Stage 6-8: Tour leaders
The first weekend of the 2010 Tour de France covered stages 6, 7 and 8, including the first of the mountain stages and a shift in the overall standings.
Mark Cavendish achieved his second consecutive win in the sixth stage, though it wasn’t enough to take the yellow jersey from Fabian Cancellara, who had been wearing it since stage three, nor to take the green jersey from Thor Hushovd, also wearing his since the third stage. Still, the Brit was all smiles at the finish line.
“It was incredible to win today, you’re not going to shut me up – I’ve got a lot of talking to do and I missed out on saying all of what I wanted to yesterday.”
This was his second win in this year’s Tour, and those to follow him in the top five were Tyler Farrar, Alessandro Petacchi, Robbie McEwen and Gerald Ciolek (in that order). Jerome Pineau held on to the polka-dot jersey, still the only cyclist to have worn it this year, and Geraint Thomas enjoyed his fourth day in the white jersey.
Sylvain Chavanel takes jersey
Saturday’s stage 7 was also Sylvain Chavanel’s second win, after stage 2 which earned him a day in the yellow jersey. His performance in the seventh stage was enough to once again take the yellow jersey from Cancellara. The support of teammate Pineau earned him the combativity award of the day.
“The work of a team has been fully rewarded,” said Pineau. “It was a beautiful sight, and is also the victory of friendship, of complicity. When Sylvain caught up with me, I already knew he did it because he felt strong. And when he was next to me, I saw in his eyes that no one would be able to take him back.”
Thomas’ four-day run with the white jersey was lost to 2009 Tour runner-up Andy Schleck, and Team Saxo Bank gave up its team classification to Astana. Schleck now stands in fourth place overall.
“I’m happy to have the white jersey again,” said Schleck. “I’ve got the nicest podium girls so of course I’m pleased. I’m aiming for yellow but this is now the beginning and I hope I can go higher on the podium. I feel pretty good and now we take it from here and fight to the end.”
Schleck went on to take the stage win on Sunday, ahead of Samuel Sanchez, Robert Gesink, Roman Kreuziger and Alberto Contador. Still in the white jersey, he’s a Tour de France stage winner, but he’s beginning to think he can be a champion.
“It’s step-by-step. I’m happy with the stage win. I’ll enjoy that tonight. Tomorrow is a rest day and then we will go for our next target. It’s a long way to Paris and I know I can’t follow wheels like I did today if I want to win this Tour. I have to get more active and get time out of my rivals. I’m ready for that.”
Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong has fallen out of the running for a podium spot after at 39th place finish in the eighth stage.
“When Armstrong is dropped, Contador wants to put him as far out of the classification as possible and the way Astana rode put us in a really good position. That’s why we prepared so carefully for the day on the cobbles because it allowed me to put time into Contador – and we’ve got to do that whenever we can. He’s been saving his team for the climbs in the Pyrenees they’ll sink the boots in a little further," said Cadel Evans.
Cadel crashes, comes back
Evans finished 6th despite a crash early in the stage, and that was enough to take the yellow jersey from Chavanel.
“It’s a bit of a rare honor to have in cycling – to swap the rainbow jersey for the yellow one – but I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has believed in me, not only this year at the BMC team but over all the years, since I was 14 years old and started racing mountain bikes. There are so many people who have helped me along the way. This is one of the rewards we sometimes get and there are more – better – things yet to come."
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