CyclingRevealed's First Impressions '06
Stage 14, July 16th, Montelimar to Gap, 181 km
Three Rest Days
There is a lot more to winning the Tour than riding your bike fast. Rest and recovery are essential ingredients to a successful campaign. Yesterday after the break got away the Phonak team management decided to let it go as there was nobody in it that threatened the top of the GC table. As the gap kept opening to nearly half an hour the strategy was revisited and it was decided conserve team energy and thus relinquish the Yellow Jersey.
Oscar Pereiro, Yellow Jersey caretaker or long term threat?
Why would Phonak willingly give up what is arguably cycling's most prestigious prize? First, Phonak obviously does not see new GC leader Oscar Pereiro as a threat in the coming Alps . Second, by turning the chase off yesterday, Phonak had an easy ride and forced any teams interested to take up the chase. As a result Floyd had easy ‘rest' day content with his prospects for the coming mountains. Third, this also absolved Phonak from having to defend the Yellow Jersey today. Instead Floyd was surrounded by his team to give him an armchair ride and basically another rest day. Tomorrow the Tour has its second formal rest day. Consequently Floyd will have experienced essentially three rest days before entering the punishing Alpine stages. Losing the Yellow Jersey yesterday does not mean that he will not be wearing it into Paris .
Although we speak of resting, no Tour stage is easy and today's was no picnic. Two Cat 2 climbs and two Cat 3 climbs were separated by a very lumpy road. The pattern of the race indicated that it was back to business as usual after yesterday's extraordinary stage. Several combinations of break tried their luck until a very solid looking break of six riders established a workable gap. Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom), Matthias Kessler (T-Mobile), Mario Aerts (Davitamon-Lotto), Salvatore Commesso (Lampre-Fondital), David Canada (Saunier Duval) and Rik Verbrugghe (Cofidis) gained a maximum of just over 5:30 minutes.
With about 50km left Phonak's strategy seemed to be playing out as two sprinters teams, Quick.Step and Liquigas started a serious chase. There was still some stiff climbing to go and Tom Boonen (Quick.Step) was probably planning on dropping McEwen as his team closed in on the break.
Up front, and with about 40km to go, disaster struck the break. Verbrugghe misjudged a fast curve, slid and then catapulted over the roadside crash barrier. Behind him Canada hit his brakes hard and slid out. Kessler rode over Canada 's back wheel and then somersaulted over the crash barrier. In a split second the promising looking break was decimated and three riders were left to ward off the bunch. Amazingly Kessler soon got back on his bike but sadly Verbrugghe (fractured thigh) and Canada (broken collarbone) were consigned to the ambulance. The sight evoked memories of Joseba Beloki's crash along these very same roads a couple of years ago.
Fedrigo, Aerts and Commesso seemed unperturbed by the sad fate of their erstwhile break companions as they powered on. Kessler was quickly absorbed by the bunch but probably astounded by his luck to be able to continue riding. Fifteen kilometers to go and the race hit the Cat 2 Col de la Sentinelle. The three leaders stuck together but behind them the bunch started to fragment. It was no surprise to see Kessler as one of the first to let go of a now crazed bunch. Of more concern was to see a couple Phonak riders lose contact. However it was probably team orders that any riders having a tough time should take it easy beat the time elimination cut-off and save their energy for the upcoming high Alps .
Aerts lost contact with the break as the interminable Sentinelle continued upwards. Moving ever closer, the peloton exploded into action with constant attacks elevating the speed to close in on the two leaders. Over the top the leaders had 45 seconds but by 5kms to go that was trimmed to 20 seconds. A nail biting finish played out as Fedrigo took the decision from Commesso with the decimated bunch right on their heels.
The game plan is playing out for Phonak. Danger men were kept in check as Floyd sat comfortably ‘ resting' in the slipstream of his teammates who themselves have focused on energy conservation throughout this Tour. A telling statistic that reveals Phonak's strategy for this Tour is that not a single Phonak rider has participated in a break. Their overall approach is right out of Discovery's manual on how to win the Tour. While Pereiro enjoyed his first day in Yellow, Landis enjoyed the second of his three rest days in the sweltering heat of Southern France .
Tomorrow : entire Tour takes the day off. Come back to CyclingRevealed for our ‘rest day' impressions of the Tour so far.
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