Today’s 227.5km stage was the longest in this years Tour de France so it’s great to get the day out of the way. The whole day was spent racing in the same direction and into a slight headwind so it made for a long day out on the road.
Once again the break was established very quickly. As we are just finishing the first week of the Tour, it’s obvious that there are a number of guys in the peloton who are already tired, as well as others who are saving themselves for the alpine stages that are coming up in the next couple of days.
Once the break went away, Columbia set a tempo on the front of the bunch to make sure they didn’t gain too much of an advantage. Columbia did a lot of work on the front today using their whole team which payed off with Cavendish winning the stage. It’s a little disappointing that they are not saving any guys to help out Michael Rogers in the mountains. I think Mick will be left pretty much by himself.
Once again Gee and Flecha helped Edvald out in the sprint with Eddy taking another top 10 finish. The rest of the team had an easy day, as we wanted to save our energy for the next three stages in the Alps. It’s going to be interesting to get into the hills tomorrow and see exactly how all the GC riders are going.
I’m still feeling average following the three crashes and my body is spending all it’s energy trying to heal and recover instead of winning bike races. Hopefully I can start to recover over the next couple of days so I can be more competitive in the race
Simon.
