Double day for Team Sky as it puts the peloton to the sword on the steep final climb
Having done enough to put team leader Bradley Wiggins into the yellow jersey, Team Sky’s Chris Froome took the steep uphill sprint on la Planche des Belles Filles to take victory on stage seven of the 2012 Tour de France. The Kenyan-born Briton responded to a late attack from defending Tour champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) in the final 400 metres, and managed to beat the Australian to the line by two seconds.
“I’m not complaining,” Froome smiled to the TV cameras after the stage. “That was fantastic…from the start the team were up there, riding on the front, controlling the race. We knew it was up to us today, up to us and BMC to control. The guys just did a fantastic job coming into the climb, keeping us always at the front.
“Richie [Porte] set a blistering pace up the climb, got rid of a lot of guys, and then left me to take over, just in the last two kilometres. It wasn’t actually the plan to try to go for the stage, we were just keeping Brad up there.
“But we had come and seen this climb previously. I knew what the finish was like. I thought, ‘I’m there, I have the legs, why not give it a kick and see what happens?’ I gave it a small nudge and I just couldn’t believe it when Cadel didn’t follow my wheel. I thought ‘wow, this could actually come off’
“I was expecting someone to surge on that flat bit before it kicked up to the end. Cadel came through, I just jumped onto his wheel. I guess he was slowly hurting as the climb gets steeper. That was fantastic for us. Having Bradley right there, just two seconds behind – we couldn’t ask for more. He is in the yellow jersey now, it puts the team in a fantastic position going forward.
“I am speechless, it really is a dream come true,” he added. “I never, never thought of winning a stage here. I am chuffed to bits. We'll see how it goes, there’s still a long way to race.”
Evans held on to take second place, with Wiggins comfortably tucked on his wheel in third. With overnight race leader Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) among the vast majority of the peloton that was dropped by Team Sky’s ferocious pace, Wiggins took over the race lead.
The big attack of the day came from Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale), Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), Martin Velits (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Michael Albasini (Orica-GreenEdge), Cyril Gauter (Europcar), Dmitri Fofonov (Astana) and Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank). The six riders managed to build a lead of up to 5’55”, but were steadily chased down in the second half of the stage, and were caught as the final climb began with just over five kilometres to go.
Team Sky’s pace had already split the peloton on the approach to the climb, with Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol), Robert Gesink (Rabobank) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) among those left behind. Once the steep gradients began the British team began to systematically put the peloton to the sword - as it had done in the previous month’s Critérium du Dauphiné - until only Evans, Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis) were able to stay with the pace.
Evans tried to jump away with 400 metres to go but, just when it looked like the Australian had done enough to take the stage, Froome came around him on the final steep ramps to take his first ever Tour stage victory.
With Cancellara finishing 1’52” later, and second place overall Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) even further behind, Wiggins was confirmed as only the fifth British rider in history to wear the Maillot Jaune; he now led the race, ten seconds ahead of Evans, with Nibali 16 seconds down in third.
"I’ve dreamt about this all year," said Wiggins to the TV cameras. "As you go through the process, put it into action and do a day like we did today, that is an incredible feeling. It hasn't really sunk in yet. It is something that I have dreamt of since I was a child, really, sat on the home trainer watching my Tour de France hero Miguel Indurain do it. Now I am here at the top of a mountain in yellow…it is phenomenal."
The Tour de France hits the mountains at last
After an opening week of Classics-style stages, sprint stages, and a number of serious crashes, the 2012 Tour de France was to hit the mountains at last on stage seven, between Tomblaine and La Planche des Belles Filles. The 199km course was to climb the 3rd category Cols de Grosse Pierre and du Mont de Fourche, before the final 1st category climb to the finish.
An 19-man group broke clear at the front of the peloton after just 11km, including Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and two of his teammates. From this group Riblon, Sørensen, Velits, Albasini, Gauter, Fofonov and Sánchez got away after 15km and, once the seven-man group had formed it began to build a healthy lead.
Of the group, Riblon was the best placed, in 55th overall, 5’04” behind Cancellara, and very soon was the virtual Maillot Jaune. After 50km the group’s lead was up to 5’40”, which dropped a little before rising to 5’55” at the 76km point.
With Team Sky and BMC Racing leading the peloton it had come down to 5’20” as the race passed through the feedzone, in Laveline-devant-Bruyères after 86.5km. Gautier led over the intermediate sprint in Gérardmer after 95.5km, and - as green jersey Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) easily beat Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) to the line to take the points for seventh place - the peloton was 4’50” behind.
Sørensen, protecting the polka-dot jersey of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank teammate Michael Mørkøv, took the two points over the top of the Grosse Pierre after 87km, ahead of Sánchez. Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp), who had crashed several times in the preceding stages, was dropped by the peloton as it took on the climb, but regained it on the descent as the gap to the leaders stayed constant.
