Wiggins falters in great escape

CYCLING/Tour de France:Bradley Wiggins has a strong sense of history, but as he spent 119 miles on his own in front during yesterday's stage, he was unaware the date had strong resonances for any British cycling fan, particularly those of a certain age. July 13th, 1967 was the day of Tom Simpson's death on the Mont Ventoux, and Wiggins's courageous but ultimately fruitless escape was the kind of move Simpson would have understood.

It was what the French call un coup de panache, a move in which the cyclist realises there is no guarantee of success, but where turning back is not an option. There was no discredit in the fact Wiggins's adventure came to an end four miles from the finish, where Tom Boonen finally took a stage win after two years' trying.

When Wiggins first escaped he was accompanied by five others, but after he took one long turn at the front of the group, he was alone. "What do you do? It's the Tour de France, so you continue . . . I got 10, 15 minutes lead and thought, what do you do? It was my wife Cath's birthday, I knew she'd be watching with the kids, so it was a good way to spend the day with them."

The peloton has a way of dealing with early attackers: they are left to fry - yesterday in warm sun - but kept within reach and reeled before the finish. Wiggins rapidly rode to a lead of more than 17 minutes before, finally, Fabian Cancellara's CSC team decided enough was enough.

Later, the damage was done by the sprinters' teams, Boonen's Quickstep, Lampre for Daniele Bennati, and T-Mobile. Wiggins was not helped when he broke a spoke in his back wheel 30 miles from the finish. He was not the only British rider to have problems. Mark Cavendish was well placed at the finish but had to sit up when one of his rivals' pedals hit his front wheel, ripping out half the spokes.

Wiggins said: "With 15 kilometres to go I thought it (a win) might happen, but there was a headwind towards the finish. I was doing 45 kilometres per hour, but I knew behind me they'd be doing 52-53. I knew with 10 kilometres to go I had no chance."

Wiggins will have stiff legs when the race enters the Alps today, but he will not be the only one. All eyes will be on the two leaders of the Kazakh-backed Astana team, Alexandr Vinokourov and Andreas Kloden, as the after-effects of their crashes on Thursday in Burgundy make themselves felt.

Cycling lore has it that the stiffness and soreness from a crash is most acute 36 to 48 hours after a chute, and "Vino" and "Klodi" have much to be sore about, although both men started yesterday's stage. Vino, however, was barely able to climb the stairs to the podium where the riders register. He began the stage having had 15 stitches inserted in cuts in both knees - which took 3½ hours on Thursday evening - while Kloden was confirmed as having a hairline fracture of the coccyx, although Astana were unable to confirm whether it was as a result of Thursday's crash or a hangover from an old fracture.

Neither man looked at his ease yesterday. Vino grimaced as he rode and at one point made a gesture: a finger across his throat as if his head were being cut off. Kloden was apparently unable to stand on the pedals, which does not bode well for today, even though the only col is the Col de la Colombiere, rated first-category for its 10 miles of climbing to a 5,000ft summit.

Tomorrow's stage is tougher, including three first-category mountains, of which the toughest is the narrow ascent of the Cormet de Roselend. The Alps are abbreviated this year, with no visit to l'Alpe d'Huez, and one nod to history with the inclusion of the Col du Galibier on Tuesday. The chances are that the favourites will keep their powder dry until next Saturday's time-trial in Albi.

Today, the issue is not the steepness of the Colombiere, but its position, shortly before the finish, with a vertiginous descent to Le Grand-Bornand. The peloton will hit the climb at speed as is always the case on the first major climb in the Tour. On the first "judge of pace", as the French call it, there are always victims, and often surprises. At least one or two contenders will be ex-contenders by this evening.

Guardian Service