A New King in the Tour de France Point d’Appui

Mugshot of Ben King

Ben King

American Ben King of Garmin-Sharp took over the Point d’Appui on the first hot day of the 2014 Tour de France, finishing 89th among the 177 surviving riders.

Two riders abandoned. After the heroic ride during the previous Stage 11, Andrew Talansky, leader of Garmin-Sharp, did not start Stage 12 due to injuries. David De La Cruz of Team Netapp-Endura got into the break-away with four other riders; but, while coming around a sharp right-hand bend, the front tire of his bike appeared to have a blow-out that sent him hard into the pavement, breaking his clavicle and withdrawing from the race.

The overall leader of the tour is still Vincenzo Nibali of Astana, and the Lanterne Rouge is Cheng Ji of Team Giant-Shimano. Alexander Kristoff of Team Katusha won Stage 12, holding off Peter Sagan, who has finished second on sprint stages five times now. The Point d’Appui for the stage was Marcel Sieberg of Lotto-Belisol.

Reichenbach on Fulcrum After Stage 11 of Tour de France

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Sébastien Reichenbach of IAM Cycling finished Stage 11, the fulcrum stage of the 2014 Tour de France, in the Point d’Appui position.

The drama of the stage, of course, was not the Point d’Appui, but rather the existential conflict faced by Andrew Talansky, who fell behind the peloton due to severe pain in his lower back and then landed in a dark land, contemplating his raison de vélo. To Talansky’s everlasting credit, he got back on the bicycle and rode the course alone, finishing within the cutoff time and surviving to see what tomorrow brings.

Back to today, the current Point d’Appui, Reichenbach, sits among a nest of competitors and past champions of the fulcrum. The 10 nearest contenders for the gray jersey on either side of the fulcrum:
80 – Nelson Oliveira of Lampre-Merida
81 – Julien Simon of Cofidis, Solutions Credits
82 – Rudy Molard of Cofidis, Solutions Credits
83 – Matthieu Ladagnous of FDJ.fr
84 – Blel Kadri of AG2R La Mondiale
85 – Gregory Rast of Trek Factory Racing
86 – Johan Van Summeren of Garmin-Sharp
87 – Ruben Plaza Molina of Movistar Team
88 – Cyril Lemoine of Cofidis, Solutions Credits
89 – Markel Irizar Arranburu of Trek Factory Racing
90 – Sébastien Reichenbach of IAM Cycling
91 – Jens Voigt of Trek Factory Racing
92 – Koen De Kort of Team Giant-Shimano
93 – Kévin Reza of Team Europcar
94 – Daniele Bennati of Tinkoff-Saxo
95 – Benjamin King of Garmin-Sharp
96 – Simon Clarke of Orica Greenedge
97 – Vasili Kiryienka of Team Sky
98 – Sébastien Minard of AG2R La Mondiale
99 – Samuel Dumoulin of AG2R La Mondiale
100 – Jérémy Roy of FDJ.fr

Vincenzo Nibali remains in the yellow jersey and Cheng Ji remains in the Lanterne Rouge.

Tour de France 2014: A Race for the Ages

At the beginning of the 2014 Tour de France, both the oldest and youngest riders in the tour were riding for one team, Trek Factory. Jens Voigt is 42, and his teammate, Danny Von Popple, was 20.

Henri Cornet, youngest winner of the Tour de France.

Henri Cornet, youngest winner of the Tour de France.

Firmin Lambot, oldest winner of the tour.

Firmin Lambot, oldest winner of the tour.

The combination might make you wonder a little about the ages of the tour riders, both in this year’s 101st edition of the tour and in years’ past. The oldest competitor ever was Henri Paret, who at the age of 50 competed in the very first tour, held in 1903. The youngest competitor ever was Camille Fily, 17 years and two months old when he started the 1904 tour.

As with Fily, the youngest rider to win the tour, Henri Cornet, competed in 1904, finishing fifth but ascending to the yellow jersey when the four riders ahead of him were disqualified. Firmin Lobot was the oldest rider to win the yellow jersey. He was 36 years and four months old when he won in 1922.