Garmin-Sharp joins the chase as the group’s days are numbered
With 60km to go Manuel Quinziato (BMC Racing) was leading the peloton with Team Sky duo Christian Knees and Bernhard Eisel, and the gap to the seven leaders was still 4’45”. It was down to 4’30” as they climbed the Mont de Fourche with 50km to go, as Dave Zabriskie (Garmin-Sharp) came forward to help the chase.
Farrar was in trouble on the climb once again, with Garmin-Sharp teammate Johan Vansummeren also slipping backwards. Katusha and Omega Pharma-Quick Step began moving forward as the peloton neared the top, but the Sky and BMC Racing teams maintained control.
Sørensen led Sánchez over the top again, with 48.5km to go, but the peloton was just 3’45” behind them by now. Garmin-Sharp began sending more riders forward, with David Millar coming to help Zabriskie, as the race tackled the rolling roads on the approach to the final climb.
With 25km to go the gap was down to 2’20”, as Lotto-Belisol also began to send riders forward on behalf of team leader Jurgen Van Den Broeck. A few kilometres later the Belgian team had most of its squad lined up on the front and the seven riders’ advantage was beginning to tumble. With 21km left it dropped below two minutes, and this fell to 1’30” with 17km left.
Garmin-Sharp took over the head of the peloton once more, as the race began to rise towards the foot of the final climb. The seven leaders were still co-operating well but, as Liquigas-Cannondale also sent riders forward, their lead was still falling quickly.
Gautier was beginning to struggle up ahead however and, as Fofonov attacked with 15km to go, the Frenchman was the last to regain contact. As the road rose again though, the Europcar rider lost contact again, leaving just six in he lead; as they hit the final 12km however, they were less than a minute ahead.
Garmin-Sharp was still leading, with Millar increasing the pace once more; this was putting his own teammates in trouble, with Christian Vande Velde and then Zabriskie dropped out the back, but the British rider continued until Edvald Boasson Hagen led a long line of Team Sky riders past him.
Team Sky puts the peloton to the sword as the final climb begins
Just as the British team moved ahead with 11km to go, disaster struck for Van Den Broeck as his chain came off on a steep bend. The Belgian was pushed off by a teammate, but faced a long chase to regain the peloton again as it descended to the foot of the climb.
As Gautier was picked up by the peloton, the remaining six were hovering 35 seconds clear as Team Sky strung the peloton out. Van Den Broeck was a similar distance behind, being paced by teammate Adam Hansen.
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who had crashed the previous day, also found himself spat out the back as Boasson Hagen’s pace began to split the peloton. Caught behind the split was Robert Gesink (Rabobank), and the rest of his team; Van Den Broeck fought his way up to the back of the Dutchman’s group, but was still a long way behind the leaders.
As the climb began the six-man group was just a handful of seconds ahead of the front part of the peloton, as Albasini and Sørensen struck out ahead of the rest. One by one the other riders from the group were picked up, until Sørensen was out ahead on his own, but the Danish rider was finally caught as Team Sky rode past him with just over 5km to go.
The British team continued its pace, with Michael Rogers setting a strong tempo, and the front group shrank further and further. Cancellara was soon dropped, along with second place overall Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), meaning that Wiggins was now riding into yellow. Fränk Schleck (RadioShack-Nissan) soon followed, as did Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), and Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD).
As Porte took over, with Wiggins on his wheel, the group was cut to less than a dozen riders as they passed under the three kilometres to go banner. Still present were defending champion Evans, Nibali, Taaramäe, Denis Menchov (Katusha), Janez Brajkovič (Astana), Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale),Haimar Zubeldia (RadioShack-Nissan) and 2011 white jersey Pierre Rolland (Europcar).
Brajkovič and Roche were gapped with 2.5km to go, but Wiggins still had Porte and Froome for company. As the Kenyan-born rider took over, Zubaldia and Rolland lost contact, and Menchov soon followed. Into the final kilometre Froome and Wiggins had just Evans, Nibali and Taaramäe for company, but Menchov was leading Rolland and Zubeldia in pursuit not far behind them. Down the road a little further Maxime Monfort was leading RadioShack-Nissan leader Schleck with Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat).
As the five-man lead group entered the final 400 metres, Evans sprinted away, but the Australian was only able to get a few metres clear as the steepness of the climb continued. Froome was still loyally leading Wiggins across the the defending champion but, as they pulled up to him he was released and jumped past the BMC Racing rider as the line came into view.
As the road steepened one last time Froome pulled away, and crossed the line several lengths clear of Evans, who had Wiggins tucked on his wheel. Nibali came in a few seconds later, with Taaramäe following.
Cancellara came in after 1’52” with Van Den Broeck and Lotto-Belisol teammate Jelle Vanendert, but ahead of many big climbers.