The scenic climb could be the place where the future winner of the Tour is crowned but there are also a lot of other positions in the top 10 that are not clear at all before the last block of mountains.
Marked by many as the most anticipated stage in the Tour de France, the climb to Alpe d'Huez is always interesting in racing terms. This year we will enjoy the climb twice, as the riders will ride towards the Col de Sarenne in order to complete a loop on the surroundings of Bourg d'Oisans. The stage is the first of a block of mountains in the Alps that will determine the winner of the Tour, as only the easy stage in Paris will remain once this block is finished.
Cannondale was not interested in controlling the break and they allowed a rather big group of 13 riders to form the break of the day. It included interesting riders, like Arthur Vichot (FDJ), Stefano Garzelli (Lampre), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Alberto Contador (Movistar), Samuel Sanchez (Discovery), Rigoberto Uran (Lotto) and Franco Pellizotti (Astana). At the Col d'Ornon, more or less halfway through the stage, they had a gap of 6' 30'' over the main bunch. Meanwhile, Cannondale was setting a pace but not chasing hard.
Halfway through the first of the climb to the Alpe d'Huez, Cannondale was still at the front of the pack unaided by any other team. The Italian squad was managing the pace but there were riders that were already looking for an easier way to finish the stage and forming a grupetto at the end of the bunch. With this pace it looks like the first of the climbs is not going to see any attacks. Actually, the gap to the break was still growing, 7' 30'.
The KoM sprint in Alpe d'Huez was placed 52 kilometers before the finish line. Pavel Brutt was the first at the top ahead of Franco Pellizotti and Alberto Contador but none of the riders in the break seemed concerned with the KoM points. This group was starting to have options of making it to the finish line, given that the gap grew even more and was beyond 8 minutes at the top of the climb. It is quite strange that we did not see any movements from outsiders in the GC.
The peloton not only ignored the climb to Alpe d'Huez but at least 125 riders were in the group of the leader at the top of the Col de Sarenne. This is the first stage in the Tour de France this year where the riders completely ignore decent climbs and focus their efforts completely in the last climb. The toughness of the climb to Alpe d'Huez, combined with yesterday's time trial, probably made a difference. Additionally, there are 2 more mountain stages and the riders cannot use all their strength in the first one.
The attacks finally started at the bottom of the final climb to Alpe d'Huez and it was none other than the 2nd in the GC, Hubert Dupont, who attacked first. The French wants to make a statement and go for the Tour win. With 11 kilometers to go he advantaged Robert Gesink by 35 seconds and the group of the leader in 55. Thibaut Pinot (Discovery Channel) was leading the chase in the group of the leader but that was quite an odd move as it was not clear who he was working for. Meanwhile, Simon Geschke and Yannick Martinez attacked in the break but they were not the best climbers in the front group.
The movement by Hubert Dupont caused an increase in the pace of the group but some riders were not well positioned and lost track when the front of the peloton got separated from the rest. Among them was, most notably, Andrew Talansky. The American was trying to recover his position in the group of the leader alongside his teammate Juanjo Cobo. He still had 8 kilometers to recover. Meanwhile, the break was losing a lot of time and only had 2' 35'' on the group of the leader while Hubert Dupont was a bit ahead. Only about 15 riders formed the front group as the peloton disintegrated completely in the first kilometers of Alpe d'Huez.
The break was eventually caught with about 6 kilometers to go, the moment when Hubert Dupont, who had been reeled in, attacked again from the group of the leader. However, this time Laurens Ten Dam would not let him go that easily and followed the wheel of the 2nd in the GC. Ten Dam had relayed at the front of his group a while ago and some riders were starting to lose contact. Peter Stetina and David Lopez seemed ready to follow this attack as well but other riders were a bit behind. Andrew Talansky, who had managed to rejoin the group was suffering again.
David Lopez was the only rider that managed to follow Hubert Dupont and Laurens Ten Dam. However, the French was too optimistic with his legs and dropped from the leading trio around 3 kilometers from the top. Dupont soon dropped to 20 seconds behind the leader. A group of 8 trailed 45 seconds behind the lead of the race, including Andrew Talansky and Cadel Evans. Meanwhile, a bigger group of 16 riders was 1' 10'' behind in which Tejay van Garderen and Jelle Vanendert were riding. The current situation would mean that Ten Dam might be much closer to the overall win at the end of the stage as David Lopez does not seem a contender for the win anymore.
Bauke Mollema was surprisingly leading the group of the chasers while Andrew Talansky should be leading it to defend his podium position from David Lopez. They were entering the last kilometer and this group, now with only 5 riders, was 1 minute behind Laurens Ten Dam and David Lopez. Hubert Dupont was still in an intermediate position. It is evident by now that the positions in the GC will be much clearer now and this might encourage attacks from further away tomorrow.
Laurens Ten Dam wins in Alpe d'Huez! The Dutch gave David Lopez no option in the final kilometer and even put a few seconds between them. This result is a great confirmation of what most the analysts were announcing: the fact that Laurens Ten Dam almost had the Tour in the bag after yesterday's time trial. Hubert Dupont was third in the stage and now sits 1' 18'' behind in the GC. Given the form that Ten Dam is showing it is unlikely that the French can take back that amount of time. Nevertheless, Dupont already won the Tour so he will not settle for the option of a podium place.
On the fight for the podium, Andrew Talansky and Cadel Evans made it together to the finish line 1' 02'' behind Ten Dam. This leaves David Lopez 5th, 1' 20'' behind the last podium place. It seems like this battle will be open until Saturday in Semnoz. A surprising Samuel Sanchez was also in this group after having been in the break the whole day. The rider that seems out of the fight for the podium is Chris Froome, given that he lost 40 seconds against his rivals today.