So what about this year? The graph below shows each team with the ages of its riders toted up. Trek Factory, despite having the youngest rider in the tour, ended up with the grand-daddy of all ages, 292, calendaring an average of 32.4 years per rider. The youngest team, meanwhile, is Garmin Sharp at 246 total years, or an average age of 27.3 years per rider. Garmin’s oldest rider barely crests Trek’s average.

Bar graph showing combined team agesLooking at individual ages, you’ll find in the next graph that the highest number of riders who share the same age are those who are 29 years of age. The median age, that is the age half way between the oldest age and the youngest age, is 31.

A bar graph showing number of riders with the same age.When all the riders’ ages are added up and averaged out, though, the age closest to the average turns out to be that of Tom Veelers, the Team Giant-Shimano rider who held the Point d’Appui after Stage 5.

On a sentimental note, I have to cheer for Koen de Kort, also of Giant-Shimano. De Kort was born on September 8, 1982, the same date as my own birth, albeit it mine was some 24 years earlier. As it happens, I was on my first cross-country bicycle tour the day that de Kort was being born. I was camping the night among the Douglas fir of the Cascade range in Oregon. My wife, on the other hand, gets to cheer for Peter Sagan, who shares the date of his birth with her.

Contador Abandons, Putting Tour Back on Cuspides

Team picture of Alberto Contador

Alberto Contador

Alberto Contador abandoned the Tour de France on Stage 9 after crashing, breaking his shinbone and riding another dozen kilometers before pain forced him out. He followed former tour winners Chris Froome and Andy Schleck as the third tour champion to crash out of the race. Along with two other abandons, his loss left 180 riders to come home at the end of the day put the 2014 Tour de France back in les Cuspides.

Jan Barta of Team Netapp-Endura and Matteo Trentin of Omega Pharma-Quick Step finished 90th and 91st, respectively, to be come the sixth pair of riders to share the cusp at the middle of the peloton. Barta won the combativity award in Stage 3, and Trentin, of course, surprised everyone including himself when he edged out sprinter Peter Sagan to win Stage 7. Their overall times, however, place them in the exact middle of the pack.

The other two riders who had to abandon were Mathew Hayman of Orica Greenedge and Edward “Ted” King of Cannondale. King held the Lanterne Rouge for several days, and his abandon returns Cheng Ji of Team Giant-Shimano to the last place position.

Vasili Kiryienka, the winner of the 2012 Point d’Appui, and Markel Irizar, winner of the 2011 Point d’Appui, are both within shouting distance of the middle. Jérémy Roy, who held the Point d’Appui after Stage 8, moved up a couple of places to escape the fulcrum momentarily.

All this comes amid the stamp of Vincenzo Nibali upon the finish of Stage 9, winning what is arguably the most difficult mountain stage of the tour — just seconds ahead of his nearest overall competitors — to take back the yellow jersey he put on loan to Tony Gallopin for Bastille Day.

Tomorrow, the tour enters its first rest day, a welcome relief for the riders who have survived thus far.

French Rider Takes Point d’Appui into Bastille Day

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France’s Jeremy Roy starts a breakaway in the rain of Stage 4 of the 2011 Tour de France. Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images

Jérémy Roy of FDJ found his way onto the fulcrum by the end of Stage 9 of the 2014 Tour de France even as a fellow Frenchman, Tony Gallopin of Lotto-Belisol, took hold of the yellow jersey as overall leader of the tour.

Roy, who finished on the cusp of the fulcrum during Stage 1, has continued to finish near the middle of the pack in successive stages. In 2011, Roy was named most aggressive rider in the Tour de France, in large part due to his success at getting into the breakaways and then attacking his fellow escapees. He also won a stage of Paris-Nice in 2009 and the mountain climbers’ polka dot jersey in Critérium International in 2013.

This first heavily mountainous stage was won by Tony Martin, who got into a two-man break and stayed away for more than 100 kilometers to finish first and alone on the straight-away at Mulhouse. Martin was helped by Astana’s decision not to protect Vincenzo Nibali’s yellow jersey, a strategy that allowed an intermediary group of riders including Gallopin to build a large enough lead that Gallopin became the tour leader on the eve of Bastille Day. Members of Astana apparently assume that they can regain the jersey in the mountainous stages ahead, but letting go of it temporarily lets them off the hook for making pace and chasing breakaways.

