July 7, 2016

Tour de France Remains in les Cuspides

Grégory Rast

Gorka Izaguirre

Amazingly, all 198 riders who started the 2016 Tour de France are still in the race after Stage 6. A few are banged and bruised, but no one has decamped to recuperate for the Olympics.

With an even number of riders, the tour remains in les Cuspides. No Point d’Appui. No fulcrum.

But we do have two veterans who finished on the cusp: Gorka Izaguirre of Movistar Team and Grégory Rast of Trek-Segafredo. Izaguirre was on the cusp after Stage 2, and Rast slipped into the cusp on Stage 5, holding steady after Stage 6.

Mark Cavendish won the bunch sprint into Montauban. Greg Van Avermaet of BMC Racing Team remains in the yellow jersey, and Michael Morkov continues to hold the Lanterne Rouge.

July 7, 2016

Cheers to First, Last and Middle of Stage 5

Grégory Rast

Wouter Poels

Cheers to the riders on the front end of the tour and the tail end. Greg Van Avermaet of BMC got into the break, stole away from the break with two others and then ran away from in the final climbs to win Stage 5 of the 2016 Tour de France and don the Maillot Jaune.

On the other end of the train, Michael Morkov of Team Katusha, who crashed hard on Stage 1, struggled home on his own, five minutes adrift of the next nearest rider. Courage.

All 198 riders came home safely, so the race remains without a Point d’Appui. The mountains threw the order into the jackstraws. The two new riders on the cusp of the fulcrum are Wouter Poels of Team Sky at 99th and Grégory Rast of Trek-Segafredo. Poels held the GC Point d’Appui on Stages 12 and 13 of the 2015 Tour de France. It’s Rast’s first time to sit in the middle.

The climbs into the Massif Centrale broke the peloton into splinters, spreading them over a 33-minute timeframe. The rider with the time closest to the mean average time is Daniel Teklehaimanot of Dimension Data. He’s at 35 minutes and 12 seconds behind the leader, and Morkov is 1 hour, 10 minutes and 25 seconds behind Avermaet.

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 28, 2012

Rast Slides into Point d’Appui After Vuelta Stage 10

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.