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Stage 7
Chateaubriant ? Saint Brieuc 204.5 km
Analysis
From the start there was a lot of attacking but a number of
different teams kept running the breaks down for different reasons.
No one could be happy with the break for quite a while. Finally, at
55 km, a break of two got off and quickly opened a large lead of up
to about 8 minutes plus. Since there were only two riders in the
break, the peloton had to still settle out the last one or two
places on all of the primes. This created some fun and interesting
battles as McEwen beat O?Grady twice in road primes taking the lead
for the Points Title but losing it again in the final sprint. Pineau
beat out Verinque for one KOM prime and Bettini for the other one
though Bettini still picked up one point for fourth place in that
Cat 3 KOM prime.
While the break was off and when the race was near the coast where
there might be a strong wind, CSC went to the front in hopes of
using the wind to break the pack up and cause one or more top riders
to lose ground. It didn?t succeed because the costal wind wasn?t
strong enough so they slid back into the peloton. You better be
careful and think ahead because some people will try to put you out
of the race by catching you sleeping.
The break got caught early and the attacks started again until 7
riders finally got off to win the stage. They only finished 10
seconds ahead of the peloton so there were no changes to the
standings for either the Yellow or White jerseys. The only change
for any of the standings was that Hushovd moved into fifth place on
the Points Title.
Notice the teams which did most of the chasing and controlling
today. They were protecting riders high on the standings. For the
most part, today was very defensive racing by the teams but some
good offensive racing by some individuals.
Tomorrow
Stage 8 from Lamballe ? Quimper at 168 km is much more promising. It
is shorter, significantly more hilly with four KOM primes, it is the
day before the first rest day, and there are quite a few riders who
are now in a position to benefit from a good break. There should be
quite a bit more action.
The KOM primes are: Cat 3 at 51 m, Cat 4 at 54.5 km, Cat 4 at 127.5
km, and Cat 4 at 142.5 km. The road primes are at 14 km, 104 km, and
134 km.
It is very likely that Lotto will control the peloton until the
first road prime in an effort to get McEwen back into the lead for
the Points Title but that O?Grady will try to make the break to gain
a large lead for this title. You may also see Quick Step and Cofidis
control the peloton not permitting a break until after the first two
KOM primes at 51 and 54.5 km for Bettini and Tombak respectively.
I would watch for O?Grady to either try to break away before the
first road prime or on the short climb immediately after it. If
there is no break before the second KOM prime, watch for all hell to
break loose with attacks for breaks following it.
Some of the riders to watch for in break attempts tomorrow are
O?Grady for both Points and GC; Bettini, Voigt, and Tombak for KOM;
Hushovd for Points, Backstedt for GC, and Cancellara, Boonen, and
Kessler for the White Jersey. Of course, all of these and others
will also be riding for the stage win.
Also, a hard chase to bring the break in late in the race could blow
the peloton apart in the rolling hills causing riders to lose time.
I expect this to be a short, fast, hard stage. To me, that means a
lot of fun. :)
Please note: Those of you who are new to the sport, you can get
information explaining the race and subtitles at the TDF site. You
then select Race and then Rules. You will next see the basic rules
and titles explained or you can download the complete rules or what
we call the Race Bible which will explain just about everything.
Part of what happened today early in the stage seemed to be because
some of the GC teams have gotten tired of all of the crashing. Some
one asked me what we can do to decrease all the crashing and there
are a number of options. First, we can keep track of who and which
riding behaviors are causing the most crashes and work to change
riding behavior and habits to decrease the number of crashes.
Second, we can do any number of things that are currently being done
in motor sports like requiring riders to take AND pass a racing
course before they can get either a pro license or even an amateur
license. We can then require riders who cause too many crashes to
retake such a course to get rid of bad riding habits. I have
discussed this matter a number of times with some of the older and
better riding pro's and they agree with me. This is unless you guys
like crawling around on the asphalt at 30+ mph. Personally, I have
an allergy to asphalt. Every time I fall down on it, I break out in
a rash. :)
See you back here tomorrow for some more racing fun.
