May 26, 2013

2013 Giro d’Italia Ends Without Fulcrum

The 2013 Giro d’Italia ended with an even number of riders coming home, so no Point d’Appui could be awarded. Les Cuspides on the final stage were Danilo Wyss of BMC Racing and Pablo Lastras Garcia of Movistar, both of whom held the fulcrum at different stages during the race.

Stage 1: Ricardo Mestre
Stage 2: Carlos Julian Quintero
Stage 3: Leonardo Fabio Duque
Stage 4: No fulcrum (abandon by Sandy Casar, who was just two spots out of the middle after Stage 2)
Stage 5: John Degenkolb
Stage 6: No fulcrum (Ji Cheng of China did not start)
Stage 7: Gert Dockx (Mattia Catteneo did not finish, just outside fulcrum after first stage; two others did not start)
Stage 8: No fulcrum (Julien Berard did not start)
Stage 9: Koen De Kort
Stage 10: Pablo Lastras Garcia
Stage 11: No fulcrum (Sylvain Georges did not start)
Stage 12: No fulcrum
Stage 13: Stefano Locatelli
Stage 14: No fulcrum
Stage 15: No fulcrum
Stage 16: Cayetano José Sarmiento Tunarrosa
Stage 17: No fulcrum
Stage 18: Danilo Wyss
Stage 19: Canceled due to snow: Danilo Wyss continues as Point d’Appui
Stage 20: No fulcrum
Stage 21: No fulcrum

September 9, 2012

Pieter Weening Claims 2012 Vuelta’s Point d’Appui

Pieter Weening, out front on a break away during Stage 6 of the Vuelta a España

Pieter Weening of Orica-GreenEdge settled into the middle of the pack during Stage 20 and finished the 2012 Vuelta a España as the Point d’Appui, taking home the maillot gris. He came home 2 hours, 27 minutes and 56 seconds behind the race winner, Alberto Contador, and finished 2 hours, 4 minutes and 39 seconds ahead of Cheng Ji, who held on to become China’s first Lanterne Rouge in a grand tour.

Johan Van Summeren, the Belgian riding for Garmin-Sharp, had the time closest to the median.

On the stage, Ben Gastauer of AG2R La Mondiale came home at the fulcrum position.

The Point d’Appui changed hands nine times, and 10 stages ended without a fulcrum. Of note, Philippe Gilbert, who held the Point d’Appui early in the race, won Stages 9 and 19, thus obviating much chance that he would finish in the middle. For the record, Gilbert finished 59th in general classification. Grischa Niermann, who is retiring after 13 years of racing, held the Point d’Appui after Stage 15. And no race would be complete without a mention of Markel Irizar, winner of the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Tour de France and who briefly held the Vuelta’s middle spot after Stage 18.

Through the stages:

Stage 1 – No fulcrum
Stage 2 – Rémi Pauriol
Stage 3 – Philippe Gilbert
Stage 4 – No fulcrum
Stage 5 – No fulcrum
Stage 6 – No fulcrum
Stage 7 – No fulcrum
Stage 8 – No fulcrum
Stage 9 – No fulcrum
Stage 10 – Gregory Rast
Stage 11 – Arnaud Courteille
Stage 12 – No fulcrum
Stage 13 – No fulcrum
Stage 14 – Martijn Keizer
Stage 15 – Grischa Niermann
Stage 16 – Johannes Fröhlinger
Stage 17 – No fulcrum
Stage 18 – Markel Irizar
Stage 19 – Johannes Fröhlinger
Stage 20 – Pieter Weening
Stage 21 – Pieter Weening

September 4, 2012

Fröhlinger Holds Fulcrum Going into Rest Day

Johannes Fröhlinger of Argos-Shimano moved into the fulcrum Monday during Stage 16 of the Vuelta a España.

Fröhlinger came home with an overall time of 1 hour, 53 minutes and 58 seconds behind the race leader, Joaquim Rodriguez. He finished 1 hour, 3 minutes and 19 seconds ahead of Joost Van Leijen of Lotto Belisol.

Xavier Florencio Cabre of Katusha won the Point d’Appui for the stage.

Cameron Meyer Orica-GreenEdge abandoned before the start of the stage, and Pablo Lechuga of Andalucia failed to finish, bringing to 181 the number of riders still in the saddle.

Grischa Niermann, who held the overall Point d’Appui after Stage 15, slipped three spots after finishing 141st on the day.

September 3, 2012

Niermann Climbs into Control of Center

Grischa Niermann of Rabobank Fought his way to the center of the grupetto to claim the overall Point d’Appui after Stage 15 of the Vuelta a España. Niermann finished 1 hour, 27 minutes and 37 seconds behind the race leader, Joaquim Rodriguez, and 1 hour, 54 minutes and 54 seconds behind Van Leijen of Lotto Belisol.

Markel Irizar, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Tour de France, is only one spot off the fulcrum.

On the stage, Paulo Tiralongo of Astana finished in the dead center.

September 2, 2012

New Leader in Vuelta’s Point d’Appui

Martijn Keizer of Vacansoleil-DCM garnered the overall Point d’Appui after Stage 14 of the Vuelta a España. Keizer finished 1 hour, 18 minutes and 26 seconds behind race leader Joaquim Rodriguez and 1 hour, 44 minutes and 51 seconds ahead of Joost van Leijen.

Leonardo Fabio of Cofidis placed dead center on the stage.

Three riders did not start the stage and two more abandoned during the race.

August 29, 2012

Time Trial Lets Courteille Snag Point d’Appui

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.

August 25, 2012

Vuelta Remains in Les Cuspides Since Stage 4

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:

Stage 5 – Denys Kostyuk of Lampre-ISD and Zdenek Stybar of Omega Pharma-Quickstep.
Stage 6 – Bruno Pires of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank and Assan Bazayev of Astana Pro Team.
Stage 7 – Pablo Lastras Garcia of Movistar Team and Rafael Valls Ferri of Vacansoleil-Dcm Pro Cycling Team.

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.

August 22, 2012

Katusha Riders Gain the Cusp after Stage 4 of the Vuelta

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.

August 21, 2012

Gilbert Edges Pauriol Out for Point d’Appui

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.

August 19, 2012

Pauriol Grabs Overall Point d’Appui

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.

Point d'Appui

Grand Tours