Friday, March 29, 2024

Schlecks Shaken

-

Schlecks Shaken – What a stage last night turned out to be!

Prior to the stage, the thoughts were that it was always going to be a breakaway, and there wouldn’t be much movement on the general classification. Half right!

The high likelihood of the break staying away meant that all of the boys not in with a chance on general were hoping to get a piece of the action, meaning it took hours before the break finally got clear.

On a generally uphill grade, the peloton were hovering at close to 50km per hour for over two hours. Ouch!

Schlecks Shaken
Chapeau Hesj.

Ryder Hesjedal was one of the key men looking for the break, and when the big fella is up for it, he’s a very hard man to prevent getting up the road. I am sure there would have been a bittersweet moment for him when he saw that Thor had bridged across too.

Sweet because he had a teammate to help out in the break, and bitter because if Thor was anywhere near him at the end, he’d be incapable of beating the big man.

Net result? Ryder hit the break hard up the Cat. 2 final climb, got a gap, and then Thor and compatriot Edvald Boassen Hagen dragged him back on the descent, meaning that Ryder had to work for Thor to set him up as Hesje is just not quick enough to match either Thor or Eddie the Boss.

Net result? Hushovd takes the stage, Hesje gets the kudos.

And more interestingly, Contador finally hit the leaders on the final climb, blowing things apart by showing the Schlecks that when you attack, you attack full gas, and keep attacking as hard as you can.

Similar to the last few years, the Schlecks just don’t look good enough or aggressive enough or “winny” enough to launch killer blows. Cadel and a few others covered Alberto’s move, and then on an admittedly hairy descent, Cadel attacked again, taking a few extra seconds out of Alberto, a lot of time out of Andy, and a good whack of time out of Frank.

Things just got a whole lot better for C Evans’ chances of winning the whole show, but Stages 18 & 19 still loom large.

Great showdowns ahead.

Previous article
Next article
Toby Watson
Toby Watsonhttps://www.veloveritas.co.uk
Ex-Garmin Transitions physiotherapist and soigneur Toby Watson brings you inside the squad, and shows you what it's like to be working with a top team on the biggest races in the world. Through his regular blog updates, Toby shares his sense of drama and fun that were essential parts of his job. Toby is Australian, and currently lives in Girona with his fiancee Amanda. If he has any time, he enjoys reading and running, and occasionally skiing too, when he can.

Related Articles

Frank Schleck, One For The History Books

If you were lucky enough to watch Stage 18 last night, you saw one of the best days of bike racing in years. Andy and Frank Schleck finally attacked and got it right, using their double-threat to maximum advantage, and as a result achieved another stage win, jumped in the GC to now be in a dominant position, and Andy has ridden a stage that will be talked about for years.

Early Shows Of Form

Early Shows Of Form... The “Mini Liege” Stage has been done and dusted, and the next big thing in bike racing (if he isn’t already there) has shown he will be competitive at the very highest level. Peter Sagan entered the stage as one of the favourites for the win, and was flawless in executing his victory. He is not as quick as Cav (and never will be) but can contest so many more finales as he is able to stay with the leaders on tougher stages.

Cav and the TDU Winners

The final stage of the 2011 TDU has been run and won, with the expected wins for Mark Cavendish in the sprint, and Cadel Evans in the overall coming to fruition. A victory on the Champs Elysees is one of the great achievements for a sprint cyclist, and Cav's ability to produce on the big stages with such consistency will already have him posted as a strong favourite to win the World Championships this September.

Question Marks

Question Marks. Today is a long, lumpy stage with a kicker in the final 2km. It's not hard enough for the GC boys to do more than snipe a few seconds on each other here or there, but maybe too hard for the pure sprinters to be a part of the finale.

At Random

Gent Six Day 2009 – Nights Five and Six

There was no partying at Iljo's dad's bar, De Karper - which is just along the road from the Gent track - for us tonight; we had a ferry to catch. I didn't have time to put together a Day Five piece, today. We were up at 09:00 for the 13:00 start; usually I spend the early afternoon writing, but today I couldn't, although I did manage to get the Day Five pictures away as the under 23 lads prepared for action.

The VV View: Monkeydom, Wiggins and Cavendish in Gent, and Laura Kenny

Sir Brad wasn't even off his bike when the phone rang; "Are you watching this? Isn't it heartwarming, nostalgic? I'm almost in tears ..." Yes, friend and sage of VeloVeritas, Vik had just watched the finale of the Gent Six Day on the box – so did I; for the first time in years I wasn't there – that ‘real life’ stuff got in the way. And last week's Cycling Weekly brought us ’12 things you didn’t know about Jason and Laura Kenny’ – to push their new book...

Star of the Future: Luke Rowe – Already a Winner

It's not every day that a GB rider wins a Netherlands amateur classic; but that's exactly what 19 year-old Welshman Luke Rowe did recently in De 'arjaan De Schipper Trofee'-to give it the full Dutch treatment - a race won by a certain Fabian Cancellara, a few years ago.

Le Tour de France 2009 – Stage 19: Bourgoin-Jallieu > Aubenas, 178km

We left Bourgoin-Jallieu this morning, but first a quick run through some of the teams' performances; Cervélo: their Tour has been a good one, Haussler and Hushovd have won stages and Thor has made himself a whole load of new fans by the way he has ridden in pursuit of green.