Stage 8
July 13 Bagnoles-de-l'Ome - Avranches 176 km
Obviously, the pro's also felt that today was a good day for a long
break because of the hilly course. The attacking started early with
Voigt attacking in the first 3 km and others repeatedly attacking
until the final break got off. Berges, Renier, and Chavanel all
tried to get away for the stage win, to move up on the Combativity
Title, and also for the KOM Title. Finally, Renier got off with two
other riders and they managed to get far enough up the road to hold
the break until the last 5 to 6 km. One more pair of legs could have
caused them to stay to the line.
A number of important things happened in today's stage. First, ONCE
was forced to chase by themselves for a long time which took a lot
out of their legs just two days before the individual time trial.
They still have one more road stage for which they plan on defending
the lead before the TT. This cannot help their efforts.
Second, a number of crashes caused a lot of damage to different
riders and teams. Rous was put out of the race and others lost time
on GC or dropped in subtitle standings because of crashes. This is a
very unfortunant part of surviving the flat stages. Armstrong and
his entire USPS squad dropped on GC so that Armstrong is the only
USPS rider in the top 10. Armstrong lost almost 30 seconds because
of a late crash. This has given Galdeano and Beloki a little extra
breathing room and brought Hamilton to with 20 seconds of Armstrong.
It also brought Botero, Leipheimer, and Sevilla closer to Armstrong
on GC. ONCE now has the first seven places on GC because of the
crashes forcing USPS riders to help Armstrong try to return to the
peloton. The second placed USPS rider is Heras in 13th at 1'06".
Galdeano, Beloki, Armstrong, and Hamilton are definitely in prime
position for winning the Tour with Botero, Leipheimer, and Sevilla
in a little better position to pose a threat to and put pressure on
Armstrong. We must also watch Armstrong for the next few days to see
if some unmentioned or unnoticed injury surfaces. This is always a
must following a crash.
Freire dropped from third in the Points Title to sixth because a
late crash caused him to miss out on the finally sprint and its
points. Gustov and Bertogliati both lost ground on the White Jersey
standings with Gustov dropping 1.5 minutes from fourth to seventh
and Bertogliati dropping almost 4 minutes from fifth to 14th. More
than one Tour has been lost because of crashes in the flats.
McEwen finally got his first stage win and closed to only five
points behind Zabel on the Points Title. Renier's break caused him
to jump from fourth on the Combativity Title to first place six
points ahead of Jacky Durand.
I hope you noticed the announcer mentioning several times that teams
were probably making deals. Once, he even said that there was no
apparent reason for one team helping in the chase. You can bet the
announcer uses cheat sheets similar to the ones I told you to make
and keep by your side when following the Tour. We coaches will sit
and discuss these sheets while sharing info about other teams and
anticipating their moves.
I keep waiting for the newspapers in this country to realize how
much they could increase their circulation by publishing the daily
standings for the Giro, Tour, and Veulta along with top US stage
races. You US cycling fans need to start a letter writing campaign
to the newspapers to get them to publish these standings. They
figure that each letter they receive represents 300 potential
viewers who wont write. If they realize the market potential, it
could cause them to start sponsoring US stage racing. Think of how
much that would help the sport. Entire clubs should get involved in
this letter writing campaign.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow's Saint Martin de Landelles/Plouay stage is the third
longest stage for this Tour at 217.5 km. It is also hilly with three
cat 4 climbs at 72, 187, and 214 km. The last climb is steep at 9.1%
and only 3.5 km from the finish. It presents a great opportunity for
a late break or attack in the race. Watch this climb. The three road
sprints are at 35.5, 85, and 150.5 km.
The teams are likely to use two different strategies for this stage
with the TT being the next day. Many will want a quiet stage to rest
for the TT which could cause the attacking to be delayed. But other
teams will want to take advantage of the stage and the potential
lack of desire for other teams to chase to get a long break and
stage win. We will see which strategy prevails.
The riders to watch for tomorrow include Durand looking to regain
the lead in the Combativity Title, Berges, Chavanel, and Dierckxsens
looking to move up for both the Combativity and KOM titles, and
Mengin and Halgand looking to gain points in the three KOM primes.
Of course, there will be others looking for a stage win.
The team which stands to lose the most tomorrow if the attacking
goes early will be ONCE having to defend with another long chase the
day before the TT. I would expect USPS to want to force this chase
and encourage others to also attack. I would definitely watch for
USPS riders trying to get up the road.
Tomorrow's stage can have a major effect on the outcome for the
first time trial on Monday. The time trial on Monday will be the
second major sorting of riders for the Tour. We will see riders who
don't time trial well head for the bottom of the GC standings. The
top GC contenders will work their way towards the top of the GC list
with all of the hopefuls being in the top ten. It will become even
more clear who is really in the race for GC by sunset on Monday.
Something to watch for on Monday is how many of the riders for whom
a good time in the time trial will mean nothing and they are
competing for a subtilte will take it easy and "rest" in the stage.
Some will even grab a wheel and take a time penalty to get more
rest. Keep an eye on this.
I want to share something a reader shared with me concerning an
interview done with David Extaberia of the Euskatel Team. David
stated that Zubeldia is their best GC rider in spite of the fact
that he is shown on the team list in last place. Normally, a team is
supposed to list their team leader first and only domestiques in the
bottom of the rider list. It is common for some teams to "hide"
their team leader in the list but we normally figure it out very
shortly.
David stated that the team's goal for Zubeldia for this year is to
have him finish in the top ten and on the podium a year or two after
his top ten finish. Zubeldia will never make it to the podium unless
his team improves in the team time trial. He cannot afford to lose
four minutes in the team time trial, if he wants to achieve his
potential as a GC rider. Either his team must begin working their
fundamentals in developing their time trialing or he must find
another team to ride for.
Since the Euskatel Team has had two really bad performances in the
Team Time Trial in the last two years, if I were Zubeldia, I would
have a very serious talk with the coach following this Tour about
improving the team in the TTT or me finding another team. This is
obviously crucial for Zubeldia to do well on GC in the Tour. I feel
the man has a lot of potential but he needs either for his team to
get better or for him to get a better team.
