Not everyone makes it to Paris
On July 3, Rotterdam hosted 197 cyclists in the prologue of the 97th edition of the Tour de France. On Sunday, 170 of those cyclists crossed the finish line on the Champs Elysees in Paris. Of the 27 casualties in the race, Simon Spilak and Francesco Reda were the most recent, with only four days left in the race. The abandonment must have been personally devastating, having to leave the most important race in the world within a stone’s throw of completion.
Reda left team Quick Step one man short, leaving the dynamic duo of Jerome Pineau and Sylvain Chavanel with one less support rider for a last chance to shine. Pineau held the best climber classification for most of the race, ultimately losing it to Anthony Charteau, and the aggressive Sylvain Chavanel has taken the overall combativity award for best ‘Fighting Spirit’ of the race. Chavanel won stage 2, which earned him not only the yellow jersey, but also the green jersey and the combativity award for the day. He then came back strong with a win in stage 7, again taking the yellow jersey for a day. He finished the Tour in 31st place, 22nd in both the sprinter and climber classifications.
Simon Spilak, for Lampre-Farnese Vini, also left his team leader feeling his absence. Spilak performed admirably in the Tour of Romandie this year, but was unable to keep his form through the Tour de France and he had to quit. His team leader, Alessandro Petacchi, was subsequently unable to take a third stage win this year, coming as close as 3rd and 2nd in the 18th and 20th flat stages, respectively. Having won the 1st and 4th stages, Petacchi has spent only one day outside of the top two ranking in the green jersey classification, trading back and forth between Thor Hushovd for most of the race. As it turns out, he didn’t need that third stage win. The Italian has gone home with the green jersey, 11 points ahead of runner-up Mark Cavendish and 21 ahead of Hushovd.
The two recent losses were following in the footsteps of 25 others, including a few pre-Tour favourites, some of them forced out due to injury, others choosing to leave due to exhaustion, and one infamously kicked out by the race organizers.
Previously, Iban Mayoz was involved in a three-man crash in the 15th stage but finished 30:37 behind the stage winner, Thomas Voeckler, then cited injury as preventing him from starting the 16th stage. Mauro Santambrogio came before him, dropping out of the same stage where Mayoz suffered his injury. Santambrogio, with BMC-Racing, had been a support rider to Cadel Evans, but succumbed to an illness which had him dropping out an hour and a half into stage 15.
BMC-Racing had already lost Mathias Frank, who broke his thumb and injured his thigh in stage 1. Evans, the team leader, finished the Tour and held the yellow jersey for one day after a win in stage 8, but rode the second half of the race with a fractured elbow, preventing his expected bid for the podium.
Garmin-Transitions also hosted injured riders, three of them finishing and three abandoning. Christian Vande Velde, the original team leader, broke two ribs in stage 2, Robbie Hunter fractured his elbow in stage 10, and Tyler Farrar fractured his wrist, dropping out in stage 12, a day which would also be characterized by the absent of newly-abandoned Samuel Dumoulin, and the forced removal of Mark Renshaw. Renshaw was kicked out for dangerous antics in the final sprint of the day, including head-butting and cutting off Farrar inside the barriers.
Three riders were absent at the sign-in of stage 9: Simon Gerrans, Fabio Felline Vladimir Karpets, but most of the losses were suffered in the first week of the 2010 Tour de France. Frank Schleck was the first of the pre-Tour favourites to be lost, before Vande Velde and Evans was nearly forced out. The older Schleck brother broke his collarbone in stage 2, but the younger Andy went on to finish the Tour 2nd place overall and as the best young rider.
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