Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Stage 3 - Classic Stage Signals Game On!

Stage 3 of the 2010 Tour de France, a 213km epic from Wanze in Belgium to the Arengburg forest in France is what the sport of cyclying is all about. If you didn't get a chance to see it you must watch the highlights - this stage, based on the style of a Spring Classic, was a classic in itself. In the end, after all the crashes and carnage of a ride over the cobbles, Thor Hushovd was victorious. But the big winners on the day were Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans who put time into all their GC rivals, most importantly Alberto Contador.

This stage was so sensational it had more plot twists than an Ocean's Eleven movie. Let's start with the impact on the General Classification. First - Frank Schleck is out after busting his collarbone when hitting the deck on the pave. This crash coincided with Saxo bank ramping up the pressure via Fabian Cancellara, the best power rider I have ever seen. Cancellara, with the help of the crash behind him, tore the peleon to shreds on the cobbles. Only 4 men could go with him. Hushovd, Geriant Thomas, and importantly Andy Schleck, and the current World Champion Cadel Evans. Behind them the peleton splintered. Armstrong was in the second group back on the road, and Contador was originally a further group back before couragesouly pulling himself up to the Armstrong group. Just at that moment, Armstrong punctured - GAME OVER! No one was waiting on a stage like this and with his team car minutes behind he was caught in no mans land. With the help of Yaroslav Popovych he bravely pulled himself back to the third group on the road but by the end of the day he was over 2 minutes behind the stage winners and almost a minute behind Contador. With Armstrong and Contador in trouble, Cancellera, Evans and the remaining Schleck put the hammer down to maximise their time gains. By the end of the stage they had put over a minute into Contador. As a result Evans now leads the defending champion by over a minute while Shleck has 30 seconds to spare. These are probably not big enough gaps to make the difference come Paris but they sure will make the race interesting. Amrstrong now lies 50 seconds behind Contador and surely his chances at an 8th title have gone. Cancellara also grabbed the Yellow Jersey back from Sylvain Chavanel who had a horror day. Three bike changes saw him come in almost 4 minutes down and he has to kiss the maillot jaune goodbye after only one day.

The race for the stage win was partly an anti-climax. Hushovd was always going to win the stage after doing no work in the elite bunch that powered off the front. He had far too much in reserve and now takes a stranglehold on the green jersey competiotn which he leads by 14 points. Plucky Brit Geriant Thomas did a mammoth job to stay with the big boys and ended up finishing second on the stage ahead of Evans. Thomas reward is takign the White Jersey off of the shoulders of Tony Martin as the best young rider.

And if anyone deserves a shoutout on this stage (outside Cancellara) it is Evans. This guy is an absolute star! Evans once again showed that he is made for the classics and one day races with a superb performance where he never looked to be in difficulty. For man who has never raced Paris-Roubaix to put in a performance like this was simply stunning. He did the rainbow jersey proud. It is a shame Evans has such good alround a ability because if he had focused on becoming a classics rider rather than a Grand Tour rider he may have turned out to be one of the best one-day racers of all time. Ryder Hesjedal also deserves mention for his gutsy effort to attempt to go solo for victory over the last 30km. He won a big mountain stage of the Vuelta last year and a performance like that overnight marks him as a big race rider of the future, be it in the classics or the grand tours.

There was little change to the mountains classification on a fairly flat stage.

Yellow Jersey - Fabian Cancellara
Green Jersey - Thor Husvhod
Polka Dot Jersey - Jerome Pineau
White Jersey - Geraint Thomas

Tonights Stage - We are back to the flatlands today for an extremely short 153km journey from Cambrai to Reims. The elevation barely gets above 200m above sea level and the riders will be most likely looking for a breather after yesterday's chaos. That may mean a breakaway could succeed, but if it ends in a bunch sprint my money is on Mark Cavendish to finally make his mark on the 2010 tour with a win.

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