July 6, 2017

Offredo Gets Fulcrum as Laengen Slips Following Ride in Break

Yohann Offredo

Yoann Offredo of the Wanty-Groupe Gobert team took over the general classification Point d’Appui on Stage 6 of the 2017 Tour de France after the fulcrum holder on Stage 5, Vegard Stake Laengen, got into the break during Stage 6, slipped in the standings after the break was caught and was awarded Most Combative Rider for Stage 6.

Offredo won the most-combative jersey on Stage 2 as one of two riders who pulled away from a four-person break but who were nevertheless caught by the peloton with 1 kilometer left in the race.

Offredo finished 14th in both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix this year and is riding in his first grand tour. While on a training ride with two friends during April, he was assaulted by thugs who apparently did not like bicyclists, but he took no time off from racing despite his injuries.

Laengen got into a break within the first kilometer with Perrig Quemeneur of the Direct Energie team and Frederik Backaert of Wanty-Groupe Gobert. The worked well together through 198 kilometers before the peloton swallowed them up, and the sprinters’ teams set up for the finish.

Christopher Froome of Team Sky remains the leader of the tour, and Olivier Le Gac of the FDJ team continues to hold the Lanterne Rouge.

On the stage, Marcel Kittel of the Quick-Step Floors team finished first for his second stage win of the 2017 Tour, and Bauke Mollema of the Trek-Segafredo team wound up at the fulcrum position.

A quick review of past contenders for the Point d’Appui shows that:

Vasili Kiriyenka of Team Sky, winner of the Point d’Appui in the 2012 Tour de France, is just two spots behind Offredo.
Lars Bak of the Lotto Soudal team and Perrig Quemeneur of Direct Energie, who finished on the cusps of the 2014 Tour de France, are both slightly ahead of the Point d’Appui.
Markel Irizar, winner of the 2011 Point d’Appui in the Tour, is more than a dozen spots behind Offredo.
Andriy Grivko of Astana Pro Team and Fabio Sabatini of the Quick-Step Floors team, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2010 and 2012 Giros, respectively, are currently at 128th and 129th places, respectively. Sabatini, of course, provided a perfect lead-out for stage winner Kittell.
Daniel Navarro of the Cofidis, Solutions Credits team, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Giro, is ahead of the curve at 79th place.
Greg Van Avermaet of BMC Racing Team, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2008 Vuelta a España, is in 70th place.

June 1, 2016

2016 Giro d’Italia Finishes in les Cuspides

Three riders abandoned on the final stage of the 2016 Giro d’Italia, leaving 154 riders to come and voiding any chance at a Point d’Appui for the race. American Chad Haga of Team Giant-Alpecin held the fulcrum twice during the race and wound up on the cusp of the fulcrum at the end of the race along with Johann Van Zyl of Dimension Data.

Vincenzo Nibali won the race and the maglia rosa. The lanterne rouge was Jack Bobridge of Trek-Segafredo, who finished five hours adrift.

The Point d’Appui changed hands 12 times during the race. Here are the holders of the grey jersey at the end of each stage:

Stage 1 – No fulcrum.
Stage 2 – No fulcrum.
Stage 3 – No fulcrum.
Stage 4 – Moreno Hofland of Team LottoNl-Jumbo.
Stage 5 – Leigh Howard of IAM Cycling.
Stage 6 – Ivan Savitskiy of Gazprom-Rusvelo.
Stage 7 – No fulcrum.
Stage 8 – Alessandro Bisolti of Nippo-Vini Fantini.
Stage 9 – No fulcrum.
Stage 10 – Manuel Belletti of Wilier Triestina-Southeast.
Stage 11 – No fulcrum.
Stage 12 – Christian Knees of Team Sky.
Stage 13 – No fulcrum.
Stage 14 – Lars Ytting Bak of Lotto Soudal.
Stage 15 – Chad Haga of Team Giant-Alpecin.
Stage 16 – Hugo Houle of AG2R La Mondiale.
Stage 17 – No fulcrum.
Stage 18 – Kristian Sbaragli of Dimension Data.
Stage 19 – Alberto Bettiol of Cannondale Pro Cycling.
Stage 20 – Chad Haga of Team Giant-Alpecin.
Stage 21 – No fulcrum.

