Christophe Kern

July 20, 2012

Christophe Kern Becomes Newest Point d’Appui

Christophe Kern of Europcar, who shared the cusp on Stage 8 of the Tour de France, squeaked into the general classification Point d’Appui at the end of Stage 17.

Kern is sitting dead center of the peloton, 2:10:10 behind Tour leader Bradley Wiggins and 1:15:13 ahead of the new Lanterne Rouge, Jan Ghyselinck of Cofidis. The riders came home Thursday with an odd number after Radio Shack-Nissan pulled Frank Schleck.

Several riders are within striking distance as we go into a third day in the Pyrenees: Yaroslav Popovych, Marco Marzano, Andrey Kashechkin and Guillaume Levarlet. The nearest is only 40 seconds away from the fulcrum.

Barring more positive drug test results, the tour may finish with another Point d’Appui, its 52nd since the race began.

July 8, 2012

Rugged Stage 8 Finds Marzano, Kern on Cusp

Another three riders abandoned on Stage 8, leaving the Tour de France without a Point d’Appui. After a rugged day in the mountains, the general classification Cuspides fell to Marco Marzano of Lampre-ISD in 89th position and Christophe Kern of Europcar in 90th position. Marzano fell back 25 positions while Kern gained 30 positions to land in the middle.

Marzano, who won the Point d’Appui in the Critérium du Dauphiné earlier this year, is 31:48 behind leader Bradley Wiggins of Sky and nearly 40 minutes ahead of the Lanterne Rouge.

On the stage, Lars Ytting Bak of Lotto Belisol finished 89th and Fabian Cancellara of RadioShack-Nissan finished 90th on the stage to finish as Les Cuspides. They were part of a large group that finished 12:19 behind stage winner Thibaut Pinot of FDJ-Bigmat.

The Point d’Appui after Stage 7, Sébastien Hinault had a very difficult day and fell back nearly 30 positions on the ride from Belfort to Porrentruy, Switzerland. The riders crossed seven categorized climbs with the last, the Col de la Croix, having the steepest rise of the day.

Notes from Stage 8:

  • Several commentators had compared Stage 8 of the 2012 tour with Stage 7 of the 2010 Tour de France, which Sylvain Chavanel of Quickstep won and, thus, might be a favorite for Stage 8 this year. Stage 7 of 2010 ended with an even number of riders on the day and so there was no fulcrum, but Les Cuspides on the day were the Norwegians Edvald Boasson Hagen and Thor Hushovd. Hushovd is not at this year’s tour and Boasson Hagen is riding better this year than in 2010, so neither could be considered a favorite for the Point d’Appui on this stage. In fact, he finished 10 positions ahead of the Point d’Appui.
  • Three abandons, notably Sammy Sanchez, leader of Euskaltel-Euskadi, brought the number of finishers to 180.
  • Pauvre Brice Feillu continues to hang onto the tail end of the tour. He finished just 2 minutes back of Tyler Ferrar.