Race report: stage two
Published by Halverde on 7/03/2006 at 18:12.
It has been suggested that the retirement of Lance Armstrong would lead to a more disorganised, chaotic Tour de France this year. So far, however, it has been business as usual for the few overall contenders who haven't been thrown out for drinking cow blood.
No, the rider whose absence has been the largest contributor to the bedlam in the Tour thus far is one Alessandro Petacchi. With his lead out train being inherited by Erik Zabel and seemingly losing all interest in the race in the process, the final kilometers have been taxing viewing. Yesterday, Boonen found himself on the front of the peleton with a kilometer to go, and Jimmy Casper defied all logic to win the sprint.
Today was marginally less scrappy, but still needed one team to take over from Milram's half-hearted efforts. After the peleton finally caught the escaped Fabian Wegmann within the last 200 metres, and also managed to take out two thirds of the group in a crash, a bunch sprint began across the road. Hushovd somehow bumped into McEwen, and contested the final 25 metres using just one leg after pulling the other out of his pedal.
Thankfully, we were spared a sprinter fistfight due to the fact that McEwen was pleased with his stage win and Hushovd had been able to reclaim his yellow jersey in the two intermediate sprints. Thor can count himself lucky -- McEwen looked quite frightening when he was threatening a small Belgian child at last year's event.
Valverde watch:
Nineteenth on the stage without even contesting the sprint. Put minutes into the like of Dekker and Ekimov and he wasn't even trying. At this rate, he's going to win the Tour by at least 17 minutes.
Stage top five:
1 Robbie McEwen
2 Tom Boonen
3 Thor Hushovd
4 Oscar Freire
5 Daniele Bennati
The overall top ten and other competitions aren't exactly riveting reading, so we're not bothering to reproduce them. If Valverde is in yellow tomorrow and therefore the competitions start meaning something, then we'll resume coverage.
No, the rider whose absence has been the largest contributor to the bedlam in the Tour thus far is one Alessandro Petacchi. With his lead out train being inherited by Erik Zabel and seemingly losing all interest in the race in the process, the final kilometers have been taxing viewing. Yesterday, Boonen found himself on the front of the peleton with a kilometer to go, and Jimmy Casper defied all logic to win the sprint.
Today was marginally less scrappy, but still needed one team to take over from Milram's half-hearted efforts. After the peleton finally caught the escaped Fabian Wegmann within the last 200 metres, and also managed to take out two thirds of the group in a crash, a bunch sprint began across the road. Hushovd somehow bumped into McEwen, and contested the final 25 metres using just one leg after pulling the other out of his pedal.
Thankfully, we were spared a sprinter fistfight due to the fact that McEwen was pleased with his stage win and Hushovd had been able to reclaim his yellow jersey in the two intermediate sprints. Thor can count himself lucky -- McEwen looked quite frightening when he was threatening a small Belgian child at last year's event.
Valverde watch:
Nineteenth on the stage without even contesting the sprint. Put minutes into the like of Dekker and Ekimov and he wasn't even trying. At this rate, he's going to win the Tour by at least 17 minutes.
Stage top five:
1 Robbie McEwen
2 Tom Boonen
3 Thor Hushovd
4 Oscar Freire
5 Daniele Bennati
The overall top ten and other competitions aren't exactly riveting reading, so we're not bothering to reproduce them. If Valverde is in yellow tomorrow and therefore the competitions start meaning something, then we'll resume coverage.
