Winners
Mark Cavendish
As the gap to the break began to tumble on the Col de la Gineste, a Cavendish stage win always looked like the most likely outcome. Having used men early to bring back the break, Omega Pharma-Quickstep were left with fewer men than they would have liked for the finale. However excellent work by white jersey Michal Kwiatkowski and Matteo Trentin left Gert Steegmans in an excellent position as the final lead out man. The Belgian did an amazing job to almost put daylight between Cavendish and the other sprinters. From there the result was never in doubt.
Edvald Boasson Hagen
The Norwegian hasn’t had the best start to the Tour de France but managed to get a better result today, largely due to excellent positioning. 24th in the reduced bunch sprint on stage 1, 5th in stage 2, and 11th in a third stage that should have suited him perfectly, I was beginning to question whether Boasson Hagen had arrived at the Tour in top form. However today the Sky man began to prove me wrong with a good second place. Boasson Hagen managed to win the battle with Andre Greipel for Cavendish’s wheel, and then stayed in the Manxman’s slipstream to pip Sagan to second place.
Alexey Lutsenko
While Danny Van Poppel’s selection for the Tour was based on excellent placings throughout the year, the young Kazakh’s place was assured more through obvious talent than results. Lutsenko is a man that I have been keeping an eye on since performing well at the Tour de l’Avenir and winning the U23 World Championships last year. The 20 year old looked strong all day in the break, and was the final man to be captured by the peloton. Lutsenko was unfortunate not to be award the combativity award for the day, which the jury had perplexingly already awarded to De Gendt.
Losers
Jurgen Van Den Broeck
The most high-profile victim of the high speed crash in the finishing straight caused by a FDJ rider going straight into the back of Matteo Trentin, who was freewheeling after leading out Cavendish. Van Den Broeck was one of the first to fall, going down hard before having other riders pile into the back of him. However the Belgian has only picked up cuts and bruises, a sharp contrast to the fall that put him out of the 2011 Tour with a broken shoulder. Of course this isn’t disastrous, but Van Den Broeck would prefer to be riding without the discomfort that this crash may cause.
Ryder Hesjedal
The Canadian hasn’t had a stroke of luck since capturing the Giro last year, and that doesn’t seem to have changed at this year’s Tour. Hesjedal was involved in a crash on stage 1, and has seems to have been struggling since then. An x-ray today revealed a small rib fracture, but team manager Jonathan Vaughters played down the injury, saying it would cause pain but shouldn’t hinder performance. However even if Hesjedal is hindered by the injury, Garmin-Sharp have a more than adequate replacement leader in Dan Martin.
Marcel Kittel
Caught out by the silly crash on the Col de la Gineste, it was a shame that Kittel wasn’t present in the finale meaning that we’re still waiting for a sprint with all of the big names present. The German also didn’t contest the intermediate sprint, meaning that he now finds himself in down in sixth place in the green jersey standing. Thankfully he seemed unhurt from the crash and should hopefully be present to contest the expected bunch sprint tomorrow.
Matt Goss
Orica-Greenedge spent much of the day on the front to bring back the break and protect Gerrans’ lead, but with the gap under two minutes, meaning that the yellow jersey was no longer under threat, Svein Tuft was still putting in big turns on the front. The team had obviously switched their focus to setting up Matt Goss for the stage win, but the Australian was dropped even before the crash that brought down Kittel. A disappointing performance from Goss, and if he’s getting dropped on the climbs around Marseille then he won’t be looking forward to the Pyrenees in a few days time.
Tomorrow’s Stage
Pan-flat with no climbs of note, on paper this looks like a typical ‘first week of the Tour’ sprint stage. A fairly simply run-in as the race weaves its way through Montpellier towards a finish on dual carriageway. However, most of the stage traverses the Rhone delta from east to west. A stiff wind (about 15 mph) blowing from the north could well mean crosswinds come into play.
Scenario
Expect an early break like today, although with only the one climb and almost no chance of the break succeeding I wouldn’t expect too much fighting at the start. If the wind does blow, then positioning will be key. If a team such as Sky decide to put the hammer down then all the GC contenders will need to have their wits about them or risk losing time hand-over-fist.
Stage Win: Mark Cavendish
Yellow Jersey: Simon Gerrans
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