[Tour 2004]Stage 2 - Charleroi to Namur

[tour-junkie]

Today's Stage - Belgium Again
Charleroi to Namur - 197 kilometers
Another fairly flat stage, but nothing in Belgium is truly safe and simple.
Aside from the winds and weather, there's a sharp short climb at about 50 km
to go - 1.1 km at averaging nearly 7%.  2 spring points on the day, with the
second coming at 158 km after the climb.  If the sprinters' teams can
prevent a spllit on the climb, it could come back together, with a descent
into town and what seems to be a dead-flat finishing run.

It's shaping up to be a nice day, weather-wise. The sun has been breaking
through the clouds and roads are dry.

=================

Lotto's Aussie rider Nick Gates did not start today - eliminated on time
after a hard crash in the wet weather yesterday.  187 riders begin, with a
number of "officially" banged up riders - those who reported to the race
doctors.  Among those listed are two riders from Tyler Hamilton's Phonak
squad, and Benjamin Noval from the USPS.

Thor Hushovd starts the day in the Green Points Jersey, after nabbing some
points on the road and finishing in second.

Palo Bettini gained the Polka Dot Mountains Jersey over the small climbs
yesterday, and leads the race over the first categorized climb today to
receive three more points in his effort.

Attacking after the day's first climb, a group of six now find themselves
about three and a half minutes off the front of the pack with 60 miles still
to go.

66 Jakob Piil -CSC
84 Sebastian Lang - Gerolsteiner
94 Christophe Edaleine - Cofidis
126 Jerome Pineau - La Boulangere
149 Mark Scanlon - Ag2R
167 Christophe Mengin - FDJeux.com

As they run through the feed zone, another American in the race - Christian
Vandevelde riding for Liberty Seguros - receives a rear wheel change and
threads through the team cars to regain the pack.

We've dipped into France for a bit right now, with slightly wider roads and
smoother pavement. The lead group still hold a three minute gap. Thor
Hushovd's Credit Agricole squad has taken up the pacemaking duties, trying
to close down the gap before the day's final sprint point, so their man can
gain maximum points.

Quik-Step begins to pitch in on the efforts as the peleton begins to stretch
out a bit and focus upon cutting down the gap

Roberto Heras of Liberty Seguros finds himself off the back with a flat
tire.  Five teammates immediately drop back to tow him to safety after a
flawless change. Almost immediately they rejoin with a minimum of panic.

The quickening tempo begins to eat into the lead, as the breakaway finds
themselves less than 3 minutes ahead for the first time in quite a bit. They
also find themselves dinking around a bit as they approach the sprint point
in the town Beaumont.  Edeleine swings out from third position in the bunch
and grits it toward the intermediate spring point.  The rest of the riders
spread across the roadway and grimace toward the line.  On the inside, Piil
finds a bit of speed the others lack and screams up on them.  They hit the
line and this result with have to go to the judges. Edeleine just manages to
hold on to nab 6 points. But with the tactical maneuvering, they find their
lead has dropped to 2:30.

Pineau skitters away to push across the final climb point, a 1.1 km
averaging nearly 7% on the Cote de Silenrieux.  That will put a few extra
Euros in the team kitty, but they've lost a little time, down now to 2:10
with about 30 miles to go.  A tailwind is giving a little bit of a push to
the riders.

In the peleton, Quik-Step riders have continued to mass at the front to
bring things back together for the young Belgian phenom Tom Boonen.  The
orange jerseys of Euskatel again mass near the front, clearly taking a page
out of the USPS "How to Win the Tour" handbook. Saeco even shake off some
cobwebs and position themselves to protect Gilberto Simoni.

However, it's becoming clear that they will not get ahold of the break
before the final sprint point.  It's less than 5 km to the town of
Florennes.  The lead has come down under 2 minutes, so with the requisite
amount of tactical messing about, they will lose more time to the
ever-increasing speed of the sprinters' teams.

The sprint is an uphill, dead straight drag.  Piil moves away strongly with
a good jump, but Edeleine times it to perfection and nips it right at the
line.

== crash in the field ==
Before we can even savor the quality of the sprint, the cameras find riders
scattered and jumping off bikes to avoid prone riders.

The cameras find CSC's Andrea Peron getting his gear together and other
riders  hiking back and pulling straw out of their spokes.  Riders seem to
be getting back underway - all except Domina Vananza rider Gianmatteo
Fagnini - Cipo's main leadout man is in a slow-moving heap on the side of
the road.  Unfortunately, he seems to hold his arm in an uncomfortable angle
- indicating he may have damanged his collarbone.

