Manx Express repeats 2008 maiden victory at the end of nine-man HTC-Highroad train
Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) repeated his 2008 maiden victory in the city of Châteauroux, winning the seventh stage of the Tour de France, taking his second in this year’s race. The Manx sprinter beat Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) into second, and former teammate André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) into third after a nine-man HTC-Highroad leadout.
“This is a special place,” said Cavendish at he finish. “I’ve got special memories from here. It’s where I won my first stage back in 2008 and the first of 17 wins is important.
“My whole season goes into this race,” he explained. “It’s all about building up to be on my best form with the best team and to win consistently here. You can see how well the guys rode today; this was the HTC train of the old days, completely drilled and working tirelessly all day and holding onto the front until the end.
“I’ve got an incredible bunch of guys working for me,” he added.
The stage was shattered with 40km to go, when a big crash split the peloton in half. British champion Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) was the chief victim, having to abandon with a suspected broken collarbone, but almost half the peloton lost more than three minutes by the finish.
“I’m gutted for Brad,” said Cavendish after being told of his compatriot's fate. “He was on the form of his life! And, despite what some doubters might think, he was going to do something big here.
“I’m really upset for him, I hope he gets better soon.”
Finally a stage for the pure sprinters!
The 218km course between Le Mans and Châteauroux was, aside from the final stage to Paris, the flattest of the race, with now classified climbs in its entire length. Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM) would be safe in the polka-dot jersey that he took on the previous day, while all of the attention would be on the contest for the green jersey, currently held by Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto).
Heading in a south easterly direction for almost the entire course though, it could be exposed to crosswinds later on, and the position of intermediate sprint in Buzançais at just 25.5km to go was sure to mix things up a little.
After complaining that the race organisers had been doing their best to make it difficult for him to take sprint victories, Mark Cavendish (HTC-Highroad) was the outstanding favourite. Châteauroux was where the Manx Missile took his maiden Tour victory in the 2008 race, and the stage looked tailor made for him to take his seventeenth.
The customary early break has FDJ represented as usual
As has been usual in the 2011 Tour so far, a breakaway group escaped inside the first kilometre of the stage; the group consisted of Gianni Meersman and Mickael Delage (both FDJ), Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Yannick Talabardon (Saur-Sojasun).
FDJ had been present in the stage-long breakaway on every stage so far but one, stage five, and Delage had been there on stage three. Meersman and Talabardon were both making their debut in the race, while the Belgian was best placed overall, in 56th place, 3’22” behind Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo).
After just 6km the quartet led the peloton by 3’40”; Talabardon suffered a puncture but was able to rejoin the leaders as they sat up to wait for him.
After 13km the gap had widened to 6’20”; it continued to grow after this point, but at a much slower rate. As usual the peloton was being led by HTC-Highroad and Garmin-Cervélo, on behalf of Cavendish and Hushovd. The break’s advantage was up to 8’10” by the 75km point, before it began to gradually come down again.
Tornado Tom is forced to call it a day
With 90km down, there was bad news for Quick Step, as Tom Boonen abandoned the race due to the injuries he sustained in his crash on stage five. His teammate, French champion Sylvain Chavanel, was also suffering the after effects of the same crash but was still soldiering on.
At the feedzone in Chaumont-sur-Loire, after 114km, the break’s advantage had been reduced to 5’30”. The peloton continued to be led by Danny Pate (HTC-Highroad) and Lithuanian champion Ramunas Navardauskas (Garmin-Cervélo) and, once all the riders had their food on board, the speed went up once more and the gap began to fall even more quickly.
With 75km to go the gap was down below three minutes; the chase slowed a little, with the sprinters’ teams clearly not wanting to catch the four riders too soon.
With around 50km to race, with the gap hovering around 2’20”, there was a small crash, involving RadioShack riders Yaroslav Popovych and Haimar Zubeldia; this, as well as a number of punctures, saw the peloton’s speed drop off and, with 40km to go, saw the gap go back up to three minutes.
A massive crash sees Wiggo out and RadioShack left behind
The speed went up once more but, almost immediately, there was a big crash near the middle of the peloton. The worst rider off was Team Sky captain Bradley Wiggins. The British champion was on his feet relatively quickly but, after a long consultation with the race doctor, he sat back down on the grass at the side of the road. His collarbone was broken, and his race was over.
Also brought down, or otherwise delayed, were stage three winner Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Cervélo), and Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, and most of the rest of the RadioShack team.
