2013 Cycling Thread

[Smallville22]

Orica-GreenEdge fined £1,400 for bus farce

The opening stage of the Tour de France was marked by scenes of panic and chaos on Saturday after a team bus became wedged under the finish-line banner, leading to a fine of 2,000 Swiss Francs (£1,393) from race organisers.
As the peloton was launched at high speed towards the finish with less than 10 kilometres to go, the Orica GreenEdge team bus crossed the line but got stuck beneath the banner.
It caused organisers to move the stage finish three kilometres from the line - a decision they reversed when the bus was freed in time.
The peloton, though, had become jittery and a massive crash with four kilometres to go took dozens of riders down, including pre-race favourite Alberto Contador.
"When a bus arrives near the finish line the driver must ask the permission to cross it," finish-line manager Jean-Louis Pages told reporters.
"Since this bus was late (and others had been through the finish already) we had already lowered the banner."
Pages said the driver had not asked for authorisation to go through.
"Everybody helped out," he said. "We deflated the tyres of the bus so we could move it away as the peloton was fast approaching."
Orica GreenEdge sports director Matt White gave a different version, saying the driver had followed instructions.
"Obviously this was a really unfortunate situation. The bus was led under the finish gantry, and we took for granted that there was enough clearance. We've had this bus since we started the team, and it's the same bus we took to the Tour last year," he was quoted as saying in a team statement.
"Our bus driver was told to move forward and became lodged under the finish gantry.
"He followed all instructions in the process that followed thanks to the hard work by (the organisers) ... that allowed him to remove the bus before the finish. It was the best possible outcome given the situation."
British champion Mark Cavendish, who was held up behind the crash, told reporters: "What caused the problems was changing the finish.
"We heard on the radio with literally 5km to go that the sprint was in 2km. And then a (kilometre) later they (said), 'No, it's at the finish'.
"It's just carnage. I'm lucky I didn't come down. I was behind it. Even my team mates were a lot worse. Tony Martin's in a bit of a state. I can count myself lucky."
Germany's Martin, Cavendish's team mate at Omega Pharma-Quick Step, was among those who crashed and he was carried in a stretcher from the team bus into an ambulance.
Marc Madiot, the manager of the FDJ.fr team, hit out at Spaniard Vicente Tortajada, president of the race commissaires.
"At first there is no problem. The commissaires decide that the line has to be moved to the three-kilometre banner so we inform our riders," the Frenchman said.
"Two kilometres further, we are told that the finish will be at its original place. But in these circumstances you don't change plans. Some teams had launched sprints, the riders were already taking risks.
"The president of the commissaires didn't do his job. When we (managers, riders) make a mistake we get a fine. Well, he should get a huge fine.
"This Spaniard, whom I don't know, can go back home."
All riders were credited with the same time because of the incident.

 

[tartanterrier]

Watched the stage yesterday and found it really entertaining,especially the balls up with the bus at the end - that was mental.

Watching the 2nd stage now on ITV4 who do a pretty good coverage of it and also getting a birds eye view of Corsica,where I've never seen so I'm enjoying it.Although it's just a shame I can't watch this during the week with the joys of work,although the other side of the coin is I don't have to watch Wimbledon.

 

[Smallville22]

Bakelants in yellow after surprise stage two win

Belgium's Jan Bakelants held on by one slender second to defy a rampaging peloton to take a remarkable victory in stage two of the Tour de France - and the race lead - in Ajaccio.
The 27-year-old from RadioShack - riding his debut Tour de France - was part of a six-man break that formed on the final run into the finish of the lumpy 154km stage from Bastia.
With the peloton closing in, Bakelants surged ahead of his fellow escapees ahead of the kilometre-to-go banner and somehow had the strength to hold off the pack, which was led over the line by Slovakian Peter Sagan of Cannondale, just one second in arrears.
Overnight leader Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) was dropped by the pack on the first of four categorised climbs to pave the way for a debut yellow jersey for Bakelants, who leads Britain’s David Millar (Garmin-Sharp) by one second on GC.
Stage one winner Kittel crossed the line in a large group of riders more than ********* minutes off the pace after another eventful day on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.
British national champion Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was also part of the second group, alongside a whole host of sprinters whose legs could not cope with the succession of climbs.
Cavendish’s team-mate, the Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel, celebrated his 34th birthday by instigating the final six-man break 10km from the finish.
Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Gorka Izagirre (Euskaltel), Manuele Mori (Lampre), Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil) and Bakelants joined Chavanel on the front of the race as the break built up a 10 second lead over the peloton.
The Cannondale team of Sagan led the chase alongside a cluster of riders from Garmin-Sharp, who were hoping to see their man Millar in yellow.
Just as the leaders looked to be crumbling, Bakelants decided to go alone – and defied logic by holding on for the biggest win of his career.
“I’m incredibly happy,” Bakelants told Eurosport. “I’ve never won a professional race before in my career and I’ve had incredible bad luck in the past.
“This year I had an operation on my knee as well which ruled me out of the classics.
“Today we were in a bunch and I can’t win in a bunch so I broke away. We were six riders and we had Sylvain Chavanel, who is good in these situations.
“I pushed it and went on my own. I told myself to give it all I had and have no regrets. I don’t know how tight it was – pretty tight I think.”
After uttering one of the day’s biggest understatements, the ecstatic RadioShack rider added: “I’ve been riding five years for this. The best thing is that it’s only the second day of the Tour and now there is no pressure on me or the team.”
The first half of another stunning stage in Corsica showcased an attacking tour de ***** from the Europcar team of Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland, both of whom were involved in trademark digs on the succession of picturesque peaks that culminated in the Vizzavona pass, 60km from the finish.
Rolland was rewarded with the polka dot jersey after jumping clear near the summit of the Cat 2 Col de Vizzavona to take maximum points ahead of the peloton.
On the previous climb, the Cat.3 Col de la Serre, Voeckler pinged off the front to test his legs and give the Corsican crowds something to cheer. The 33-year-old veteran was caught just ahead of the summit moments after his team-mate David Veilleux had crossed over in second place behind Blel Kadri of Ag2R-La Mondiale.
Canadian Veilleux and Frenchman Kadri were part of an initial four-man break which formed soon after the start of the stage in the coastal town of Bastia. Also bolstered by Dutchman Lars Boom (Belkin) and Spaniard Ruben Perez (Euskaltel), the quartet built up a maximum lead of just over three minutes ahead of the first climb of the day.
The lead came down to just 55 seconds over the summit of the Cat 3 Col de Bellagranajo before Kadri and Veilleux decided to drop Boom and Perez on the Col de la Serra. Voeckler attacked the pack in pursuit of the leaders and had almost caught team-mate Veilleux when the FDJ-led peloton closed in.
At this point, Kittel and his fellow sprinters had been shed out the back of the pack. Kadri was ****** by Rolland near the summit of the Col de Vizzavona after the Europcar leader timed his break to perfection to secure the polka dot jersey.
Rolland’s time at the front of the race was short lived, with the Cannondale team of Sagan leading the chase down the long descent towards Ajaccio.
Race favourite Chris Froome came to the front of the peloton with his Sky team-mates ahead of the final climb of the day, the Cat.3 Cote du Salario, just 13km from the finish.
But it was yet another ****** from Europcar – this time Cyril Gautier – which animated the punchy ascent. Gautier was joined by Flecha on the front, but the Spaniard tired, leaving Gautier alone on the front of the race.
Froome laid down an early marker in the GC battle with a late ****** near the summit to open up a small gap and remind everyone that he is the man to beat come Paris.
The Kenyan-born Briton sat up soon after the summit as Gautier rode with an eight-second advantage. Once Gautier inevitably succumbed inside the final seven kilometres, the stage was set for the Bakelants break.
A stray dog running onto the road almost wreaked havoc in the chasing peloton – but it was anything but dog days for Bakelants, who pulled off one of the Tour’s great magic acts in holding off the seemingly irrepressible Sagan and the returning peloton.
The Tour continues on Sunday with the third and final stage in Corsica, a picturesque and undulating 145.5km ride along the west coast from Ajaccio to Calvi.

