CYCLING:WHEN THE riders left the seafront and turned inland yesterday afternoon it was, Fabian Cancellara said, like putting a loaf of bread into the oven. "It's years since I've felt like that," the rider in the yellow jersey added. As the Tour de France headed up into the hills of the Haut Var, the mercury was on its way towards 40 degrees. And Mark Cavendish was about to catch fire.
Cavendish could start a blaze in an igloo, which is one of the qualities that make him a great sprinter. Among the others are a set of fast-twitch muscle fibres, a wonderful spatial awareness and an implacable, competitive will. Put him on a bike and give him an equal start over the last 200 metres of a long stage and the competition is toast.
Yesterday’s victory at the end of the 187km stage from Monaco to Brignoles was a master class in the art of bringing a sprinter to the boil. On such a day, it takes eight other riders to build the platform on which a Cavendish can do his stuff.
As the field headed for the finish line, the last lung-bursting burst to the line was the fruit of work that had begun 50km earlier, with a decisive move by two other members of the Columbia- HTC team.
Following Saturday’s demanding, first-stage time trial, this wonderfully scenic but almost constantly testing stage was no Sunday ride in the country. After 20km, a four-man break accelerated away, inspired by the Finn Jussi Veikkanen, with Stef Clement of the Netherlands and two Frenchmen, Cyril Dessel and Stephane Auge, as companions.
On the descent into Nice, along the thronged Promenade des Anglais and up into the fragrant hills around Grasse, they built a lead that extended to more than five minutes.
Cancellara’s Saxo Bank team, concerned with defending the 18-second lead by which their man held the yellow jersey overnight, worked away on the front of the peloton, but little impression was made until, with 50km to go, Columbia’s powerhouse riders Bert Grabsch and Bernhard Eisel pounded to the front and raised the pace.
Down came the lead as the riders swept around the forested rim of the blue-green Lac de Carces until, with 10km left, the breakaway quartet were swept up and a lone effort by the Russian rider Mikhail Ignatiev was quickly neutralised.
The climax was spellbinding but definitely not for those of a nervous disposition. As a group of Columbia riders held their arrow-straight line, other teams were trying to get their sprinters into position, desperate not to allow Cavendish to establish his pre-eminence so early in the Tour. The road was narrow, nerves were jangling, and when a rider came down as the field forked right into the finishing straight, several others had no option but to take the wrong exit.
Exemplary lead-out work by George Hincapie and Mark Renshaw ushered Cavendish in for a final burst that saw the Manxman extend his lead to six lengths over Tyler Farrar, Garmin’s talented young American sprinter.
In sprinting terms, six lengths is the equivalent of an innings victory in cricket.
IRELAND’S Nicolas Roche showed excellent form in his first Tour, placing eighth in the mass gallop into Brignoles. The Ag2r La Mondiale rider was motivated by the fact the stage passed over some of the training roads he used when growing up near Nice.
His performance is the first Irish top-10 stage placing since his father, Stephen’s, final Tour de France in 1993, 16 years ago.
The Irish road race champion placed 43rd in Saturday’s opening time trial and is the same position overall, one minute and 27 seconds back. He is also eighth in the points classification and seventh in the standings for best young rider.
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