On this blog,today's TdF stage will be known from now on as the "All's well that ends well" stage.Firstly,because the stage winner (Sylvain Chavanel) fractured his skull during Liége 3 months ago but managed to win a stage of the Tour anyway.Secondly,because the Schleck brothers didn't lose time in the GC in spite of crashing.Thirdly,because the title of 'Day of the many crashes' is no longer available.Fourthly,because miss Fede wants so.
I understood that it was going to be a dangerous day early in the stage, when a crash involved Cunego,Van den Broeck and Mickel Delage.Poor Delage,who really looked in pain and had a bad cut under his eye,was forced to abandon the race.
Then,with about 30 kms to go,Gavazzi crashed.The Lampre rider had a gap of a few seconds of the rest group (he was part of an early breakaway together with Chavanel and other riders) and he crashed during a wet,narrow descent.A tv motorbike avoided the Lampre’s rider (the wheel of the motorbike passed incredibly near to his feet) and crashed a few meters after the Italian. Gavazzi immediately went on the edge of the road, but his bike remained in the middle of it.So,when the peloton arrived after a few seconds,almost everyone crashed in order to avoid the bike and the motorbike.And,between the guys who crashed,there was also Andy Schleck,who really looked in pain.My heart skipped a beat when I saw him touching his arm and Logic immediately thought ‘He’s broken his collarbone’.Fangirl was desperate.A few seconds later,the tv showed Petacchi (he had crashed as well) and guess who was there,behind Ale-Jet? Frank Schleck,who had crashed as well.Fuck.
Luckily Matti Breschel had stopped (or crashed?) together with Andy and was ready to give him his bike. Suddenly,I found myself on the couch,with the eyes glued to the television,and I started to scream “Thank you Matti,thank you thank you thank you!”. At first Andy didn’t look good (he was riding very slowly and still looked in pain),but then things started to look better.
In the meanwhile Cancellara (who hadn’t crashed) began to talk with the other riders who were with him and they agreed to wait for the riders who had crashed.Gutierrez made a movement with his hand to indicate that the few people who hadn't crashed were going to wait for the other guys.Then,suddenly,Cervélo’s Hunt began to pull the little group of those who had survived the crash.At that point,Fangirl exploded (”What the hell is he doing?!?”) and started to scream "Stop pulling! Stp pulling! Stop! Now!" to her own tv,believing that Hunt could hear her.How embarassing.Btw Fangirl's attitude can be understood if you consider that she couldn’t see Sastre anywhere in the front group,so Hunt’s move was a mistery to her.Luckily (did he hear me?) Hunt soon stopped pulling and,in the same moment,the tv showed Nicki Sorensen and Jens Voigt helping Andy and Frank.I have to admit that I was very surprised by Frank's appearance.In fact,after hopping on Matti’s bike,Andy had begun his ‘peloton chase’ on his own,so it was very nice to see him there with Nicki,Frank and Jens.
In the meanwhile Chavanel was riding towards success.His advantage now was of 2’ on the yellow jersey group and this meant that Cancellara was going to lose the overall lead.But still,Fabian didn’t even think about chasing the Frenchman and defending the jersey,but decided to wait for his teammates.What a champion.
With about 20 kms to go a super group including Wiggins,Contador and Armstrong joined the head of the race.At that point Fangirl had a big doubt: in fact,what could have happened if,after that the majority of the GC contenders had joined the group,they had started to pull in order to leave the Schlecks behind? In front of that eventuality,Fangirl mentally repeated her vocabolary of international insults understandable to everyone who speaks English,German,Spanish and/or Italian,and got ready to support Cancellara in a possible boxing match against,say,sir Lancelot.Luckily I wasn’t forced to do these things because no GC contender started to pull after they had joined Cancellara’s group and,with 15 kms to go,the Schlecks could finally come back in the main peloton.What a relief!
