CyclingRevealed's First Impressions '06
Stage 12, July 14th, Luchon to Carcassonne, 211 km
Carcassonne on Bastille Day
Hangover on Bastille Day
Yesterday's very long stage through the classic climbs of the Pyrenees was one of the best day's of Tour racing in many years. Being such an open race everyone and their friend seems to be weighing in and targeting big time glory. After the predictability of recent years, a day such as yesterday's intoxicating racing has left many spectators with a happy hangover.
For the riders there is no rest and today's hilly (but not mountainous stage) will put some real hurt into many legs. At long last we are seeing some order come to the battle for the GC podium. Landis leads with Menchov, Evans, Sastre and possibly Kloden as the primary contenders. After Leipheimer's brilliant ride yesterday (he was 2nd) it is a shame that he has suffered two very bad days.
Focusing as we do on the race we tend to miss out on the tremendous countryside that the race passes through. After leaving Luchon the route today passes through the Ariège region before reaching the capitol of the Aude region, Carcassonne. The Ariège is the least inhabited and least visited part of France with wildlife abundant in the forests, foothills of the mountains and numerous rivers. Today's route takes the riders along the northern foothills and plains of the Ariège.
The finishing City of Carcassonne is a truly spectacular sight as the largest fortified medieval city in existence. No matter which direction you are coming from, you can't miss the imposing silhouette of the City of Carcassonne which is encircled by a huge double row of fortified walls that run almost 2 miles long and are accentuated by 56 watchtowers.
Today, July 14th, is France 's biggest annual holiday which is a celebration of the storming of the Bastille. All over France parades, firework displays and street parties characterize this joyful day. In Carcassonne the entire medieval city is bathed in fireworks and light displays to dramatic effect (see our photo above).
Unfortunately the Tour riders will be avoiding this as they try to rest after another hard day in the saddle. Yesterday Cyril Dessel tried desperately to hang on to his Yellow Jersey so that he could proudly represent France on this big day. Now the French riders (and the French people as a whole) hope to see a French stage winner.
Right from the first kilometers the Bastille Day fireworks started. The fuse was ignited by a combination of patriotism, pride and points. French riders featured in every break attempt driven by a patriotic desire to bring France a Bastille Day win. After yesterday's catastrophic performance it was clear that today the Discovery team wanted to restore their pride and morale. An early promising looking break contained George Hincapie. However while he was out front Savoldelli abandoned due to injuries sustained in a post-race crash with a spectator yesterday. Shortly after that Benjamin Noval stepped off of his bike. Discovery was having another very bad day. But causing the early very high race speed was the sprinters and their quest for points. Both McEwen and Boonen featured in an early break. For a while it looked to be sticking but the bunch clawed them back.
After about 100kms of cut and thrust racing four riders finally managed to establish a promising move. Yaroslav Popovych was there for Discovery pride (and best placed on GC at 9:00), Oscar Freire (Rabobank) was there for the points, Alessandro Ballan (Lampre), an accomplished classics rider, was there for the stage win and Christophe Le Mevel (Credit Agricole) was doing his patriotic best for France. They melded well together working efficiently and setting a torrid pace. Friere scooped up the valuable mid-race intermediate sprint points as McEwen fretted back in the bunch.
McEwen was seriously concerned with the prospect of Friere winning the stage and thus getting perilously close to his Green Jersey. For his part Popovych was bringing Discovery back to the top ten on GC. With 20kms to go the break was still inching away from the field who were 4:40 minutes back. Meanwhile Le Mevel was avoiding doing too much work but whatever his plan he had little hope against the other three.
Seven kms from the finish Popovych suddenly exploded off of the front of the break. Le Mevel was left for dead as Friere and Ballan dragged themselves back. A series of attacks and counter-attacks created a thrilling finale as Popovych finally managed to escape. He powered away to win by 24 seconds from Ballan and Friere. Discovery pride won the day as Popovych moved up to 10th on GC.
Stage winner Yaroslav Popovych [ Image ©: www.gazzetta.it ]
The sheer power of the break was such that it was 4:25 minutes before the bunch hit the line with Boonen taking the sprint by a tires width from McEwen. For his day's effort Friere's third place (and intermediate sprint win) moved him ever closer to McEwen. As has been the case in recent years the points race is going to be a great slugging match all the way to Paris . McEwen, Boonen and Friere have ten days left to outwit each other.
Whether it is from the great racing in this years Tour or from too much partying, there was a collective national hangover on "Bastille Day". From the French point of view there has been much success in this year's race and they certainly hope for more. Le Mevel represented his country well and his fourth place today was certainly no disgrace.
Tomorrow: a relatively flat stage with five Cat 4 climbs from Beziers to Montelimar, 231 km. Come back to CyclingRevealed.com for our daily impression.
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