Additionally, the entire Sky team had waited at the side of the road to see if their captain Wiggins would be able to continue; following his withdrawal, the entire British team found itself left behind. This was bad news for Geraint Thomas and Edvald Boasson Hagen especially, who lost their high places in the overall classification. It also saw them drop from the first two places in the white, young rider jersey classification; a jersey that Thomas has worn since day one.
The break takes the intermediate sprint and Cav cleans up the leftovers
Before the slowing down and crashes of the previous 20km, it had looked for all the world as if the four-rider break would be caught before they arrived at the intermediate sprint. As they approached the line in Buzançais, with 25.5km to go, though, they still held an advantage of more than a minute.
Delage led the foursome towards the line, then Meersman took over; just when it looked like the Belgian was about to take the maximum points though Delage went past him again, to take it on the line.
Virtually the only team to have come out of the big crash entirely unscathed was HTC-highroad, and all nine men were lined up on the front of the peloton, leading Cavendish to the line. The lead out went perfectly, with the Manxman taking it at little more than a canter, with José Jaoquin Rojas (Movistar) in his wheel, an important two places ahead of Gilbert.
Cavendish led the first half of the peloton across the line 1’08” behind Delage’s group, but the second half was now more than a minute behind the first.
The gap was now tumbling fast, Leopard Trek setting a fast tempo to stop the second peloton rejoining, and with 20km it was just 30 seconds. The four leaders kept the pressure on though, and pulled out a few seconds but this was just delaying the inevitable.
The break defiantly hangs on as Leopard Trek presses home its advantage
The real affect of the Leopard Trek pacesetting though, was that the second half of the peloton, the overall ambitions of Leipheimer and Horner, as well as the white jersey of Thomas, were getting further and further away.
Up front, with the peloton visible on the road behind them, Delage put in a small attack, feeling that some of the others were not committed. They caught him up quite quickly though, as the attacked had been largely demonstrative, and he gesticulated for them to come through.
Meersman put in a proper attack with just over 15km to go though, just as HTC-Highroad took over the front of the peloton once more. It was now 1’40” to the second group, although the US-registered team was more interested in the stage win than time.
Meersman was caught by his three companions at 14km to go, prompting another attack from Delage. The FDJ pair could do nothing to prevent their capture at 13km to go though, although Meersman defiantly went alone as the rest were reeled in.
Liquigas-Cannondale was now leading the peloton, with a number of the overall favourites having their teams keep them to the front, and it was the Italian team that had the honour of ending Meersman’s resistance with just over 12km to go.
All for Cavendish as the finish is in sight
All eight remaining members of Team Sky were in the second peloton, and the British team was on the front; but HTC-Highroad was now on the front of the leading group. All nine of its members were strung out in a line, with Cavendish sitting at the rear.
The lead had only increased to 1’42” with 10km to go, but a few kilometres later, it crossed the two minute mark.
With 6km to go Leipheimer punctured while in the second group. The American had a slow change from a neutral service car and so would have a job to do to get back on with the pace so high. Inside 5km Leopard Trek moved to the front again and lifted the pace further, HTC-Highroad wanted control of the peloton though and took it back as the long string of riders entered the wide city streets.
Petacchi had a firm hold of Cavendish’s wheel, while Gilbert was marking Hushovd; Greipel and Denis Galimzyanov were both also there, with the major sprinting casualty of the peloton split being Farrar.
One by one the HTC-Highroad riders peeled off, having done their bit, leaving just Mark Renshaw ahead of Cavendish in the final few hundred metres.
Cavendish is challenged but is never under pressure
Greipel was the first to go, from a long way back, and got his nose in front of the rest as they accelerated later. Once Cavendish was up to speed though the result was never in doubt; the Manxman was on the right side of the road, with the German on the left.
As Cavendish eased past Greipel, Petacchi tried to come around him, while Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM) was going down the middle. Nobody could challenge the Manx Missile though and he took his second stage win of the race, with Petacchi just ahead of Greipel.
The second peloton finally crossed the line 3’06” back, containing Leipheimer, who had lost time on two successive days, and Thomas, who had lost the white jersey to Robert Gesink (Rabobank).
Horner, having come down hard in the incident that saw Wiggins’ abandon, eventually came in last, having lost 12’41’ on the day, and was taken straight to hospital.
Hushovd finished in sixth place and so holds on to his yellow jersey; with the race hitting some more serious climbs in stage nine though, he might find himself changing back to his rainbow jersey very soon.