 

[Smallville22]

Gerrans denies Sagan as Bakelants keeps yellow

Australian Simon Gerrans out-sprinted Peter Sagan of Slovakia to win stage three of the Tour de France from Ajaccio to Calvi.
Thirty-three-year-old Gerrans enjoyed a textbook lead-out from team-mate Daryl Impey to beat last year's green jersey Sagan by just a quarter of a wheel and secure Orica-GreenEdge's first ever victory on the world's biggest bike race.
Belgium's Jan Bakelants (RadioShack-Leopard) finished the lumpy 145.5km stage safely in the main pack to retain his slender one-second overall lead after three dramatic days of racing in Corsica.
“The team did a fantastic job in looking after me today,” Gerrans told Eurosport after his second career win in the Tour. “This is a stage I pin-pointed a little while ago and luckily I had the legs to win a first Tour stage for Orica-GreenEdge.”
Having finished second in Saturday’s stage two, Sagan looked to be in a commanding position to open up his account when he rounded the final bend in the wheel of his final Cannondale lead-out man.
But Gerrans swung past Impey to surge past his rival and secure his fourth win of the season.
“I managed to hold off one of the quickest guys around so I’m rapt,” he said. “It was so close and neither of us knew who won when we finished.”
Victory was a boon for Orica-GreenEdge, the second-year Australian World Tour outfit who made headlines on the weekend when their team bus was trapped under the finish gantry on the opening stage of the race at Bastia.
“Last year we had a fantastic debut season but missed out on a victory in the Tour. Now we have won stage three of the 100th Tour,” said Gerrans, who moved up to third in the overall standings.
Although denied for a second successive stage, Sagan took consolation in moving to the top of the green jersey points classification, which he now leads by 74 points to Marcel Kittel’s 57.
Argos-Shimano’s Kittel was one of numerous sprinters – including Britain’s Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) - to finish in a large group well down on the main pack after being distanced on the succession of leg-sapping climbs on offer on a testing final stage in Corsica.
Played out in high temperatures and under a bright blue sky, the stage featured four categorised climbs separated by numerous hairpin bends and sinuous downhills through absolutely stunning scenery along the west coast of the Mediterranean island.
Dutchman Lieuwe Westra, who lost more than 17 minutes on Sunday’s mountainous stage through Corsica’s rugged interior, attacked the peloton from the outset.
The Vacansoleil-DCM rider was quickly joined by Gerrans’ fellow Australian and Orica-GreenEdge team-mate Simon Clarke, as well as French trio Sebastien Minard (AG2R), Alexis Vuillermoz (Sojasun) and Cyril Gautier (Europcar).
The five escapees built up a maximum lead of four minutes before being reeled in on the slopes of the final climb of the day less than 20km from the finish.
Clarke, who won stage four of the Vuelta a Espana last year en route to winning the king of the mountains competition, showed his climbing pedigree by taking maximum points over the first three summits of the day to draw level on points with Frenchman Pierre Rolland in the polka dot standings.
With the peloton closing in, Clarke attacked his fellow escapees ahead of the final climb but was reeled in by Europcar’s Rolland ahead of the summit of the Cat 2 Col de Marsolino 14km from the finish.
Rolland had attacked with team-mate Davide Malacarne in a bid to keep his polka dot jersey from shifting to the shoulders of Clarke.
Rolland crossed the summit with a 15-second lead over the pack and was joined by Sylvain Chavanel (OPQS), Euskaltel’s Mikel Nieve and Belkin’s Lars-Petter Nordhaug on the fast descent to the finish in Calvi.
Orica-GreenEdge led the chase through Cameron Meyer and the four fugitives were swept up inside the final three kilometres. Meyer then ****** the baton over to Impey who launched Gerrans out of the final bend with aplomb.
Gerrans still had to beat one of the fastest finishers in the business – albeit one still recovering from his heavy fall in the opening stage of the race.
The Tour leaves Corsica for mainland France where on Tuesday the race continues with the 25km team time trial in Nice.

 

[Smallville22]

Sky look to take early control of Tour de France

Tuesday's team time trial will be the perfect opportunity for Sky to take early control of the Tour de France by snatching the yellow jersey.
With the biggest guns all in a group of riders who are one second behind Belgian leader Jan Bakelants after the three Corsican stages, the winning team are almost certain to take the overall lead.
The rider taking the coveted jersey will be the one who is best ranked after the third stage - in Sky's case, Norway's Edvald Boasson-Hagen.
Sky are among the top contenders for the fourth stage, a collective 25-km effort against the clock in the streets of Nice.
Their hopes took a ***** knock when Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas crashed in Saturday's opening stage but the former was spotted at the front of the peloton on Monday.
The Welshman, though, sustained a small pelvis fracture and looked in agony at the back, hanging on for dear life.
The distance, however, is short so the British outfit may not be hampered too much from Thomas's woes.
""I am definitely going to give it a good go. My mum doesn't want me to but it's the tour, it's not your average race and I am definitely going to keep fighting," Thomas said, brushing aside the idea of quitting the race.
Asked about the time trial, the team pursuit Olympic champion said: "It is really frustrating. I was really looking forward to that and we have got a strong team for that but it has just turned into a matter of survival for the first few days."
Rivals and team time trial world champions Omega Pharma-Quick Step have also had problems.
Double individual time trial world champion Tony Martin of Germany suffered concussion and a deep wound to his elbow on Saturday, while Mark Cavendish has had bronchitis.
Martin, however, finished Monday's hilly stage in the leading bunch, suggesting he could be fitter than expected on Tuesday, and French time trial champion Sylvain Chavanel looks in ominous form.
Team Garmin-Sharp, also time trial specialists, have a chance to put Briton David Millar in yellow 13 years after the Scot claimed the overall lead after the prologue in Poitiers.
"I'd say it's between ourselves, BMC and GreenEdge as the favourite teams," Garmin-Sharp manager Jonathan Vaughters told Reuters.
"Sky will do very well but their biggest engine Geraint Thomas is injured. But hey, they could win, too."
Team Saxo-Tinkoff will be looking to limit the damage for Alberto Contador.
"We have a very strong team and I hope to do a great time trial," the Spaniard said. "We have been training together these last days and the feeling is very good."
According to Vaughters, barring major incident, no team should suffer unduly.
"The time gaps will be very minimal," the American said.
Should BMC prevail, Australian Cadel Evans, the 2011 champion, should take the yellow jersey.

