World champion wants to avoid splits at the finish that could cost him a second or two
Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo) is wearing the yellow jersey of the Tour de France for the fourth time in his career. Unlike those previous occasions though, once in 2004 and twice in 2006, he doesn’t find himself in the position of his team’s undisputed leader.
Garmin-Cervélo’s top sprinter is Tyler Farrar who, while he lacks the palmares and experience of the Norwegian, has a faster finish than the 33-year-old and holds the team’s best chance of taking a sprint victory.
“I will try to be up there and help him as much as I can,” Hushovd told Sporza before the start of stage three, “but at the same time I have to defend this jersey.”
While there are no time bonuses at either the intermediate sprints or stage finishes, there is still a real danger that someone could take Hushovd’s jersey at the finish if he does too much to help his teammate.
“If you do a leadout and you have to stop pedalling with 500 metres to go, because you went too deep, then maybe you’re behind a split,” he explained, “and if I lose one or two seconds, I also lose the jersey.”
Should he get caught behind a split at the finish, or in some of the crosswinds that are bound to hit the peloton as it follows France’s west coast, his teammate David Millar would be the man to step into the jersey. If Millar also loses time though, it would leave the team and go to Hushovd’s predecessor in the rainbow jersey Cadel Evans (BMC Racing).
Stage two’s team time trial was Garmin-Cervélo’s first ever stage win in the Tour, but Hushovd believes that it’s more than possible that the Argyle team could add its second on stage three.
“I think Tyler Farrar has a really big chance,” he said, “but you always have to mention, of course, Cavendish and Petacchi; they are, it seems, the best sprinters out there now.
“[Denis Galimzyanov is] also an interesting guy, he’s often up there,” he added, when specifically asked about the Katusha sprinter. “He’s had a couple of nice wins this year: I think he can be a surprising rider, who suddenly comes up with a stage win.”
Whatever happens at the stage finish in Redon, Hushovd will hope that there is no repeat of his first day in yellow in Strasbourg back in 2006. Having won the prologue, the Norwegian was already on course to lose the jersey to George Hincapie, after the American took a time bonus on the road, but his chances of holding on to it were blown when he hit an outstretched spectator’s camera as he sprinted for the line.
He took yellow back the next day, but the memory of lying in the road with blood pouring from a gash in his arm is not one he will wish to repeat.