Egoitz Garcia Echeguibel of Cofidis withdrew from the tour on Sunday, leaving 183 riders in the race. Heinrich Haussler of IAM Cycling finished on the fulcrum for the stage.

Edward “Ted” King of Cannondale remains the Lanterne Rouge.

Stage 7 Slips Back into les Cuspides

Three abandons due to crashes on Stage 7 put the 2014 Tour de France off the fulcrum again. Finishing at the middle of the 186 survivors were Bartosz Huzarski of Team Netapp-Endura in 93rd place and Julien Simon of Cofidis in 94th place.

The route, the second-longest of this year’s tour, ran from Epernay to Nancy, relatively level except that there were a couple Category 4 climbs near the end of the day that cut most sprinters out of contention for the final run into Nancy. Not so Peter Sagan, whose Cannondale teammates put pressure on the front of the peloton to give him a better shot at the stage win. It was not to be. By the width of your pinkie, Matteo Trentin of Omega Pharma-Quick Step took the stage on the line, leaving Sagan holding nothing but the green jersey.

No one quite expected the heavy toll of crashes on these dry roads after two days of rain, one of them on cobbles. Stef Clement went out in the first hour of the ride after a crash left him unable to get to his feet. Danny Van Popple, the youngest rider in the tour, abandoned due to knee pain.

Both top Americans, Tejay van Garderen and Andrew Talansky, suffered crashes in the latter part of the race, but both were able to finish the stage. In van Garderen’s crash, his teammate Darwin Atapuma also went down and had to abandon. Talansky sits at 2 minutes behind tour leader Vincenzo Nibali. Van Garderen is 3 minutes off the leader’s pace.

At the back end of the peloton, American Edward “Ted” King of Cannondale slipped behind Cheng Ji of Team Giant-Shimano to take the handle of the Lanterne Rouge, the rider in last place

Slagter Edges into Fulcrum on Stage 6

Tom-Jelte Slagter of Garmin-Sharp moved up five positions in the general classification to take over the Point d’Appui by the end of Stage 6 of the 2014 Tour de France. Slagter won the 2013 Tour Down Under and also won a stage of Paris-Nice this year. He rides well in the mountains, so he will probably not stay at the fulcrum for long.

Tom Veelers, who held fulcrum after Stage 5, moved up in the standings after a strong finish Thursday.

The tour had four abandons on Thursday. Ariel Maximiliano Richeze of Lampre-Merida, who had held the Lanterne Rouge since Stage 1, did not start Stage 6 after suffering through several crashes. Jesus Alberto Hernandez Blazquez on Tinkoff-Saxo, Egor Silin of Team Katusha and Xabier Zandio of Team Sky dropped out during the stage, which again had several crashes due to wet roads. The loss of Zandio further hurts Sky’s chance of keeping the new captain, Richie Porte, at the fore of the race, and Alberto Contador faces similar issues with the loss of Silin.

The new Lanterne Rouge is the first Chinese rider to race in the Tour de France, Cheng Ji of Team Giant-Shimano. Ji has helped lead out the peloton for Marcel Kittel and then fallen back after doing his work.

Vincenzo Nibali still holds the Maillot Jaune. Andre Greipel won the stage during the sprint finish. Nelson Oliveira of Lampre-Merida finished at the fulcrum for the stage.

Markel Irizar, winner of the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Tour de France, remains within striking distance of the fulcrum.

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Tom-Jelte Slagte

La Pluie, pas les Pavés, Doom Froome

Christopher Froome, winner of the 2013 Tour de France, abandoned the 2014 Tour on Wednesday after crashes amid the rains of northern France prior to reaching the first sector of cobblestones. His loss left 193 riders to come home, and provided the tour with its first fulcrum.

Tom Veelers of Team Giant-Shimano finished 97th to claim the first Point d’Appui of the 2014 Tour de France. He started the in 168th place, but Stage 5 threw the tour into chaos. In the general classification, Veelers is 24 minutes and 41 seconds behind race leader Vincenzo Nibali. The Lanterne Rouge is still in the hands of Ariel Maximiliano Richeze of Lampre-Merida, who 1 hour, 2 minutes and 49 seconds adrift.

