“Double bonanza for Team Sky at TdF 2012”

This is a guest post by Mr.Q, a professional quizmaster and an ardent Tour de France fan who is reporting his 4th tour

With the first major climb of the Tour, a Cat 1, at the La Planchedes Belles Filles, the TdF 2012, has showcased, what bike racing is all about. Its not just the super speed on the wheels that count, but the determination & grit to keep pounding away on the roads, however steep they turn out and reaching the finish line is what the real man will have to do. To win the crown, he will have to do it in the shortest time frame possible, or leave the others behind.

On a stage where every single tour expert was going hoarse on the viciousness of the final climb to the finish, 3km from the end, it was the Team Sky riders, who actually put the hammer down on the peleton, to implode the field and decimate the riders, one by one, leaving just 5 riders at the last, 1km mark. With the defending champion Evans riding very strongly, it was a stellar effort from Chris Froome of Team Sky, which saw him win the 7^th Stage of this year’s TdF.

  The 7^throad Stage of the 99^th Tour de France started of from Tomblaine to La Planche des Belles Filles, a distance of 199kms, with only 181 riders who finished yesterday. With 14 riders not starting today, this peloton is becoming one of the weakest ones to start, at this time of the race, the last time the race lost 17 riders, was in the late 1990’s. Yesterday’s crash is now being rumored as having been the result of Davide Vigano from Lampre-ISD unable to brake in time, as the rider in front of him braked, as he was trying to put the shoe cover of Ale Jet, their designated sprinter, into his back pocket. Hence with just one hand on the handle bar, he did not touch the brake and this resulted in the crash, which has seen almost 12-14 riders end up with broken bones, ribs and contusions. Vigano, himself is in the hospital for broken bones and a punctured lung. With the mountains come the hopes of the breakaway, that, they might be able to escape away to a victory. Thus today saw a group of 19 riders, including Alexander Vinokourov of Team Astana, who tried to escape. But the peloton being ever watchful, just closed them down. From this group finally, 7 riders did manage to move away. Christophe Riblon of AG2R La Mondiale), Chris Anker Sørensen of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank, Martin Velits of Omega Pharma-Quick Step, Michael Albasini of Orica-Greenedge, Cyril Gauter of Europcar, Dmitri Fofonov of Team Astana and Luis León Sanchez of Rabobank were the riders.  Riding with great determination and with the knowledge that the peloton would try and close them down before the final climb began, they paced themselves. But with Team Sky, BMC Racing & Garmin-Sharp all putting their riders at the head of the peloton to bring them in, they were all caught on the last climb of the day.   Fabian Cancellara, in the Yellow Jersey, kept up with the leaders, till the very end. It was in the final 5kms, that the leading group could break away from him. In the end, he rode a splendid defensive race, minimizing his loses in time, but as predicted earlier, he did loose the Yellow Jersey. The course today had 3 major climbs. Chris Anker Sørensen of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank bagged the first two climbs, but that alone would not help keep his team mate Mørkøv in the Polka dotted Jersey, as the final climb of the day had 20 points for the winner. By the 25km to go mark, it became very clear that the hype about title contenders would be seeing realty today. BMC Racing & Team Sky, both with Cadel Evans & Bradley Wiggins as their protected riders, had ensured a safe ride for them so far. But the actual test of their ability & form was just about to start. Team Sky, put its best riders on the front and with around 10kms remaining, Michael Rogers, started drilling in the speed. With the mountain slowly increasing its incline, soon the peloton started breaking away at the back. To begin with the sprinters, were distanced with. Greipel, Farrer, Cavendish,…etc were all seen popping of at the back. One of the big names to start the final climb badly was Frank Schleck. However, his team mates rallied around him , and he recovered soon enough, but not enough to breach the gap with the leaders. Another big name, that yours truly had picked for today’s stage, Levi Leipheimer, was seen struggling with the step climb and loosing touch at the back! After Rogers, it was the turn of Richie Porte to up the ante, and he did that in fine style. His pace soon saw, Ivan Basso, Michele Scarponi, Van Den Broeck (due to a mechanical incident), Robert Gesink and Alejandro Valverde among those who were left in the lurch. Janez Brajkovic was also seen making a valiant effort to come back in touch with the leaders after being dropped.  But, with 3kms to go, Froome took over, and at that time there were only 5 riders at the front. Apart from him & Wiggins, Evans, Vincenzo Nibali of Liqigas-Cannondale & Rene Taaramae of Cofidis were the only others to keep pace.  

