Stage 9 (Arc-et-Senans - Besançon)

Todays stage was a 41.5km time trial from Arc-et-Senans to Besançon. Riders began the race in reverse order of their position in the general classification and the ‘Lanterne Rouge' after eight stages, Brice Feillu (SAU), began his race at 9.45am. There were two minutes between the first 118 riders and then there were three minutes separating the starters. The rider in the yellow jersey, Bradley Wiggins (SKY) began the TT at 4.39pm. The weather was fine for the start with a temperature of about 24 degrees Celsius.

Despite racing with a fractured bone in his wrist, Tony Martin posted the fastest times at each check and finished the course at an average speed of 46.4km/h to eclipse the time of the Vacansoleil riders; he achieved this impressive time despite having a puncture within the first 5km. Casar (FDJ) rode above expectation: when he went past the 16.5km time check, he was 7” behind Martin and 1” ahead of Voigt (RNT) who, at the time, had set the second best times at all the checks.

The winner of the prologue, Fabian Cancellara raced up to the first checkpoint at an average speed of 45.8km/h and had ridden 39” faster than Martin at the same point. With 16km to go, Cancellara passed his three-minute man, Mollema (RAB) and with 10km to he was ahead of Martin by 1'09” and, at the finish, he led by 1'19. As impressive as it was, the former leader of the youth classification – Tejay van Garderen (BMC) – crossed the first check 2" in front of the favorite to with the stage, then crossing the second checkpoint 3" in front. But at the finish, the young rider was nine seconds behind the Swiss rider.

Froome smashed van Garderen's time by 24” at the 16.5km mark and it was the first clue that Team Sky was going to dominate this time trial. But there was a better time yet to come... after just 11km of racing, Wiggins had already pushed his overall lead on Evans by another 20”.

Until this year, the best place Wiggins had enjoyed in a stage of the Tour de France was his second in the team time trial of the 2009 race when he was still with Team Garmin, in that particular tour he finished 4th overall in the GC. He was third in the stage to La Planche des Belles Filles – which was his equal best place in an individual stage.

Wiggins ultimately finished 35” ahead of his team-mate and improved his advantage over Cadel Evans who was sixth in the stage; there is now 1'53” between first and second overall. Froome's ride elevated him up the rankings from sixth overall to third, now only 14" behind Evans. Sagan stays in Green as the leader of the points classification and Tejay Van Garderen regained hold of the White jersey from Rein Taaramae in what is likely to be an exciting battle over the next 2 weeks.

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Top 5 Today

1. B. WIGGINS (SKY) 51' 24"
2. C. FROOME (SKY) 00' 35"

3. F. CANCELLARA (RNT) 00' 57"
4. T. VAN GARDAREN (BMC) 01' 06"
5. S. CHAVANEL (OPQ) 01' 24"

Stage 8 (Belfort - Porrentruy)

8km into todays stage, there was an 11 man breakaway that gained an 18” lead. The group was formed from an elite bunch of riders, including: Gilbert (BMC), Voigt (RNT), Millar (GRS), Sanchez (RAB), Costa (MOV), Sorensen (STB) and Chavanel (OPQ). After this group was caught, the only rider not to sit up was Voigt who led solo over the first 2 climbs of the day. The peloton refused to let any other chasers get away. The fast pace caused by attempted breaks caused numerous riders to lose contact with the yellow jersey's group and the first big casualty of this was Gesink (RAB) who was dropped after only 30km of racing.

The oldest rider in the race was the only man who could stay ahead of the peloton for the first 40km but Kruiswijk (RAB) was able to catch Voigt on the third climb of the stage. Then came an attack from a 24 strong group – including Valverde and Casar catching the 2 leaders at 47km. At 56km there was a crash that involved Valverde (MOV) and Sanchez (EUS); the defending olympic champion broke his collarbone and had to abandon the race.

On the descent of the 4th peak of the day, Kessiakoff and Roy sped ahead of all the other escapees. On the fifth climb the Swedish Astana rider left the Frenchman behind and began a long solo journey towards Porrentruy.At the intermediate sprint point he was 1'05” ahead of a group of 14: Gallopin, Kern, Nerz, Kadri, Moncoutie, Hoogerland, Pinot, Roy, Kruiswijk, Mollema, Ten Dam, Sorensen, Kiserlovski and De Weert. At the start of the final climb of the day, the youngest rider in the race (Pinot) dropped all riders behind him and set off at a fast pace, aiming to catch the Astana rider.