Then,with about 30 kms to go,Gavazzi crashed.The Lampre rider had a gap of a few seconds of the rest group (he was part of an early breakaway together with Chavanel and other riders) and he crashed during a wet,narrow descent.A tv motorbike avoided the Lampre’s rider (the wheel of the motorbike passed incredibly near to his feet) and crashed a few meters after the Italian. Gavazzi immediately went on the edge of the road, but his bike remained in the middle of it.So,when the peloton arrived after a few seconds,almost everyone crashed in order to avoid the bike and the motorbike.And,between the guys who crashed,there was also Andy Schleck,who really looked in pain.My heart skipped a beat when I saw him touching his arm and Logic immediately thought ‘He’s broken his collarbone’.Fangirl was desperate.A few seconds later,the tv showed Petacchi (he had crashed as well) and guess who was there,behind Ale-Jet? Frank Schleck,who had crashed as well.Fuck.
Luckily Matti Breschel had stopped (or crashed?) together with Andy and was ready to give him his bike. Suddenly,I found myself on the couch,with the eyes glued to the television,and I started to scream “Thank you Matti,thank you thank you thank you!”. At first Andy didn’t look good (he was riding very slowly and still looked in pain),but then things started to look better.
In the meanwhile Cancellara (who hadn’t crashed) began to talk with the other riders who were with him and they agreed to wait for the riders who had crashed.Gutierrez made a movement with his hand to indicate that the few people who hadn't crashed were going to wait for the other guys.Then,suddenly,Cervélo’s Hunt began to pull the little group of those who had survived the crash.At that point,Fangirl exploded (”What the hell is he doing?!?”) and started to scream "Stop pulling! Stp pulling! Stop! Now!" to her own tv,believing that Hunt could hear her.How embarassing.Btw Fangirl's attitude can be understood if you consider that she couldn’t see Sastre anywhere in the front group,so Hunt’s move was a mistery to her.Luckily (did he hear me?) Hunt soon stopped pulling and,in the same moment,the tv showed Nicki Sorensen and Jens Voigt helping Andy and Frank.I have to admit that I was very surprised by Frank's appearance.In fact,after hopping on Matti’s bike,Andy had begun his ‘peloton chase’ on his own,so it was very nice to see him there with Nicki,Frank and Jens.
In the meanwhile Chavanel was riding towards success.His advantage now was of 2’ on the yellow jersey group and this meant that Cancellara was going to lose the overall lead.But still,Fabian didn’t even think about chasing the Frenchman and defending the jersey,but decided to wait for his teammates.What a champion.
With about 20 kms to go a super group including Wiggins,Contador and Armstrong joined the head of the race.At that point Fangirl had a big doubt: in fact,what could have happened if,after that the majority of the GC contenders had joined the group,they had started to pull in order to leave the Schlecks behind? In front of that eventuality,Fangirl mentally repeated her vocabolary of international insults understandable to everyone who speaks English,German,Spanish and/or Italian,and got ready to support Cancellara in a possible boxing match against,say,sir Lancelot.Luckily I wasn’t forced to do these things because no GC contender started to pull after they had joined Cancellara’s group and,with 15 kms to go,the Schlecks could finally come back in the main peloton.What a relief!
The peloton then rolled quietly to the finish-line and Cancellara scolded off a rider (Bouet) that had sprinted in order to get the second placement in the stage.
So,this was today’s stage.A big protest (or,at least,something that looked like a protest),some frightening moments,a lot of crashes,and Chavanel’s victory.
As far as I know,immediately after the stage 2 ‘parties’ were born: the one of the ‘Stopping to wait for the others was a lack of respect towards cycling!’ party and the ‘fair play’ party.Some riders said that they weren't protesting,but that they decided not to take risks because the parcours was dangerous. Mr.Chris Horner however later said that,with the riders rolling slowly and united towards the finish-line, 'the Tour organisers got what they deserved' (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/horner-tour-organisers-got-what-they-deserved ).Now,if mr.Horner complaints about today,I can imagine what will happen tomorrow.Surprisingly,Horner is a Radioshack rider and it's known to everyone that during 2009 Giro Lance Armstrong (who,in case you don't know it,is Radioshack's captain) tried to hickjack about 3 stages because he considered the parcours 'crazy and dangerous'.As you may know,this team wasn't invited to this year Giro (Mwhahaha).
