[Tour 2005]Stage 7 - Luneville - Karlsruhe
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race-report@cyclofiend.com
Sat, 9 Jul 2005 21:00:58 -0500
Stage 7 -
Luneville - Karlsruhe - 228 km
A very non-French sounding city name as the destination on this day.
After encountering the Cat3 Col du Hantz, the riders string together all
the flat roads in the Rhine Valley of Germany. This is probably the
final day for the sprinters' teams to show off for a bit. Zu Deutschland wir gehen!
High clouds and little bit of breeze on the day. Temperatures have remained below average so far this year on the Tour. Not sure if that will make too much of a differnce, but historically, the first rider who comes to mind as having bonked gloriously in the wet and cold was T-Mobile rider Jan Ullrich - in the Tour he lost to the late Marco Pantani.
Of course, the _other_ German team has told someone to get busy today. Gerolsteiner, the team who may lead Santa Rosa homeboy Levi Leipheimer to his homefully good finish in Paris has sent Fabian Wegmann up the raodway. He takes the both themountain point sprints today while Erik Dekker of Rabobank gets shut down by Gerolsteiners Ronny Scholz and Beat Zberg. With those points, Wegmann snatches the Polka-Dot jersey.
Another cold morning has done no good for Steve Zampieri of Phonak, who has retired. So, today's stage finds 186 riders on the roadway.
Wet roads roll under the wheels of the Discovery-led peleton. They are taking easy pulls at the front of events, monitoring but not particularlly worried about the riders who have gone up the roadway. Jackets begin to come out and armwarmers are unlimbered.
96 km to go, but Wegmann still remains at about 8 minutes. T-Mobile has begun to populate the slots behind the Discovery, but they don't seem quite worried enough to take over any of the pacemaking. The lone man in light blue continues to head for his homeland. He's so intent on getting there ahead of the bunch that he street-style curb hops a traffic island on his Specialized.
Average speed of the stage is 28.2 mph after the three hours that has transpired so far. Wegman adds a few Green jersey points to his tally for the day, scooting unmolested through the sprint line at Brumath.
Discovery must have spread the word that they desired some assistance, as Credit Agricole's Christophe Moreau pushes out into the wind and rain. With the weather worsening for the big bunch, they must have decreed that the sprinters' teams should do some work for their fast men. They may have decided that that the gap should be shortened, and chop a quick minute off of the gap. The Credit Agricolians seem to have in mind a few Green jersey points for their big Dane, Thor Hushovd.
But there is a second head on the serpent as Quick-Step form a leadout to get Tom Boonen to the Brumath sprint first. It looks like a slightly sloppier leadout train heralding from the days of Cipollini's zebras, but they quickly gain distance on Credit Agricole. This point is not lost on Hushovd who immediately jumps over to snag Boonen's wheel. The last leadout man pulls off and Boonen bleeds from his ears to fly toward the line. Hushovd kicks it up a few notches, but gets wiggly behind the slowing last Quick-Step leadout man, and cannot match the big Belgian's speed. Boonen crosses the line with easy air behind his wheel.
Gap now under 6 minutes. The pace continues to hammer and time continues to get shaved off of Wegman's lead. Now only 5:07. The peleton has remained stretched in a long thin line since the sprint point, and either they are trying to get warm, or they just want to get in out of the rain...break now down near 4 minutes.
Which brings to mind two issues from yesterday's stage - the first, in what was probably the most understated response ever quoted from him, Robbie McEwen summed up yesterday's stage finish, which ended up with him being intertwined with numerous riders and bikes, as "the waste of a good day."
The second, and perhaps more serious issue was that cheeky little move by Vinokourov. His timing was nearly perfect to catch the sagging Christophe Mengin, although it would've been a good finish line fight. But, given the finish conditions, it just as easily could have ended in disaster. As it was, the Khazakstani rider had to unclip and skid to narrowly miss wrapping himself around Mengin. As it was Mengin began the day with a sparkly new shiner on his left eye, but Vinokourov could've hurt himself in a pretty needless manner. That would suggest strongly that he either doesn't give a hoot about helping the official team leader, or he is in fact trying to get every possible second and finish line time bonus for himself. Of course, that will reveal itself more completely with tomorrow's stage - which seems taylor made for the dynamic attacking style of Vinokourov.
