[Le Tour 2003]Stage 2 - Reaction to the Wreckage

[Tour Reporter]

Stage 2 - La Ferte-sous-Jouarre - Sedan - 204 km

It seems like the majority of the peleton is still nursing the physical 
and mental impact of the high speed pileup at the end of yesterday's stage.

Despite the incredible severity of the crash and the sheer number of 
riders to hit the pavement, only Rabobank's Levi Leipheimer & Marc Lotz 
did not start today. Leipheimer has fractured his hip and unfortunately 
now watches the Tour from a hospital room.

Jimmy Caspar (FDJeux.com), who the cameras found stretched out flat on 
his back with dotors attending to his neck, rides today with a cervical 
collar - not something you generally see in the peleton. Doctors are 
having him wear it for the next two days, and he seems about as 
uncomfortable as one could be while riding a bike.

Tyler Hamilton (CSC) received a double fracture of his collarbone, yet 
amazingly, he is still in the race.  Yes, he is still in the race. Yes, 
he does have a double fracture of his collarbone.

At a press conference last night, Tyler said, "(I was) praying it wasn't 
going to be broken. This was my 7th Tour, but felt that this was _my_ 
tour.  The legs are strong.  I've dedicated my life to it this past 
year..." He seemed very focused still, but it will be difficult for him 
to hold onto his goal of a podium finish.

Many other riders are bandaged up today, but it's stunning how few 
riders were able to avoid damage.  Of note is Vlatchislav Ekimov from 
the USPostal Service, who went down in the bunch drop.  He's scratched 
himself up pretty well, but is tucked quietly into the peleton and knows 
how to recover. USPS will need his efforts in the Team Time Trial.

Lilian Jegou (126) from Credit Agricole and Frederic Fino (215)  for 
Jean Dela Tour have the unenviable task of being the day's rabbits. They 
wandered off tweh Under 11 minutes with about 96 km to go.

Took a book out of the Giro d'Italia and looped a camera cable around 
Jegou's handlebars, sending him sprawling and having the comissar's car 
nearly crush him. The replay shows his helmeted head just inches from 
the swerving auto tire.

It's been rather still, humid and overcast, with muted colors and 
seemsingly, a muted mood among the riders. The sun has begun to break 
through, finally casting shadows on the roadway.

The camera finds Tyler, who seems to be holding a steady, slight wince 
as he vibrates over the roadways of northern France.

The leading duo hold a 8:18 gap with 83 km, but a few minutes later, the 
peleton has chopped another minute in the last 5 km. The phrase "doomed 
breakaway" comes to mind.

Levi Leipheimer interviewed at the hospital barely is able to hold the 
obvious anger down in his voice, "I'm just thinking, trying to see if i 
made a mistake.  I was just staying at the front. Just bad luck."

Crash in the field -
looks like a quick touch of wheels as the roads narrowed.  Most riders 
move around it, but the cameras find Gerolsteiner's Uwe Peschel and 
Fabio Baldato of Alessio pulling themselves up off of the pavement.  For 
Baldato, that must be hell, as he was involved in yesterday's pileup and 
has heavily bandanged knees.  He also had to have tendon stitched back 
into his hand last night.

Fassa Bortolo and Lotto hammer out the pace, with Robbie McEwen holding 
a one point lead in the green points jersey competition.  Theycontinued 
to reduce the gap, with just over 6 and a half minutes gap and 70 odd 
kilometers to go to the finish.

The camera keeps finding neck-brace wearing Caspar, and both times, 
Saeco's Danilo DiLuca has been riding very close by at the back end of 
the peleton.  There's no obvious problem, but he doesn't look entirely 
smooth.

The sprint for third place opens up in the Ardenns town of Avancon. 
Badly boxed in by a group of six riders, McEwen suddenly finds a gap and 
shoots away, to freewheeel over the sprint point and nab a couple points.

As they rehash the specifics of yesterday's crash, a bit of the blame 
has shifted toward Mederic Clain of Cofidis, who was the rider just in 
front of Kelme's Guiterrez.  He may have faded out slightly as the group 
rocketed around the corner, causing a quick touch of wheels from which 
the Spanish rider could not recover. Of course, as anyone who has riden 
in a pack will tell you, it's rather important not to put yourself half 
a wheel up on anyone in any bunch.

5 minutes time gap with about 60 km left to go.

A slight shift has happened in the leading pair, as with 43.3 km to go, 
the leading pair has been holding on at 5:25.  As their team directors 
have probably told them, there's a strong chance that one of these 
riders could be wearing the yellow jersey at the end of the day.

Attacking suddenly on a comparatively slight incline, Frederic Finot, 
has gone alone - he sits only 15 seconds off the yellow jersey with the 
day's time sprint bonuses.  With a 20 second stage winner's bonus, he 
can let the gap get down to 1 seconds and still manage to pull on the 
yellow jersey.  He's left his old breakaway companion pedaling squares. 
Finot has gained a quick gap of over 1 minute, and continues moving 
strongly.

Another delay on the roadway - ONCE's Jose Azevedo seems to be the only 
rider impacted, but the whole bunch stands and shuffle around him.

Finot thumps out a strong cadence as he heads uphill.  He's on the 
proper climb of the Cote de Longwe, which is an uncategorized climb 
about 35 km from the finish.

