Stage 9
July 14 St Martin de Landelles - Plouay 217.5 km
Today was a very interesting and fun stage in the Tour. Obviously,
the teams knew that no one would want to chase a long break in the
third longest stage of the Tour this year. All of the teams tried
repeatedly to get riders in the breaks and chased hard to bring a
quick end to any break in which they did not have a rider. Remember
that you don't have to help chase a break you have a rider in. I
addressed this on my site as being team leverage.
It caused the first two hours to be extremely fast over rolling
hills and was taking a toll on everyone's legs the day before the
time trial. They were on the verge of blowing the peloton apart
early in the third longest stage of the race the day before the time
trial which would have created a racing lottery for the time trial.
No one would be guaranteed that they would make the first pack and
not end up losing a lot of time and energy in the scattered chase.
This caused deals to be made to put an end to the relentless
attacking and bring about a more sane pace. That is why the next to
last break of 12 riders ended the way it did. The coaches and
managers realized that, if a deal was not made, the teams would all
destroy their riders legs the day before the time trial. To protect
those legs, they called in the break, took a breather, and let a
pack of seven riders go up the road in which there was no rider
within 4 minutes of Galdeano on GC as a control for the peloton and
permitted it to stay off to the end to prevent the mad sprinters
rush at the end. It was a tactical move agreed on by all teams in
order to save legs for the time trial. But a lot of damage was done
in that first two hours and we may not know how much and too whom
until the end of tomorrow's stage.
In the initial rush which started in the first few kilometers, we
saw all the action I had anticipated. There were many smaller breaks
and several large breaks of up to 20 riders. There are some
important things that need to be mentioned which will teach you the
tactics the pro's use. First, all the subtitle contenders of Durand,
Berges, Mengin, Halgand, and others attempted repeatedly to make the
day's break.
Did you notice Durand attacking the break of 20 riders? He knew that
a break of 20 would be too big to work together and that attacking
would start so he got in on it first in hopes of getting a smaller
break up the road. Good move.
In the early attacking, USPS kept sending riders up the road to
force ONCE to spend all day chasing but ONCE kept countering by
sending their riders up the road at the same time. Good controlling
move by both teams. Nothing like a little bike chess.
Did you see McGee bridge to a break just before the first road
sprint in order to get that sprint? It worked but caused the break
to be chased harder because Telekom couldn't afford to let McGee get
up the road and take the road primes. O'Grady did the same thing
with the same results. A threatening rider getting into a break can
doom the break. The winning break only had one rider who was a
significant threat in any of the races. That was Renier who was
leader in the Combativity Title and he used to break to open his
lead on Durand.
Did you notice that the subtitle riders and stage win riders
finished off the back in several groups minutes behind the main
peloton? This was so they could save their legs by riding the
distance at a slower pace so they could go harder in later stages.
With all the initial action and the break that stayed off to the
finish, there were only a few minor changes in the standings. Renier
extended his lead in Combativity and moved up one position for KOM.
BUT ONCE did have to spend most of the day chasing after two hard
hours of battle. That will have to cost them tomorrow. But, did you
notice that some other teams did do some pulling for a brief period
of time? ONCE had to do most of it but not all of it. That was part
of the deal that was made by the coaches in the first two hours of
the racing.
In the caravan behind the race, the team cars stay in touch with two
way radio's. They use two frequencies reserved for the race. The
first frequency is reserved for the race officials to provide
information to the teams during the race such as who is in a break
and to communicate instructions to the team cars.
There are rules and protocols for the team cars. The Chief Referee
is responsible for controlling a huge circus of riders and vehicles.
He/she gives blow-by-blow accounts of the racing over the radio
during the race so the team cars and coaches know what is going on.
They also tell the team cars when a rider needs help, give
permission for a team car to leave the caravan to help a rider or to
return to the caravan, and discuss matters with the coaches.
The second frequency is used by the coaches and other team cars to
communicate between each other. This is how the deals are made
during the races. Then each team has its own communications
equipment they use to communicate with their riders but they also
give instructions when riders drop back for water. The water
carriers also deliver instructions to their team leaders. On TV, you
only see a fraction of what goes on to make a race work.
Other than Renier moving up in Combativity and KOM points, the most
significant things for today were that two riders didn't start the
stage because of injuries from crashes in yesterday's stage. The
most significant was Friere who was a top contender for the Points
Title but it also left Mapei with 7 riders. Lotto also lost a second
rider so that there are now two teams with only seven riders.
It is important to understand that losing Friere will cause Mapei to
change their team strategy. Watch to see where they shift their
focus. They don't currently have anyone else in the top five for any
other title. They could start by focusing on stage wins or just
moving some one into contention for another title.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow is the second major sorting of riders on GC. There will be
significant changes in all three of the time oriented titles.
Lanester/Lorient is a 52 km individual time trial. It starts over
rolling hills and finishes relatively flat. The rolling hills will
be where most of the damage will be done and where a rider must do
his best riding.
None of the points oriented titles will change so watch for the
contenders for those titles to turn bad times in the TT to rest for
the battles for the points oriented titles. Some will even take a
five minute time penalty by drafting the first rider past them to
save their legs for their races.
By Monday night, we should have a good idea of who will be in the
battle for the Yellow Jersey (and other time oriented titles)
because all the top five to six potential contenders will be in the
top ten. Any rider out of the top ten will probably be out of the
race and will only be able to race for a top ten finish. Most GC
riders who are that far down following the first time trial will
ride for a top ten but will also shift their focus to a subtitle
like KOM or a stage win. Watch for this to happen.
