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 3, 2013

Team Time Trial Puts Katusha’s Brutt in Fulcrum

Judges for the Tour de France refused to reverse course on their decision that Eddie King would be dropped from the race, leaving the tour with its first odd number of racers to come home. Pavel Brutt of Katusha proved to be the rider at the center of the pack.

It’s a bad way to crown the first Point d’Appui of the 100th edition of the Tour de France, but we live with what we are given. Team Katusha finished in 10th place on the team time trial, just enough ahead of Radioshack Leopard to pull Brutt into the fulcrum position.

During the first three stages, an even number of riders came home each day. The Cuspides on each stage:

Stage 1 – Aliaksandr Kuchynski of Katusha, who held a similar position in the 2012 Tour de France, and Thomas Voeckler of Europcar.
Stage 2 – Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas of Movistar and Markel Irizar of RadioShack Leopard. Irizar won the Point d’Appui in the 2011 Tour de France.
Stage 3 – Arthur Vichot of FDJ and Peter Kennaugh of Sky Procycling.

July 11, 2012

Gautier Climbs into Point d’Appui for Tour de France

The peloton climbing into the Alps on Stage 10

Cyril Gautier

Cyril Gautier of Europcar climbed 70 positions from his general classification standing after Stage 9 to gain the Point d’Appui by the end of Stage 10 of the Tour de France. Gautier was in 158th place in GC after the time trials on Monday, but finished well up on the mountainous Stage 9 to find his way to the fulcrum. His team leader, of course, Thomas Voeckler won the stage.

Les Cuspides after Stage 9 rode in opposite directions with Michael Morkov moving up in the standings and Lars Bak slipping back an equidistant.

On the stage, Fedrigo Pierrick came in at the exact middle of the pack on a day in which the riders hit their first beyond-category climb, going over the Col du Grand Colombier about three-fifths of the way through the day.

July 3, 2012

Preview: Stage 4 of the Tour de France

The route from Abbeville to Rouen, running down along the coast of Haute-Normandie, is another relatively flat route, but it is also one of the longest stages of the 2012 Tour de France. Slightly more than 214 kilometers, but after 214 kilometers, every meter matters. The sprinters and lead-out riders have slowly moved up in the standings through the flat stages while the mountain climbers and wounded have dropped back below the Point d’Appui.

With those thoughts in mind, I have to think someone like Thomas Voeckler — who dropped back in the standings after getting caught in a crash on Stage 3 but is now on the mend — might move up enough to claim the Point d’Appui during Stage 4. That is, of course, depending on whether anyone else abandons the race.

Kanstantsin Sivtsov of Sky Procycling and Jose Joaquin Rojas of Movistar abandoned on Stage 3, leaving an even 196 riders vying for the Point d’Appui. No abandons tomorrow, and we may stay in Les Cuspides through the American Independence Day.

June 30, 2012

Pineau, Danielson Share Cusp of Tour de France Prologue

Because the 2012 Tour de France started with an even number of riders and all of them successfully finished the 6 kilometer time trial, there is no Point d’Appui for the prologue stage.

With 151 riders through the prologue, Chris Horner of Radioshack-Nissan sat on the Point d’Appui, slipping out as the faster riders began finishing during the latter part of the time trial. After 181 riders had crossed the finish, Imanol Erviti of Movistar had found himself at the fulcrum.

Jérôme Pineau during the prologue of the 2012 Tour de France. From the Cyclism´ Actu

By the finish of all the racers, however, les Cuspides for the prologue were Jérôme Pineau of Omega Pharma-Quickstep in 99th place and Thomas Danielson of Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda in 100th, both of them finishing 31 seconds adrift. Six riders, including Thomas Voeckler, finished with both the median and average speed of 33 seconds behind the winner, Fabian Cancellara of Radioshack-Nissan.

Tomorrow’s Stage 1 includes a little hilliness with its own geological point d’appui, the Baraque de Fraiture, which peaks at 606 meters just after the feed zone, lunchtime being its own daily fulcrum. Ride in the middle. Eat in the middle.