Off the back, Danilo Diluca gets paced up between the team cars, he 
looks like he's still uncomfortable - reports of "cystisis" - eeeeewww...

Jegou has dropped back to about 2:30 behind the time-trialing Finot, but 
he seems to have made the crest of the climb, and both of the soloists 
are benfitting from a definite tailwind.

Finot thrums along in the sunlight with constant crowds cheering him on 
- the gap has remained steady with 26 km to go.  His silver chromed 
Scott frame glitters in the sunlight as he pushes his forehead down to 
the stem.

Behind him, Jegou soft-pedals as the peleton swarms up and around him. 
Lotto drives the pace, but they have quite a bit of ground to make up - 
well, exactly 4:33 to be accurate.  Finot hammers under the 20 km to go 
banner, with every cameraman in the French press trying to get a shot of 
him.

Diluca is again off the back, paced by big man Paolo Fornaciari.  Up 
front, Telekom has joined into the chase, but the bunch remains a bit 
broad on the roadway. A quick recalculation shows that Finot can finish 
in the same time as the peleton, and as long as he finishes first, will 
pull on the yellow jersey.  If he manages to do this, he will have 
managed to stay away for just under 200 km. FDJeux.com has joined the 
rotation with Fassa Bortolo, Lotto and Telekom, but they pass under the 
20 km to go banner with the gap at a flat 4 minutes.

Telekom has 5 riders in the rotation, but the other teams have only one 
or two  -

Crash in the peleton -
Looks like it happened close to the back, with 20 or so riders held up 
by the tumble.  A Vini Caldorola rider looks pretty stunned, still 
sitting on the side of the road with a good chunk out of his right knee 
- 166 Marco Milesi - who is quickly attended to by the doctors and 
regains his feet with some help.  A Gerolsteiner rider will need a new 
team kit at the end of the day - shorts shredded and jersey scraped up. 
  My roster list has it as Olaf Pollack, but the Phil/Paul combine name 
another rider.

Now the QuickStep-Davitamon squad punish the pedals at the head of 
events while the Jean Delatour team director urges his rider on from the 
car.  The gap is down to 1:50 as he struggles on the rolling roadway. 
Finot's head is slowly pulling down between his shoulders as the strain 
spreads throughout his body and everything continues to tighten and 
squeal.

Whether the crash or the sudden realization that Finot has slowed 
slightly, the pack now have lit the touchpaper and stretch to no more 
than one rider width, and with 5 km to go, the peleton has stretched out 
and split, with a number of riders getting spat out the back. The 
bruised and battered gather and ride tempo to the finish, while soem 
like Alessandro Petacchi bend their bars to reattach.

Finot hits 4 km to go, and the slobbering bunch are no more than 10 
seconds behind. they stretch out and a long thin line of riders claw 
their way across the roadways.  Slight dinking around in the group gives 
Finot the glimmer of hope, as no one wants to be on the front as the 
catch is made. But, just before the 2 km to go banner, but they can 
smell the lube on his drivetrain.  The last 20 meters of lead are 
dissolving into nothing... He is caught after nearly 200 km of effort.

The tone of the race shifts dramatically, as sprinters leadout men take 
over.  Brad McGee shows the yellow jersey next to Suart O'Grady near the 
front and Erik Zabel slots in right nearby.  Today's finish is broad and 
wide, with Boulangerie riders driving the leadout for their sprinter, 
Damian Nazon.  The French teams clearly are stinging under the repeated 
statements of their inadequacy.

The bunch scream aound a left turn and race under the 1 km banner. They 
can see the finish - dead straight ahead with a kilometer to go.

At about 700 meters, McGee has left early, thinking he can use his 
ex-track-pursuiter explosiveness to snatch the win.  He dodges right and 
left, but, others have moved hard to his attack.  Zabel is on him, along 
with O'Grady and Nazon.  McEwen is not in contact, but struggles 
furiously to get back up.

Up the other side of the roadway, the other Nazon - Jean-Patrick of Jean 
Delatour begins a hard move. Zabel instinctively jumps over and Jan 
Kirsipuu of Ag2R moves up into second - perfect position as they streak 
towards the line. Kirsipuu moves hard and gains ground.  From the other 
side of Nazon, FDJeux.com rider Baden Cooke fires up from behind the two 
of them and moves hard at the line.  Kirsipuu throws his bike but is a 
good half wheel behind as Baden Cooke takes the stage!

Erik Zabel drives to the line with good speed - he may have just nicked 
enough of a finish bonus to jump into green at the end of the day.

Stage 2 -
1 - Baden Cooke - FDJeux.com - 5:06:33
2 - Jan Kirsipuu - Ag2R
3 - Jean-Patrick Nazon - Jean Delatour
4 - Erik Zabel - Telekom
5 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole
6 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto
7 - Paolo Bettini - QuickStep-Davitimon
8 - Stuart O'Grady - Credit Agricole
9 - Fred Rodriguez - Vini Caldirola
10 - Mikel Artetxe - Euskatel-Euskadi

All riders - Same Time

Tomorrow's Stage

Charleville-Mezieres - Saint-Dizier - 167 km

No point of the course will climb above 311 km as they head due south 
from the Belgian border.  Another day for the sprinters, it would seem, 
as the teams scratch off the scabs and prepare for Wednesday's Team Time 
Trial.

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