Hushovd
wins, Sastre OK after spill
Barcelona,
09-Jul-2009:
Less than one week into its debut Tour de
France,
Cervélo TestTeam scored a sprint victory Wednesday
with Thor Hushovd in the 181.5km sixth stage to Barcelona.
Hushovd
battled through rain and slick roads that saw team captain
Carlos Sastre fall without major consequences early
in the stage before attacking up a climbing finish to Barcelona’s
Olympic Stadium to claim Cervélo’s first-ever
Tour stage win.
Hushovd
positioned himself perfectly in the uphill sprint, relegating
three-time world champion Oscar Freire to second place
with Spanish rider José Joaquín Rojas
trailing across third. Overnight leader Fabian Cancellara
retained the yellow jersey.
“Of
course, winning makes me very happy. It’s always important
to win a stage at the Tour de France,” Hushovd
said. “I knew that today
would be a good opportunity for me. I was able to get on the
wheel of Freire and that was the perfect place to be.
I believe it’s a great success for our team. We wanted
to win a stage in the first week and now that we’ve done
it, I will work to help Carlos in the mountains.”
The
31-year-old’s seventh career Tour victory comes with
additional good news. With the victory, he pulls within one
point of Mark Cavendish in the fight for the
prestigious green points jersey.
“We
played our cards late in the sprint and Thor was just incredible
in
the finish,” said Cervélo
team manager Thomas Campana. “We
talked from the beginning that this would be a good opportunity.
Everyone knows that when the finish is uphill, it’s very
hard to come around Thor.”
The
important victory helped take the sting out of a painful day
for some of the Cervélo team riders as scores of crashes
and accidents marred the rainy and slick stage along Spain’s
rugged Costa Brava.
Sastre
slipped in a pileup early in the race, but was not seriously
injured. The 2008 Tour champ finished safely in the main pack
and didn’t lose any time relative to his main GC rivals.
Spanish climber José Angel Marchante and Heinrich
Haussler also
crashed, with Haussler hitting the deck twice in the
closing kilometers.
“I
went down on a slick spot coming out of a round-about. It
was just so wet there, my front wheel just slid out,”
said Haussler, who was sporting cuts and scrapes.
“I took a lot of risks to catch back to the front group
to try to help Thor in the sprint, and then I crashed
again when a huge crash took out 30 riders. I don’t care,
though, I’m just glad Thor won.”
The
victory will boost morale as Cervélo changes
gears and leaves behind the flats and turns Friday into the
first of three stages in the Pyrénées.
“This
victory was very important for our team. We’re a first-year
team and we wanted to show people what we could do,”
Hushovd said. “The
team gave me so much support in the sprints and now I only
want to give back to help Carlos now in the mountains.
I know I cannot take the last pulls on the climbs, but I will
do what I can.”
The
96th Tour continues Friday with the 224km seventh stage
from Barcelona to Arcalis in the principality
of Andorra. The stage features the first major climbs
of the race and will see a major reshuffling of the overall
standings.
The
route opens with two relatively minor climbs in the first
half before the Cat. 1 Col de Serra-Seca at 127km ahead
of the long approach to the beyond-category climb to the Arcalis
summit high in the Pyrénées.
Ballan
settimo nonostante la pioggia e le ferite
Prova
di tenacia da parte del Campione del Mondo Alessandro
Ballan nella 6^tappa del Tour de France (Girona-Barcellona).
La frazione spagnola della Grande Boucle è stata
innaffiata da abbondanti piogge che certamente non hanno agevolato
Ballan, alle prese con profonde escoriazioni ereditate
nella caduta di martedì: il Campione del Mondo si è
comunque preso la responsabilità di correre da capitano
della squadra per provare a piazzare una zampata sulla salita
finale che portava al traguardo del Montjuic.
Ben supportato dai compagni di squadra, Ballan è
arrivato a cogliere il 7° posto nello sprint finale al
quale hanno preso parte 43 atleti (anche Bruseghin
presente), con vittoria per Hushovd su Freire.
L’analisi della tappa dalle parole dello stesso Ballan:
“L’arrivo era adatto alle
mie caratteristiche e volevo provare a fare risultato. La
pioggia ha reso molto insidiosa la corsa: non me la sono sentita
di rischiare troppo prima dell’inizio della salita, dato
che sentivo la bici slittare sull’asfalto viscido e avendo
visto che già numerosi corridori erano caduti, e così
ho dovuto poi rimontare trovandomi nel finale con meno brillantezza
rispetto a uomini veloci come Hushovd e Freire. Nonostante
le ammaccature, la condizione cresce e mi supporterà
nei prossimi tentativi di centrare una vittoria”.
