Arnaud Courteille
Arnaud Courteille of FDJ-Big Mat is the new Point d’Appui after Wednesday’s time trial, Stage 11 of the Vuelta a España. He pushed out Grégory Rast, who held the Point d’Appui after Stage 10, after both riders fell two places in the general classification standings.
Markel Irizar, who won the 2011 Tour de France Point d’Appui, is only one spot out of the fulcrum and must be considered a contender for the Vuelta’s chemise grise.
Gregory Rast
Grégory Rast of Radioshack-Nissan has gotten ahold of the overall Point d’Appui in the Vuelta a España. John Gadret of AG2R abandoned the race before Stage 10 because of gastrointestinal problems, leaving 193 to come home on Stage 10.
Rast was the Swiss National Road Champion in 2002, 2004 and 2006, won the Tour de Luxembourg in 2007, was victor in the 2008 Grand Prix of Instanbul, and finished first with the RadioShack team during the team time trial of Stage 4 of the Tour de France in 2009. Since then, not so much. Until today. Now he holds his first Point d’Appui.
Rast is not only the Point d’Appui; he holds the median time of the Vuelta so far too. He finished 49 minutes and 3 seconds behind race leader Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha and 49 minutes and six seconds ahead of Joost Van Leijen of Lotto Belisol.
On the stage, Johannes Fröhlinger of Argos-Shimano won the Point d’Appui.
Following the end of Stage 9, la Vuelta a España goes into its first rest day with no Point d’Appui. The number of riders who came home Sunday was 194, leaving Adrian Palomares of Andalucia and Bruno Pires of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank on the cusp. Palomares finished 46 minutes and 39 seconds behind the race leader, Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha, and nearly 52 minutes ahead of the rider in last place, Joost Van Leijen of Lotto-Bellisol.
On the stage, William Bonnet of FDJ-Big Mat and John Degenkolb of Argos-Shimano split the cusp with the same time of 2 minutes and 20 seconds behind the Stage 9 winner, Philippe Gilbert. Gilbert held the Point d’Appui after Stage 3 but has moved up in the rankings with strong showings such as his Stage 9 sprint win.
Following the final stage of the U.S.A. Pro Cycling Race, a 15.3 kilometer time trial, the order of the racers was shook but all 96 came home, leaving the race without a Point d’Appui. Peter Velits of Omega Pharma-Quickstep and Serghei Tvetcov of Team Exergy finished on the cusp for the general classification at the end of the seven-day race through the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Velits was 27 minutes and 47 seconds behind the overall winner, Christian Vande Velde of Garmin-Sharp, and more than an hour ahead of the Lanterne Rouge, Sergey Klimov of RusVelo.
Stage 7, itself, finished with Roman Kreuziger of Astana and Michael Friedman of Team Optum splitting the middle of the pack.
Only two stages of the race ended with an odd number of racers, and therefore a Point d’Appui:
American Benjamin King of RadioShack-Nissan has gained the overall Point d’Appui in the USA Pro Cycling Tour at the end of Stage 5. King is 23 minutes and 31 seconds behind race leader Tejay van Garderen of BMC and 36 minutes and 53 seconds ahead of the Lanterne Rouge, Morgan Schmitt of Team Exergy.
With only two days to go in the Colorado race, King has probably the best shot of holding onto the fulcrum, but George Hincapie, riding his last professional bicycle race is only six spots off the middle. If he continues working hard to keep van Garderen in the lead, he might just slip back enough in the closing moments of the final two days to grab the Point d’Appui.
The Point d’Appui for Stage 5 was another American, Andrew Bajadali of Team Optum. Bajadali finished with the same time on the stage as winner Tyler Farrar and another 67 riders.
When a sailing ship hits the duldroms and the winds cease, the crew grows restless and starts doing ridiculous things like swabbing the deck. The Vuelta a España has gone three stages without a Point d’Appui, an even number of riders coming home each day. It got so bad that after Stage 7, the Vuelta’s website showed 194 riders finishing the stage but 196 still in contention for the general classification.
Suffice to say we don’t know how that works except that either there are two tandem bicycles out there or the Vuelta has entered its own period of blah.
Les Cuspides for the last few stages have been:
Whether we find a new fulcrum on the first really tough mountain finish is yet to be seen. Maybe it will shake up the scorekeepers enough to get the number of riders correct.
