achieve both our goals: keep Brad out of trouble and set Cav up for the win.’
Mark Cavendish is patched up and wearing fresh kit after yesterday’s unscheduled bike rider/asphalt interface. ‘Cav may have a little prob with his hand, otherwise ok,’ texts
Yates before the teams roll out of Rouen for another nervous 200km.
While RadioShack-Nissan are doing what they have done effectively all week in controlling the race for the yellow jersey and making sure the break doesn’t disappear into the distance and
ruin things, this time Team Sky are in closer attendance, especially in the last 50km as the pace rises and pulses follow the pace. All eight remaining members of the original nine-man team mass
near the front, Wiggins enjoying the protection that a
grand patron
receives and Cavendish benefiting from a smooth ride to the business end of the race. The World Champion does indeed
have a sore hand from yesterday’s spill but he feels good enough to tell his teammates that he is ready to contest the shakedown in Saint Quentin.
Peta Todd is not called upon to express her frustrations when the inevitable big smackdown comes, this time with only 3km remaining. That’s because the new team tactic has come up trumps
and the squad’s position at the head of the fast-travelling peloton has kept them out of the carnage for once. If only they’d listened to her earlier. The green jersey of Peter Sagan is
not so fortunate; his scrapes mirror Cavendish’s rapidly healing contusions. His girlfriend’s thoughts remain her own.
The usual suspects jockey and harry each other for their sprinting positions. Cavendish, having been close to the front, drops back, expecting the winning sprint to be a late one due to the
draggy uphill finish and the possibility of some crosswinds. The World Champion doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, but this is definitely one of them, as he leaves himself too much ground to
make up in the final 300m. Matt Goss is the first to break cover and he opens up a gap on the others, but he has made the opposite mistake to Cavendish and has gone too early. The cannier Greipel
– who else? – has timed his run to perfection. Today he is able to swat away criticism that a crash has gifted him the stage as he has proved himself a worthy winner over the best
sprinters in the race. Only Sagan and Tyler Farrar are missing from the vanquished; the American being restrained by his team from entering the Argos-Shimano bus after the event to launch a right
hook at Tom Veelers, the perceived architect of his misfortune. Dave Brailsford’s earlier observation that ‘sprinters crash’ probably wouldn’t have gone down too well with
Farrar at that precise moment. Emotions were riding high.
Cavendish decently declined to blame his injuries for missing out on win number 22. Greipel’s second stage win and Sagan’s absence from the top places has tightened up the battle for
the green jersey, with Cav in fourth spot behind a closely grouped Sagan, Goss and Greipel.
Perhaps Team Sky’s new-found aggression and cohesion will deliver the twin prizes of yellow and green after all?
Objective 1 has certainly been achieved today, with no members of the squad suffering mishaps and Wiggins’s second place overall comfortably conserved again. The first mountains of the
Tour are looming on the horizon, and Cancellara has publicly admitted that his tenure in yellow is unlikely to survive the first big obstacle, La Planche des Belle Filles in two days’ time.
The Vosges mountains are outgunned by the Alps and Pyrenees, but have some very difficult slopes to trouble the best riders, and most teams have taken the trouble to recce Saturday’s stage
finish. If all the favourites for overall victory in this race stay together and Cancellara drops away on the struggle up to the finish at ‘Pretty Girls Plain’ then we will see Bradley
Wiggins of Great Britain pull on a Tour de France yellow jersey for the very
Mark Cavendish is patched up and wearing fresh kit after yesterday’s unscheduled bike rider/asphalt interface. ‘Cav may have a little prob with his hand, otherwise ok,’ texts
Yates before the teams roll out of Rouen for another nervous 200km.
While RadioShack-Nissan are doing what they have done effectively all week in controlling the race for the yellow jersey and making sure the break doesn’t disappear into the distance and
ruin things, this time Team Sky are in closer attendance, especially in the last 50km as the pace rises and pulses follow the pace. All eight remaining members of the original nine-man team mass
near the front, Wiggins enjoying the protection that a
grand patron
receives and Cavendish benefiting from a smooth ride to the business end of the race. The World Champion does indeed
have a sore hand from yesterday’s spill but he feels good enough to tell his teammates that he is ready to contest the shakedown in Saint Quentin.
Peta Todd is not called upon to express her frustrations when the inevitable big smackdown comes, this time with only 3km remaining. That’s because the new team tactic has come up trumps
and the squad’s position at the head of the fast-travelling peloton has kept them out of the carnage for once. If only they’d listened to her earlier. The green jersey of Peter Sagan is
not so fortunate; his scrapes mirror Cavendish’s rapidly healing contusions. His girlfriend’s thoughts remain her own.
The usual suspects jockey and harry each other for their sprinting positions. Cavendish, having been close to the front, drops back, expecting the winning sprint to be a late one due to the
draggy uphill finish and the possibility of some crosswinds. The World Champion doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, but this is definitely one of them, as he leaves himself too much ground to
make up in the final 300m. Matt Goss is the first to break cover and he opens up a gap on the others, but he has made the opposite mistake to Cavendish and has gone too early. The cannier Greipel
– who else? – has timed his run to perfection. Today he is able to swat away criticism that a crash has gifted him the stage as he has proved himself a worthy winner over the best
sprinters in the race. Only Sagan and Tyler Farrar are missing from the vanquished; the American being restrained by his team from entering the Argos-Shimano bus after the event to launch a right
hook at Tom Veelers, the perceived architect of his misfortune. Dave Brailsford’s earlier observation that ‘sprinters crash’ probably wouldn’t have gone down too well with
Farrar at that precise moment. Emotions were riding high.
Cavendish decently declined to blame his injuries for missing out on win number 22. Greipel’s second stage win and Sagan’s absence from the top places has tightened up the battle for
the green jersey, with Cav in fourth spot behind a closely grouped Sagan, Goss and Greipel.
Perhaps Team Sky’s new-found aggression and cohesion will deliver the twin prizes of yellow and green after all?
Objective 1 has certainly been achieved today, with no members of the squad suffering mishaps and Wiggins’s second place overall comfortably conserved again. The first mountains of the
Tour are looming on the horizon, and Cancellara has publicly admitted that his tenure in yellow is unlikely to survive the first big obstacle, La Planche des Belle Filles in two days’ time.
The Vosges mountains are outgunned by the Alps and Pyrenees, but have some very difficult slopes to trouble the best riders, and most teams have taken the trouble to recce Saturday’s stage
finish. If all the favourites for overall victory in this race stay together and Cancellara drops away on the struggle up to the finish at ‘Pretty Girls Plain’ then we will see Bradley
Wiggins of Great Britain pull on a Tour de France yellow jersey for the very
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