A New Sheriff in Town
As the peloton came around the final corner with about 300
meters to go Mark Cavendish (Omega-Pharma) was sitting 2nd wheel on
the inside behind lead-out man Gert Steegmans (Omega-Pharma). The lead out
appeared to be a formality for the man from the Isle of Man. When the Manx
Missile launched, it appeared that no one would catch him. Then all of a sudden
a white streak flashed alongside Cavendish and just nipped him at the line. It
was Marcel Kittle (Argos-Shimano)!
This is Kittle’s third stage win of the 2013 Tour De France.
Kittle was very happy at the finish exclaiming, “This is my third win in the
Tour De France and in German we say ‘Good things come in threes’.” He dedicated
the win to his team, “...especially Tom Veelers,” he said. Cavendish had no
excuses today about why he didn’t win saying, “We could go back and look over
it again and again. The guys were incredible in the train. Everyone knew what
they had to do.”
A Very Fast Stage
The 218 km 12th stage of this year’s Tour De
France from Fougeres to Tours was a near pancake flat stage with only a few
rollers mixed in for good measure. The field raced across the center of France
today as they made their way to the famed Mount Ventoux and the Alps. The
finish was very technical, with two 90-degree corners in the last 650 meters.
It took longer than usual for the day’s breakaway to
establish, as nobody appeared to want to go on the attack. The day’s break
finally established after 3.5 km and included, Juan Antonio Flecha
(Vacansoleil), Francesca Gavazzi (Astana), Romain Sicard (Euskaltel-Euskadi),
Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun), and Manuele Mori (Lampre). The group of five would
gain a maximum advantage of 9’00’’ out on the open road.
The breakaway and peloton absolutely flew through the stage
averaging 47.2 kph during the first hour of racing and 45.2 kph through the
second hour. The breakaway had to ride at a pace of nearly 30 miles an hour to
hold off the main field and the field wasn’t even chasing hard yet.
Right before the feed zone at 105 km still to race Biel
Kadri (AG2R) and Alexandre Geniez (Katusha) both hit the tarmac. Kadri had a
spectacular fall as he hit his front break a little too hard and went tumbling
over the front of the bike. The bike launched into the air over him. Both
riders got up quickly and Geniez appeared to be in rush at all as he decided to
take a natural break.
Controversy at the
Intermediate Sprint
The intermediate sprint point came with only 52 km to go
until the finish. The sprint point was hotly contested among the break with Francesco
Gavazzi taking the win. Romain Sicard did not contest the sprint along with his
other breakaway companions and got gapped off the group. The other four riders
did not wait for him so Sicard decided to pedal easy and drop back to the
peloton. For the first time all Tour Cavendish won the intermediate sprint
ahead of Andre Greipel to claim sixth place while Peter Sagan (Cannondale)
rounded out the big men coming in at eighth place. Sagan was very upset after
the mid-race sprint as Boekmans of Vacansoleil also contested the sprint and
veered off of his line squeezing Sagan between the barriers and him. Sagan
managed to recover and still beat him, but he was clearly not happy with the
move as he had a few words for Boekmans after the sprint was over. The time gap
from the break to the now four leaders was only 2’23’’ at the intermediate
sprint point.
A Crash Filled Finale
As the breakaway raced under the 20 km-to-go banner they
held a slim 40’’ advantage over the chasing peloton. The infighting began as
they attacked each other and choose not to cooperate in the pace setting. Soon
it was just two in the lead, Flecha and Gavazzi, but Gavazzi soon sat up with
peloton right behind the duo. Flecha would not go down without a fight and at
the 10 km banner he held a 25’’ to the Orica GreenEdge-led peloton.
Finally, it was all over as Flecha was swept up by the
peloton just inside of 6 km to go until the finish. Orica GreenEdge still led
the peloton and they looked very much in control. Could this be the day Matt
Goss finally broke through and won a stage? Disaster struck them though with
4.5 km to go. As the peloton negotiated a roundabout the lead rider for Orica
took it a little too fast and slid out. Luckily, he slid off to the side of the
rode leaving plenty of room for the peloton to pass by. The rider would get up
and appeared to be no worse for the wear. Orica now had a problem though, they
were suddenly down one man with 4 km still to race. At that point the young-gun
Michael Kwiatkowski, white jersey competition leader, pulled Omega Pharma up to
the front of the race and now Cavendish’s team was in the driver’s seat.
A huge crash just after the 3 km to go banner took out most
of the field, including almost all of the Lotto-Belisol team of Andre Greipel.
The crash happened right at the front of the peloton and created a massive
pile-up of bodies and bikes. Lotto appeared to be in the middle of it as Andre
Greipel himself was caught up in the crash, but appeared to have not gone down.
Up front it was still Omega Pharma in control but
Argos-Shimano, the team of Marcel Kittle, began creeping up on their left side.
Many people believed that with the final corner coming so close to the finish
if you were on the inside and sitting second wheel the win was almost definite.
Furthermore, after that final right 90-degree turn the riders got a full on
tailwind. Cavendish was sitting just where everybody believed the winner would
come from as the group navigated that final corner. In the finishing straight
Kittle jumped from his lead out man Tom Veelers’ wheel to Cavendish’s wheel
just as Cavendish opened up his sprint. At the end Cavendish appeared dumb
founded as Marcel Kittle just nudged him out on the line. Kittle now had
the same amount of stage wins as the other top sprinters combined.
The overall GC remained unchanged, as Chris Froome still
leads Alejandro Valverde by 3’25’’ in the race for the maillot jaune. None of
the GC contenders appeared to have gone down in the late race crash.
Tomorrow is another stage for the sprinters. Mark Cavendish
finally had the lead out he’d always wanted during this year’s Tour, but he
couldn’t finish the job. Look for him to be extra motivated tomorrow as the
peloton travels the 173 km from Tours to Saint-Amand-Montrond.
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