tour de France 2010- Stage 11

This is a guest post by Mr.Q, a professional quizmaster and an ardent Tour de France fan who is reporting his 2nd full tour

Manx Missile makes it win no. 13 for himself!! The 11^th Stage of the TdF was from Sisteron to Bourg-lès-Valence, a distance of 184.5km. Another undramatic day on the tour got its share of drama at the very end, just 500m from the finish, when Mark Renshaw the final deliveryman for the HTC Columbia sprint train showed everyone, specially Julian Dean of Garmin Transitions, his head butting skills, not once but thrice, all while pedaling away at over 60km/hour!! For his efforts, the Race organisers disqualified him from the tour for endangering the whole peleton, which was rushing towards the finish line. The victory of Mark “Manx Missile” Cavendish as predicted in yesterday’s post by me was just a formality as after being in the clear he just blasted aside everyone else in the last 300m to the finish line.

Sisteron, with a population of around 8,000 is being part of the Tour for the first time. The Citadel from the 12^th century is the best standout point of mention for this town.. Also for the foodies, the tender lamb preparation along with sweet apples that grow here are the things to try when one visits this town of poet Paul Arène. The finishing stage town of Bourg-lès-Valence with a population of around 20,000 is also being part of the tour for the very first time. Just an hour away from Lyon and two hours away from Marseilles, Bourg-lès-Valence is in fact the first town in the Drôme area to make electric bicycles available to its residents.

The stage began at Sisteron with 179 riders turning up, as two riders Charlie Wegilus of OmegaPharma Lotto (due to stomach bug) & Robbie Hunter (due to a broken bone from Stage 9 crash which became unbearable) dropped out. The race route for this stage was one with just one categorized climb of Cat III on the Col de Cabre. Again there were just 2 intermediate sprints in the course for the sprinters to grab the Green jersey points. As soon as the race started Stephane Auge of Cofidis went for a break and was successful. Soon enough he was joined by two other riders -Anthony Geslin of Française des Jeux, and Jose Alberto Benitez of Footon-Servetto. This trio made the breakaway group for the day, but try as they might they were doomed from the very beginning as the sprinter’s teams kept a very tight leash and never allowed them to go away from the peleton by over 5 min. With these three riders taking away the top three sprint points & the King of the Mountains points, the peleton really did not try to up the ante at any stage.  Action was seen when Jerome Pineau of Quick Step rode away from Anthony Charteau of Bbox Telecom to grab the single point left in the King of Mountains jersey classification on the Col de Cabre. David Zabriskie of Garmin Transition toiled hard at the front of the peleton for a long time. So did HTC’s Bert Grabsch. It was with the finish line being within 30km stage when the other teams also started showing interest in working the head of the peleton. Saxo Bank sensing that the headwind was turning to become a tailwind moved to the front & built a good rhythm which saw a few Astana riders getting popped in the back, but Vinokourov saw Contador safely into the front of the peleton, as did RadioShack riders for Levi Leipheimer. In the breakaway, as they realized that the catch was imminent – Benitez did try for a solo attack, but was caught. With around 22km more to go, the escape was over for the breakaway riders & HTC’s sprint train took up the front. Cervalo Test Team & Lampre also sent out its sprint trains for Hushovd & Ale Jet. But the most notable train was of Garmin Transitions for Tyler Farrer with Julian Dean who put in a fantastic effort to come along side Renshaw.  That was when the Gladiator in Renshaw came to the fore & after his head butting performance he pulled away right into the path of the Garmin Sprinter, thus impeding his sprint line. Nevertheless, Cavendish as soon as he saw Ale Jet trying to take off by his side went out full throttle for the line in a long sprint and won by a handsome margin. Ale Jet came in 2^nd while Farrer came in 3^rd. Hushovd did not have the energy to beat any of them and finished 7^th and hence Ale Jet now takes over the Green jersey. The rest of the peleton rolled in for the same time & so there are no changes in the overall standings.

Manx Missile had this to say at the end of the race, “It’s nice to keep winning. I’ve got a dedicated group of guys and I’ve got to thank them all. It takes a great group of guys to keep putting themselves out there. I’m really happy.
 I had to go from a bit further out today – 350 meters to go, while normally I go between 250 and 200… so it was really, really long. It was more like a breakaway in terms of sprinting. It was a hard first week in terms of getting the green jersey. I lost a lot of chances to gain points – mainly my own fault in the Arenberg stage, when I thought there was a big group ahead so I rolled in quite easy… but I really should have finished in with McEwen’s group and it might be a bit different. Then, the day after, I just didn’t have the legs and that put me even further behind. 
Now it’s about getting stage wins. If the green jersey comes, it comes but it’s a great battle. Thor and Alessandro are great sprinters and it’s actually fun to watch that battle unfold.” On Mark Renshaw who was disqualified, Cav said, 
“Mark held Julian Dean off and opened the door for me to go. It was Julian who put his elbow in and if Mark didn’t push back there was a chance they could have locked elbows and gone down. Mark just kept going and did everything he could to keep me out of trouble. I’m lucky to have a guy who will put himself on the line for me like that. He’s got incredible bike handling skills and it’s so nice to be able to follow his wheel from 50 kilometers to go and know that, at the finish, I’ll be put in a winning position.”

At the end of Stage 10 the over all race results are as follows. Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank continues in the Yellow. Alessandro Petacchi Lampre takes over the Green jersey. Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank leads in the White jersey category (though on the road tomorrow Robert Gesink of Rabobank will wear that jersey as Andy wears his Yellow jersey) & Jerome Pineau of Quick Step continues the King of the Mountain. Caisse D’Epargne continues as the best team in the race. The Tour de France Stage 11, is from Bourg-de-Péage to Mende, a distance of 210.5km. The highest categorized climb of the day is the Cat. II Suc de Montivernoux at 4,500 feet elevation, but more important will be the final climb of the day, the Cat. II Croix-Neuve which is the steepest hill of the entire Tour, rising up for 3.1km at 10%, with 14% pitches on its three switchbacks. I can see Contador & Schelck fighting it out once again. The head butts are here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saPLJQZhQpk So till tomorrow…:) Au revoir… Email : mrquizmaster@gmail.com