2008 Tour de France – Stage 16 Wash-up
One of the most difficult days in the Tour and yet again the chance for Team CSC to blow their rivals away passed them by. The solid tempo riding by Andy Schleck and Jens Voigt only really put paid to Christian Vandevelde with Evans, Menchov, Valverde and Kohl all sticking fast up the Restefond. It’s fine to have a strong team – geez, all I’ve been hearing for the last week is Frank Schleck telling anyone who will listen what a strong team CSC is – but if you can’t use that strength to blow away your opposition when it counts then it’s a pointless exercise.
Of course, that could all change up l’Alpe d’Huez. Maybe Team CSC will do what they should have done up the Restefond and orchestrate a series of explosive attacks to put Evans and Menchov into serious difficulty. History shows that Evans can’t handle the kinds of attacks that Contador and Rasmussen hit him with last year. Surely Schleck and Sastre will just have to roll the dice and put it all on the line.
It all went a little pear-shaped for Menchov on the way down to the finish line when he found the descent more difficult than his fellow GC contenders. Losing half a minute on the descent certainly didn’t help his cause. As for Frank Schleck, Bernhard Kohl and Cadel Evans, the status quo remained unchanged with 8 seconds separating them.
As for the criticism that keeps getting piled onto Cadel Evans, his demeanour, his bodyguard, his tactics, it would be nice to see him answer all the done-nothing blowhards the best way possible by walking away with the prize in 5 days time.
Ricco Positive – Saunier Duval Out of 2008 Tour
It seems the positives will never end and the disappointments will mount. I sat down tonight to watch the 12th stage of the 2008 Tour de France to find that non-starters for the stage included Ricco, Cobo, Piepoli, De La Fuente, Pou…in fact the entire Saunier Duval team was absent. What the?
I raced over to CyclingNews in time to catch the first news flash. Riccardo Ricco, winner of 2 stages in this year’s Tour has tested positive to EPO. Bloody hell, just when an exciting young climber emerges onto the scene and promises all sorts of exciting action in the upcoming Alpine stages, we learn that the guy’s just another cheat.
Forget about the clashes between the UCI and ASO, the riders appear to still be doing their best to destroy the sport that’s paying their wages.
So Ricco’s in police custody, stage 12 got underway today without a Polka Dot Jersey and we’re cast back 12 months to the Astana debacle (no Saunier Duval-Scott in next year’s Tour after this precedent).
It doesn’t seem to matter how much I want to concentrate on and enjoy the racing that’s going on, the drug cheats are determined to run it all. Back to the Tour and Cadel Watch is still going well…going well? Can’t get much better than Yellow Jersey at the half-way mark, never mind that it’s by the barest possible margin. As nice a guy as Frank Schleck is, I’d like him to podium the race but one of the lower steps would be a nice place for him.
Tour de France – Stage 6 Super Besse
Stage 6 of the 2008 Tour de France turned out to be the delicious appetizer for the coming mountain stages that I’d hoped it would be. All of the expected GC contenders were there to stretch their climbing muscles, not to mention a few opportunists who did their best to steal a march. But in the end, thanks to a strong team ride by Caisse D’Epargne the last 2 minutes turned into a flat out uphill sprint to the line.
Christian Vandevelde (Garmin Chipotle) and Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval) made an attack at the bottom of the slope of Super Besse in an attempt to stake their claim, but they were reeled in inside 2 km to go and when they were, the remainder of the peloton just went hell for leather. In the chaos, Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) looked to me as though he was matching it with the rest of them when he happened to touch the wheel of another rider with just over 300m to go. Down he went and off went the yellow jersey with it.
Up to the finish and Riccardo Ricco (Saunier Duval) showed too much speed to take it to the line ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Caisse D’Epargne) and, playing the role he has to play, Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto) crossed the line on his wheel.
Three seconds behind Evans was Kim Kirchen (Team Columbia) and this catapulted him into the race lead. Evans is now in second place, 6 seconds back and the unlucky Stefan Schumacher is another 10 seconds back in 3rd.
Thanks to a gutsy breakaway by Sylvain Chavanel he has picked up enough points to snatch the King of the Mountain off Thomas Voeckler’s back. Young rider jersey is being worn by Thomas Lovkvist, my tip for the young rider winner is Roman Kreuziger and he sits 1’26” back in 4th place.
Cadel Watch – Stage 4 TdF 08
After the stage 4 of the 2008 Tour de France, the Individual Time Trial today in Cholet the win went to Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) but the overall GC battle has moved significantly in favour of Cadel Evans. Evans wound up coming 4th in the test, 27 seconds behind Schumacher but his nearest rival is now Denis Menchov who sits 51 seconds back.
One of the outsiders for overall GC honours Kim Kirchen (Team Columbia) has signalled his strength for the race with a massive result finishing 2nd only 18 seconds back leaving him 12 seconds behind Schumacher overall.
The other main GC contenders include Damiano Cunego at 1:26, Alejandro Valverde at 1:27 and Carlos Sastre at 1:43.
The big chuckle of the day for me was reading the BBC Sport headline that proclaimed “Millar Moves Into Tour Contention”. Yup, ever the optimists are the British press. With a best finish of 55th in 2003 and with the mountains to come, his chances are very strong.
We all know that Cadel Evans’ maddening tactic in the past has been to cover every move in the mountains to minimise any possible time loss. With a 51 second lead over his nearest major rival that type of tactic may just serve him well this year. That being said, the field hasn’t had to cover any sort of terrain yet.
Suffice to say, it’s better to be 51 seconds in front than 51 seconds behind.
Cadel Watch – Stage 2 TdF 08
We’re not going to get too excited about Cadel Evans too early, at least, not until we get an idea about whether we’re going to see Cadel The Follower or Cadel The Leader.
Alessandro Valverde has stamped his intentions quite clearly after the first 2 days of racing with the opening stage win and then sticking the Caisse D’Epargne team on the front of the peloton to control the extent of the 2 man breakaway of Thomas Voekler and Sylvain Chavenel. A lot of energy seemed to be expended to rein in two guys who are not threats for overall GC honors.
The closing moments of Stage 2 were also telling with Valverde right up at the front of the pack and right there with him, looking as though he was considering whether to contest the sprint was Cadel Evans. What in God’s name do these guys think they’re doing? Mixing it up in the confusion of a sprint finish is hardly the way to protect yourself until the mountains later in the Tour, I would have thought.
So what did they get for the risks they took? Valverde crossed the line in 12th place while Evans finished 21st. Hardly the advisable way of “staying out of trouble” early in the Tour de France.
2008 Tour De France
It’s time for me to dust off the keyboard and pick up from where I’ve sadly had to leave off with CyclingBeat. Woe the lack of coverage of ProTour events during the rest of the year, the nasty vagaries of time differences and the UCI’s insistence that only 1 ProTour race will be held in Australia per year.
It’s time for the Tour de France again and I’ll be following along with my Cadel Watch for the third year. With Astana still paying the price for last year’s indiscretions, Alberto Contador won’t get the opportunity to defend his title.
Cadel will be one of the major chances again with Silence-Lotto announcing they will be behind their man this year. His main dangers are Valverde, Sastre, Menchov and Cunego and a couple of Euskaltel guys by the names of Sanchez and Zubeldia could pop up too. Oh yeah, and last year’s surprise packet Mauricio Soler will be back with the Barloworld team.
