July 21, 2013

Quinziato Wins Point d’Appui in 100th Edition of Tour de France

Manuel Quinziato, winner of the Point d’Appui for the 2013 Tour de France.

Quite sadly, an abandon by Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil-DCM on the last stage of the 100th edition of the Tour France, on its way into Paris, left the tour with 169 finishers. We would have been much happier to see Westra finish the tour and not to proclaim a Point d’Appui for the race.

Alas, we do have a 2013 Point d’Appui, but it is well deserved. Manuel Quinziato of BMC Racing finished 2 hours, 39 minutes and 34 seconds behind the winner, Christopher Froome of Sky, to win the 2013 Tour de France maillot gris.

Quinziato started the race with a good first stage, finishing nine places ahead of the middle. On Stage 2, he slipped back to 106th place, but over the next ten stages, he slowly worked his way forward in the peloton to get to the fulcrum position on Stage 12. After a strong finish in Stage 13, he moved up eight places, peaking at 73rd place in Stage 16 when he got into a break of 26 riders that survived to the finish in Gap. Quinziato, though, limited his damages for the Point d’Appui by finishing 26th out of the 26-member break.

By Stage 19, he had dropped back to the middle, finishing on Les Cuspides on 19 and 20. The abandon by Westra and no significant changes on the final day of romps on the Champs allowed Quinziato to finish on the fulcrum and win the Point d’Appui.

Quinziato finished 1 hour, 48 minutes and 21 seconds ahead of the Lanterne Rouge, Svein Tuft of Orica-GreenEdge.

The rider with the time closest to the median for the 21-day race proved to be Thomas Voeckler, the French rider for Team Europcar.

The stage-by-stage general classification results for Point d’Appui:

Stage 1 – No fulcrum.
Stage 2 – No fulcrum. Markel Irizar of RadioShack Leopard, winner of the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Tour de France, was on Les Cuspides.
Stage 3 – No fulcrum.
Stage 4 – Pavel Brutt of Katusha
Stage 5 – Sergey Lagutin of Vacansoleil-DCM
Stage 6 – Vasil Kiryienka of Sky Procycling. Kiryienka was the winner of the Point d’Appui in the 2012 Tour de France.
Stage 7 – No fulcrum.
Stage 8 – Adam Hansen of Lotto Belisol
Stage 9 – No fulcrum. Vasil Kiryienka was eliminated from the race after coming home too slow on the stage.
Stage 10 – No fulcrum.
Stage 11 – No fulcrum.
Stage 12 – No fulcrum.
Stage 13 – Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas of Movistar Team.
Stage 14 – Simon Clarke of Orica-GreenEdge
Stage 15 – Julien El Fares of Sojasun
Stage 16 – Alberto Losada Alguacil of Katusha
Stage 17 – Alberto Losada Alguacil of Katusha
Stage 18 – Matteo Tosatto of Team Saxo-Tinkoff
Stage 19 – No fulcrum.
Stage 20 – No fulcrum.
Stage 21 – Manuel Quinziato of BMC Racing

July 7, 2013

2012 Winner, Kiryienka, Dropped for Time

Bad news to report. Vasil Kiryienka, the winner of the 2012 Point d’Appui in the Tour de France and one of the Sky team members riding in support of Chris Froome, has been dropped from the race after finishing beyond the time limit on Stage 9. The peloton was scattered across the Pyrenees after Garmin-Sharp threw caution to the wind and dropped the anvil on the pedals.

Kiryienka, who had looked like a strong contender for his second Point d’Appui after finishing at the fulcrum at the end of this year’s Stage 6, must have spent his legs on Saturday during the first mountain stage. He wobbled home Sunday and couldn’t get under the time requirement.

Along with Kiryienka, there were four other abandons — one who did not start and three who did not finish the day. As a result, 182 riders are still in the race, and there is no Point d’Appui at the moment. Les Cuspides are shared by Sergey Lagutin of Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling and Daniele Bennati of Saxo-Tinkoff. Lagutin held the Point d’Appui after Stage 5, but several other riders remain close to the center, including Stage 8’s fulcrum, Adam Hansen.

With a rest day coming on Monday and a relatively level run on Stage 10, perhaps no more of the favorites will be dropped from the race.

Tom Veelers of Argos-Shimano remains the Lanterne Rouge.

July 4, 2013

Caught up in Crash, Lagutin Finishes Slow, Ends up in Fulcrum

Sergey Lagutin of Vacansoleil-DCM rolled in with the post-crash autobus to finish 181st on the stage, good enough to drop him in the general classification to the Point d’Appui at the end of Stage 5. A large crash with about 15 kilometers left in the race put many riders off the main run-in, including Lagutin.

Lagutin, the national road race champion of Uzbekistan for eight of the last ten years, won the under-23 World Road Race Championship in 2003 and placed fifth in the 2012 Olympic road race.

Steve Morabito of BMC Racing Team took the fulcrum position on the stage.