Tour de France - Week Three

The first two weeks had included much excitement and intrigue, and in the 3rd week Alpine stages the Tour reached a worthy crescendo. At the start of the week the general classification was delicately poised and ready to explode at the onset of the Alps, but first there was unexpected action in Tuesday and Wednesday’s stages.

Both stages ended with a short ascent and decent of a hill, which although gave the favourites an opportunity to attack each other is the kind of terrain usually treated conservatively. Not the case this time round however, as a rejuvenated Alberto Contador launched several stinging attacks on the accent to shed all the other contenders bar Samuel Sanchez and Cadel Evans, and exploited Basso and the Schlecks’ poor descending ability by extending their lead on the downhill.

Meanwhile up ahead it was that man again Thor Hushovd who won the stage, outsprinting his countryman Edvald Boasson Hagen and teammate Ryder Hesjedal in a three-way sprint. But Boasson Hagen was to make up for this defeat the day after, as he rode away alone to classily win the stage, taking his second victory of the Tour and announcing himself as one of cycling’s hottest talents.

Alberto Contador also repeated the move he’d made the day before, however was this time less successful as he crossed the line alongside all the other favourites – apart from, that is, Ivan Basso, who suffered another dent to his yellow jersey ambitions, and leader Thomas Voeckler, whose overenthusiastic descent saw him misjudge two corners, and had his lead cut to a vulnerable 1 minute 18.

The Alps began in earnest on Thursday, and it was Andy Schleck who at first stole the show. The Luxemburg had been heavily criticised for his poor descending over the past few days and lack of aggression in the Pyrenees, but redeemed himself with one bold attack on the Col d'Izoard, with a whole 60km left until the finish. Nobody followed him, presumably believing he would wear himself riding alone for so long and that thus they would catch him later, but it wasn’t until he’d pulled out a lead of 4 minutes that Cadel Evans took it upon himself to reduce the gap as much as possible. Evans rode with relentless determination to halve the gap, and in doing so dropped and took out of contention for the overall the Spanish pair Samuel Sanchez and Alberto Contador, whose injury seemed to be playing up again.

One rider he was unable to drop, however, was the apparently indefatigable Thomas Voeckler. The Frenchman defied the odds yet again to hold onto the yellow jersey from Schleck by 15 seconds, though it was Schleck who took the stage and now looked the man most likely to take the jersey off Voeckler in the following stage to Alpe D’Huez.

Friday’s stage to Alpe D’Huez began with a jolt, as Alberto Contador attacked relentlessly from the very beginning of the stage, with Andy Schleck the only favourite able to stay with him. With these two out in front, there was a possibility that Schleck could open up an unassailable lead over his rivals, but Evans, Basso and Voeckler’s teams worked hard to ensure the two were caught by the foot of the final Alpe D’Huez climb.

It was here that the heroic Thomas Voeckler finally cracked. He had expended much energy earlier in the day trying alone to catch Contador and Schleck, and on the final climb his earlier effort showed as he was dropped immediately. The time Voeckler lost on that mountain meant he slipped to 4th overall, where he remained until the end of the Tour.

But just as Voeckler was losing the yellow jersey, a new French hero was being born in his teammate Piere Rolland. The 24-year-old had been freed from his domestique duties for the day by Voeckler, and made the most of his opportunity by cannily out-manoeuvring Sanchez and Contador to claim the stage win. The class displayed by Rolland showed that, if he can handle the pressure of an expectant French press and public, he could become an overall contender one day, and by finishing 11th overall in this year’s Tour managed to win the white jersey for best young rider. The king of the mountains jersey, meanwhile, went to Samuel Sanchez for his several impressive displays in the mountain.

Meanwhile, further down the mountain, Evans and the Schleck brothers came over the line together, leaving the three all within a minute of each other in the general classification going into Saturday’s decisive time-trial, with Andy Schleck in the yellow jersey. But what was expected to be a close contest between Andy Schleck defending his lead of 57 seconds over Cadel Evans was in fact a demolition, as Evans put 2 ½ minutes into him to win the yellow jersey, finishing the stage 2nd behind German time-trial specialist Tony Martin.

The sprinter’s green jersey, meanwhile, was sealed by Britain’s Mark Cavendish, as Sunday saw him claim an historic third consecutive victory on the Tour’s final stage on the iconic Champs-Élysées. There had been a worry that the Manxman would miss the time limit on one of the Alpine stages and thus be disqualified front he race, but he battled hard and managed to stay within it.

Overall, this year’s Tour has been widely described not only as one of the most exciting in recent years, but also one of the cleanest. Though one must always be sceptical when it comes to cycling, this year, with star performances coming from renowned anti-doping riders Hushovd, Gilbert, Voeckler, Cavendish, Boasson Hagen, Rolland and most importantly the winner himself, Evans, we can be confident that the excitement of the last three weeks has been produced fairly.

Results:

1)Cadel Evans, 2) Andy Schleck, 3) Frank Schleck

Green jersey: Mark Cavendish

Polka-dot jersey: Samuel Sanchez

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