Tour de France blog: Week One

Victory for his Garmin-Cervélo team in stage two’s team time trial saw him take the leader’s yellow jersey, just one second ahead of Cadel Evans. With hilly stages in the first week, and Evans being a vastly superior climber, no one expected Hushovd to keep the jersey for long, however he managed to hold on for 7 days, on two occasions especially defying expectations; first on stage four, where Hushovd was able to stay on Evans’s wheel despite a steep uphill finish, then even more surprisingly on stage eight’s finish at Supper Besse, where he retained his position in the front group despite terrain unsuited to his large stature.

A tired Hushovd finally sacrificed the jersey on yesterday’s undulating stage to Saint-Flour to the equally popular Thomas Voeckler. Darling of the French public, Voeckler became famous seven years ago for his spirited and painful 10-day defence of the yellow jersey, and took the converted jersey for the first time since after getting in a breakaway that finished several minutes ahead of Hushovd (though was outsprinted by Luis León Sánchez for the stage win, the Spaniard’s third in four years). There is again no chance of the Frenchman retaining the jersey all the way to Paris, but he will undoubtedly put up an entertaining fight to keep it as long as possible.

Aside from the early tussles for the yellow jersey, the first week has included many unpredictable and inventive stages, a departure from the usual procession of textbook flat stages. In spite of this, Mark Cavendish has achieved two victories in the opening week (a feat he has managed in each of the last three tours), most impressively in stage five where he outsprinted a host of riders better suited to the uphill finish.

The hilly route has though had a clear effect on the race, with non-sprinter Philippe Gilbert currently holding the sprinters’ green jersey. The Belgian won the opening stage in emphatic fashion, and has since gone on to secure several high placings, with his sprinting rivals frequently finishing far further down due to difficulties with the challenging terrain. Cadel Evans, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Rui Costa have also benefited from steep finishes, winning stages four, six and eight respectively, but American sprinter Tyler Farrar did manage a patriotic victory on Independence Day.

Gilbert’s success in the green jersey has also been aided by this year’s altered intermediate sprints system, which ironically was introduced to aid ‘pure’ sprinters like Cavendish. These intermediate sprints did at first attract the attention of most of the peloton’s top sprinters, but as the green jersey battle has developed into a three-way fight between Gilbert, Cavendish and José Joaquín Rojas, are now being contested by just these three.

This year’s opening week has also been characterised by an unusually high number of crashes, many of which have affected overall contenders. Tragically for British hopes, Bradley Wiggins fell and broke his collarbone on stage 7, meaning we’ll never know how good his ‘career best’ form was this year. Defending champion Alberto Contador has also suffered a traumatic week, crashing and losing 1 ½ minuets on stage one (a crash other favourite Samuel Sanchez was caught up in too), and is apparently suffering from a painful knee. How he recovers from his injury is likely to shape next week’s action in the mountains.

Several others have also had to abandon from crashes, most notably contenders Alexander Vinokourov and Jurgen Van Den Broeck in stage nine. There was also a worry that leader of the young riders’ jersey Robert Gesink would have to pull out after suffering and losing over a minute on the stage to Supper Besse, but yesterday looked to be recovering.

The Tour has also witnessed this year two shocking vehicle-caused accidents; first on stage five when Danish domestique Nicki Sorenesn had his bike swept from underneath him by a camera motorbike, then yesterday current leader of the king of the mountains competition Jonny Hoogerland was sent flying into a barbed wire fence by a French television car swerving to avoid a tree. Both riders were hurt but remain in the race (though Hoogerland may opt to pull out after today’s rest day), whilst both drivers of the offending vehicles were swiftly kicked off the race.

This Thursday sees the Tour head into the Pyrenees for three days, which is where the real battle for the yellow jersey will take place. Expect to see Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador (depending on the extent of his knee injury) at the front of the race, with the likes of Cadel Evans, Ivan Basso and Frank Schleck closely behind. This time next week we shall have a far clearer idea of who is likely to take the yellow jersey into Paris.

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