Heaven and Hell. Two words that are simply perfect to describe today's stage of the Tour and some other things that have recently happened in Cycledom.
Hell. Perhaps some of you don't know it, but this morning an Australian rider called Carly Hibberd lost her life while she was training near Milan. The 26 year-old from Brisbane died shortly after being hit by a car. For the thousandth time this year, cycling must face a very hard moment.
Heaven. This afternoon Marianne Vos got her fourth victory at the Giro Donne, the most important stage race of the women calendar. The Dutch rider (who is just 24) won in Piacenza by outsprinting pure sprinters like World Champion Giorgia Bronzini and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg. And, to make things even more special, Vos won the stage while wearing the Maglia Rosa.
Hell. Tom Boonen crashed with 60 kms to go in today's stage of the Tour and he crossed the finish-line 12' after the stage winner. He looked in pain and he could count just on one teammate, Addy Engels, who helped him just in the last 50 kms of race.
Heaven. Although the stage finale didn't suit him, and although his team made a disaster in the last km of race, this afternoon Mark Cavendish managed to get one of the best victories of his career in Cap Fréhel, a village located in a spectacular French bay.
Heaven and Hell. Reading about Fabian Wegmann's newborn baby Otto (he was born on the 29th of June and I wish him a very happy, long and serene life!) after discovering what happened to poor Hibberd can make you understand how the limit between these two things is very thin. We had two demonstrations of this fact during the last Giro, we had a demonstration of it also today, at the Giro Donne and (in a less tragic way) at the Tour de France.
Today's stage of the Tour de France looked tricky even on paper. The last kms of race in fact were very close to the sea, in a part of France (Bretagne) which has a very characteristic windswept landscape. Moreover, with 2 kms to go the riders had to face a difficult descent that would lead them to the last km of race, which was 3% steep.
The narrow streets of Bretagne, together with the fear of the echelons and with the nervousness of the peloton, didn't help making the stage easier for the group, which soon had to deal with many crashes.
One of the first riders to fall off his bike was Sylvain Chavanel who, as a consequence of his crash, had his acromion-clavicular joint dislocated as a consequence of his crash. Luckily, the French national champion could soon hop back on his bike and managed to end the stage.
"In the fall I also hit my head and broke my helmet," Chavanel told Cyclingnews. "The consequences could have been much worse. Tomorrow morning I'm lining up for the start as usual, but it’s obvious that tomorrow I can look forward to a day of suffering". Also Wiggins was involved in Sylvain's crash, but didn't suffer any injury. Other riders, unfortunately, weren't that lucky.
Janez Brajkovic and Robert Gesink crashed soon after Chavanel. Also Alberto Contador was involved in their crash, the second one of the day for the unlucky Spaniard, who threw his bike to the ground as a sign of anger. But still, Conti was pretty lucky in getting it away without major injuries: Gesink in fact is reported to have bruises all over his body, whereas Brajkovic had to abandon the race with a broken collarbone and a concussion.
Unfortunately, Janez wasn't the last rider to crash this afternoon. In fact, a few minutes after having helped his captain in chasing the main peloton, it was Nicki Sorensen's turn to end up on the ground. Nicki's crash was a really shocking one, since it was caused by one of the photographers' motorbikes. The motorbike rode so close to Nicki that, apparently, the handlebar of the Danish rider got glued to it. As a consequence, Sorensen found himself on the ground and had to bear the sight of his bike being drawn by the motorbike for 200 meters.
Luckily for the Danish national champion, his crash didn't have any consequence. "I was riding safely in the side of the road and then a motor bike knocked me off the bike", Nicki told Cyclingnews. "He was actually going so close that my bike was drawn after his motor bike for 200 meters and I landed heavily on the ground. Luckily, I'm ok and am able to ride again tomorrow" .
'Wiggins, Chavanel, Brajkovic, Gesink, Contador, Nicki Sorensen... Enough crashes for just one day of race!', some of you may think. And instead no, this afternoon bad luck really wanted to create a lot of problems to the TdF riders. As Kern withdrawned from the race because of a tendonitis, it was Barredo, Boonen and Steegmans' turn to crash.
