Samuel Dumoulin

July 7, 2012

Mountain Stage Brings New Point d’Appui in Tour de France

Sebastien Hinault

Sébastien Hinault at the 2011 Critérium du Dauphiné

The steep mountain finish on Stage 7 of the 2012 Tour de France has reshuffled the deck and put a new rider — Sébastien Hinault of AG2R La Mondiale — in the general classification Point d’Appui.

The sprinters fell back in overall time and the hill climbers moved forward. The Point d’Appui spun like the revolving door at Macy’s. By the end of the day, 17 riders had abandoned the tour, leaving 181 riders to come home.

Hinault, a sprint specialist, slipped back 15 positions from his Stage 6 finish to land on the fulcrum, 21:12 behind the new tour GC leader, Bradley Wiggans of Sky, and 34 minutes ahead of Brice Feillu, who has suffered illness through the first week of the tour and still holds the Lanterne Rouge.

The Point d’Appui on the stage is Nicki Sôrensen of Team Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank. Sôrensen started the tour a little off the average pace, crept into the front half of the by Stage 3. In Stage 6, he slipped down the general classification significantly, another rider slowed by the late crash in the day. On Stage 7, his finish at the fulcrum brought him closer to the GC Point d’Appui. Expect him to move further up on Saturday.

Major riders who abandoned overnight included Ryder Hesjedal and Robbie Hunter, both of Garmin, and Oscar Freire of Katusha.

Notes on Stage 7:

  • Les Cuspides on Stage 6 — Sammy Dumoulin and Juan Haeda — both slipped down the GC rankings.
  • Michael Morkov of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank unexpectedly held the polka dot jersey through several early stages. Morkov is much better on the track and is hoping to better his 2008 Silver finish for the team pursuit in the upcoming Olympics. The mountains of Stage 7 took the polka dot jersey away from him and pushed him back to within two spots of the fulcrum.
July 6, 2012

Late Crash Upends Fulcrum Rankings; Dumoulin on Cusp

The crash with only 26 kilometers left in the race upended the race for the Point d’Appui in Stage 6 of the Tour de France. Sadly, two riders who had contended for le Point d’Appui, finishing as Cuspides earlier in the race — Davide Vigano on Stage 5 and Tom Danielson on the Prologue — abandoned the race along with Mikel Astarloza of Euskeltel-Euskedi and Wouter Poels* of Vacansoleil-DCM.

The even number of abandons left the total number of finishers even, and so again no Point ‘Appui could be awarded. Les Cuspides for general classification after Stage 6 came to rest on the shoulders of Samuel Dumoulin of Cofidis, who finished 95th, and Juan Jose Haedo of Team Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank. Dumoulin finished 11:20 behind tour leader Fabian Cancellara and 41:10 ahead of the last rider.

Samuel Dumoulin

Samuel Dumoulin

Dumoulin was in the sprint on Stage 5, finishing fourth and had hoped to be in the sprint again on Stage 6, but like so many riders got caught behind the major crash of the day. Prior to Stage 6, LeTour.fr spoke with Samuel Dumoulin about Stage 5. Dumoulin said:

“Yesterday’s stage was fairly quiet, I could save myself for the finish. And, in the last 30 kilometers, I’m able to move up in the bunch. Then everything went pretty well. At the time of the crash, that happened to my right, but I didn’t really need to avoid it. I was a bit lucky, and after I managed to follow the right wheels, particularly that of Matt Goss… I was still just 150 meters from the line. But I wasn’t able to pass him.

“We can say that I had my chance because it was an uphill finish, and this is the type of terrain that suits me the best. I did not train to compete with them, but with experience, I can still go back to making the right wheels.

“On the flat, I have no chance against the best sprinters. The best way for me to succeed in a stage is still to put myself in a small breakaway group that goes to the end. But we must still make the right! In any case, since the start of the Tour I have good feelings.”

Jelle Vanendert of Lotto-Bellisol and Nick Nuyens of Saxobank-Tinkoff Bank finished as Les Cuspides for Stage 6.

Other notes from the stage:

  • The Lanterne Rouge is still Brice Feillu, who pulled in 2 and a half minutes during Stage 6 against some of the other riders in l’autobus, but he still has a ways to go to pull before he can hand off the lantern to someone else.
  • Aliaksandr Kuchynski fell back 40 places from his middle placement, coming home slowly, 13 minutes adrift at the head of l’autobus. Kuchynski fractured his wrist in Stage 5 and has been slowed along with the several other riders with wrung wrists.

* Early reports indicated that Poels abandoned after the crash, then other reports indicated he was still riding. His name, however, did not appear in the final classification of riders. We will update if Poels is found to be yet riding the long road to Metz.