Froome kept the pace high, inspite of the steepness increasing, thus ensuring that no one could breakaway. With 400m to go, and the incline of the road showing an insane 20%, it was Evans who got out of saddle to try and win the stage and put some seconds into Wiggins. But, he was easily reined in by Froome, who, then seeing his chance for glory, kicked once again and this time neither Evans or Wiggins could keep up with him. Riding away from them, Froome won the Stage with 2sec over Evans, who came second & Wiggins who came in third but ensured that this ride moved into the coveted Yellow Jersey. The leader board shook up today with Cancellara dropping out after 6 days on the top.  Wiggins now leads the race, with Evans behind him by 10sec, followed by Nibali with a 16sec deficit. The Yellow Jersey of the race leader is now with Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky. The Green Jersey for thepoints leader continues with Peter Sagan of Liqigas Cannondale. The White Jersey, for the best young rider changes hands to Rene Taaramae of Cofidis team, while stage winner Chris Froome of Team Sky takes over the King of the Mountain polka dotted Jersey. Stage winner Chris Froome was ecstatic and said, “We wanted to make the most out of our opportunities. If that’s demonstrated our strength, then fantastic but for us we executed a plan that we put in place for a long time and I’m just really happy that it came off.” Froome added, “The goal is still with Bradley Wiggins for the overall, but if I’m there or thereabouts then that’s also a threat for our opposition so it’s putting us in a really good position. 
You could see that I put in a little acceleration going over the top of the climb I could feel that Cadel wasn’t quite with me and that’s when I decided to sneak away for the stage win. Going up that last climb, Richie (Porte) set a fantastic pace. He dropped so many riders going up there and he made it so easy for us as we were sitting right there on the wheel in perfect position. It left me with the last two kms just to ride steady and set things up for the finish. We’ve been here to look at the course so I knew that the last little kick was going to be quite hard. Maybe it surprised a few people.”

  Bradley Wiggins, the new Yellow jersey leader of the tour said “I’ve dreamt about this all year really but until you through the process and put it into action and do day like we did today… it’s an incredible feeling really. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. It sounds corny but it’s something I’ve dreamt of since I was a child, really. I’d sit on the home trainer watching my hero – my Tour de France hero – Miguel Indurain… but to be here, on the top of a mountain in the yellow jersey is phenomenal. This was the plan; it’s what we’ve trained for all year”. On his plans to for the rest of the tour, he said, “We’ll take it day by day now but, as I’ve said before in a few interviews, you can’t chose when you take the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. We’ve got it now and there’s another tough day tomorrow but there shouldn’t be too many problems. Then we’ve got the time trial and we’ll try and consolidate in that. Then it’s a rest day and we’re halfway through the Tour… and we’ll defend it every day now. Cadel is hot on our heels so it’s not something we’re going to accidently try and lose to him.” The finishing town ofLa Planche des Belles Filles,is actually a ski resort town in winter. The name which literally translated in English means, the place of the pretty girls thighs, has come from the legend that still circulates about a few Swedish mercenaries, who in the 17^th century, ransacked the area and killed all the men, and when they tried to round up the women, they drowned themselves in a pond, rather than face the humiliation from the mercenaries. Tomorrow, the 8^thStage of this year’s TdF,is from Belfort to Porrentruy, a distance of just 157kms. Me thinks, with almost 6 climbs in succession, including the Col de la Croix, just 16 kms from the finish, this stage will be a good place to drive the pressure home. For all those riders who have lost chunks of time, this day can see them come back in contention, if they can back themselves and make a go for it. Follow Composed Volcano on Facebook. to get to read travel stories or simply subscribe to the blog!