Tom Boonen remained on the ground for a while, looking worried about the condition of his left shoulder. The Tour doctor immediately tried to help him but, at first, it looked as if Tommeke's Tour had to end on that road in Bretagne. And instead, the Belgian found the strength to get up, hop back on his bike and keep on riding. His leg was bleeding and his collarbone worried everyone of us, but Tom didn't care. He wanted to reach the finish-line of this damned 5th stage and he fought hard to make it.
At first Boonen had to do everything on his own. But then, Addy Engels stopped and waited for his captain. Then, with 50 kms to go, the two Quick Step riders began to ride together to the finish-line, fearing to end up out of time limit and trying to hold on.
In the end, Tommeke crossed the finish-line 12 minutes after Cavendish, thus managing to remain inside the allowed time cut.
'Ok, enough crashes for today?' Oh no, dear readers, not yet. In fact, this afternoon the last rider to fall off his bike was Euskaltel's Ivan Velasco, who broke his right collarbone after hitting the ground with about 20 kms to go.
Luckily, that was the last crash for today. I actually didn't mention everyone who crashed this afternoon, because it would actually be impossible to mention all those riders. However, I've read articles saying that also Leipheimer, Horner, Tjallingi and Popovych crashed. I'm sure about Yaroslav's fall (I saw him going to the doctor' car), but I don't have any details about the other crashes. Was Tjallingi with Gesink when Robert crashed? It may be, but I'm not sure.
Anyway. After talking about the hellish parts of today's stage, let's finally talk about the most beautiful part: Cavendish's victory. Mark may be arrogant and he might have changed too many girlfriends in the last months, but after today it is impossible to deny that the boy has class. Class, strength, power, speed: everything a sprinter needs to be successful. And everything a sprinter needs to offer us such great victories.
Although I've been following Mark pretty carefully since 2008, I must admit I had never seen him winning in such a great way as he did tis afternoon. Ok, his Milan - Sanremo victory had been great too: but today Cav was simply superb. His win was exciting, unexpected, amazing, fantastic: a true masterpiece - and, mind you, this is a word which miss Fede rarely uses in her posts.
Anyway, let's talk about what happened in the last kms of race in a more detailled way.
The last breakawayers du jour, Voeckler and Roy (again!!), were caught with a few kms to go. The previous beakaway had included Gutierrez (the friend of the French camera men) and Delaplace, the Tour's youngest rider (he's going to be 22 in September).
With 2 kms to go, HTC Columbia was at the head of the peloton. Velits, Goss, Martin, Eisel, Renshaw, Cavendish: the yellow and white train was ready to roll into Cap Fréhel. But then, with about 1 km to go, something happened: the little train had a problem and Goss found himself at the head of the peloton, with some meters of advantage on everyone else. Therefore, he tried to go for the victory.
Too bad that it was still too early for him and that Boasson Hagen rode past him at amazing speed. It looked as if the Norwegian rider had almost made it, but then a cartel told us that there were still 450 meters to go: too much for the Sky rider to hold on.
As Edvald's speed seemed to vanish, a colourful jersey appeared on the screen: Philippe Gilbert, trying to get his second victory in this Tour. Bonnet, FDJ's rider, looked like a true threat for the Belgian, whereas Hushovd's figure was scarcely visible behind the first line of riders. Then, from the left of the screen, a lightning - or, to say it better, a Cannonball - arrived. Mark Cavendish gave it all in the last meters of race and managed to win the race in front of PhilGil, Rojas and Toni Gallopin.
As Cavendish was dedicating his victory to his pet golden retriever Amber, who passed away a few hours ago, Tom Boonen slowly made it to the finish-line. Hell and heaven, once again. One rider cheering, the other one suffering, One rider happy, the other one disappointed and in pain. That's the Tour de France baby, and that's cycling - and, actually, that's also life.
