July 13, 2016

Stage 10 Takes Tour Back into les Cuspides

Michael Valgren

Simon Gerrans

Even as his teammate was winning Stage 10 of the Tour de France, Simon Gerrans of Orica-Bike Exchange was reclaiming a spot at the middle of the pack.

Joining him on the cusp of the fulcrum was Michael Valgren of Tinkoff Team. Valgren was one of the first riders among the main peleton to cross the finish line in Revel, officially in 18th place on the stage. He gave a smiling, shy look back at race leader Chris Froome as if to ask whether he should be crossing the line ahead of the pack. No worries. All the time bonuses and points had been eaten up by the break, and the members of the peloton were all awarded the same time.

Two things conspired to put Gerrans and Valgren at the middle:

Peter Sagan of Tinkoff, who held the GC Point d’Appui after Stage 9, moved higher into the standings due to his luck at getting into the break and finishing second on the stage.
Sebastian Langeveld of Cannondale-Drapac had to abandon the race.

So, an even number of 192 riders finished the day and allowed Gerrans to move up a place in the standings and Valgren to fall back a place to 97th and 96th places respectively.

Gerrans might prove to be the best contender for this year’s Point d’Appui. He was on the cusp after Stage 7 as well, and he won the Point d’Appui in the 2013 Milan-San Remo Classic.

The winner of this Stage 10 proved to be Michael Matthews, whose teammates in the break helped him slip past Sagan during the cat-and-mouse finish. Sagan, however, recaptured the green jersey as a consolation. The overall leader of the tour continues to be Christopher Froome of Sky, and the Lanterne Rouge continues to be Sam Bennett of Bora-Argon 18.

July 9, 2016

Périchon Takes First Point d’Appui of 2016 Tour

The mountains of the Pyrenees turned the middle inside out, and the final descent, of course, secured the yellow jersey for Christopher Froome of Sky. Froome — instead of pausing at the top of Col de Peyresourde, final mountain climb of the day — kicked in the after-burners and flew down mountainside into the town Bagnères-de-Luchon.

The brilliance of Froome’s surprise move was the highlight of the day. The low point was the abandon of the race by Michael Morkov of Katusha, who crashed hard during Stage 1 but courageously continued in the race through Stage 7 and even made it over the Col du Tourmalet.

Pierre-Luc Périchon

Morkov’s abandon left 197 riders to come home and the first GC Point d’Appui of the 2016 Tour de France. Pierre-Luc Périchon of Fortuneo-Vital Concept finished at the middle of the peloton to claim the fulcrum position. Périchon finished the 2015 Tour de France on the cusps of the fulcrum and has bobbed in the middle third of this year’s peloton, finishing in the general classification as high as 64th after Stage 3 and as low as 116th after Stage 4. He took a fall while making an attack during the Paris-Nice race earlier this year and cracked his clavicle, but he appears to have recovered fully from it.

The riders on the cusp after Stage 7 were Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg of Dimension Data in 99th place and Simon Gerrans of Orica-BikeExchange in 100th place.

Sam Bennett of Bora-Argon 18, who went down in the Stage 1 crash with Morkov, takes over the Lanterne Rouge.

March 17, 2013

Title Defender Gerrans Wins Point d’Appui at Milan-San Remo

Simon Gerrans during the 2012 Tour Down Under.

Simon Gerrans, winner of the 2012 Milan-San Remo spring classic, finished at the center of the pack, what was left of it, to win the Point d’Appui in the 2013 Milan-San Remo race. Snow atop one of the mountain passes forced race organizers to stop the race, bus riders to a second starting point and restart after more than an hour delay, leaving surviving riders a bit colder in what was already quite a cold ride.

Aside from winning Milan-San Remo in 2012, Gerrans was also the National Road Race of Australia in 2012 as well as the Tour Down Under for the second time. He has also won individual stages in the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana. Obviously he was a bit off his game today, as were many racers due to the weather. His teammate, Matthew Goss, who won Milan-San Remo in 2011, was one of more than 60 riders to abandon the race Sunday.

Gerrans finished 5 minutes and 13 seconds behind the winner, Gerald Ciolek of MTN-Qhubeka, and 13 minutes and 12 seconds ahead of the Lanterne Rouge, Vladimir Isaichev of Katusha.

The rider with the time closest to the median was the Italian rider Marco Bandiera of IAM Cycling.