Stage 6 -- July 6: Épernay to Metz, 207.5 km (128.9 mi)
Today was meant to be the last day off for the big contenders of this years Tour. A final roll of the dice for the sprinters for at least a week as the race snaked its way towards the mountains. There's an old phrase in cycling when someone puts the hurt on a bunch of his opponents on a climb that he has 'thrown a hand grenade into the group and blown the race to pieces,' well, let me say, had someone literally thrown a grenade into today's peloton as it hammered its way towards the finish, 25 kilometers outside of Metz, there might have been less carnage than what we seen.
A huge crash in the bunch as riders everywhere scrambled to get closer to the front where it is reported to be safer, brought down a stack of riders including a number of pre-race favorites, one of which was the great Canadian hope and current Giro d'Italia champ, Ryder Hesjedal.
The result was a field split to pieces in the run-in and while the likes of Frank Schleck received a huge blow to his chances losing 2'09" to the likes of Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins who managed to avoid the mess, along with Robert Gesink who dropped 3'31", it was Hesjedal who seen his hopes go up in smoke as he crawled over the line battered and bruised in a large group of men 13 minutes and 24 seconds behind the stage winner ... that man again ... Peter Sagan.
"It's the worst crash I've ever been in," said Hesjedal's team-mate David Miller who put the blame on "some idiot". Hesjedal must now change his focus from the GC to stage wins and at the very least ride the rest of the tour without losing time in the climbs or time-trials, maybe even pulling some time back to prove that without the crash he would have very much been a contender.
Riding in the tour and winning it requires a large element of luck not to mention the talent, fitness, strength and ability to push yourself to extremes that most couldn't or wouldn't. When I say luck I mean to avoid the kinds of things we did today. Some have a talent for doing it but ultimately sometimes you just need to be in the right place at the right time and hope the man in front of you stays upright. It's like driving your can on the highway, no matter how good a driver you are, you can't be sure the man behind you won't slam into you at some point.
Thomas Voeckler, a man who came into this tour dreaming of repeating his heroics of 2011 has ran out of luck entirely during this nervous first week of action. He lost time earlier in the week when he got held up in a crash and today came in 6 minutes 2 seconds back. The result has him heading into the mountains 14'17" down on Fabian Cancellara, the mirror opposite to last year when a winning break seen him carry a healthy lead over the others into the mountains. Voeckler when asked about the carnage of the first week suggested the blame may fall on race radio's, which is an interesting suggestion from a professional in field that are normally staunch believers that the race radio makes racing safer. What Voeckler was alluding to was that you had twenty-two director sportif's instructing his riders to get to the front of the pack in the closing kilometers were they could stay out of danger. That means 190 odd riders are scrambling for a place at the head of the bunch and when the roads narrow you're asking for trouble. It's a good point Voeckler makes and you have to wonder that without race radio's, would the run-in's be a lot more civil? I have to admit, in the past before race radio's I don't remember there ever being as many first week crashes as we're seeing now.
"Another win and I called this one 'The Hulk'". So says Peter Sagan, above. Perhaps I should have saved this photo for today. Photograph: Bettini Photo
Of course, quite a few stayed upright and were able to contest a sprint. Peter Sagan who came down yesterday took maximum points towards a Green jersey points competition that he's looking more and more likely to win -- especially given Cavendish was caught up in today's accidents, coming in several minutes down. Sagan's sprint was one of raw power as he proved that he can indeed mix it with the very best on a flat, straight sprint finish, André Greipel's dreams of pulling off a rare straight hat trick of stage wins.
Sagan has now won three of the first six stage races of this Tour and of his Tour de France career which at 22-years of age is nothing short of remarkable. The sky is the limit with many feeling that a change in style, conditioning and training he could one day win the Tour. It'll be interesting to see how he fairs tomorrow when the roads get much steeper than they have been so far.
Yes, we're heading into the mountains and tomorrow, with the traditional first week mayhem behind them, the riders will face a new kind of mayhem ... one of suffering and pain ... and while the tour has been lost by some via terrible luck, the Evans - Wiggins battle remains very much on and for the first time we'll truly see just where each man is at and whether anyone else can force themselves into the reckoning.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I didn't want to sprint, but my teammates talked me into it. It was unbelievably painful.” -- André Greipel crashed twice, was going to sit out the sprint but with a suspected dislocated shoulder he showed why they call him the Gorilla.
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FAKE TWEET OF THE DAY
@RyderHesjedal We cross a rail road tomorrow, maybe if I time it to sneak across before that cargo train comes through I can gain back 13 minutes?
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ABANDONMENT'S
Thanks to crash central we had our biggest number of withdrawals in a single day so far in this tour. Four in all. Saying goodbye were Mikel Astarloza of the Euskaltel-Euskadi team, Davide Vigano of the Lampre-ISD squad, Tom Danielson of Garmin who would have been a great shout for a top ten finish in this tour, and Wout Poels of the Vacansoleil-DCM team. The race is now down to 190 riders from the 198 that started.
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STAGE 6 RESULT
1. Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas 4-37-00
2. André Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Belisol
3. Matthew Harley Goss (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge
4. Kenny Robert Van Hummel (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM
5. Juan José Haedo (Arg) Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank
6. Greg Henderson (NZl) Lotto-Belisol all at same time
Others
80. Michele Scarponi (Ita) Lampre-ISD at 2-09
82. Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan
85. Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar
101. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar at same time
110. Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank at 3-31
130. Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Europcar at 6-02
181. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Sharp at 13-24
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE 6
1. Fabian Cancellara (Swi) RadioShack-Nissan 29-22-36
2. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky at 7 secs
3. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Omega Pharma-QuickStep at same time
4. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 10 secs
5. Denis Menchov (Rus) Katusha at 13 secs
6. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing at 17 secs
Canadian contingent
108. Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Sharp at 13-38
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THE RACE FOR THE LANTERNE ROUGE
Given the number of crashes and the time lost by some the Lanterne Rouge classification has had a major shakeup. More movement down here than at the other end of the standings though Brice Feillu hasn't only kept his lead, but impressively he has extended it by quite a margin.190. Brice Feillu (Fra) Saur-Sojasun 30-15-06
189. Gorka Verdugo Marcotegui (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 18-03
188. Francis De Greef (Bel) Lotto Belisol at 19-08
187. Matthieu Sprick (Fra) Argos-Shumano at 19-58
186. Simone Stortoni (Ita) Lampre-ISD at 20-44
185. Sebastian Langeveld (Ned) Orica GreenEdge at 21-02
