CYCLING TOUR DE FRANCE:AFTER JUMPING from seventh to fifth in his sleep on Wednesday night following an overnight decision of the Tour de France judges to amend the results, Bradley Wiggins woke up yesterday morning to discover he had moved one place closer to the podium.
Levi Leipheimer would not be making the start of stage 13 after an X-ray revealed he had broken a wrist in an accident the previous evening, moving Wiggins into the fourth position previously occupied by the American.
Not that the three-time Olympic gold medallist has been relying on arbitration and others’ misfortune to make his mark as a Tour rider. Having established his credentials with a fine third place in the opening time trial, he has ridden with the sort of control and intelligence that saw him finish an impressive eighth in yesterday’s brutal, 200km stage.
As the riders prepared to enter the Vosges mountains, with their dark, damp, pine-covered slopes and short, steepish climbs, the mood of the Tour changed. There had been thunder storms in the night, and rain was falling as they left Vittel. In a last-minute reversal by the organisers, the riders were allowed to use their radios.
Although none of the day’s climbs was much over 1,100 metres, the temperature had dropped to 11 degrees at the summits, and as they came down from the top of the first-category Col du Platzerwasel they discovered pockets of mist and winds of up to 50mph.
It was a day dominated not by the expected attacks from the contenders for overall victory but by a heroic solo effort in horrible conditions from Heinrich Haussler, the 25-year-old Australian-born German rider who lost this year’s Milan-San Remo classic to Mark Cavendish in a photo-finish. Haussler went off in a seven-man break with only 3km gone, and gradually saw his companions fall away over a route that included five categorised climbs.
He removed the last of them, Sylvan Chavanel, on the descent of Platzerwasel, when he dropped into an aerodynamic crouch and plunged through the fast bends at a speed that left the tiring Frenchman far behind.
“I gave it everything I had,” Haussler said in an Aussie twang untouched by more than a decade spent living in Germany. “I risked everything.”
The bigger names risked nothing. Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong, second and third in the general classification, again sat in their familiar positions just behind the front of the peloton for most of the day, with Rinaldo Nocentini, the Italian who will now wear the yellow jersey for a seventh day in a row, at their side.
Wiggins has been taking his cue from the overall leaders, keeping out of potential trouble by sitting near the front of the race, handling the climbs with impressive confidence and waiting to see how he is feeling as the race nears its final week. His only disappointment has been a poor performance by his Garmin-Slipstream squad in the team time trial.
The 29-year-old is in his third Tour and the evidence of his relaxed mood can be seen in a constant stream of colourful Twitter postings. Already, however, he is in unknown territory.
“You can’t really prepare for the third week,” he said. “The more you think about it, the harder it becomes – and then you get to the third week and you’re a bit of a milk shake.”
His first experience of the Tour, in 2006, was not a happy one. Having won his first Olympic gold medal in 2004, he allowed it to go to his head.
“I had two lost years after that,” he said this week. “I was a different person. I didn’t have the work ethic. And I was in a team (Cofidis) I disliked, surrounded by people who disliked me. In 2006 I just wanted to do the Tour to say I’d done it.”
He was back in 2007, when the race started in London, but then returned to the track with the British squad in time to prepare for winning two golds in Beijing.
In the meantime, however, he watched the 2008 Tour on television and enjoyed the performances of his track team-mate Cavendish and his own Garmin-Slipstream team leader, Christian Vande Velde.
“It was a breath of fresh air and I was inspired by Christian’s performance. I know he’s clean. It shows what you can do on bread and water.”
His coach, Shane Sutton, watched it with him. “Shane said: ‘There’s no reason you can’t climb with these guys’. I was always a good climber as an amateur. But when I concentrated on the track, I bulked up and neglected training for the road. I always knew what I was capable of. But it’s a good thing I didn’t do it five years ago. I wasn’t mentally prepared. It’s only now I realise what cycling’s about.”
Nicolas Roche was in the main group, climbing well during the stage and netting another top-20 finish when he came home in 17th place on the stage. He has moved from 51st to 45th overall.
Stage 13 Details
Vittel to Colmar, 200km
1 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervelo Test Team 4hrs 56mins 26secs, 2 Amets Txurruka (Spa) Euskaltel Euskadi at 4.11, 3 Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel at 6.13, 4 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step at 6.31, 5 Peter Velits (Svk) Team Milram at 6.43, 6 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team, 7 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale, 8 Bradley Wiggins (Brit) Garmin Slipstream, 9 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia HTC, 10 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank, 11 Andreas Kloden (Ger) Astana, 12 Thierry Huppond (Fra) Skil-Shimano, 13 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank, 14 Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram, 15 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank, 16 Grischa Niermann (Ger) Rabobank, 17 Nicolas Roche (Irl)AG2R La Mondiale,
18 Matteo Tosatto (Ita) Quick Step, 19 David Loosli (Swi) Lampre NGC, 20 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana all same time.
General classification:1 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 53hrs 30mins 30secs, 2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana at 0.06, 3 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana at 0.08, 4 Bradley Wiggins (Brit) Garmin Slipstream at 0.46, 5 Andreas Kloden (Ger) Astana at 0.54, 6 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia HTC at 1.00, 7 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin Slipstream at 1.24, 8 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank at 1.49, 9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas at 1.54, 10 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne at 2.16, 11 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia HTC at 2.21, 12 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank at 2.25, 13 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas at 2.40, 14 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale at 2.45, 15 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo Test Team at 2.52. Other: 45, Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) at 16 mins 45 secs.
Sprinters:1. Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo 205pts, 2. Mark Cavendish (Brit) Columbia 200, 3. Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 116, 4. Tyler Farrar (US) Garmin 110, 5. Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Milram 100.
King of the Mountains: 1. Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 98pts, 2. Egoi Martinez (Spa) Euskaltel 95, 3. Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 64, 4. Christophe Kern (Fra) Cofidis 59, 5. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick-Step 53.
Youth:1. Tony Martin (Ger) Columbia 53hrs 31mins 30secs, 2. Andy Schleck (Lux) Saxo Bank +49, 3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas +54, 4. Roman Kreuziger (Cze Rep) Liquigas +1:40, 5. Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel +2:56. Other: 9. Nicolas Roche (Ire)AG2R +15:45.
