Christophe Riblon and Marco Marzano wound up as Les Cuspides after Stage 14, the attack of the tacks. Riblon is 1:36:28 behind leader Bradley Wiggins and 1:11:01 ahead of Tyler Farrar, who has suffered through the tour but still holds the Lanterne Rouge.
Marzano, of course, has been here on the cusp before but it’s the first time for Riblon.
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:
The preview for the Point d’Appui in the 2012 Tour de France is not good, not bad, somewhere in between. The defending Point d’Appui, Markel Irizar, was left home by Radio Shack, perhaps because of his wonderful break on the first stage of the Critérium du Dauphiné. Irizar got in the break with five other riders at about the 4 kilometer mark. The peloton gave them almost too much room, but the escapees let the mob back in by fighting among themselves. Irizar, though, got a jump on the break group and stayed away until 5 kilometer mark.
Likewise, Fabio Sabatini, who won the fulcrum at the Giro d’Italia, is not at the Tour de France.
Other contenders include:
In the 2012 Critérium du Dauphiné, Marco Marzano moved up three positions in the final stage to win the Point d’Appui. Marzano finished 27:14:03 behind the winner, Bradley Wiggins of Sky Procycling, and 58 minutes ahead of the Lanterne Rouge, Alan Perez Lezaun of Euskatel-Euskadi.
Always a threat to the middle, Irizar Markel finished two spots ahead of the Marzano, barely missing out on a second Point d’Appui.
The fulcrum changed hands five times during the race, and only two of the stages finished with an even number of riders and thus no fulcrum. The following are the overall Point d’Appui holders at the end of each stage:
Point d'Appui 