Before too long, the stretcher has been brought around, and it becomes clear
his race is over. 

Back in the race, the pack has begun snarling a bit, and the time gap has
dropped to nearly a minute.  A few USPS riders find themselves briefly at
the front, as they pass through the open fields of Belguim at a visibly
faster clip.

Now Phonak sets the pace for a bit as they run through a bit of traffic
furniture.  They continue to eat away at the gap, and they come into view
only 33 seconds ahead of the bunch.  The race moves into wider and straight
roads now, and you can see the ooomph go out of the legs in the group of
six. The catch is imminent with 12 miles to go

Another crash at the back.  This one leaves a Cofidis rider limps his way
back up out of a deep gutter.  Frederic Bessy is in a couple of worlds of
pain as he tries to get his left leg to work right.

USPS immediately begins to set pace and creates a perimeter of safety for
Lance.  George Hincapie bangs out a strong pace and the other riders come
under a bit of pressure as things stretch out. These are nervous stages and
they know how to keep their man out of trouble.

Word is that the finish has a bit of a curve at 200 meters to go.
Hopefully, we will not find a replay of last year's disasterous crash.

Under ten miles to go and Alessio's Fabio Baldato fires away to try to gain
an advantage.  Actually, it may have been more to put pressure on Thor
Hushovd, who also went down in that crash and is getting towed back up.
Despite the increased pace, he manages to get back on but doesn't look too
happy.  He's having some mechanical issues, as the team car is trying to oil
the chain and make minor tweaks before the final sprint.

8 miles to go and Lance is riding in about 8th position as the USPS works to
keep him up front.  Erik Zabel also works his way onto the wheeel of a
teammate - the only disruption in a group of Fassa Bortolians.  Speed keeps
increasing.

On the other end of the group, Heras again finds himself off the back.  Four
teammates pull him past the tail of the bunch to position him closer to the
middle of the pack.

The roads begin to twist a bit, and Hushovd has found his way back to the
front of the group.  A few Gerolsteiner jerseys  have massed, trying to
launch their sprinter Danilo Hondo.  But Fasso Bortolo keep pushing their
way back to the front.  Paolo Bettini settles into second, and the Quik-Step
group has plans to get their Belgian to the line firrst

Bottles are jettisoned to the side of the road and the Fassa Bortolo
finishing drills begin to show - the train has formed as yellow jersey
wearing Cancellara hammers out the lead with about 2 miles to go. Zabel is
doing everything he can to get the wheel of Petacchi.

At 1 km to go, the peleton hammers around a 90 degree right.

It's has been a Fassa Bortolo team picture, but they seem to be losing speed
and control as Gerolstiener leadout men and Zabel have seeded themselves
into the rotation.  The speed increases again, and Credit Agricole have
ferried Hushovd into the thick of the fray.  Fassa Bortolo leads out the
wrong team as Petacchi seems to be boxed in.  They scream through a sweeping
left turn and focus on the line.

A rider goes down hard on the curve - CSC's Kurt Arvesen must've caught
someone's wheel - it looks like someone pushed over to try to find daylight.
Arvesen slides into Jimmy Caspar from Cofidis who hits the tarmac in an
equally ugly manner.  Somehow riders avoid the widespread disaster and skirt
the prone riders.  

Up front Hushovd has gone hard, but Lotto's Robbie McEwen appears from
nowhere and finds speed that no one else can match.  He has an easy bike
length, checks over his shoulder and crossing the finish with hands in the
air. An interesting finisher is Mario Cipollini, who finished somehwere in
the top ten.

The time bonus for Hushovd's finish will place him into the Yellow Jersey.

Stage 2 Results - 
1 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto
2 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole
3 - Jean-Patrick Nazon - Ag2R
4 - Danilo Hondo - Gerolsteiner
5 - Stuart O'Grady - Cofidis


General Classification -
MJ - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole
2 - Fabian Cancellara - @ :08
3 - Robbie McEwen - @ :12
4 - Lance Armstrong - :22


=================
Tomorrow's Stage - 
Waterloo to Wasquehal - 210 km
What looks to be the absolute flatttest stage on the profile.  However, they
still have a couple recognized climbs. They are sharp little buggers, with a
9.4% climb coming at 14 km.  This could become a springboard for an early
opportunistic attack.  Another comes at around kilometer 61.  Other than
that, what appears to be a very level stage.  Should be a day for the
sprinters. But, the race does find it's way back onto the Belgian cobbles,
so nothing is cast in stone.

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