Le. Tour. De. France.
Well, just to prove you don’t need wet weather and cobbles to make Le Tour dangerous (why yes, I am in favor of keeping the cobbles sections), yesterday on regular roads we had 2 huge crashes that injured 14 riders, more, may I point out, than in Stage 5 with the cobbles. Three had to withdraw on course, Xabier Zandio of Sky, Jesús Hernández of Tinkoff, and Egor Silin of Katusha, and Stef Clement of Belkin will not start. By contrast on the cobbles we only lost 2.
People are also grousing about the spectators getting too close to take ‘selfies’ but the fact is they have always been getting in the middle of the course and pressing in from the sides to take pictures so it’s really the same as it’s always been. It was a bit damp, but it always is in Belgium, and there was a strong cross wind that broke up the main group of riders into 2 smaller groups which helped shape the race.
The fireworks came in the final kilometer when it became clear that Giant-Shimano had lost a little of it’s leg speed. Though commentators initially blamed Kittel’s disappointing finish to a puncture he later admitted he had simply run out of gas. Starting at the 1 km mark it looked as if the race was Michal Kwiatkowski’s but André Greipel attacked from the middle of the lead group and held off a very late charge from Alexander Kristoff. Once again Peter Sagan overcame a crash to finish a very respectable 5th.
So on the day it was André Greipel, Alexander Kristoff, Samuel Dumoulin, Mark Renshaw, and Peter Sagan. Marcel Kittel finished 84th, 54 seconds back. 64 riders finished on the lead time including Jakob Fuglsang in 15th and Vincenzo Nibali in 18th. Alberto Contador finished 20th.
In the General Classification it’s Vincenzo Nibali, Jakob Fuglsang (:02), Peter Sagan (:44), Michal Kwiatkowski (:50), and Fabian Cancellara (1:17). There are only 3 other riders less than 2 minutes back. In the Points championship the leader is Peter Sagan (217), Brian Coquard (137), Marcel Kittel (135), Alexander Kristoff (117), André Greipel (91), and Mark Renshaw (87). Their nearest competitor is 32 points behind. In the Climber competition not much has changed, Cyril Lmoine (6), Blel Kadri (5), Jens Voigt and Nicolas Edet tied at 4. Team rankings are Astana, Belkin (4:18), BMC (6:05), Sky (6:17), Trek (7:22), Cannondale (9:03). Everyone else is over 10 minutes out. Youth competition has boiled down to 4 riders, Peter Sagan, Michal Kwiatkowski (:06), Roman Bardet (1:27), Tom Dumoulin (1:41), and Thibaut Pinot (2:40). Everyone else is over 11 minutes out.
Épernay / Nancy is about 146 miles long. It’s another mostly flat sprint stage with the Sprint Checkpoint about 2 thirds of the way through. At the end of the stage there are 2 Category 4 climbs, Cote de Maron and Cote de Bofflers. They expect showers on and off, we shall see.
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