 

[Smallville22]

GreenEdge win puts Gerrans in yellow after TTT

Orica-GreenEdge put in a masterful display in stage four of the Tour de France, a 25km team time trial in Nice, to pip favourites Omega Pharma-Quick Step and put Simon Gerrans into the race lead.
Trailing the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team of Mark Cavendish by three seconds at the halfway split, Orica-GreenEdge put in a barnstorming second leg to finish the pan-flat race against the clock by 0.75 seconds.
The Australian team's time of 25 minutes and 56 seconds gave them an average speed of 57.7kmh - a record for a team time trial in any Grand Tour.
Victory put Gerrans, who won Monday’s third and final stage in Corsica, into the yellow jersey after the RadioShack-Leopard team of overnight leader Jan Bakelants finished 29 seconds down in 11th place.
The Sky team of British race favourite Chris Froome posted the third best time, three seconds behind Orica-GreenEdge, while the Saxo-Tinkoff squad of Spaniard Alberto Contador took fourth, nine seconds in arrears.
Back-to-back wins for the Australian team caps a remarkable turnaround for Orica-GreenEdge, whose team bus caused something of a flashpoint on stage one after getting wedged underneath the finish line gantry in Bastia.
Twenty-four hours after Gerrans outsprinted Peter Sagan to take stage three in Calvi, the 33-year-old secured the first yellow jersey of his career after another superb team performance from GreenEdge.
“It’s the pinnacle of the sport and I’m thrilled to take the yellow jersey - especially after such a fantastic team effort,” said Gerrans, who leads team-mates Daryl Impey and Michael Albasini on GC.
“Very few guys get to wear the yellow jersey and so it’s an honour. Everyone rode 100 per cent today - just like yesterday - and it’s great that we can get rewarded together as a team.”
To win, Orica-GreenEdge had to turn over the early target time set by Omega Pharma-Quick Step, who were the second team to roll down the ramp on a warm and sunny day on the Cote d’Azur.
With sprinter Cavendish suffering from bronchitis and powerhouse Tony Martin still recovering from his horrific injuries sustained in the pile-up that marred the conclusion of Saturday’s opening stage, OPQS’s motivation was simple: win the time trial and put their Polish youngster Michal Kwiatkowski into the yellow jersey.
A blistering ride from the Belgian team saw OPQS set a target time at the split that was not to be beaten by any team all afternoon - even GreenEdge.
Garmin-Sharp came through the split four seconds down - but hopes of seeing their man David Millar into the race lead evaporated on the Promenade des Anglais, Garmin coming home 16 seconds down on OPQS at the finish.
Saxo-Tinkoff rode through the split just one second down - and despite seeing Benjamin Noval injured by a collision with a spectator with a camera.
But Contador’s team slowed in the return leg, crossing the line eight seconds behind OPQS to end any hopes of seeing Nicolas Roche to the top of the overall standings.
Sky rode a technically strong time trial to come through the split just three seconds down at the 13km mark. Geraint Thomas, riding with a small fracture in his pelvis, contributed right until the final kilometre before peeling back, his work for the day done.
But Sky were unable to topple OPQS and put Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen into the yellow jersey. They came home four seconds down and it looked like the spoils would go to the Belgian team.
Orica-GreenEdge, however, put in a quite brilliant return leg to turn the tables and pip OPQS by three-quarters of a second.
“It’s an amazing team, that’s for sure. That was an incredible ride,” veteran Stuart O’Grady said moments after the finish in Nice.
“All the boys were super motivated after yesterday’s win and we rode very smoothly. If someone beats that then they deserve to win.”
O’Grady’s words rang true - and no one was able to better the second-year ProTour team.
Pipping OPQS by less than a second, Orica-GreenEdge were three seconds ahead of Sky, nine seconds better than Saxo-Tinkoff and 17 seconds clear of both Lotto Belisol and Garmin-Sharp.
The BMC team of Cadel Evans and Tejay van Garderen recorded the ninth best time, 26 seconds behind Orica-GreenEdge.
Spaniard Alejandro Valverde is well poised on GC after his Movistar team came home just 20 seconds down, while compatriot Joaquim Rodriguez will be happy that Katusha only conceded 28 seconds.
Things were less positive for polka dot jersey Pierre Rolland, who lost more than a minute to his rivals after Europcar came home 1:13 down in 19th place.
Gerrans tops the overall standings, level on time with team-mates Impey and Albasini. OPQS youngster Kwiatkowski, the race’s white jersey, is fourth, one second down and level on time with fifth-place team-mate Sylvain Chavanel.
Sky trio Boasson Hagen, Froome and Richie Porte are three seconds in arrears in sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.
Saxo-Tinkoff’s Roche is nine seconds down in ninth place, level on time with team-mates Roman Kreuziger, Michael Rogers and Contador.
Wednesday’s stage five is a 219km undulating ride through Provence from Cagnes-sur-Mer to Marseille which should conclude with a bunch sprint between the peloton’s fast men. Time will tell is Britain’s Cavendish can shake off his illness and open up his account in the 100th edition of the world’s greatest bike race.

 

[Smallville22]

Rolland loses ground after team time trial

Pierre Rolland returned to the podium to pick up his polka dot jersey - but it would have been a bittersweet experience for the French GC hope after Europcar conceded more than a minute to the winners of stage four's team time trial in Nice, Orica-GreenEdge.
Team Europcar finished 19th in Tuesday's 25km team time trial in Nice after crossing the line one minute and 13 seconds down on winners, Orica-GreenEdge.
Rolland, who wear wearing the polka dot jersey for the second day running, fell to 63rd on GC, 1:13 behind the new race leader Simon Gerrans.
"We knew that time trials were not our strength," said a disappointed Rolland. "We have made a big effort to improve but the other teams have come on strides too and so it's not that easy."
Team Europcar set the fourth best time of the five French teams in the Tour, with only Cofidis finishing below, a further seven seconds in arrears.
Rolland is now 1:10 behind Chris Froome (Sky) and 1:04 down on Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff) on GC. He also trails Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) by 56 seconds, Movistar pair Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana by 53 seconds, BMC's Cadel Evans and Tejay van Garderen by 47 seconds, and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) by 45 seconds.
With two individual time trials still to ride in the 100th edition of the Tour, Rolland will have to ride with attacking flair in the mountains if he wants to build on last year's eighth place in Paris. But having a deficit could well act in Rolland's favour ahead of the Pyrenees.
"I'm going to try and stay calm and recover as quickly as possible," said Rolland. "The three stages in Corsica were difficult and the team time trial took away a lot of energy. I will take each day as it comes."
The next few stages ahead of Saturday's stage in the Pyrenees look to be suited to the sprinters - although there are four lower category climbs on the menu on Wednesday.
"I will rely heavily on my team-mates to help support me in this kind of situation. Yohann Gene, Kevin Reza and Jerome ****** will be by my side. And once the terrain goes uphill, I know that I can rely on the support of Davide Malacarne, David Vielleux and Cyril Gautier."
Having been extremely active in the opening road stages in Corsica, Team Europcar will be eager to get over this little blip and put in some strong performances as the race crosses the south of France and heads towards the Pyrenees.

