Tour Watch
Stage 3 - Monday, July 6 2009: Marseille - La Grande-Motte 196.5 km | Results
Members Know Best: British Cycling's members know the sport better than anyone and we're inviting you to share your thoughts on this Tour de France - use the comments section at the bottom of this page, or email them to editor@britishcycling.org.uk
The Winds of Change
Mark Cavendish in action in last week's National Road Race Championships (Image: Andy Whitehouse)
The Tour has an endless capacity for surprise. Twenty-one teams of nine riders all with their own strategies and targets, many of them mutually exclusive, see to that. As do the endless permutations of terrain and weather. It's easy to be lulled into a sense that stage results and stage scenarios are relatively predictable. In truth, almost anything can happen and patterns we like to see in the way the stages unfold are often illusory.
The third stage both proved and disproved this. Whilst a victory for Mark Cavendish on a flat stage early in the Tour was highly predictable, that manner in which the stage unfolded was not. Cross-winds disrupted the normal dynamic of the main peloton with fascinating results.
When cross-winds strike, the main bunch suddenly ceases to be the normally comfortable place in which riders can cruise along, aided by the slipstreams of those ahead of them. Hiding behind the rider in front, as you do in still air or in head winds, no longer works and you end up riding at angle off to one side, downwind of the rider ahead. Diagonal lines of riders - known as echelons - form snake out across the tarmac. Unlike the normal bunch, which can be as long as it wants to be, echelons are ultimately limited in size by the width of the road.
So, as one echelon fills the road, another forms behind it and then another. In effect, you get a number of unconnected diagonal lines of riders. That lack of connection means that the lines can move at different speeds and the field begins to break apart.
Stage three saw exactly this scenario: cross-winds buffeted the riders with just over 31km to go to the finish. Mark Cavendish's team, Columbia-HTC, were at the head of the field chasing hard to catch an earlier break. Suddenly their leading echelon found itself moving clear of the next one. Sensing that it was a great opportunity to gain some time, the Columbia-HTC riders simply upped the effort, the gap grew and inside a minute they were pulling well clear at the head of a detached group of about 25 riders.
From then on in to the finish, apart from sweeping up that earlier break, it was a single-minded race to the finish. The main field briefly pulled them back, but a lack of organization doomed the chase to failure and the gap grew again to over 40 seconds by the time they reached the finish.
Winners and Losers
On the face of it, the biggest winner was Mark Cavendish who had little trouble holding off Norway's top sprinter Thor Hushovd to claim his second win of the Tour. However, there were other winners. Lance Armstrong showed that he had lost none of his race awareness and made sure he was in the right place in the field when the cross-winds struck and was in the group that moved clear. Contrast that with his team-mate and supposed team-leader, Alberto Contador who, along with the majority of the pre-race favourites, missed the boat.
Also looking good was race leader Fabian Cancellara, who held on to his yellow jersey and always defends the jersey well. Amongst the other losers was Bradley Wiggins, who also missed the split and now has no chance of wearing the yellow jersey after stage four's Team Time Trial. This had looked a distinct possibility earlier in the week, but relied on his team riding a good time trial and, as it turned out, not losing time in second and third stages.
Three stages in and the 2009 Tour is already throwing up some surprises.
Members Know Best:
We asked British Cycling members to email in with their comments on the race. We also asked who they thought would win the event:
Rob from Nottingham said "It's got to be Lance. He's never turned up to make up the number in his career and he won't this time. He'll find a way to pressure Contador and Bruyneel (the Astana manager, Johan) will back him."
Steve from London wrote "It's Sastre again for me. His team were awesome last year in the mountains and that's always where the race is decided. They always had a spare rider to attack or mark a move. Sastre's been under-estimated in the past and even now, as defending champion, he's not getting the credit and respect he deserves."
Andy from London has an interesting spin on Mark Cavendish's success: "Mark's the best British sportsman at the moment. No one else - not Hoy, not Pendleton, not Rooney, not even Lewis Hamilton of Jenson Button are as on top of their game like he is at the moment. He's simply the best at what he does and no-one in the world can touch him. What other British sports star can you say that about?"
Your Turn: If you want to share your thoughts on this Tour de France - use the comments section at the bottom of this page, or email them to editor@britishcycling.org.uk
