Le. Tour. De. France.
So last day in England and the course is bumpy. We’ll not see the kind of sprinter’s duel that sent Cavendish crashing to the pavement.
Oh, by the way, he’s out.
This stage, from York to Sheffield, has 9 rated climbs in 125 miles- 3 category 4s (the lowest), five category 3s, and one category 2. You can’t win today, but you sure can lose.
Looking at the profile I’d rate the climb at Todmorden too.
The Mad Manx Cavendish is the only drop so far and his injuries are serious (ligament damage in the shoulder) but likely not career threatening. They are devastating to the team built around him, Omega Pharma-Quick Step out of Belgium, and we’ll have to see if they have it in them to even be spoilers.
Late nights and early mornings, I’m not yet adjusted to the rigors of Le Tour.
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… I can recall … the “puncher’s” course allowed a chance for a selection to a smaller peleton, and the sting in the tail up that side road in Sheffield made for a daring attack, work to bring it back, and then Nibbles with a perfectly times bike racing move.
Sagan was too isolated, without enough team mates with enough in the tank to send them up the road to catch Nibbles, and nobody wanted to chase in order to give the win to Sagan, so Nibbles move was able to stay away.
And I got to see Jens Voigt ride in the King of the Mountains jersey. The way the day played out, with early hill points (too early for mountain point yet) going to the break and the final points going to the field, he’s only 2 points behind the current Prince of the Hills, with #1 at 6, LEMOINE Cyril, #2 at 5, KADRI Blel, and #3 at 4, VOIGT Jens … so if Jens goes on another breakaway with a handful of hills points on offer, he could actually pull on the Prince of the Hills jersey again before they it the first real mountains and it is transformed into the King of the Mountains jersey.