July 4, 2015

Time Trial Finishes Without Fulcrum; Bak, Devolder on Cusps

Lars Bak, one of two riders who finished on Les Cuspides at the end of the 2014 Tour de France, is back in the middle at the end of Stage 1 of the 2015 Tour de France. All 198 racers easily came home on the 13.8 kilometer time trial, leaving the race without a Point d’Appui yet. Bak, who rides for Lotto Soudal, was joined by Stijn Devolder of Trek Factory Racing at the cusp.

The Point d’Appui in the 2013 Tour de France, Manuel Quinziato, is back to defend his title, as is Markel Irizar of Trek Factory Racing, who was the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Tour de France. Daniel Oss, who was the Point d’Appui of this year’s Paris-Roubaix, is also in the tour racing for BMC. Vasil Kiriyenka, winner of the 2013 Tour de France Point d’Appui, raced in the Giro d’Italia and is not in the line-up for Le Tour.

July 28, 2014

2014 Tour Finishes Without a Fulcrum

Perrig Quemeneur

Lars Bak

The 164 survivors came home to Paris on Sunday, leaving the 2014 Tour de France without a fulcrum rider, but Lars Bak of Lotto-Belisol and Perrig Quemeneur of Team Europcar finished on les Cuspides of the general classification for the Point d’Appui. Bak finished in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 41 seconds behind the tour winner, Vincenzo Nibali of Astana.

The riders on the cusp after Stage 20 decamped in opposite directions. Imanol Erviti Ollo of Movistar stayed forward with the leading group on the Champs-Élysées and moved up a spot in placement, while Blel Kadri of AG2R-La Mondiale dropped off the back after helping lead his team out earlier in the day.

Bak and Quemeneur have been close to the center of the peloton on numerous occasions this tour, although neither was within 10 places of the fulcrum at the half-way point of the tour, and they did not land on the cusps until the final Stage 21 of the tour. Previously, Bak, a Danish time trial champion, was briefly on the cusp of fulcrum after Stage 9 of the 2012 Tour de France.

Daniel Oss (Ita) BMC Racing Team had the time closest to the overall tour median time of 3 hours, 1 minute and 12 seconds.

Cheng Ji, the long-suffering Lanterne Rouge, lost more time on the final stage, but survived the time cuts and became the first Chinese bicyclist to ride in the tour and to finish the tour, albeit 6 hours behind Nibali.

The winner of Stage 14, the stage that happened to have the middle distance of 177 kilometers, was rookie Rafal Majka of Tinkoff-Saxo, who attacked the escapees on the final climb to claim his first stage victory in Risoul.

The tour, of course, will be less remembered for rookies than for the number of top contenders who abandoned due to injuries: Andy Schleck, Christopher Froome, Alberto Contador, Andrew Talansky and the sprinter Mark Cavendish.

Let’s take a brief look at a few of the 34 riders who were not able to finish the tour but who are not household names:

Mark Cavendish was not the only rider out before the end of Stage 2. Sprinter Sacha Modolo of Lampre-Merida, riding in his first Tour de France, abandoned during Stage 2 due to illness. He was still 30 kilometers from finishing the day. Said Modolo: “It’s a great disappointment to me. I dreamed of this race. I tried to not give up, but it was not enough.” The day before, he missed out on the bunch sprint for the only stage he finished because a teammate fell at a crucial point and he waited to help lead the rider back into the peloton.
Andy Schleck had to abandon in Stage 4. Gregory Henderson of Lotto Bellisol also 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 that day’s sprint finish. Upbeat despite the crash (or perhaps still slightly dazed), Henderson wrote to fans: “Silly crash and I landed on my weak knee. It just exploded. Messy looking thing. Off to surgery now.”
Alberto Contador abandoned during Stage 10, and another rider did as well. Mathew Hayman, at 36 the oldest bicyclist to be riding in his first Tour de France, said before the race: “The Tour is obviously every pro rider’s dream. But I didn’t have the chance to ride it yet. A matter of circumstances. … My goal is really to complete this Tour all the way to Paris.” His top finish was 12th on the cobblestone Stage 5. After crashing out on Stage 10, the Australian native told the Sydney Morning Herald: “I appreciate that I at least got to start and experience racing in the U.K. with those crowds. But I still feel like there’s a bit of a hole there … [after] the waiting that I’ve done for years to get there.”
Simon Spilak, suffering a stomach ailment, abandoned Stage 17 after about 31 kilometers just prior to the mountains. Spilak also abandoned during his last Tour de France in 2010. In the 2009 tour, however, he rode into Paris in 109th place. This year, Spilak won stages in the Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the Tour de Romandie, and his loss from the tour hurt his Katusha team. Of all those who abandoned this year, Spilak had the average placement closest to the average of stage finishes of all the abandonments put together.