 

[Smallville22]

Froome and Contador happy with places after time trial

Chris Froome and Alberto Contador had little to complain about as both kept their Tour de France challenges firmly on track with solid performances in Tuesday's team time trial.
Contador's concern ahead of Tuesday's fourth stage was that his Team Saxo-Tinkoff could lose too much ground on Team Sky, while Froome was worried about the burden of controlling the race if his British team won the stage.
Spaniard Contador, a double Tour champion, lost six seconds on Froome, who is looking to win his maiden Tour title, after Saxo-Tinkoff finished fourth, just behind the British outfit.
"I'm really happy with that," Froome told reporters. "Just three seconds down on (leaders) Orica-GreenEdge, this keeps us in a perfect position at the moment, not having the added stress of being in the leader's jersey.
"Personally I felt really good, I was able to do longer pulls on the front. I'm feeling like I'm coming into good form before the mountains."
Froome and his team mates will now be able to stay in the peloton without working too hard as Orica-GreenEdge and the sprinters' teams control the pace in the coming days' relatively flat stages.
"If we were in the yellow jersey it would mean that tomorrow and the next couple of days, which are predominantly flat, we would do a lot of work which I think would be a bit of unnecessary extra work at the moment for such a small advantage," Froome explained.
"If we had taken yellow it would have been by a few seconds."
Contador was also happy, saying: "I think that it was a good day for us.
"Of course, obviously it's better if you are ahead of the other rivals but if you look at the overall standings the differences are marginal," Contador, who was caught up in a crash in Saturday's opening stage, told reporters.
"I'm very happy because the team gave 100 percent. We are nine men but today we formed one. It's only the fourth stage and I'm taking it day by day."
Contador, who won the race in 2007 and 2009 and is back on the Tour after a one-year hiatus because of a doping suspension, is confident he will be in top shape on Saturday when the peloton tackles the Pyrenees - where the fight between the top guns could start.
"Of course, after the crash, there is a little pain in some parts of the body but it's normal," he said. "I hope I'm in perfect condition for the Pyrenees."
Both Froome and Contador, however, have injured domestiques in their teams. Sky's Geraint Thomas has a small fracture in his pelvis and has been riding through the pain barrier, while Spaniard Benjamin Noval ruptured a tendon in his hand when he was hit by a spectator's camera.
Saxo-Tinkoff said in a statement that Noval would continue the race but would need surgery after the Tour.
Some good news for Froome and Contador, however, was that Australian Cadel Evans, the 2011 champion, lost ground after his BMC team took seventh place, 26 seconds off Orica-GreenEdge's pace.

 

[Smallville22]

Millar rues second missed chance for yellow jersey

As David Millar warmed down on his stationary bike after Tuesday's team time trial, reflecting on another missed shot at the Tour de France yellow jersey, his ****** came to hug him.
"You wanted it too much," said Fran Millar, a media officer at Garmin-Sharp's rivals Team Sky.
Two days after missing out on yellow by one second at the end of stage two, Scot Millar could not help pre-stage favourites Garmin-Sharp to win the 25-km collective effort against the clock to claim the jersey he wore 13 years ago when he won the Tour prologue in Poitiers.
"We did our best. It was not a good day, that lost us some time," Millar told reporters, sweat still dripping down his chest.
"We would have been better on a more technical, up-and-down course."
Garmin-Sharp were four seconds behind early pacesetters Omega Pharma-Quick Step at the 13-km time check but they ran out of gas in the final part, ending up in sixth place, 17 seconds off stage winners Orica-GreenEdge's pace.
"Yes, I'm very disappointed to be honest," said Millar, who wrote in his autobiography, Racing Through the Dark, that he won the 2000 prologue clean.
He started to use the ****** **** erythropoietin the following year, he said, and served a two-year ban after admitting to doping from 2004-06.
Two years after his comeback, the man who calls himself an ex-doper, became a founding member of the Garmin team who built their reputation on a strong anti-doping stance.
Millar won a stage in last year's Tour but wearing the yellow jersey would have added to the sense of redemption.
Winning Tuesday's stage and taking the yellow jersey in the process, even for a few days, would also have settled Millar's career nicely.
"It would have been too perfect," he admitted, adding with a grin: "Life's not fair."
On Sunday, Millar came tantalisingly close to wearing the yellow jersey but Belgian Jan Bakelants's win by one second in the second stage meant he had to wait for Tuesday's time trial to have another go.
"It was really hard not to have it in my head beforehand," said Millar.
"You try to switch it off and think about the job to do rather than the reward but it's such a big thing and I came so close on Sunday that it was unavoidable I would be thinking about it."
There is still a chance for Millar to jump into a breakaway in Wednesday's undulating stage from Cagnes-sur-Mer to Marseille but Millar said Garmin-Sharp were targeting the overall standings on this Tour.
"I've used all my opportunities; I'm here for the team," he said. "It's a team who is primarily here for GC (general classification)."

 

[Smallville22]