Pinot raced into the lead of the stage with 17km to go. He caught and immediately raced past Kessiakoff near the top of the final climb and he wouldn't be seen by another rider until after the finish. Behind the 2 riders out front there was just an elite selection of nine men remaining: Wiggins, Froome, Evans, Menchov, Nibali, Zubeldia, Schleck, van den Broeck and Horner. Van den Broeck attacked the yellow jersey with around 2km to go, this prompted a brief kick from Cadel Evans but Wiggins always seemed to have them covered. The defending champion of the Tour would finished second in the stage for a second successive day but he gained no time on his main rival in the race for the maillot jaune. As Pinot approached the line he gave a thumbs up to his team car, where there was great jubilation, and then simply raised his arms above his head for a much deserved stage win.

Kessiakoff became the new leader in the climbing classification and Taaramae only just defended his white jersey and Wiggins, in fourth place, did all he needed to do to give him the best possible placing to start tomorrows time trial stage.
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Top 5 Today

1. T. PINOT (FDJ) 3H 56' 10"
2. C. EVANS (BMC) 0' 26"
3. T. GALLOPIN (RNT) 0' 26"
4. B. WIGGINS (SKY) 0' 26"
5. V. NIBALI (LIQ) 0' 26"

Stage 6 (Epernay - Metz)

At the begining of Todays 207.5km stage the first rider to break free of the peloton was Dave Zabriskie (GRS), after around 7.5km he was caught by three other riders, Malacarne (EUC), Zingle (COF) and Kroon (STB). At the 35km mark there was a crash involving Gesink (RAB), Valverde (MOV), Greipel (LTB) amongst others. This caused the peloton to ease up, allowing the fallen riders to get back into the bunch. After the short disruption caused by this incident, the breakaway were 6 Minutes ahead of the Peloton

Coming up to the days intermediate sprint, Orica-GreenEdge set a high tempo. In the breakaway Kroon gained the 20 points aswell as the cash prize associated with it. At the head of the peloton Sky had three men – Eisel, Boasson Hagen and Cavendish came around and into the lead. Goss kicked earlier than the world champion gaining him fifth place and 11 green jersey points. Zabriskie took the only climbing point of the day. A second collision happened where a Rabobank rider appeared to catch the barriers and this caused a large bunch in the peloton to stop. Greipel, Farrar and Mollema were involved and the pace of the peloton eased, the advantage of the break grew to 1'50”.

Just as the leaders passed the 25km to go mark, with the bunch 1km behind, there was a huge crash in the peloton. It involved some very big name riders, including Frank Schleck, Mark Cavendish and Edvald Boasson Hagen, aswell as many other riders who have dropped down in the overall General Classification. Cancellara, Evans, Wiggins, van Garderen, Nibali, and Basso all got past unharmed, as did the majority of the Orica-Greenedge team. Who subsequently set off at a grueling pace to try catch the escape. The last of the four escapees, Zabriskie, was caught inside the final 2km. The Lotto team (although earlier stating Greipel wouldn't contest the sprint) lead the pack under the 1km banner. However, Greipel, whether because of his injuries or just lack of speed, was passed rather convincingly by 2 time stage winner, Peter Sagan who added yet another interesting celebration to his repertoire.

Notable time losses from today include F.Schleck: 2'09" down; Gesink lost 3'31” and Hesjedal lost a huge 13'31”.
Fabian Cancellara, however, did what comes best to him, staying safe at the front of the peloton. He will wear the yellow jersey tomorrow, this years first real mountain stage.

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Top 5 Today

1. P. SAGAN (LIQ) 4H 37' 00"
2. A. GREIPEL (LTB) 0' 00"
3. M. GOSS (OGE) 0' 00"
4. K. VAN HUMMEL (VCD) 0' 00"
5. J. HAEDO (STB) 0' 00"

Stage 3 (Orchies - Boulogne-Sur-Mer)

Todays stage was a tough 197km from Orchies to Boulogne-sur-Mer. The route featured six climbs, including four in the final 16km.

At the 5km mark a group of five riders broke free of the peloton. Ruben Perez (EUS) began the attack and was joined by Grivko (AST), Minard (ALM), Bernaudeau (EUC), and yet again, the polka dot jersey Morkov (STB) who has been in breaks on the previous 2 days.