The Gray Jersey traded hands eight times during the race after Tom Veelers finished Stage 5 as the first Point d’Appui of the tour. Twelve stages, including the finale finished without a fulcrum. The stage-by-stage general classification results for Point d’Appui:

Stage 1 – No fulcrum.
Stage 2 – No fulcrum.
Stage 3 – No fulcrum.
Stage 4 – No fulcrum.
Stage 5 – Tom Veelers of Team Giant-Shimano
Stage 6 – Tom-Jelte Slagter of Garmin-Sharp
Stage 7 – No fulcrum.
Stage 8 – No fulcrum.
Stage 9 – Jérémy Roy of FDJ.
Stage 10 – No fulcrum
Stage 11 – Sébastien Reichenbach of IAM Cycling
Stage 12 – Ben King of Garmin-Sharp
Stage 13 – Daniele Bennati of Tinkoff-Saxo
Stage 14 – Johan Van Summeren of Garmin-Sharp
Stage 15 – Matthieu Ladagnous of FDJ.fr
Stage 16 – Koen De Kort of Team Giant-Shimano. De Kort finished in 92nd, within 10 spots off the fulcrum.
Stage 17 – No fulcrum
Stage 18 – No fulcrum. Vasili Kiryienka, the winner of the 2012 Tour de France Point d’Appui was one of les Cuspides in Stage 17 and 18. Kiryienka finished the full tour in 86th, only 3 spots off the fulcrum.
Stage 19 – No fulcrum
Stage 20 – No fulcrum
Stage 21 – No fulcrum

July 11, 2012

Gautier Climbs into Point d’Appui for Tour de France

The peloton climbing into the Alps on Stage 10

Cyril Gautier

Cyril Gautier of Europcar climbed 70 positions from his general classification standing after Stage 9 to gain the Point d’Appui by the end of Stage 10 of the Tour de France. Gautier was in 158th place in GC after the time trials on Monday, but finished well up on the mountainous Stage 9 to find his way to the fulcrum. His team leader, of course, Thomas Voeckler won the stage.

Les Cuspides after Stage 9 rode in opposite directions with Michael Morkov moving up in the standings and Lars Bak slipping back an equidistant.

On the stage, Fedrigo Pierrick came in at the exact middle of the pack on a day in which the riders hit their first beyond-category climb, going over the Col du Grand Colombier about three-fifths of the way through the day.

July 9, 2012

After Near Misses, Morkov and Bak Find Les Cuspides

Michael Morkov

Lars Bak

Lars Bak of Lotto-Belisol and Michael Morkov of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank are the new general classification Cuspides after Stage 9 of the 2012 Tour de France. They finished 89th and 90th respectively in the overall time in a field of 178, both of them coming home more than 38 minutes behind the leader, Bradley Wiggins, and more than 40 minutes ahead of the new Lanterne Rouge, Jimmy Engoulvent of Saur-Sojasun.

Morkov has danced around the Point d’Appui position the last couple of stages, working his way to the middle from deep in the general classification after Stage 1. His early work in the tour to join breaks and then grab the polka dot jersey counted for naught in the GC contention. However, he is proving to have some sticking power and has found his way to Les Cuspides. Bak has made a similar progression, although his proximity to the fulcrum has been wider and more unpredictable than that of Morkov.

On the stage, Christian Vande Velde of Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda finished 89th and Martin Velits of Omega Pharma-Quickstep finished 90th to take Les Cuspides on the day. Velits has come close to GC contention for the Point d’Appui as well, especially during the sprinters’ stages. The mountains might allow him to step out of the middle.

Other notes from Stage 9:

Brice Feillu proved his mettle, escaping the Lanterne Rouge during Monday’s time trial, finishing 88th on the day and squeezing ahead of two other riders, Tyler Farrar and Engoulvent, on the GC time.
Vladimir Karpets and Bernard Eisel, our predictions for improvement in Stage 9, instead slipped further back in the GC standings.
Marco Marzano and Christophe Kern, who held Les Cuspides after Stage 8, also slipped back but are still within striking distance of the Point d’Appui.