Today ushered in a return to sprint racing, with the usual “escape and capture” style, as the teams hit the pan flat roads from Salies-de-Béarn to Bordeaux, through wine country. Stage 18 composed of 198 km of fast riding in mild, warm conditions. So it was a stage most suited to sprinters, and the competition for the Green Jersey was to hot up, with Hushovd starting the day with it on his shoulders, closely followed in the Points Classification by Petacchi, and with Cavendish gaining with each sprint, having already won three flat stages in this year’s Tour. There were also two intermediate sprints in the leg, for those able to get into a breakaway.
As the race got under way, the pace was high, as riders scoped each other out for weaknesses accrued during the four day slog through the Pyrenees. At the 11 km there was a four man attack off the front of the peloton, the first proper attack of the day. The four escapees were Matti Breschel (SAX), Daniel Oss (LIQ), Jerome Pineau (QST) and Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ). As their lead increased, riders from HTC-Columbia, Garmin and Lampre took up positions at the front of the chasing group, swapping positions to lift the pace and maintain the gap at no more that three and a half minutes. During the middle part of the race, and the lead up to the finale, Garmin had dropped back into the middle of the pack, leaving HTC and Lampre doing turns of pace, before Team Milram came to the fore in the last 45 km, to put in a pace setting contribution of their own.
At one point during the middle section of the race, second place man in the General Classification Andy Schleck appeared to be in trouble, dropping to the back of the peloton and riding alongside the race doctor for a while, but was soon back into the main bunch, side by side with Contador. These two needed to be near the front to ensure no splits in the peloton due to mishaps, which would have an impact on their critically close overall times.
Milram, HTC and Lampre raised the pace significantly in the last 45 km, stretching out the field, many of whom were just wanting to get home today, still with tired legs from what has been a very hot Tour de France so far. The gap to the breakaway men gradually diminished, and by 15 km out, was only 30 seconds. At this point, Pineau decided to stamp his authority on the front group with an attack, which was countered very rapidly by the other three men. Oss decided to fly away immediately the four man group was reestablished, but this time, the others did not have either the legs or the will to chase. Soon afterwards they were caught by the peloton, now in full chase mode.
Oss bravely continued, trying to get something of a shock result today, and for 10 km he held off the pursuing pack. Or as it turned out, they were holding Oss exactly where they wanted him, ready to pounce at will. And their will was done with 4 km to go, just as they all veered left onto the final run into Bordeaux, with a strong headwind against them. Oss was finished by the headwinds and the other teams tried to organise their lead outs.
(Photo of Mark Cavendish, by Elyobelyob. Reproduced under Creative Commons licence.)
The best set team for most of the run into town was Sky, with a perfect train hoping to catapult Boasson Hagen to a stage victory. Unfortunately for them, the whole peloton crushed to the right side of the road and left Sky and in particular Boasson Hagen trapped. The organisation disappeared and chaos took over as Cavendish sought riders to lead him to victory, with his team mates now left behind. The Green Jersey Hushovd fought his way to fourth position, and Cavendish locked onto his back wheel, biding his time for a perfect attack. However, Petacchi moved first, kicking up the pace and overtaking Cav on the left. Cav responded immediately, leaving Hushovd and most of the other riders in his wake. After a very brief moment slipstreaming Petacchi, Cavendish flicked the turbo button and was gone, leaving Petacchi trailing.
So it turned into yet another stage victory for Mark Cavendish, his fourth of this year’s Tour de France, and today’s was a very intelligently worked one, flitting from one team to another to sit in their slipstreams before making an explosive move right at the death.
Here is the rest of the placings from Stage 18, with the General Classification Standings, which were unchanged today:
1. Contador (AST)
2. Schleck (SAX)
3. S.Sanchez (EUS)
4. Menchov (RAB)
5. Van Den Broeck (OLO)
6. Gesink (RAB)
7. Rodriguez Oliver (KAT)
8. Hesjedal (GRM)
9. Kreuziger (LIQ)
10. Horner (RSH)
1. Cavendish
2. Dean
3. Petacchi
4. McEwen
5. Freire
6. Hagen
7. Roelandts
8. Rojas
9. Bole
10. Perez Moreno
Stage 18 was all about the Green Jersey, and Cavendish proved he is by far the best sprinter in the Tour this year, but after a bad start in the early stages, he still lies in third place. His points from today however, bring him to within touching distance of the two front runners, Petacchi and Hushovd. Petacchi had enough riders between himself and Hushovd today to once again wrangle the Green Jersey off the Norwegian’s shoulders. So Petacchi rides in green tomorrow. It makes for a great race to Paris on Sunday’s final stage of 2010.
Meanwhile, tomorrow we see Stage 19, the individual time trials, and it is back to the minutes and seconds rather than points, for the General Classification and the Yellow Jersey. The expectation is that Contador will ace the stage, hoping for a first stage win to justify winning the overal Maillot Jaune. Schleck has been very calm about the whole thing though, and is either playing mind games, or he thinks he has improved enough to mount a serious challenge in the time trial and cause a massive shock. There is also an opportunity for Sky rider Bradley Wiggins to shine tomorrow, as he is an excellent exponent of these types of stages. All in all, the overall Tour de France could well be settled by the time the riders get into Pauillac tomorrow evening.