For the intermediate sprint Orica-GreenEdge tried to set things up for Goss, however thanks to the previous days intermediate sprints most of the other riders in contention for the sprint knew it was coming. Goss was subsequently passed by Cavendish, Sagan and Renshaw to name a few, with the world champion taking 10 points for 6th place

At around 140km there was an incident that involved several riders including Farrar and Sivtsov (SKY). The worst affected was the Sky rider who was sat on the road for quite a while, ultimately being forced to abandon because of his injures. 

With 40km remaining, and the peloton only 2'30” behind, Grivko accelerated at the front of the breakaway. Bernaudeau didn't have the legs to keep up, leaving four left at the head of the race. Morkov led over the second climb, bringing his total KOM tally for the day to 3. At the 168km mark, there was a big crash at the front of the bunch, many riders were affected, the most notable being Rojas (MOV) who was the second rider to abandon the tour.

On the approach to the third climb, Grivko attacked and only Morkov could respond. Morkov was caught 8km from the finish, with Grivko being picked up 1km later. Shortly afterward Chavanel (OPQ) attacked, on a climb he knows well and will have ridden many times. He was, very briefly, the virtual leader of the Tour gaining an advantage of 12” on the peloton but his attack came just too soon as he was caught with only 500m to go.

In the final sprint Westra (VCD) got tangled up with a Katusha rider and fell, holding up a large proportion of the peleton, but by then Sagan had already kicked to gain 1 second on the whole peloton. Edvald Boasson Hagen came a very respectable second, showing he is capable of winning stages of this calibre. Sagan crossed the line in what he called 'a tribute to Forest Gump", smiling as if he had already won 2 stages of his first tour... He increased his led in the points classification by a long way, now being 42 points clear of the yellow jersey, Fabian Cancellara.

Cancellara himself had a good day, finishing in 4th place to show he is willing, even though he is in yellow. He will most probably be in yellow until the weekend when the tour heads towards the mountains for the first time this year.

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Top 5 Today

1. P. SAGAN (LIQ) 4H 42' 58"

2. E. BOASSON HAGEN (SKY) 0' 01"

3.P. VELITS (OPQ) 0' 01"
4. F. CANCELLARA (RNT) 0' 01"
5. M. ALBASINI (OGE) 0' 01"

Welcome to my blog

Hello everyone, my name is James Clark-Grimshaw and I am a cycling enthusiast. I watch professional cycling when I can and have a great interest in it. I decided this year I wanted to start my own cycling blog, starting with the tour de France. Unfortunately I was 2 days late in starting, but hope to keep up over the following 3 weeks. Feel free to leave any comments. Thanks for coming to my page, Jimmy

Stage 2 (Vise - Tournai)

The last Belgian stage of the 2012 tour, between Vise and Tournai, was always going to be a bunch sprint finish. It wasn't until 22 Kilometres into the days racing that the break was formed. The escape bid came from Roux (FDJ) who was then followed by Kern (EUC), who's child was born 2 hours prior to the team presentation in Liege, as well as the polka dot jersey Morkov, who further extended his points tally in the KOM classification by picking up the one and only point of the day.

In the intermediate sprint there was some big points for the sprinters to contend, with Matt Goss yet again taking the maximum for the riders in the peloton.

With around 30km left in the stage, the peloton had caught the bulk of the breakaway, only Anthony Roux staying out in front giving an impressive solo performance (Securing him the combative rider award for the day). With just 14km to go, the peloton reeled in the Frances Des Jeux rider winding up for a bunch sprint.

Each team had riders on the front, including BMC riding for Cadel Evans, trying to keep him out of harms way. Then Lotto Belisol came to the front of the peloton with Andre Greipel in tow. Once Greipel peeled off his leadout man, Greg Henderson, all was to play for. But with the world champion on his wheel it wasn't long before Cavendish had pulled past his former team mate to take the victory.

At the end of the day Cancellara finished safely in the bunch, keeping the yellow jersey. Also, Peter Sagan's 6th place gave him enough points to secure his first green jersey.

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Top 5 Today

1 - M. CAVENDISH (SKY) 4H 56' 59"
2 - A. GREIPEL (LTB) 0' 00"
3 - M. GOSS (OGE) 0' 00"
4 - T. VEELERS (ARG) 0' 00"
5 - A PETACCHI (LAM) 0' 00"