tour de France 2010- Stage 18

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 four for TdF 2010 The 18^th Stage of the TdF was from Salies-de-Béarn to Bordeaux, a distance of 198km.  A flat stage after the last 4 days in the Pyrenees was a relief to all riders and the fact that there was almost no effort to chase the inevitable breakaway till the last kms, also showed the mindset of the riders, who just want to finish this tour on the streets of Paris on Sunday. The breakaway was allowed to go out and the peleton settled down soon enough into a steady pace. In the end, it was the Manx Missile of HTC Columbia, who as predicted by me in yesterday’s post, blasted out of the bunch sprint & gave a master class in the art of winning bike races. It was a clean sprint without his leadout man Renshaw and showed the frightening skills of a man who almost did not make the start in the morning due to fever & bronchitis. Cavendish won with enough space & time to spare in the end. The start town of today, Salies-de-Béarn with a population of around 5,000, is on the tour route for the 2^nd time. A thermal spa, city of salt, Salies-de-Béarn located between Pau and Biarritz, owes its reputation to a unique saltwater source created by a geological oddity formed 200 million years ago. The picturesque old houses on stilts with steeply sloping roofs as well as the prestigious town houses dating back to the end of the 19th century recount centuries of an enthralling history. One of the legends that one hears is of the boar that was killed by hunters and which was miraculously preserved all these years due to the salt contained in the marshes. After Paris the finishing stage town of Bordeaux has the record for hosting the tour the maximum number of times, 79 so far. On its 80^th visit the Tour will find this city of more than 225,000 people, also known as the City of Festivals, to be the right place to wind down after a hectic two weeks. A city of art, trade and history, Bordeaux is also a UNESCO listed world heritage site.

The stage began at Salies-de-Béarn with all 171 riders who finished the race yesterday. (Simon Spilak of Lampre had hung his boots in the race yesterday after the 20km mark.) The race route for this stage had two intermediate sprints. With the climbs all over for this year’s TdF, the Polka dotted King of the Mountain jersey was won by Anthony Charteau of Bbox Telecom yesterday. As soon as the race began Benoît Vaugrenard of Française des Jeux escaped and built a small lead. By the 11km mark he got Jérôme Pineau of Quick Step, Daniel Oss of Liquigas-Doimo and Matti Breschel of Saxo Bank along for company. These 4 riders formed the break of the day. Two BMC Racing riders – Alessandro Ballan and Marcus Burghardt also tried to join the breakaway but were quickly pulled back by the peloton. The peleton kept a steady pace and with the bunch sprint looming in the end as a possibility, HTC Columbia & Lampre sent its riders the task of keeping the leaders within catchable distance. These riders rode to the plan and at no time could the breakaway set a time gap of over 3min consistently. The Astana riders in the peleton were up to the mark on ensuring that Contador in the Yellow was protected at all times from any split in the peleton. So much so that Contador had to change his bike midway, which he did efficiently & then rode himself back into the peleton. Also seen was Schleck, who made his way to the back of the peleton to consult the Tour Doctor in the middle of the race. No details are available on this visit, so far, hopefully it will not be something which will hamper his riding in tomorrows’ time trial. In the front, with the catch by the peleton imminent, Oss, riding his first tour, went hell for leather and left the other three riders behind. He rode a very strong race till the final 3.5km, when the peleton swallowed him too. At the front of the peleton for the first time Team Sky put in a very organized sprint train for Hagen. Lampre who had done the lion’s share of the work the whole day also was out for Ale Jet. So was Cervalo test team for Hushovd. But in the end, all of this was of no avail, as even with out Renshaw, his regular leadout man, Cavendish exploded from behind the wheels of Ale Jet and rode with such ferocity that none of the other sprints could even cast a shadow at him. He won with time to spare & turned around to see who was finishing & at what place, such was his speed today. With this win he takes his tally of TdF stage wins for this year to 4, and his total tally to 14. The rest of the peleton rode in at the same time and so there was no change in the overall standings. A visibly happy Cavendish told the journos, “I wasn’t sure if I was going to even start the stage. I’ve been sick the last four days with bronchitis – actually, there are a hell of a lot of guys in the peloton with the same thing so I’m not only one. But I finally had the fever yesterday and I was dead last night and never thought I could start today. We decided, ‘Oh, okay I’ll go. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t…’ 
Even during the stage, I was speaking with Brad [Wiggins] and he said, ‘Are you sprinting today?’ And I told him, ‘Yeah.’ 
He then told me that I’m not normally as talkative as I was when I’m up for a sprint. But I told him that we didn’t really have the pressure on and if I don’t win, we know the reason… but it was so nice to see the guys working so incredibly hard. I was sitting in 10th wheel and the guys were pulling and pulling and pulling. The guys in the escape were strong and also very clever and, as we saw in the end, it was hard to bring back (Daniel) Oss – he did a brilliant ride at the finish – and we had to use Michael (Rogers) and Tony (Martin) to pull him back. 
It was up me to kind of freestyle for the last kilometer. I was jumping from wheel to wheel; I was back to my old style of sprinting and it worked out, so it’s okay. This one is for Mark (Renshaw). We actually planned a celebration. I was going write ‘Renshaw’ on my gloves but Bob said I couldn’t do stuff like that. But I think the whole team rode the way they did for Mark today. It was remarkable. We miss him in the team, we miss him when we’re racing, we miss him at the dinner table and I still think it’s a shame that he left in the circumstances that he did. I’ll never say never when it comes to the green jersey but I lost it in the first week. It hasn’t really been my aim. At the end of the day, I like to win bike races. I’ve always said, ‘If I win the green jersey by winning races, that’ll do.’ We’ll try and win again in Paris and see what happens.”

At the end of Stage 18 the over all race results are as follows. Alberto Contador of Team Astana remains in the Yellow. Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre takes over the Green jersey. Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank continues in the White jersey. Anthony Charteau of Bbox Telecom has already won the King of the Mountain jersey for TdF 2010. Team RadioShack consolidates their position as the best team in the race.

The Tour de France Stage 19, is from Bordeaux to Pauillac, a distance of 52km. This being an Individual Time Trial, and a long at that, it will be the single most important stage that Andy Schleck would have ever ridden in his life. He is behind by only 8secs, but Contador is very strong rider & is aiming to win the stage tomorrow. So will Andy be able to ride away from Contador & win the TdF? Me thinks, not possible. A shorter distance would have been much easier for Andy, but with 52km – a stretch too much. Contador is strongly tipped to extend his time gap over Andy, but watch out for Fabian Cancellara, he will be out there for ride to a stage win. Also, Menchov & Sanchez will try & put some time into Andy for a possible podium stage. RadioShack riders, Horner & Leipheimer too will try to put in solid rides.

So till tomorrow…:) Au revoir… Email : mrquizmaster@gmail.com