“Fédrigo repeats Pau win on Stage 15 – TdF 2012”

This is a guest post by Mr.Q, a professional quizmaster and an ardent Tour de France fan who is reporting his 4th tour

Pierrick Fédrigo of FDJ-BigMat rode a race, which he had planned for the whole of two years!! In 2010, he won the tour stage ending at Pau, and after missing the tour last year due to health issues, rode in to Pau as the winner in today’s stage, repeating the feat first done 2 years back. With this win, he too like yesterday’s winner Luis Leon Sanchez, has 4 stage wins in the tour. “Each stage that I have won offers something special,” said Fédrigo . “The first win is always moving. The second was in Tarbes, a few miles from my house, which obviously makes it memorable. The third was the Queen Stage of the Pyrenees in 2010, with the Tourmalet, the Aubisque, Aspin and Soulor mountain passes – they are beautiful places for me as I’m from this region. And this is the victory of a comeback after a year of illness, and that means a lot.What I had last year, was more difficult to cope with than riding the Tour de France. Of course we know the painful moments of the race, but Lyme disease has taught me to suffer differently” was how a philosophical Fédrigo ended. The second day in the Pyrenees,saw the 15^th road Stage of the 99^thTour de France go from Samatan to Pau, a distance of 158.5kms. For the record, all the 162 riders who finished yesterday, turned up at the start today. But by the end of the stage, only 156 riders were left, with as many as 6 riders calling it quits at TdF 2012, including Sylvain Chavanel & sprinters – Lancaster, Van Hummel, Hutarovyich being names amongst them.

The race started in Samatan and for the first time in the tour, no rider or team could make an effective escape. Rider after rider tried to get away, but despite their efforts and a small gap of few seconds, none of the escapees could make a break from the peloton. So much was the struggle, that Edvald Boasson Hagen and Bernard Eisel of Team Sky, who were left doing the job of riding at the front of the peloton, after an hour and half of frenetic pace making, were seen doing theatrical gestures that the stage was being neutralised!!

After 62km of riding, a group of five with Christian Vande Velde of Garmin-Sharp, Pierrick Fédrigoof FDJ-BigMat, Thomas Voeckler of Europcar, Samuel Dumoulin of Cofidis and Dries Devenyns of Omega Pharma-Quick Stepescaped to form the breakaway of the day. Once they had made a grouping, the peloton eased off as none of them were of any danger to the leading rider’s positions. Nicki Sørensen of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank had by then jumped the peloton and was finding it difficult to make it to the lead group. This was when his team put a few riders in the front and threatened to pull in the breakaway, if they did not ease up enough for Nicki to make the break. As is the norm in professional riding, all the breakaways saw sense in letting his join up and the moment he joined then, his team riders went back into the peleton and Team Sky took over the front! The group of 6 continued on in good camaraderie and as their gap rose, it became apparent that today’s stage winner would be from them and the sprinters who actually thought it would be their stage, were left licking their wounds, as none of the leading teams found chasing the breakaway up to their cup of tea. Invariably, when this happens, it becomes a very boring affair for all involved, fans on the road & fans watching on the television. But after almost two weeks of hectic riding, one could excuse these riders for an one off boring day. Something on these lines was also echoed by Frank Schleck in his interview couple of days ago, where, he expressed hat this year’s tour was turning out to be a boring one, for the way it was designed. With just around 10kms left for the final line, it was Sørensen who attacked first. But a vigilant Voeckler, dragged him back. Around the 8km mark again Sørensen made an attack. This time the sprinter in the group Dumoulin marked him down. Finally, 6.6km to go Pierrick Fédrigo made a jump and this time only the Garmin Sharp rider, Vande Velde could make the jump. Together, they rode away from the others, as the remaining four remained undeceive on who was going to make the effort to bring this attack back. By the time they realized the gravity of the situation, the race was already out of their hand.

Vande Velde tried his best, but in the end, he was easily beaten by a stronger rider in Fédrigo, who came in with his arms raised, exactly how he had come in two years back at the same stage!! For the record, Voeckler came in third.

The peloton came into Pau at its own pace, with no team being interested in making any extra effort, the stage was definitely one of the most un-happening race stages in recent tour history.

The leader board remains unchanged. With Bradley Wiggins in The Yellow Jersey, Chris Froome in the second spot followed by Nibali&Evans at third and fourth spots. Jurgen van den Broeck rounds off the top five overall.The Yellow Jersey of the race leader continues with Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky. The Green Jersey for the points leader stays with Peter Sagan of Liqigas Cannondale. The White Jersey, for the best young rider also continues with Tejay van Garderen of BMC Racingteam, while Fredrick Kessiakoff of Team Astana continues asthe King of the Mountain polka dotted Jersey. Team RadioShack-Nissan also continues as the best team in the race.

“There are days like this, when one feels that something will happen,” said Fédrigo in his interview, “And the closer it got, the more motivated I got. When we found ourselves up front with strong riders like Vande Velde and Sorensen, a cunning man like Voeckler, and a fast sprinter like Dumoulin, it is complicated to create a strategy. Sometimes I have to wait a bit to decide how to manage it all.” Yellow Jersey of Bradley Wiggins commenting on the stage said,“I thought the attacks at the start wouldn’t last so long; it went on for almost two hours but the terrain took its toll. There are a lot of tired bodies out there and eventually the break went and it was pretty straightforward. We started the chase but we were only willing to use two guys and we were hoping that Lotto would chuck two in, that GreenEdge would chuck two in… but they weren’t interested so that was the end of that.” The Green jersey holder Peter Sagan , who with a huge 106 points lead on the rest is almost a 100% guaranteed winner now, barring any mechanical issues, said this about today’s stage, “This morning we agreed that this was going to be a difficult day because we didn’t know what the other teams wanted to do. For the first 80kms almost every rider wanted to be in the breakaway, but after the escape went it was good for me. I was surprised that the other sprint teams didn’t work to bring back the break but also happy.” “Now I know that the other riders don’t want to do battle with me anymore. I’ll have another two days in the mountains and, after that, I think I can come in to Paris in the green jersey. I’ll try to have a recovery on the day of the time trial so that I have some strength for the sprint on the final day”, added Sagan, clearly seeing himself on the Champs Élysées. Adding to all this is also the little known fact that, before the race, Sagan had a bet with his team President, that, if he wins the Green Jersey, he will also win a Porsche!! The only condition which his team President made was that, he must also win 2 stages in the tour, and with 3 stages already in the bag, Sagan is bound to ride down the Champs Élysées in his car!! The 16^thstage of TdF will be fromPau to Bagneres de Luchon, a distance of 197kms,after a day of rest in Pau. Me thinks,with two Hors Category climbs in Col d’Aubisque & Col du Tourmalet followed by two Category 1 climbs of Col d’Aspin and Col de Peyresourde, it is going to a cracking race tomorrow. Nibali has to attack on the Tourmalet and descend away, if he has hopes of bagging this TdF. Rolland and Pinot, who have already shown great form, are also going to be in the fray. Can Casar finally win a stage? The dreamer in me wishes for Froome, who according to me is the strongest rider in the tour, to put in the final nail and win by a mile!! Also, will a breakaway be able to stay away, me thinks, YES, it can. Watch this space tomorrow for another tour update…:) Follow Composed Volcano on Facebook. to get to read travel stories or simply subscribe to the blog!