HomeDiariesLe Tour de France 2009 - Stage 12: Tonnerre > Vittel, 211.5km
Le Tour de France! Ca va? What does the ‘0’ stand for in 02:30 ? “Oh my God, it’s early!” Four hours sleep, as Barry White would say; “it’s just not enough!” It’s 14:19 and we’re on the motorway, near Metz; we just got lost – no excuses, but the signage is grim. Destination Vittel.
A town will be clearly marked, then it disappears at the next roundabout and being on the correct route has a large element of luck to it.
It’s not until you fly over Northern France again, that you remember how much a part agriculture plays in the structure of the French economy.
Nicki Sorensen.
Fly over Scotland and it’s not long before the patchwork of fields gives way to the hills – moorland or forest, but in France, the barely crumpled green, brown and golden quilt covers the land to the horizon and beyond in every direction.
Paris has hi-tech La Defense and Toulouse spawned Concorde, but make no mistake, much of France is still “profond.” Rural, deep, real.
But, enough of my blethers – “what about the race ?”
“Cavendish quatre a quatre” says the heading above the postage size picture of Cav, tucked into the gutter of L’Equipe’s front page.
On the cover of Monday’s edition, the whole front page was devoted to a colour picture of Fédrigo getting the better of Pellizotti at Tarbes.
The French are obviously getting bored with the ease with which Cav is hoovering up stages.
There was a piece in the Guardian, this morning that the French are also peeved about the young Manxman’s getting a bit “eggy” (as Terry Wogan would say) and making use of the “F” word, to quote L’Equipe’s headline, our Mark is alleged to have been ‘going off’ thus; “Asshole” and “F***ing Frenchies” – ah yes, I can see Viktor raising Cav even higher on the pedestal, now.
Ironically, right beside those eight column inches, he gets 10/10 to Tyler Farrar’s 8, Hushovd’s 4 and Freire’s 3.
They also analyse Cav’s train, “Le TGV de Columbia”… Grabsch and Eisel control the breaks and start the chase, at 50 kph.
Monfort, Kirchen and Rogers prevent breakaways and launch the final part of the train – 60 kph.
Hincapie, Martin and Renshaw bring Cav in, alone, as fast as possible and as close to the line as possible – 70 kph.
Doesn’t sound that difficult!
And across the top of the page above, a picture of him getting the better of Tyler Farrar, it proclaims; “Un sprint parfait” so, I guess they can’t be that pee-ed off with him.
It’s 17:30 CET now, in the press room, Vittel – we were met with the usual indifference when we went to get the creds – fat, bald and old doesn’t cut it with the ASO lovelies. [I hope Ed’s not describing me! Martin].
But eventually the White Knight arrived; a helpful lad who spoke English – job done!
Sorensen just won, he jumped the break then jumped his co-escapee, Calzati to win in the grand manner.
Cav skooshed the bunch sprint to stay in green.
That’s it, then, game on – best do some work!
Ciao!
Tour 09 Stage 12 Map.
Tour 09 Stage 12 Profile.
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Al Hamilton
AS starts today’s news with the fact that Cavendish wins stages with or with out race radios. “Dictadura del sprint” and “Con pinganillos o sin ellos, se repite el final gana Cavendish”, remember pinganillos are race radios in Spanish. So “Cav” is the dictator of the sprint, which if you think of it, that’s quite strong in a country that lived under a dictator (Franco) as recently as 1974!
Cav is the talk of the race.
Cavendish is the star of all the Spanish sports papers, “Cavendish equals the record of victories in 11 stages”. The man from the Isle of Man is being mentioned in the same breath as Petacchi, Cipollini and Freddy Maertens in that they have all won 4 stages in the first eleven stages.
The other big news is that Leipheimer and another 106 riders, including Wiggins and Menchov, are to be given back the 15 seconds they lost on Tuesday. Possible good news could be that Bouygues may stay on as a sponsor for another year costing 5.5 million euros; the win by Voeckler seems to have helped.
Andy Schleck has said “Seria estapido no atacar al Astaná en los Alpes…” so it would be stupid not to attack Astana in the Alps, fairly obvious.
We can’t wait, Andy.
Contador and Armstrong are his main competition and Alberto has the form, but Lance has to be given a lot of respect. And Friday to Colmar? “I would be stupid not to attack; I have a plan, maybe an early attack!”
Ed and Martin, our top team! They try to do the local Time Trials, the Grand Tours and the Classics together to get the great stories written, the quality photos taken, the driving done and the wifi wrestled with.
Silas Golsdworthy put the disappointment of not being part of the Scottish Commonwealth Games team firmly behind him by taking victory in the country's 50 Mile Time Trial Championship today with a stunning 1:43:48, the second fastest 50 miles ever ridden in Scotland and only 45 seconds off Graeme Obree's 21 year old record.
Endura's Gary Hand took the July edition of the Scottish Cycling Super 6 2009 over 66 miles at a scorching Aberdeen on Saturday, beating Robin Wilkins from Stirling into second and Craig Adams from Falkirk into third with East of Scotland 'old dog' Andy Matheson grabbing fourth.
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The Giro in Belfast. ‘Joy and Pain, Sunshine and Rain,’ went the song by Frankie Beverley and Maze back in 1980. Joy and sunshine – well, at least no rain - for big Svein Tuft and the GreenEdge loco; but for Dan Martin and Garmin it was all rain and pain. Tuft is one of the nicest men you’ll ever meet, the original Gentle Giant – a beast of a man on a bike, off it he’s polite, friendly, gentle and laid back. In my book, one of the ‘Good Guys’ - happy birthday, sir!
Cadel Evans’ aggressive riding late in Stage 13, and the subsequent carnage and one day style “balls to the wall” racing has assured us of one thing this Tour: we don’t know what’s next! Today is a day with two large climbs a long way out from the finish, the second including ramps up to 18%, and peaking some 40km from the finish. The descent ends about 20km from the line, and the whole stage is right by the southern coastline again, bringing wind into the equation.
Back in the UK, to win the British Cycling time trial championships, David Millar took time out of his busy schedule to speak to VeloVeritas, and discuss his ambitions and his move to a new team.
Tom Dumoulin tests to solo glory in Andorra; Pinot goes poids; Froome consolidates jaune; Porte confuses; Martin rises to another level; Yates confirms; Aru and Tejay slide whilst Quintana waits – but it’s over for Alberto. But all that said - no real changes from yesterday and the Bigs only race the last few kilometres...
It's Day four at the Rotterdam Six Day 2012, and like it says on the report cards; 'could do better!' We're referring of course to 'our Alex's' time keeping - he missed the rolling presentation on Sunday. It's not a huge deal because at the time he had no partner, poor Stöpler having crashed out.
