Stages 7 & 8 – A Test Run For the Mountain Stages

These two stages were not the famous Alps or Pyrenees, but they provided useful clues for the remaining 6 mountain stages.  Stage 7 had a long and very steep uphill finish, while Stage 8 had multiple high and steep summits, with a long downhill finish.  Team Sky and Bradley Wiggins proved themselves capable of matching challenges in either kind of terrain. 

In Stage 7, Team Sky, as a group, kept Wiggins at the front of the dwindling lead peleton, as it overtook David Zabriskie, the last survivor of the breakaway.  Cadel Evans tried to attack for the stage win, and possibly a few seconds’ gap, but Christopher Froome (Sky) pounced on Evans for the win by 2 seconds, while Wiggins caught him for third place with no lost time.  Vincenzo Nibali (Liq) separated himself from all of the other GC contenders by clinging to the leaders for 4^th place with a loss of only 5 seconds to Wiggins.

Stage 8, with its downhill finish, was a little more crowded, but, again, Sky and Wiggins matched Evans, with Nibali riding defensively to match them in the same time.  Tour youngster Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) won the stage victory glory, but he does not figure in the Tour-long GC contest.

Tomorrow’s time trial in Besancon is 7 times as long as the Prologue time trial.  Plenty of distance for a performance differential from the Prologue.  Of the three current GC leaders, Wiggins was fastest in the Prologue, with Evans and Nibali slower by only 2.5%.  If their relative scores in Besancon follow this same pattern, Wiggins could increase his lead by about one minute.  But a breakout performance by either Evans or Nibali could land one them in the yellow jersey to start the second week of the TDF.  No lack of motivation for any of these three. 

All of the other GC contenders have lost time in these two mountain stages, and none of them has showed the promise of out-performing the top three in the time trial.  Their chief hope to eventually win the Tour is to stay as close as possible, and for ALL THREE of the leaders to stumble.  In other words, to back into it on the misfortunes of the favorites.  Still, that’s why they race clear to the end.

These two mountain stages had no real bearing on the sprinters’ green jersey prize.  Sprint points were awarded at the middle and the end of each stage, but, because of the mountains, only sprint contenders Sagan, Goss & Greipel won just a few of those points, and in proportion to their current standings.

After being held all of the first week by Michael Morkov (SaxoBank), the polka-dot King of the Mountains jersey changed hands in each of these two mountain stages.  Christopher Froome (Sky) captured it on Saturday, and then relinquished it to Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) on Sunday.  It is anybody’s guess who will end up with it, but GC leaders Wiggins, Evans and Nibali are lurking near the top of this classification.

The white jersey for best young rider, finally shifted from Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) to Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) on Saturday.  It will likely be won in Paris by one of those two or by Tony Gallopin (RadioShack). 

Team Sky has been wearing the team classification yellow helmets since the beginning of the Tour.  However, by placing three riders in the top 10 of Stage 8, Team RadioShack will wear that honorary headgear for tomorrow’s time trial.

I like these two sundials on this building in Nyon, Switzerland.  The time trials in the Tour de France are sometimes called "race against the clock."  Obviously, they use a more high-tech clock that this, but these sundials do symbolize the the race against time.