Vladimir Carpets

July 12, 2012

Morkov Hits the Fulcrum After Tap Dancing Around It

Michael Morkov

Michael Morkov

Michael Morkov of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank finally caught hold of the general classification Point d’Appui in Stage 11 of the 2012 Tour de France. Morkov finished in Les Cuspide on Stage 9 and tip-toed around both sides of the fulcrum on other stages. He finished 1:19:10 behind the leader of the Tour de France, Bradley Wiggins, and 1:01:30 ahead of the new Lanterne Rouge, Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda.

Morkov is pedaling an interesting line during this year’s tour, a track rider who manages to grab the mountain climber’s polka dot jersey for several stages and yet still slides into the middle just past the midway point of the tour. Also nibbling around the edges are Yaroslav Popovych and Vladimir Karpets, two riders whom we have been watching for the GC Point d’Appui.

On the stage, Dimitry Fofonov of Astana turned in the Point d’Appui performance of the day, finishing one place behind Jérôme Pineau, who finished as a Cuspide on the Prologue.

Notes on Stage 11:

  • Cyril Gautier, who held the Point d’Appui GC on Stage 10 continued his climb up the rankings, finishing another 20 places higher after the climbing through the beyond-classification mountains of Stage 11.
  • Jimmy Engoulvent of Saur-Sojusan climbed a spot to escape the Lanterne Rouge, leaving it to Tyler Farrar.
July 8, 2012

Time Trial to Give Speedsters a Chance to Get Back to Middle

On Stage 9, we look for a fast rider to move up in the standings to take over the general classification Point d’Appui. Someone like Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-ISD could easily move up into the Point d’Appui.

On the stage, we might expect Bernard Eisel or Vladimir Karpets to get the middle time on the day. Both were near the Point d’Appui during the Prologue and are still in relatively good shape. Bunged up elbows and knees might slow some of the riders, both for those ahead of the fulcrum and those behind it. There wouldn’t be a lot of enthusiasm for this day except that it is the quickest step to a rest day on Tuesday.

The time trial starts in Arc-et-Senans, zips along a relatively flat stage for 41.5 kilometers (about 25 miles) and finishes with a couple of tight corners in Besançon.