Markel Irizar, winner of the 2011 Tour Point d’Appui, is in 102nd, just five spots out of the fulcrum. Vasili Kiriyenka, winner of the 2012 Point d’Appui, fell 50 places due in part to his quick drop off the back to support Sky teammate Chris Froome after Froome’s first crash and in part as a result of Kiriyenka’s own crash in a slick roundabout.

The number of crashes Wednesday was legion, and that was before les pavés, the seven cobblestone sectors. Two sections of cobblestones were eliminated from the race due to the rain and “bad” conditions, as if there were any good conditions on the route across Flanders and finishing in Arenberg. Well, Stage 5 winner Lars Boom of Belkin Pro Cycling might say the last kilometer was pretty swell.

Greg Van Avermaet of BMC took the Point d’Appui on the stage.

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Tom Veelers

Tour Enters France, Remains in les Cuspides

The scenery seen by the seekers of tour glory shifted from the linseed fields of Great Britain to the historic battlegrounds surrounding Armentières as Stage 4 of the 2014 Tour de France resumed in the host country.

Outcomes for the day, however, seemed like a replay of Stage 3. Vincenzo Nibali still holds the yellow jersey; Marcel Kittel won the stage again, though with more difficulty; a GC contender hit the deck hard; Ariel Maximiliano Richeze still holds the Lanterne Rouge; and two more riders abandoned.

Andy Schleck, the leader of Trek Factory Racing, bowed out before the start of Stage 4 after taking a hard fall on Stage 3, and Gregory Henderson of Lotto-Belisol abandoned during Stage 4 after a late crash that also brought down two of his teammates and spoiled lead-out hopes for Andre Greipel in the sprint finish.

The two abandons left 194 riders to come home on the day, leaving the race in les Cuspides for the fourth straight day. The two riders on the cusp are John Gadret of Movistar Team at 97th and Peter Stetina of BMC Racing Team at 98th. Gradet also held the leading cusp after Stage 2.

Last year’s winner of the Tour de France, Chris Froome took a hard fall early in the stage, skinning his hip and rattling his wrist bones. As a side note, Vasili Kiryienka, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2012 Tour de France and the 2012 Tour de Romandie, showed why he reliably finishes in the middle of the pack, serving Froome as a domestique par excellence, dropping back to the Team Sky car to retrieve a brace for Froome’s wrist. Froome regained the peloton easily and seemed to be in good shape to continue tomorrow, although Stage 5 will rattle both bones and brains.

Luis Mate of Cofidis, who was on the cusp after Stage 1, got into the two-man break with Thomas Voeckler of Europcar during today’s stage, and they stayed off the front together until Mate had a flat. Voeckler was caught by the peloton with about 15 kilometers to go. In the 2013 tour, Voeckler, a perennial French favorite, had the time closest to the median time among all finishers.

For tomorrow, viva les cobbles!

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John GADRET © Presse Sports/B.Papon

Blasé Stage 3 Leaves Tour Without Fulcrum

After a day of raucous hills on Stage 2, Monday’s sonorous Stage 3 of the Tour de France finished up in London after 98 miles of yawn and just a dash of rain to dampen spirits further. The 196 riders who started the day finished the day, meaning we have a third day without a Point d’Appui. Benjamin King of Garmin-Sharp and Imanol Erviti Ollo of Movistar Team finished on les Cuspides in 98th and 99th places respectively.

Two riders broke away early in the race as it left Cambridge, and the peloton were happy to let them dangle off the front until the last six kilometers of the race, when the sprinters jumped to the fore, and Kittel won his second stage.

Poor Simon Gerrans hit the deck again today, going down with Andy Schleck and Ted King after a yawning spectator stepped off the bank and into the stream. All three were soon back on their bikes and finished without further incident.

Vincenzo Nibali and Ariel Maximiliano Richeze remained in the Maillot Jaune and Lanterne Rouge positions, respectively. Peter Sagan still holds the sprinter’s Green Jersey, but Bryan Coquard’s little nip at the heels during the intermediary sprint left us heartened.