Nelle
varie cadute che hanno caratterizzato anche la tappa odierna
sono rimasti coinvolti anche Spilak (due volte) e Sapa,
senza però riportare alcuna conseguenza (Spilak ha
però raggiunto il traguardo con 1’55” di
ritardo).
Da sottolineare la grinta di Angelo Furlan, al traguardo
nonostante gli ampi bendaggi applicati dal medico di squadra
per proteggere le numerose ferite riportate nella scivolata
occorsa durante la cronosquadre: anche domani sarà
dura per lo sprinter veneto, ma il suo coraggio inesauribile
lo supporterà pure questa volta.
Tutto immutato in classifica generale, con Cancellara
in maglia gialla e Ballan migliore per la Lampre-NGC.
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Greetings
from Barcelona out on the west side of town.
It was a soggy day here in this amazing city along the
Spanish coast with steady rain falling almost all day
until just before the peloton made its way into town.
The
day was highlighted by an escape by four riders who
then saw David Millar break away with about 25kms
left in the stage. The British Time Trial specialist
gave it his all, but as he entered between two large
columns heralding just 2000m to the line the main pack
had him in sight. 500m later he was on the uphill finale
and all but caught, and then as he went under the 1000m
to go red kite he was swamped by what was left of the
sprinters and all the GC favorites.
Thor
Hushovd, aka “The God of Thunder”,
managed to power his way to a strong stage victory in
the final flat 400m while Fabian Cancellara,
a much improved climber this season, finished along
with Lance Armstrong in the same time as Hushovd
and managed to keep his yellow jersey for one more day.
Millar out in front, but not for much longer...
With
tomorrow’s uphill mountaintop finish it will finally
be time for the true contenders to show their might.
Everyone is watching to see what Astana’s Alberto
Contador will do, and his teammate Lance had this to
say. “Tomorrow is an important
day, definitely a big appointment in the Tour. Will
we attack? If I have to try and guess, I think the others
will attack.” He went on to point out
that the team, with riders in the 2-5 spots on General
Classification, is not really in a position to need
to go on the assault.
Lance
expects the team to take a wait-and-see approach and
react to the moves of others, such as defending champion
Carlos Sastre, Cadel Evans, and the two Schleck
brothers. “I know that
Alberto is ready to go, and if he goes and nobody
can hang with him, then I’ll stay with the other
leaders. That’s the way it will be. But I’ll
show up tomorrow, try to do my best, and to get to the
top as quick as I can. We’ll see…”
After
a wet day like today, the mechanics have a full evening
ahead. Craig Geater gets Lance's bike ready to
race for tomorrow.
A
Soggy Stage: Like I said, it was not a day for shopping
and sightseeing, precisely the reason Randy and I left
Perpignan early so to be able to bring you more the
sights and sounds of this vibrant community. And so,
after shooting some video in and out of the rain, we
found ourselves having lunch at local Tapas bar. We
met a trio of American college students on our way out
the door who recognized the LIVESTRONG gear we
were wearing.
They
are all here on a student exchange program, came down
literally on a whim hopefully to see Lance. We explained
about the publicity caravan soon to come, what was happening
in the race and where it was all headed, and I think
we have three new fans of the sport. As we headed down
to the final turn we met even more USA college kids
who also knew nothing of the sport itself, but by the
time Millar came churning down the road towards us they
were cheering their lungs out as if they were at the
Superbowl!
Just
a portion of this huge city, looking to the northwest
I
think that’s the beauty of this sport, it’s
simplicity in that practically everyone can ride a bicycle
combined with complexity of team tactics and high-tech
athletes / machinery. It doesn’t take a lot to
make the connection, and once you have you’ve created
another fan for life.
Tomorrow’s
a certified Big Day on the Tour, we’ll
talk to you soon from the final climb! Ciao for now
– Lance…
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David
Millar ultimo protagonista della
fuga di giornata e ripreso all'ultimo chilometro della
6a tappa ©Photo
Roberto Bettini
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Onore
sul podio al protagonista della tappa fino ai meno mille
metri; si tratta dell'inglese David Millar ©Photo
Roberto Bettini
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Nelle
fasi finali della corsa, complicde il maltempo e l'asfalto
viscido, sono numerose le cadute e in una di queste
rimane coinvolto proprio il campione belga Tom Boonen;
era uno dei favoriti della tappa odierna. ©Photo
Roberto Bettini
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...e
"quatto quatto" Lance Armstrong
dopo tre annni di assenza dalle grandi corse ed
un'attenta preparazione a suon di pedalate al Giro
d'Italia e prima di un in inverno a far gare negli
sterrati texani con la mountain bike, si avvicina
clamorosamente ad indossare la maglia gialla. Atteso
evento che forse tarderà poco in quanto domani
il Tour affronterà le prime inpegnative rampe
in salita ©Photo
Roberto Bettini
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