So,this was today’s stage.A big protest (or,at least,something that looked like a protest),some frightening moments,a lot of crashes,and Chavanel’s victory.
As far as I know,immediately after the stage 2 ‘parties’ were born: the one of the ‘Stopping to wait for the others was a lack of respect towards cycling!’ party and the ‘fair play’ party.Some riders said that they weren't protesting,but that they decided not to take risks because the parcours was dangerous. Mr.Chris Horner however later said that,with the riders rolling slowly and united towards the finish-line, 'the Tour organisers got what they deserved' (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/horner-tour-organisers-got-what-they-deserved ).Now,if mr.Horner complaints about today,I can imagine what will happen tomorrow.Surprisingly,Horner is a Radioshack rider and it's known to everyone that during 2009 Giro Lance Armstrong (who,in case you don't know it,is Radioshack's captain) tried to hickjack about 3 stages because he considered the parcours 'crazy and dangerous'.As you may know,this team wasn't invited to this year Giro (Mwhahaha).
Anyway,back to today,I’d like to point out the attitude of SB riders during the stage.Breschel was always next to Andy and made a super job,like O’Grady and Voigt. Matti and Chris Sorensen crossed the finish-line 19 minutes after Chavanel because they had lent their bikes to the Schleck brothers.Both Voigt and Nicki Sorensen gave it all to help the Schlecks.Fuglsang was glued to Cancellara after the crash in order to keep an eye on Spartacus ('And help him in a possible boxing match against Radioshack guys',Fangirl adds).And,more important,Cancellara gave up the yellow jersey in order to save the Tour of his teammates.Too bad that the team is going to disappear at the end of the year (*sniffs her nose and cries*).
Anyway,let's not think about the future of the team and let's just enjoy this TdF.And,in order to do so,I recommend you reading Chris Sorensen's latest blog entry http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry375763.html (what else?).
So,that's all for today.Let's hope that no one will have to abandon the race this evening and let's also hope that tomorrow there won't be too many crashes (and let's cross our fingers and pray for sun!).My fingers are already crossed.
I was in Brussels yesterday (stalking Jens Voigt) and in Spa today, and I saw the crash on a screen they had there, and it was horrible. You couldn´t understand what they were saying because there were so many people there, so I didn´t know how far behind the Schlecks were and why The Shack were pulling so hard. Fortunately Jensie (aka Cycling God) pulled them back to the peloton 8and fortunately they didn´t really race anymore).
RispondiEliminaOh, and I don´t like the ides of a "RadioSchleck"-Team either...
That must have been very confusing (and pretty terrifying) for you! I was in front on the tv,comfortably sit on my couch,but for some seconds I couldn't understand what was going on either.I mean,Gavazzi had just crashed.Then,all of a sudden,half of the peloton went down and Andy was holding his arm,looking very in pain.Matti gave him his bike and Andy began to chase the peloton on his own (that was when Fangirl started to scream orders to the riders ;).I couldn't understand who had crashed and who was at the front.Then,all of a sudden,Frank appeared,with a cut on his elbow and his hip.Fangirl was in panick! Luckily Jens and Nicki were there,ready to save the brothers.
RispondiEliminaJens is one of the 7th wonders of Cycledom (and the 8th wonder of the World).I stalked him as well in Milan last year (every cyclist fan dedicated/would like to dedicate at least some minutes of their lives to that activity) and he was simply amazing with the fans (apropos,I hope you had good time in Brussels and in Spa!).
I find the idea of a Team RadioSchleck very sad,also because,from the fan point of view, it looks as if Kim Andersen,Brian Nygaard and the brothers betrayed Riis.And I think that,after what he did for them,Riis didn't deserve that treatment.