After the abandonment by David Boucher, the field of the Vuelta was left with 196 riders and no Point d’Appui. After the fourth stage, Pavel Brutt of Katusha and Denys Kostyuk of Lampre, finished as Les Cuspides in the general classification. They finished more than 15 minutes behind the leader, Joaquim Rodriguez, also of Katusha.
Brutt was joined by another Katusha rider, Gatis Smukulis, as Les Cuspides for the stage.
A crash with about 30 kilometers to go threw the race into disorder. Philippe Gilbert, who held the Point d’Appui after Stage 3, fell nearly 40 places on the day. Unsurprisingly though, Markel Irizar, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Tour de France as well as one stage in the 2011 Vuelta, has managed to stay within six places of the fulcrum.
The new Lanterne Rouge of the Vuelta is Martijn Maaskant of Garmin-Sharp. He’s more than 39 minutes behind the leader.
Philippe Gilbert of BMC can add another feather to his cap after finishing on the fulcrum during Stage 3 of the Vuelta a España to gain the general classification Point d’Appui. Gilbert was the Belgian road race and time trial champion in 2011 and won quite a few races, and wore the yellow jersey in the 2011 Tour de France after winning the first stage. This year, the honors have been much more modest, and so it should come as little surprise that he has landed in the middle.
He finished six minutes and three seconds after the race leader, Alejandro Valverde of Movistar, and 21 minutes and 21 seconds ahead of David Boucher, who despite gaining good time overall was still in overall last place after Stage 3.
The Point d’Appui for the stage went to Kevin De Weert, another Belgian riding for Omega Pharma-Quickstep.
Rémi Pauriol, who held the Point d’Appui after Stage 2, gained 27 spots on the pack. Markel Irizar, whom we had pegged as a potential winner of the maillot gris by the end of the Vuelta, moved only a few spots up, despite getting into the eight-man break.
Rémi Pauriol, photo by jmreymond
After an abandon prior to the start of Stage 2, we were left with 197 riders to come home. Rémi Pauriol of FDJ-Bigmat held tight to the middle and finished as the Vuelta a España’s first Point d’Appui in the general classification.
Pauriol shared les Cuspides with teammate David Boucher after Stage 1, but Boucher fell off the bus during Stage 2 and wound up in last position on the day, filling in for Enrico Gasparotto of Astana, Stage 1’s last-place finisher. Gasparotto crashed hard in Stage 1 during the team time trial, suffering a triple broken collar. He pedaled to the finish in last place but came home outside the time limit and was unable to start Sunday.
Pauriol finished 57 seconds behind race leader Jonathan Castroviejo and 12 minutes 56 seconds ahead of Boucher.
Tomasz Marczynski of Vacansoleil-DCM finished on the fulcrum for the stage.
Here’s hoping the racers cool their heels a bit and we avoid more race-ending crashes.
The Vuelta a España began Saturday with a team time trial. With 22 teams finishing and 198 riders coming home, there was no Point d’Appui on the day. The teams Astana and AG2R la Mondiale finished 10th and 11th, respectively, to settle in as les Cuspides on the opening day.
David Boucher
Rémi Pauriol
Two members of FDJ-Bigmat — Rémi Pauriol and David Boucher — finished as the individual les Cuspides, 57 seconds behind leader Jonathan Castroviejo of Movistar. They finished more than 8 minutes ahead of Enrico Gasperotto of Astana, who finished as the Lanterne Rouge on the first day.
Using a team trial to start the Vuelta makes assessment of the fulcrum more difficult. Each team’s finish is a reflection of its team members’ ability to hang together and serve the weakest among themselves, the antithesis of most stage races, where the weakest protect the team leader for as long and as well as they can. Predicting the fulcrum for Sunday’s road stage is anything if not mediocre.
However, if we must guess, we would go with Team Radioshack’s Markel Irizar, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Tour de France as well as one stage in the 2011 Vuelta, was only three places off the fulcrum. Radioshack appears to be setting him up for another run at the overall Point d’Appui in the Vuelta this year.
CyclingNews quotes Irizar thusly about the likely ease but possible difficulty of Stage 2: “I know this area well and it can be windy around. This should be one of the easiest stages but it depends where the finish is exactly. Often races finish on a short, 800m hill in Viana. It could complicate things for the sprinters.”
The defending champion of the Point d’Appui for the 2011 Vuelta, Lloyd Mondory of AG2R la Mondiale, finished in 130th place.
Point d'Appui 