Cavendish sprints to victory in Marseille

Britain's Mark Cavendish secured the 24th Tour de France win of his career with victory in stage five in Marseille after a fast bunch sprint.
The Omega Pharma-Quick Step sprinter avoided two big crashes in the closing moments of the stage to power home for his first victory on the 2013 Tour ahead of Norway's Edvald Boasson-Hagen (Sky), Slovakia's Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and Germany's Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol).
Australia's Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) finished safely in the peloton at the end of the 228.5km stage through Provence to retain his yellow jersey as race leader.
Cavendish benefited from a superb lead-out by Belgian powerhouse Gert Steegmans before taking a comprehensive win ahead of former team-mate Boasson Hagen and the green jersey, Sagan.
“I’m super happy to get the win and hopefully it will get the ball rolling for more,” said Cavendish, who missed out on victory on the opening day because of a large pile-up towards the finish in Bastia.
“It’s been a little bit frustrating but usually I don’t win until the fifth stage anyway so it was not too serious,” he added.
Victory also put Cavendish into second place in the battle for the green jersey where he sits with 76 points alongside Norway's Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), who finished sixth in the stage behind Italy's Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida). Sagan leads the competition with 111 points after a string of high finishes.
To get the win, Cavendish’s Belgian team had to ride hard over a series of climbs to reel in the remnants of a break that formed moments after the start of the stage in Cagnes-sur-Mer.
“My team protected me on the climbs and then [Sylvain] Chavanel, Tony [Martin] and Peter Velits helped chase down the break,” said Cavendish, whose Tour has been hampered with bronchitis.
Keeping near the front, Cavendish avoided a large pile-up that happened on the Col de la Gineste 15km from the finish. As he roared to the finish line, the 28-year-old would also have been oblivious to a huge accident on the closing straight that held up half the peloton.
Omega Pharma-Quick Step manager Patrick Lefevere said his team had targeted victory in Marseille for a long time – and that his star sprinter was bent on turning things round after being denied a chance to take the yellow jersey on the opening day of the race in Corsica.
“We put a marker on this stage before the race and Mark was particularly motivated to make up for what happened on stage one,” he said.
The number of riders was down to 195 at the start of the stage following the controversial disqualification of Cannondale’s Ted King. The 30-year-old American, making his debut in the Tour but carrying a bad shoulder injury sustained in the opening stage, finished the team time trial seven seconds outside the cut-off point – and despite protests from his team and co-riders, the race officials were feeling no mercy.
An ****** came from the outset of the stage with Team Europcar making amends from their poor team time trial by throwing two riders – Japanese national champion Yukiya Arashiro and French debutant Kevin Reza – in the break, alongside Belgian all-rounder Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM), himself keen to get his Tour back on track following a tricky start marred by illness.
Also joining the six-man break were two former U23 world champions Romain Sicard (Euskaltel) and Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), and Anthony Delaplace of Sojasun. Over the rolling hills of Provence on the Tour’s second longest stage, the escapees built up a maximum lead of almost thirteen minutes under cloudy skies and in humid conditions, making Arashiro the virtual yellow jersey.
De Gendt, who dropped to almost 25 minutes down on GC after struggling in the hills of Corsica earlier in the race, used the stage as a platform for his new race targets, namely the king of the mountains competition. Winner atop the unforgiving Alpine climb of the Stelvio during the 2012 Giro d’Italia, De Gendt lowered his range somewhat to conquer the first lower-category climbs in pole position to open up his account in the battle for the polka dot jersey.
Back with the peloton, Orica-GreenEdge kept their men on the front and controlled the pace with the help of Lotto Belisol and Argos Shimano.
At the intermediate sprint 120km from the finish, Greipel showed once again his form by beating Kristoff, Sagan and Cavendish to take maximum remaining points.
Arashiro, protecting the polka dot jersey of Europcar team-mate Pierre Rolland, took the solitary point atop the third climb of the day 75km from the finish.
Entering the final 50km of the stage, the leaders still held an advantage of six minutes over the peloton, with Omega Pharma-Quick Step finally coming to the front to help out the other sprinters’ teams with the chase.
Sicard and Delaplace were dropped from the leading group after an acceleration by De Gendt and the four leaders crossed the summit of the final categorised climb with 2:30 on the chasing pack and 25km left to ride.
Europcar's Rolland, stage one winner Marcel Kittel (Argos Shimano) and Garmin-Sharp’s Christian Vande Velde were amongst a dozen riders who went down hard on the uncategorised Col de la Ginestre when the chase was in full swing. All the riders were able to carry on, but the fall ended Kittel's chances of doubling his stage tally.
De Gendt and Arashiro were the first escapees to be reeled before both Reza and Lutsenko were finally called to heel as the pack entered Marseille with 4km remaining.
After a tricky opening to the 100th edition of the Tour, the scene was finally set for OPQS and Mark Cavendish to show what they do best - and the Manxman duly delivered, with a little help from his friends.
Cavendish will have a chance to double his tally on Thursday’s flat 176.5km stage six from Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier, which is likely to finish with another bunch gallop.

 

[Smallville22]

Tough day in office for Garmin-Sharp

Tour de France team Garmin-Sharp had a tough day in the office on Wednesday when two of their top riders crashed in the fifth stage.
Canada's Ryder Hesjedal, the 2012 Giro d'Italia champion, hit the tarmac on the final climb some 15 kilometres from the finish.
Race doctors said in their daily report that Hesjedal was treated for a rib fracture but team manager Jonathan Vaughters explained that the injury was four days old.
"To clarify, Ryder has a very small fracture in one rib from the first day's crash. He's fine. Just got it X-rayed today to help optimise taping," he wrote on Twitter.
American Christian Vande Velde was involved in a huge pile-up near the end of the 228.5-km ride from Cagnes-sur-Mer and race doctors said he suffered "a cervical contusion", adding that a "screw from previous surgery" had been knocked loose. They did not elaborate.
Both riders have general classification ambitions. Vaughters said before the race that the team had an open strategy, identifying the duo, as well as Irishman Dan Martin and American Andrew Talansky and Tom Danielson, as potential top contenders.

 

[Smallville22]

Injured Van den Broeck pulls out of Tour de France

Belgian rider Jurgen Van den Broeck became the first high-profile casualty of this year's Tour de France when he pulled out injured before the sixth stage, his Lotto-Belisol team said on Thursday.
A spokesman for the team told Reuters by telephone that Van den Broeck, fourth overall in last year's race, sustained a knee injury in a mass pile-up inside the final 200 metres of Wednesday's stage.

 

[Smallville22]

Radioshack to end collaboration with Frank Schleck

Frank Schleck's contract with Radioshack-Leopard will not be renewed in 2014, as the end of the Luxembourg rider's doping ban looms.
Schleck is serving a one-year ban after failing a dope test for the diuretic Xipamide in last year's Tour de France. He has denied knowingly taking a ****** substance.
"With the end of Frank Schleck's suspension approaching, Leopard and its partners have assessed the situation in view of a possible renewal of the collaboration with Frank Schleck," the team said in a statement.
"Having finalised this assessment in a broad and objective way, Leopard has decided to not renew the collaboration between Frank Schleck and the Radioshack-Leopard Trek cycling team."
His suspension ends on July 14, while his contract runs until the end of the season.
It was not clear whether Schleck, whose ******* Andy rides for Radioshack-Leopard and is on the Tour de France, would ride with the team again.

