July 17, 2022

Burgaudeau Takes Point d’Appui in 2022 Tour de France

*Mathieu Burgaudeau during an earlier race.*

Mathieu Burgaudeau of B&B Hotels-KTM won the Point d’Appui on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées during the final stage the 2022 Tour de France. He finished 68th, the middle of the 135 riders who survived to the finish.

Andreas Kron of Lotto Soudal, who held the fulcrum position at the end of Stage 19 slipped back to 73rd place by the end of Stage 21. Burgaudeau, on the other hand, spent the entire Tour slowly gaining placement, finishing in 171st place on Stage 1 individual time trial. He slowly chipping away at his deficit, gaining more than 100 places over the course of the 21-stage race.

The French rider Burgaudeau won Stage 6 of the 2022 Paris-Nice race on the ride from Courthézon to Aubagne, France. In 2015, he won the mountain-climbing classification in the Tour du Pays de Vaud, a couple of stages in the 2016 Tour du Valromey, the green jersey in the 2016 Aubel–Thimister–La Gleize, and the white jersey in the 2018 Tour de Gironde, where he finished 3rd overall.

This was his second Tour de France, finishing 131st during the 2020 edition.

Toms Skujiņš, a rider for Trek Segefredo who won the Point d’Appui in the 2021 Tour, finished in 61st place overall this year, several spots above last year’s fulcrum finish.

The winner of the yellow jersey in this year’s tour, Jonas Vinkegaard of Jumbo-Visma, who slipped 2 minutes ahead of Tadej Pogacar on Stage 11 and never faced a real threat during the remainder of the race, matching all attacks by Pogacar in the Pyrenees. Pogacar, who won the 2020 and 2021 Tours de France, retained the white jersey for best young rider again. Vinkegaard also won the polka dot jersey for best mountain climbing. His teammate, Wout van Aert, won three stages on the way to winning the green jersey for best sprinter.

Five American riders out of seven starters finished the 2,068-mile stage race with Neilson Powless of EF Education-EasyPost placing highest at 13th overall. Seth Kuss of Jumbo-Visma was next at 17th place.

Here’s the leader stage by stage in the GC contest for the Point d’Appui:

Stage 1 — No fulcrum
Stage 2 — No fulcrum
Stage 3 — No fulcrum
Stage 4 — No fulcrum
Stage 5 — No fulcrum
Stage 6 — No fulcrum
Stage 7 — No fulcrum
Stage 8 — No fulcrum
Stage 9 — Pierre-Luc Périchon of Cofidis
Stage 10 — Matis Louvel of Team Arkéa-Samsic
Stage 11 — Philippe Gilbert of Lotto Soudal
Stage 12 — Jonathan Castroviejo of INEOS Grenadiers
Stage 13 — Kristian Sbaragli of Alpecin-Deceuninck
Stage 14 — Quinn Simmons of Trek-Segafredo/USA
Stage 15 — No fulcrum
Stage 16 — No fulcrum
Stage 17 — Stan DeWulf of AG2R Citroen Team
Stage 18 — No fulcrum
Stage 19 — Andreas Kron of Lotto Soudal
Stage 20 — No fulcrum
Stage 21 — Mathieu Burgaudeau of B&B Hotels-KTM

The Lanterne Rouge was held by Anthony Turgis of TotalEnergies from Stage 3 through Stage 12 of the race until sprinter Caleb Ewan of Lotto Soudal suffered his second crash of the tour and landed him at the back of the pack.

Somehow Ewan managed to stay close enough to the finishers during each following stage to stay within the time cutoff and continue in the race. In the second crash, which happened during State 13, he suffered knee trauma but tried to catch the peloton without success. To add insult to injury, though, Ewan was fined and docked 1 minute of time and points in both the sprinting and mountain-climbing competitions for drafting off a motor vehicle while trying to get back to the peloton. The team car that he followed, from another team no less, was also fined. Despite being the last-place rider for the general classification, Ewan made it into the mix for the sprint finish on the Champs-Élysées.

August 26, 2012

Vuelta Remains on Les Cuspides Going into Rest Day

Following the end of Stage 9, la Vuelta a España goes into its first rest day with no Point d’Appui. The number of riders who came home Sunday was 194, leaving Adrian Palomares of Andalucia and Bruno Pires of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank on the cusp. Palomares finished 46 minutes and 39 seconds behind the race leader, Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha, and nearly 52 minutes ahead of the rider in last place, Joost Van Leijen of Lotto-Bellisol.

On the stage, William Bonnet of FDJ-Big Mat and John Degenkolb of Argos-Shimano split the cusp with the same time of 2 minutes and 20 seconds behind the Stage 9 winner, Philippe Gilbert. Gilbert held the Point d’Appui after Stage 3 but has moved up in the rankings with strong showings such as his Stage 9 sprint win.

August 22, 2012

Katusha Riders Gain the Cusp after Stage 4 of the Vuelta

After the abandonment by David Boucher, the field of the Vuelta was left with 196 riders and no Point d’Appui. After the fourth stage, Pavel Brutt of Katusha and Denys Kostyuk of Lampre, finished as Les Cuspides in the general classification. They finished more than 15 minutes behind the leader, Joaquim Rodriguez, also of Katusha.

Brutt was joined by another Katusha rider, Gatis Smukulis, as Les Cuspides for the stage.

A crash with about 30 kilometers to go threw the race into disorder. Philippe Gilbert, who held the Point d’Appui after Stage 3, fell nearly 40 places on the day. Unsurprisingly though, Markel Irizar, who won the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Tour de France as well as one stage in the 2011 Vuelta, has managed to stay within six places of the fulcrum.

The new Lanterne Rouge of the Vuelta is Martijn Maaskant of Garmin-Sharp. He’s more than 39 minutes behind the leader.

August 21, 2012

Gilbert Edges Pauriol Out for Point d’Appui

Philippe Gilbert of BMC can add another feather to his cap after finishing on the fulcrum during Stage 3 of the Vuelta a España to gain the general classification Point d’Appui. Gilbert was the Belgian road race and time trial champion in 2011 and won quite a few races, and wore the yellow jersey in the 2011 Tour de France after winning the first stage. This year, the honors have been much more modest, and so it should come as little surprise that he has landed in the middle.

He finished six minutes and three seconds after the race leader, Alejandro Valverde of Movistar, and 21 minutes and 21 seconds ahead of David Boucher, who despite gaining good time overall was still in overall last place after Stage 3.

The Point d’Appui for the stage went to Kevin De Weert, another Belgian riding for Omega Pharma-Quickstep.

Rémi Pauriol, who held the Point d’Appui after Stage 2, gained 27 spots on the pack. Markel Irizar, whom we had pegged as a potential winner of the maillot gris by the end of the Vuelta, moved only a few spots up, despite getting into the eight-man break.