July 20, 2014

Cheers for Bauer; Ladagnous Is New Fulcrum

Before we get to today’s fulcrum, let’s lift up Jack Bauer onto our shoulders, cheer his heroic odyssey and buy him a round for providing the best finish of a tour stage yet this edition. He and Martin Elmiger, the escapees on the day, buried themselves in their pedals through the last kilometers, trying to hold off the peloton as it stormed into Nîmes. Within meters of the finish, they caught Bauer and sent him reeling from first to tenth in the blink of an eye. But we can cheer our tragic heroes with grace and joy and hope for the next race. Here’s to Bauer.

Returning to the central tenet of this article: A day after winning the Stage 14 Point d’Appui, Matthieu Ladagnous of FDJ.fr is the new overall Point d’Appui in the 2014 Tour de France.

Since Stage 5, Ladagnous has finished has high as 72nd place in the general classification and as low as 97th. A champion track cyclist during the early part of his career, he switched to road racing in 2010 and has done quite well on the European circuit.

Meanwhile, the Stage 15 Point d’Appui turned out to be John Gadret of Movistar Team . Gradet finished on the cusp of the general classification Point d’Appui after Stages 2 and 4, although he has continued to rise in the GC standings ever since and is among the top 25 now. The stage winner was Alexander Kristoff of Katusha.

The engine and caboose of the train remain unchanged going into the second race day.

July 9, 2014

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!

John GADRET © Presse Sports/B.Papon

July 6, 2014

Le Tour Remains in les Cuspides after Stage 2

In general classification, John Gadret of Movistar Team finished 98th and Kristijan Koren of Cannondale finished 99th to hold down the cusps of the fulcrum after Stage 2 of the 2014 Tour de France.
The withdrawal of Mark Cavendish before race resumed set the stage for an odd number of riders to come home, but Sacha Modolo of Lampre-Merida also abandoned due to a case of flu, leaving the field with 196 finishers on the day.
Lampre-Merida is having its share of difficulties: Ariel Maximiliano Richeze finished 22 minutes behind the leaders on the day and is now the Lanterne Rouge, some 36 minutes and 31 seconds behind the Maillot Jaune of Vincenzo Nibali.
Nibali, leader of Astana, made a daring charge at the end of ragged stage through the steep hills of Yorkshire, holding on at the end against one of the few sprinters to survive the sawtooth course, Peter Sagan of Cannondale.

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.