Meanwhile, in today's stage, Wegman continues to see his lead turn to piffle. 36 miles to go, 3:32 of a gap. Sprinter's teams continue getting serious. He'll probably be the German leading the bunch into Germany, as they are only about 10km from the border. A group of four or five horses shake thier ears and chew their grass as the peleton and attendant vehicles zip past.
Average speed has dropped to 41.3 kph for the stage - still a healthy 25 mph for 4 hours or so.
Smackdown in the peleton! As the aerial photo zooms in on Jan Ullrich from above, a sudden shuffle and squeeze puts about 40 riders down on the road - a rain-slicked 45 degree railroad crossing drops the cyclists before they know what hit them. Ullrich escapes unscathed, but at least two riders are sprawled and not moving well. Slow-motion replays show front wheels pitched out in a sickening manner and riders landing hands first, head first and tangled in their bike frames. Just moments before, Lance had moved off to the front on the right side of the roadway, we can glean that he was aware of the impending danger.
At the front of events, Boonen takes another ride on the Quick-Step express and shuts off a move by Hushovd, nabbing more points that the Dane who sits just behind him in the Green Jersey standings.
Wegman unfortunately will end up with the short end of the stick, as the increase in peleton momentum chops more time away from the easing Wegmann. The cars are out of the way, and his lead is under 20 seconds now. He soft pedals now, blows a kiss to the moto camera and ends his breakaway which started at the 50 km mark - quite a day's work.
Germany brings the riders back into a drizzly storm, in the canyon between massive crowds of people in this now cycling crazy country. Spectators stand easily 10 deep on either side of the roadway with the riders still a healthy 8 miles from the finish.
Vinokourov has put himself directly onto Armstrong's wheel. The speed continues to increase, with the phalanx of Discovery riders ferrying Lance along right behind the gasping leadout men from Cofidis, Quick Step and Lotto. T-Mobile seems to become a bit interested in the efforts at the front as well, perhaps wanting put the right rider across the line to become the first German to win a Tour stage in Germany.
Liquigas rider Magnus Backsted slots himself up near the front with 5 km to go - Cofidis' Stuart O'Grady has teammate Matt White up beneath the lead of two from the Lotto squad. Boonen doesn't have a proper wheel to follow, but remains in touch with the front. Fassa Bortolo now takes over, with a quartet of FDJ.com riders formed up behind them. Roadways are dry on what will be a straight and wide finish. Under the 3 km to go banner.
Bit of the argy-bargy as FDJ.com hip checks their way to the front trying to deliver probably Baden Cooke to the line. They seem quite intent on not losing track of things this time. Boonen appears boxed in and unable to move up. FDJ seem to lack focus in their task and suddenly the peleton is four or five wide. Two strings of riders head to the front, the one with Liquigas leadout men gains a bit more steam, and they become one again. The Green Jersey of Boonen still in the middle, but 10 or so riders back and seemingly without a teammate nearby.
A wide bunch heads under the 1 km to go banner. Jan Kirsipu pulls out trying to lead Boonen up. But, everyone has the same idea and the front of the race fractures into a melee for the line. Then, swooping up from behind, Robbie McEwen screams up the right hand barriers fromon left out of absolutely nowhere to just keep ahead of a hard charging Magnus Backsted. Not a waste of Robbie's day today!
Stage Results - Stage 8
1 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto - 5:03:05
2 - Magnus Backsted - Liquigas
3 - Bernard Eisel - FDJ.com
4 - Gerrit Glomser - Lampre
5 - Baden Cooke - FDJ.com
All riders same time
Tomrrow's Stage 9 -
Pforzheim - Gerardmer - 231
Out of Germany on a long and tough stage. The day starts right off with four sharp Category 3 climbs, then pretends it's a sprinter's stage for 125 km, then climbs strongly to the 1139 meter Col de la Schlucht, before dropping steeply to the finish in Gerardmer. Not an actual climbing stage, but steep enough to have the more vertically inclined sharpening their talons.
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