Stage 2 - No Surprise; Big Surprise

Stage Two ended in a sprint finish.  No surprise.

Stage Two shook-up the GC standings.  Bis surprise.

1.  Sprint Finish:  Etixx-Quickstep did its job of reeling in the early breakaway and setting up Mark Cavendish for a sprint finish.  In fact, Etixx not only reeled in the escapees, they managed to drop many of the best sprinters from the peleton.  Looks perfect for Cavendish, doesn’t it?  But he seemed to start his sprint a bit too early.  This allowed André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) to rev-up their engines in his slip-stream and then to sling-shot around him at the end to take 1^st & 2^nd places.  When Cavendish let off the gas to coast in for 3^rd, Fabian Cancellara (Trek) fought all the way through to the line to nip 3^rd place by mere inches.  Having lost the stage win, Cavendish may not have cared much for the difference between 3^rd and 4^th, but Cancellara cared plenty.  Third place carries a 4-second time bonus, which catapulted Cancellara into the Yellow Jersey.  (See explanation below in discussion of GC standings.)

2.  Surprising Shake-up in GC (Yellow Jersey) Standings:  This was supposed to be a safe stage for the GC boys.  Long and flat, with a sprint finish.  Just stay with the peleton, let the sprinters fight for the stage win, and roll in with the same time as everyone else.  Ooops!  Something went wrong.  About 50 Km from the finish, strong cross winds created a gap in the peleton.  Etixx and the others leading the peleton got the word and tromped down hard on the accelerator.  Before anyone knew what had hit them, all but 26 riders were trailing the peleton by a minute or more.  Most of the GC hopefuls were caught off-guard by that split, and lost more than a minute to the lucky ones (or were they just cagey?) who managed to stay in the lead peleton. 

First, the big GC winners:  Chris Froome (Sky), Tejay Van Garderen (BMC), Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), and Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-Quickstep).  They are all within 18 seconds of each other overall.

All other serious GC contenders finished at least 1:28 behind the stage winner, and now trail the leading four GC riders by one minute or more.  One or two minutes can be redeemed in the mountains, but only with superb tactics and power; not by riding defensively.  This early gap also means these riders have no cushion for further mistakes in the remaining “safe” stages – like Monday’s or Saturday’s hill-top finishes, or Tuesday’s cobbles.  Today’s surprise big losers include: Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Bauke Mollema (Trek), Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo), Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), J-C Péreaud  (AG2R Le Mondial), and Andrew Talanski (Cannondale-Garmin).

Yesterday’s winner, Rohan Dennis (BMC) found himself stranded in the trailing group, and necessarily lost his Yellow Jersey, after wearing it for only one day.  Since Tony Martin (Etixx-Quickstep) and Fabian Cancellara (Trek) both managed to stay with the leading peleton, it looked like Martin would inherit the Yellow Jersey.  But by streaking in for 3^rd place and the 4-seconds time bonus, Cancellara erased his previous one-second deficit and leap-frogged Martin to claim the prize.  The time bonus is small, but in this case, it made a huge difference in Glory for Cancellara.  Peter Sagan made a similar coup in the recent Tour of California.  With a photo-finish for 3^rd place in the final stage, he collected a few seconds time bonus, just enough to win the overall Yellow Jersey.

I hope you like these photos from the huge mural of children's art in the Lyon bike tunnel.

 The tunnel goes from the Rhône River to the Sôane River (1.3 Km) underneath the Croix Rousse hill.  Imagine a tunnel from Salt Lake City to Bountiful, under Capitol Hill!  Wouldn't that be cool!

The tunnel has three lanes: One for buses (infrequent), one for pedestrians, and one for bikes, boards & blades.  These latter two are in constant use, but seldom crowded.  The walls are lined with art, some permanent (like this mural), and some projected and changing constantly.  A changing selection of music plays most of the time as well.  It is a centerpiece of Lyon's bike-friendly culture.