 

[Smallville22]

Greipel wins as Impey moves into historic yellow

Germany's Andre Greipel sprinted to success in stage six of the Tour de France in Montpellier as Daryl Impey became the first South African to take the leader's yellow jersey.
German national champion Greipel benefited from a textbook lead-out by his Lotto-Belisol train in Montpellier to secure his first win of the 2013 Tour ahead of Slovakia's Peter Sagan (Cannondale) and compatriot Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano).
Britain's Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) finished fourth but had the odds stacked against him after crashing on a roundabout 35km from the finish of the 176.5km stage.
Orica-GreenEdge sprinter Impey made history by leap-frogging team-mate Simon Gerrans at the top of the general classification after Gerrans came home five seconds down following a slight split in the peloton in the final kilometre.
Impey is the first rider from the African continent to wear the fabled maillot jaune of the world's greatest bike race, which this year celebrates its 100th edition.
“It’s a great moment for me and I’m going to wear this jersey with pride and fight to hold on to it,” he said.
Impey leads Norway’s Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) by three seconds on GC, with team-mates Gerrans and Michael Albasini five seconds down in third and fourth place.
Lotto-Belisol entered the final kilometre of the stage with five men on the front primed to launch Greipel towards the line. Belgium’s Jurgen Roelandts and New Zealander Greg Henderson were the last two to peel back, setting Greipel up perfectly for his 11th win of the season.
“Yesterday we struggled to get it right in the final moments but today we got it much better,” said 30-year-old Greipel. “Tactically we got it right. I was in a perfect position and I’m proud of my team-mates.”
Sagan – a triple stage winner from last year – was once again sprightly in the sprint, but the Slovak youngster had to settle for a third runners-up spot in a race in which he has struggled to impose the same kind of authority as he exuded last year.
Stage one winner Kittel finished third ahead of Cavendish, who was ****** to fight at the back of the peloton after a heavy crash on the technical roads of Lunel, 35km from the finish.
Greipel moved into second place in the battle for the green jersey after picking up maximum points on stage six, taking the win after already leading the field over the line at the intermediate sprint midway through the stage.
Sagan, the reigning green jersey champion, remains in front with 159 points to Greipel’s 130, with Cavendish in third place on 119.
Under a bright blue sky, 193 riders took to the start in the home town of the painter Paul Cezanne following the overnight withdrawals of Belgium general classification hope Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) and France’s Maxim Bouet (Ag2R-La Mondiale), both of whom were badly injured in the crash that marred Wednesday’s finale in Marseille.
The rider who was thought to have caused the crash, FDJ sprinter Nacer Bouhanni, soldiered on but was dropped by the peloton around 50km into the stage, crossing the summit of the only climb of the day two minutes in arrears and clearly struggling. The French youngster continued alongside his team car for another 20km before calling it a day and withdrawing from his debut Tour.
By this point, the day’s only escapee – Luis Angel Mate of Cofidis – had already had the chance to build up a five-minute lead and see it all evaporate, all in the space of the opening 40km of the stage.
The Spaniard had attacked from kilometre zero, but after not being joined by anyone in the searing early-afternoon heat, Mate sat up and was swallowed back into the pack before the Cat.4 Col de la Vayede.
Strong crosswinds coming off the south coast of France meant the stage was a nervous, cagey but fast affair, with the speed so high during the feed zone that the riders were ****** to refuel later than expected.
With fears of echelons – or gaps – appearing in the peloton because of the combination of wind and fast pace-setting, the front of the peloton was populated with the teams of all the major race favourites.
The Saxo-Tinkoff outfit of Alberto Contador and the Sky team of Chris Froome were both a permanent fixture on the front, and both riders finished with the main pack to retain their positions on GC. Froome is seventh at eight seconds while Contador is six seconds further back in eleventh place, with the first summit finish looming on the horizon this Saturday.
The nervousness in the peloton on Thursday led to a flurry of crashes, with the likes of Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Janez Brajkovic (Astana) and Cavendish all hitting the deck at different moments.
Both Rodriguez and Cavendish made their way safely back into the peloton, although Brajkovic’s crash with 12km remaining was far more serious and the Slovenian eventually crossed the line more than 10 minutes in arrears.
After a visit to the Tour's mobile hospital, Brajkovic was ****** to withdraw from the Tour after the stage - the second Astana rider ****** out on Thursday following the earlier withdrawal of Swedish climber Frederik Kessiakoff.
The final five kilometres of the stage saw the peloton still fronted by the teams of the GC favourites in what appeared to be a case of keeping out of trouble.
No one seemed willing or perhaps even capable of taking it on after a particularly punishing day of high temperatures and leg-sapping wind. But the Argos-Shimano team of Kittel soon came through to cast the first roll of the dice.
Lotto-Belisol took it as a cue to put their plan into action – and with Cavendish still reeling from that fall, Greipel had the psychological and physical upper hand.
Thursday’s stage seven is an undulating 205.5km ride from Montpellier features four climbs before a flat finish in Albi and could be the perfect opportunity for Sagan to finally get his name on the list of winners in this increasingly intriguing 100th edition of the Tour.

 

[Smallville22]

Vande Velde abandons Tour

American Christian Vande Velde is out of the Tour de France after being involved in a crash early in the seventh stage.
Organisers said Vande Velde withdrew following a mass pile-up after 11-km.
He was one of Garmin-Sharp's top contenders along with fellow American Andrew Talansky, Irishman Dan Martin and Canadian Ryder Hesjedal.
Vande Velde also sustained a shoulder problem after crashing on Wednesday.

 

[Smallville22]

Frank Schleck's firing leaves ******* Andy fuming

Andy Schleck has blasted his own RadioShack-Leopard for firing his ******* Frank just before a diuretics ban was set to end.
Leopard, the management company of RadioShack, announced on Thursday that Frank would not ride for them again this season – days before his year-long ban was up.
Andy, the youngest of the two, did not hold back in a subsequent interview.
“I can’t really understand the decision. I’m sad and disappointed but I don’t know what to say. Maybe they will use it against me and fire me as well,” Schleck said.
Andy said he believed the decision was not related to Frank’s suspension.
“It wasn’t even anything to do with doping, even the UCI agreed on that,” he said. “But there are other things behind this decision. I don’t think it is anything to do with the suspension.
“To kick him out of the team after 11 months of giving him their support, I just don’t understand it.”
Team manager Luca Guercilena said in Montpellier prior to the stage seven trek to Albi: “He is and always will be his *******, but we have had to apply internal rules.”
The ****** Luxembourger ends his suspension on July 14, though his RadioShack contract ran until the end of the current season.
Andy, the 2010 Tour de France winner, has been struggling for form since sustaining a hip injury just over a year ago, but has been looking slightly better recently.
He faces a stern test of his credentials on Saturday when the Tour hits the mountains with the first Pyrenees stage to Ax-3-Domaines.

