Chavanel Solos to Victory on Stage 7 (Tour de France update)

Word Press ^ | July 10, 2010 | Todd Kinsey

[Todd Kinsey]

Saturday’s Stage 7 proved to be anticlimactic as Lance Armstrong, Alberto Contador, and the other General Classification contenders played their cards close to their vest’s in anticipation of the drama that is sure to unfold on the slopes of Morzine tomorrow. The select group of favorites finished 1:47 down on Sylvain Chavanel who attacked out of the group and soloed to victory taking his second stage of this year’s Tour.

Chavanel moves back into yellow as race leader Fabian Cancellara finished more than 14 minutes in arrears. The overall GC began to sort itself out as Cadel Evans moves into second, and a suprising Ryder Hesjedal riding for Garmin Transition finds himself in third.

[omega4179]

How did Cancellara do so poorly? I’ll watch the nighttime repeat.

[Todd Kinsey]

He tried hanging on, yo-yoing back and forth but when the pace picked up on the penultimate climb he, Big George and a lot of other big names just sat up and rode in together. The GC group was only 35 people and surely will be considerably smaller tomorrow.

[Jack Hydrazine]

How does one win the TdF?

[DPMD]

By having the overall shortest cumulative time for all of the combined stages. It isn’t even necessary to win any single stage; just being consistent often works. One guy may win today, then finish way back tomorrow, in which case his poor time cancels out his good, winning time. Inconsistency is the enemy of the Tour competitor.

I’m not at all an expert in this, but one’s team helps a lot in protecting the star by keeping him constantly in a draft position among them until the best time for breaking out comes. Sometimes they break out and go for a win or good placing in the stage, sometimes they just play it safe. Someone else with experience in racing can offer more detailed explanations of how one wins the Tour, but that’s my observation.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Thanks! That helps my understanding of the race quite a bit.

[Poser]

“How does one win the TdF?”

Steroids, human growth hormone, blood doping, luck, skill endurance, teammates.

[Todd Kinsey]

The lowest cumulative over 3 weeks of racing, covering over 2260 miles and 1,000s of feet of climbing over some of the highest mountains in the world. Most consider it the toughest endurance race on the planet.