Tour de France 2011 – A quick look back
Posted July 12, 2011
The Tour is now in full swing. Yesterday marked the first rest day of the Tour, a sort of ‘day off’ for the pros with no set parcours or racing to be completed. However, rest days are somewhat of a misleading concept. Rarely do riders actually rest on these days. The body takes time to adapt to constant hard exertions and as such taking a day off would leave riders with heavy legs and make subsequent days racing harder and more arduous. Riders tend to go for an hour or two’s spin on their bikes to freshen up the legs, as well as taking care of media duties and getting a massage and some time with the team physio.
It’s been somewhat of a bizarre start to this years tour. As alluded to in our guide to the 2011 TdF route, the first week of the Tour has been a bit of a departure from the norm, with no prologue the first stage saw Belgium star Philippe Gilbert take the win and the first yellow jersey of the 2011 Tour de France. Gilbert has undoubtedly come to the Tour on incredible form, as he’s demonstrated throughout subsequent stages he’s able to be up there in both the bunch sprints and on difficult medium mountain stages.
Stage 2 saw a team time trial, a discipline of pro cycling which we feel is highly underappreciated and which makes for compelling viewing. The Garmin-Cervelo squad demonstrated both their cohesion as a team unit and their raw power by taking out the stage ahead of an impressive BMC Racing team and another solid performance from Team Sky who came in third. This put Norwegian World Champion and all round good guy Thor Hushovd in yellow. Back to back stage wins in the world’s biggest race is something that most team managers can only dream of, but Jonathon Vaughters’ Garmin-Cervelo squad pulled it off in emphatic style on stage 3, perfectly delivering sprinter Tyler Farrar to the line after Cav’s HTC team’s leadout went array…
Stage 4 had been advertised as a flat stage, but with the finish atop the 3rd category Mur-de-Bretagne it was never going to be a day for the sprinters. A fast and frenetic finale ended in a photo finish for Tour favourites Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador, with the stage being given to Evans by less than half a wheel. It was the second stage win of Evans’ career and we’re really routing for him for this years yellow jersey. The stage should have been tailor made for Gilbert, but the Belgium didn’t quite have the legs in the finale, finishing up in 5th position.
Stage 5 saw the Tour return to the normal first week pattern of break-catch-sprint. Rather unsurprisingly Manx Man Mark Cavendish took the line to take his 16th career Tour stage win, an impressive tally for the young rider. Stage 6 was yet another sprint, albeit more of a group sprint than bunch sprint. The Tour’s longest stage at 226.5km it was again badged as flat, but in reality was anything but, 2 category 3 climbs and a cat 4 climb were topped off by an uphill run-in to the finish. Team Sky took their first win with Edvald Boassan Hagen sprinting to the win ahead of Matt Goss and Hushovd who remained in yellow. The lead group of 62 riders paid testament to the fact this stage really wasn’t as easy as the road book made out.
Cav took his second win on stage 7, on a difficult day darkened by crashes and the exit of GC contenders Bradley Wiggins and Chris Horner, the Manxman’s sprint was timed to perfection as he took the line with nearly a bike length’s advantage over Alessandro Petacchi and fierce rival Andre Greipl. A ‘mini-mountaintop finish’ on stage 8 was to be the setting for Rui Costa’s first ever grand tour stage win. The talented Portuguese rider who is probably best known for this last year proved too strong for his breakaway companions and the charging peleton to take the line in emphatic style.
Another crash marred stage, stage 9 saw a change in the GC lead. French super-star Thomas Voeckler held on for second place on the stage behind an impressive Luis Leon Sanchez to take the yellow jersey on a demanding uphill finish into Saint-Flour. Sanchez has had a difficult transition to his new Rabobank team and lacked form and results, and so the win was hugely deserved by the Spaniard. An emotional Voeckler took to the podium to receive the yellow which he has worn once before in 2004 Tour when, against all odds, he held the jersey for 10 days against a strong US Postal squad headed up by Armstrong.