 

[Smallville22]

Sagan strengthens hold on green jersey with stage 7 win

Slovakia's Peter Sagan outsprinted John Degenkolb of Germany to take stage seven of the Tour de France and build up a commanding lead in the green jersey competition.
After a series of second-places in the opening week of the race, Sagan finally got a win after a textbook day for his Cannondale team.
Sagan, 23, picked up maximum points at both the intermediate sprint and the finish after his big rivals Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) and Marcel Kittel (Argos Shimano) were all distanced on the second of four categorised climbs, 90km into the undulating 205.5km stage from Montpellier to Albi.
At the finish, Sagan latched onto Degenkolb's wheel before powering clear inside the final 100m to cross the line all smiles while beating his chest in celebration.
Daniele Bennati (Saxo-Tinkoff) took third place ahead of fellow Italian Davide Cimolai (Lampre-Merida) and Norway's Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky).
South Africa's Daryl Impey of Orica-GreenEdge retained the yellow jersey after finishing safely in the main peloton.
Victory for Sagan saw him extend his lead in the green jersey competition to 94 points over German national champion Greipel, with British champion Cavendish another 11 points in arrears.
Both Cavendish and Greipel came home in a grupetto more than 14 minutes down on the peloton after giving up the chase 45km from the finish, when the gap was still three minutes and showing no signs of coming down.
A relieved Sagan was quick to praise his Cannondale colleagues for their role in his first win of the stage: "I'm very happy and I have to thank my team because I couldn't do what I did without them. This victory is for all of the team. I'm very happy because I didn't feel very good after the crash on the first stage but day by day I'm feeling better and now I'm really happy to have my first stage win of this Tour de France."
On another hot day in south France, two riders broke clear shortly after the start, with the race’s oldest rider Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Leopard) joining ****** with Blel Kadri (Ag2R-La Mondiale) to carve out a large lead over a peloton disrupted by a large pile-up as the road narrowed over a bridge.
American Christian Vande Velde, riding his last Tour before retiring, was once again caught up in the melee and the 37-year-old Garmin-Sharp rider was ****** to bid an early farewell to the Grande Boucle after an accumulation of injuries sustained during an incident-filled opening week.
Riding his 16th consecutive Tour, 41-year-old German Voigt and France’s Kadri held a four-minute gap over the peloton after the first climb of the day, 128km from the finish. Kadri picked up maximum points over the summit, and repeated the feat on the subsequent Cat.2 climb to move into the lead in the polka dot jersey competition.
But behind the two escapees, the race was being blown apart by the Cannondale team of Sagan, who threw down the hammer on the Col de la Croix de Mounis to wreak havoc off the pack of the peloton.
The infernal pace of Cannondale saw Sagan’s sprint rivals Cavendish and Greipel – the winners of the previous two stages – as well as stage one winner Kittel and Australian Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) all distanced on the long climb.
A Greipel-chasing group came over the summit almost two minutes down on the main pack, while a second Cavendish group came through another minute in arrears. The distanced factions came together on the back of the climb, with Lotto Belisol and OPQS joining ****** in the chase ahead of the intermediate sprint.
Sagan picked up a maximum 20 points at the intermediate sprint 70km from the finish ahead of Vacansoleil-DCM’s Juan Antonio Flecha. With Cannondale taking a little breather, Belgium’s Jan Bakelants (RadioShack-Leopard) accelerated clear.
The stage two winner and former race leader was joined by France’s Cyril Gautier (Europcar) and Spaniard Juanjo Oroz (Euskaltel) in a trio that soon held a one-minute lead over the pack, putting Bakelents into the virtual race lead.
With Orica-GreenEdge coming to the front to help neutralise the threat to Impey’s yellow jersey, the gap back to the chasing group of Cavendish and Greipel increased to three minutes.
Perhaps thinking about the mountains on the horizon, Lotto Belisol and OPQS decided to call off the chase ahead of the final climb of the day. Bakelants led the trio over with a 45s cushion, but the Cannondale-led peloton timed their chase to perfection, sweeping up the leaders with 3km remaining before setting things up for their man Sagan.
With two Argos team-mates at his disposal, Degenkolb at least made the finish a contest – but Sagan had too much strength and, after three second-places on the100th edition of the Tour, the Slovakian was not going to let this chance slip.
Sagan’s victory was the cherry on the cake for Cannondale, who put in a display of tactical brilliance not only to **** off their main rivals but to deliver their man to the line in style. With the exception of one slight wobble on a roundabout on the outskirts of Albi, it was a flawless performance – and better than any collective effort seen so far in the 2013 Tour.
Focus turns from the sprinters to the climbers and GC hopes on Saturday, with the first major summit finish of the race. The 195km stage from Castres to the Pyrenean ski resort of Ax 3 Domaines includes the highest point in the race, the HC Col de Pailheres.
With Sky’s Chris Froome and Saxo-Tinkoff’s Alberto Contador just eight and 14 seconds down on GC respectively, we can expect one of the big race favourites to don the yellow jersey.

 

[Smallville22]

Team Sky prepare for a fight in the Pyrenees

Team Sky locked up the mountain stages last year to help Bradley Wiggins win his maiden Tour de France title yet all the signs point to a different strategy this year with Chris Froome in charge.
This year's first mountain test comes on Saturday when the eighth stage takes the peloton from Castres to an uphill finish at Ax-3-Domaines with an out-of-category ascent to the Col de Pailheres in between.
Images of the men in black-and-blue setting a lung-burning pace in the climbs to prevent attacks in 2012 are still fresh, but things have changed since then.
Froome is a naturally aggressive rider and in Alberto Contador, Joaquim Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde he will face a bunch of rival climbers who were not on the race last year.
Team Sky have anticipated that.
"When we were at the Vuelta last year, we thought with Chris that we would use the race to learn a lot of things," sports director Nicolas Portal said on Friday.
"It was not the same kind of route but we knew we'd see the same riders - Rodriguez, (Colombian Nairo) Quintana, Valverde - and we thought we'd have to be punchy, which is Chris and Richie's style.
"You always need to adjust your strategy in the final climbs. It depends on the route but also on your rivals. So it will not be like last year."
First, double Tour champion Contador of Spain is back after a one-year hiatus because of a doping suspension.
He suffered a crash in the opening week but seems to be fully fit as the Pyrenees loom.
"You don't know how the others are right now because there has been no tough finish yet," said Contador.
"We will see tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day when there could be some changes in the overall standings."
With all the climbers likely to lose ground on Froome in the time trials, aggression on the climbs is the only option for his rivals.
Froome, however, showed in the second stage that he was unlikely to stay on the wheels of his team mates when he briefly attacked the field in awe-inspiring fashion.
"I'm quite sure everyone's going to be attacking but I'm quite confident in the team I have. I feel in really good form at the moment," said Froome, runner-up behind Wiggins last year.
"It's going to be a fight being the first mountain-top finish, it's something."
Team Sky principal Dave Brailsford added: "I would imagine that for the first mountain-top finish, everyone's going to see where everyone else is.
"It will be aggressive, some of the racing this year has been much more aggressive than other seasons, and we've got some plans this year and I'm sure we'll be as aggressive as most," the Welshman warned.
"I think the time difference are more likely to be up Ax-3 Domaines, whereas there will be a downhill finish to Bagneres de Bigorre (on Sunday)," said Australian Cadel Evans, possibly the least attacking rider of all the top contenders.
There is a small question mark hanging over Andy Schleck's form in this Tour after the Luxembourg rider struggled for a year with a hip problem.
"Tomorrow I will know if I can aim at the GC (general classification). If I can't follow the best riders, I'll concentrate on a stage win or two," the 2010 Tour winner said.
Garmin-Sharp will see who fares best between American Andrew Talansky, Canadian Ryder Hesjedal and Irishman Dan Martin as they enter the mountains with an "open strategy", according to team manager Jonathan Vaughters.

