Monday, July 11, 2011

Tour de France update.

•The best way to describe the first week of the Tour would be a 'crash-fest'. Unbelievable. On Stage 9 two riders in a breakaway were knocked off their bikes by a French TV car and on an earlier stage a rider was cleaned up by one of the official motorbikes!


•We saw 2 medium mountain stages over the weekend. There were no major changes in time gaps amongst the big favourites.

However on Sunday night's Stage 9 in a big surprise Frenchmen Thomas Voeckler took advantage of a truce and a slowing in the peleton due to a large crash to take the yellow jersey and leads Cadel by 2 minutes 26secs.

•After this weeks 3 stages in the Pyrenees Voeckler should lose the jersey.

•Cadel Evans remains in 3rd place overall with a lead of 1min 42secs on Contador in 16th. Contador crashed again over the weekend. There is speculation he may have been pushed by another rider!

•The other of the big three - Andy Schleck is well placed 11 seconds behind Cadel in 5th.

•What did happen over the weekend was some of Cadels big GC rivals crashed out of the Tour including Brad Wiggins (broken collarbone), Alex Vinokourov (broken pelvis and elbow!) and few other notables.

•Rest day Monday (tonight) followed by sprinters stages on Tues and Wed. then Thursday night we start 3 days in the Pyrenees where the fireworks will really start amongst the big GC contenders.

•By next weekend we should have a much clearer idea of who will win Le Tour.

•If Cadel stays upright he may well win the tour ala Steve Bradbury!

•All 6 Aussies are o.k with Richie Porte and Matt Goss safe in the peleton and riding well

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