 

[Smallville22]

Froome in yellow after stunning stage eight win

Britain's Chris Froome led a Sky one-two ahead of team-mate Richie Porte to win the first mountain-top finish of the Tour and take the leader's yellow jersey.
A devastating ****** on the second of two mammoth climbs towards the end of the 195km stage eight into the Pyrenees saw Froome leave all his rivals for dead.
Porte followed Froome’s lead to make his own ****** moments later, four kilometres from the summit, to put air between himself and the other race favourites and underline Sky’s domination in the world’s biggest bike race.
Almost a year after Bradley Wiggins and Froome secured a famous one-two on the Champs-Elysees, Froome and Porte made huge strides to repeat the feat in the fierce heat of southern France.
His arms aloft and a huge smile beaming across his face, Froome crossed the line 51 seconds ahead of his team-mate, with their nearest rival, Spain’s Alejandro Valverde of Movistar, coming home one minute and eight seconds in arrears and just ahead of Belkin’s Dutch duo Bauke Mollema and Laurens Ten Dam.
Spaniard Alberto Contador of Saxo-Tinkoff – considered Froome’s main rival ahead of the Tour – suffered on the final climb to Ax 3 Domaines and finished 1:45 down on the new yellow jersey, having to be paced up the Cat.1 ascent by his Czech team-mate Roman Kreuziger.
Twenty-eight-year-old Froome now leads Tasmanian team-mate Porte by 51 seconds on GC, with Valverde in third place at 1:25. Contador is seventh, at 1:51.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Froome said after securing the second Tour stage win – and the first maillot jaune - of his career. “It really has been a very nervous week building up till now but the team has done fantastic job to come through first week in such a strong position.
“To win the stage and get Richie in second is a ***** come true – it was the first proper GC day and it couldn’t have gone better.
Contador was not the only GC rider to wilt in the 30-degree temperatures and the Team Sky furnace, with 2011 winner Cadel Evans cracking on the final climb to trickle home more than four minutes down.
Australian Evans fared better than his BMC team-mate Tejay van Garderen, who was distanced by the main pack on the penultimate climb of the day, the Port de Pailheres, to lose more than 12 minutes at the finish of a stage which completely pulverised the general classification.
The seeds of Sky’s victory were sown on the precipitous slopes of the Pailheres climb – at 2,001 metres, the highest peak of the 100th edition of the Tour – after some relentless pace-setting by Vasil Kiryienka and Peter Kennaugh thinned out the pack to just 25 riders.
Colombian climber Nairo Quintana jumped clear of the pack early in the climb in pursuit of lone leader Christophe Riblon of Ag2R-La Mondiale, one of four riders to break clear of the peloton shortly after the start of the stage at Castres and build up a large lead of nine minutes on the opening flat stretch of the race.
With the three other initial escapees - Dutch national champion Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil-DCM) and French duo Jean-Marc Marino (Sojasun) and Rudy Molard (Cofidis) – already caught, Quintana made his move shortly after similar solo attacks by Robert Gesink (Belkin) and Thomas Voeckler (Europcar).
Quintana caught Voeckler, Gesink and then Riblon, before soloing up the steepest section of the Tour’s first major test with Frenchman Pierre Rolland (Europcar) in pursuit.
The 23-year-old Colombian crossed the summit to take the Souvenir Henri Desgrange – awarded each year to the first rider to reach the Tour’s highest point – with a 40-second lead over Rolland, and a further 25 seconds over the Sky-led peloton.
Rolland, whose second place over the summit saw him reinstalled as the polka dot jersey for the king of the mountains competition, caught Quintana towards the end of the descent, with the excellent Kennaugh leading the chase for the main pack.
Quintana eased ahead of Rolland as soon as the final ascent arrived – but this was to prove immaterial once Froome and Porte combined to explode the main pack 7km from the finish.
One by one, the race favourites sank like stones cast into the sea. In quick succession, Evans, Rolland, RadioShack’s Andy Schleck, FDJ's Tibault Pinot, Garmin-Sharp’s Dan Martin and Katusha's Joquim Rodriguez were blown off the back.
Soon, it was a tale of three teams, with the Sky duo leading the race alongside Saxo-Tinkoff pair Contador and Kreuziger, and Movistar’s Quintana and Valverde.
Once Froome made his move, 5km from the finish, none of his rivals had an answer. Seemingly out of respect to team protocol and hierarchy, Porte took his foot off the gas, before unleashing his own blistering acceleration moments later.
Porte rode around 30 seconds down on his team leader, but Froome managed to increase the gap over the final kilometres to come home almost a minute to the good.
With Sunday’s stage nine from Saint-Girons to Bagneres-de-Bigorre featuring a succession of five peaks, Sky could well build up an insurmountable lead at the top of the standings before Monday's first rest day.
But 28-year-old Froome remains focused, stressing that there is still a long way to ride until Paris.
“Despite the result, we were put under pressure today,” he said, with reference to Quintana’s ******. “There are still two weeks to go and there’s definitely going to be a lot more attacks to withstand. Now we have the jersey we’re going to have to defend it.”

 

[Smallville22]

Froome '100 per cent' denies doping

Chris Froome faced the inevitable questions about doping at the Tour de France after demolishing his rivals to claim the overall lead and said his results would not come under suspicion in the future.
Briton Froome won Saturday's eighth stage, a 195-km mountain ride from Castres, to lead overall by 51 seconds from Team Sky colleague Richie Porte with Spain's Alejandro Valverde in third place 1:25 off the pace.
His dominant performance was reminiscent of the way the disgraced rider Lance Armstrong would hammer the field in the first mountain stage of the Tour before controlling the rest of the race with often sterling performances in the time trials.
Asked to confirm his performances had nothing to do with ****** substances, Froome said: "100 per cent. I think it's normal that people ask questions in cycling given the history of the sport.
"I know the sport has changed. There's absolutely no way I'd be able to get these results if the sport had not changed.
"Results now are definitely a lot more credible. The questions should be asked about people who were winning races maybe five, 10 years ago when we know doping was more prevalent."
While 2012 champion Bradley Wiggins last year lost his cool when grilled about doping and angrily hit out at accusations made on Twitter, Froome remained calm.
"For me it is a bit of a personal mission to show that the sport has changed," he said.
"I certainly know that the results I get are not going to be stripped 10, 20 years down the line. That's not going to happen."
Last year, American Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour titles, won from 1999-2005, for doping and then admitted in a television interview in January he had taken performance-enhancing *****.
Just as the translator finished saying Froome's words in French, the rider took the microphone again and continued: "Anyone who actually spends a bit of time with the team, with us... see that this is months and months of preparation - going to these training camps in altitude all together, the support off the bike from the sport staff, from my fiancée, this is so much preparation that it's not 'wow', it does add up."