Mark Cavendish Wins 2011 Tour de France Stage Seven, Crash Sidelines Brad Wiggins, Slows Leipheimer

Mark Cavendish of HTC-Highroad won Tour de France Stage Seven, while a crash eliminated Sky’s Bradley Wiggins.
Mark Cavendish Wins 2011 Tour de France Stage Seven, Crash Sidelines Brad Wiggins, Slows Leipheimer
Mark Cavendish celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win Stage Seven of the 2011 Tour de France. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
7/8/2011
Updated:
8/26/2011

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/CavWin118491382WEB_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/CavWin118491382WEB_medium.jpg" alt="Mark Cavendish celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win Stage Seven of the 2011 Tour de France. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)" title="Mark Cavendish celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win Stage Seven of the 2011 Tour de France. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-128851"/></a>
Mark Cavendish celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win Stage Seven of the 2011 Tour de France. (Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Mark Cavendish of HTC-Highroad won his seventeenth Tour de France stage Friday, while a major crash eliminated Sky’s Bradley Wiggins, a strong General Classification contender.

The same crash delayed RadioShack’s Levi Leipheimer, ruining his GC hopes, and kept Garmin-Cervelo’s Tyler Farrar from competing with Cavendish for the intermediate and final sprints.

HTC totally controlled the final fifteen kilometers of the stage with its perfect 8-man leadout train; with many of its rival teams disorganized by the crash which took down two dozen riders and delayed two-thirds of the peloton, there was no one to challenge HTC’s dominance.

Lampre’s Alessandro Petacchi, Vacansoleil’s Roman Feillu, and Movistar’s José Rojas made excellent individual efforts, riding Cav’s wheel and trying to pass him in the final meters, but Mark Renshaw, the last leadout rider, took Cavendish past these opponents Cavendish before the Manx Missile started sprinting.

Andre Greipel, Cav’s former temmate now riding for Omega-Pharma-Lotto, made a huge solo charge downt he right side of the road, only to lose second by inches to Petacchi.

With the leadout advantage and his amazing speed, Cavendish was uncatchable. He reprised his first Tour stage win in Châteauroux; once again mark Cavendish was “The Fastest Man in the World” on the street of this French town.

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/CavWide118491016_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/CavWide118491016_medium.jpg" alt="Mark Cavendish (3R) outsprints Andr&#233 Greipel (out of picture), Romain Feillu (hand at far left,) Thor Hushovd (L), Denis Galimzyanov (2L), William Bonnet (2R). and Alessandro Petacchi (R). (Michael Steele/Getty Images)" title="Mark Cavendish (3R) outsprints Andr&#233 Greipel (out of picture), Romain Feillu (hand at far left,) Thor Hushovd (L), Denis Galimzyanov (2L), William Bonnet (2R). and Alessandro Petacchi (R). (Michael Steele/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-128852"/></a>
Mark Cavendish (3R) outsprints André Greipel (out of picture), Romain Feillu (hand at far left,) Thor Hushovd (L), Denis Galimzyanov (2L), William Bonnet (2R). and Alessandro Petacchi (R). (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
“My whole season goes into this race,” Cavendish told letour.com.

Cavendish gave his teammates full credit for his win. It’s all about building up to be on my best form with the best team and to win consistently here.

“You can see how well the guys rode today—this was the HTC train of the old days, completely drilled and working tirelessly all day and holding onto the front until the end. I’ve got an incredible bunch of guys working for me.”

Crashes Cripple Several Teams

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/Sunflower118486304_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/Sunflower118486304_medium.jpg" alt="Mickael Delage (L) of FDJ is followed by Yannick Talabardon (C) of Saur Sojasun and Pablo Urtasun (R) of Euskaltel-Euskadi pass by a sunflower field near the village of Brives during Stage Seven of the 2011 Tour de France. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)" title="Mickael Delage (L) of FDJ is followed by Yannick Talabardon (C) of Saur Sojasun and Pablo Urtasun (R) of Euskaltel-Euskadi pass by a sunflower field near the village of Brives during Stage Seven of the 2011 Tour de France. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-128853"/></a>
Mickael Delage (L) of FDJ is followed by Yannick Talabardon (C) of Saur Sojasun and Pablo Urtasun (R) of Euskaltel-Euskadi pass by a sunflower field near the village of Brives during Stage Seven of the 2011 Tour de France. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Stage Seven started as a classic sprint stage: a four-rider break escaped in the first two kilometers, and the peloton let them get a gap of 8:10, then started reeling them in so the big sprinters’ teams could contest the finish.

The peloton rode lazily for the first 130 km of the 218-km stage, then started chasing earlier than usual, because of the one anomaly in the stage: the intermediate sprint was only 25 kilometers from the finish, and because of the intense fight for the green Best Sprinter jersey, a lot of teams wanted to catch the break before the sprint point to capture maximum points for their own men.

Everything changed at kilometer 37, when a crash one-third of the way through the peloton felled two dozen riders.

Bradley Wigging of Sky broke his collarbone and had to retire on the spot. Wiggins, coming off a win in the Criterium du Dauphiné in June, was in excellent form and seemed a likely candidate for a podium in Paris.

Sky was set further back because several of its riders, including Edvald Boasson Hagen and Geraint Thomas, stayed behind to pace Wiggins back to the peloton. These two were first and second in the Young Rider competition; they dropped to sixth and seventh.

RadioShack, already decimated by crashes in the previous two stages, suffered more setbacks Friday as Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner got caught in the big crash. Horner finished 12:41 behind the leader, dropping him to 119th at 12:59 from 13th, only 18 seconds behind. Horner went form a GC threat to a domestique in this stage.

Leipheimer, who had been 31st at 1:23 after Thursday’s disaster, got a flat after the crash, leaving him 50th, 4:29 down.

Heimar Zubeldia, the only RadioShack rider unscathed in Stage Six, also crashed in Stage Seven. Yaroslav Popovych, who had crashed hard the day before, got caught up in this crash too.

From a team with four solid GC contenders, radio Shack has gone to a team with Andreas Klöden and some injured support riders in two days.

Tyler Farrar got caught in the crash. He remounted and rode on, favoring an injured right leg, but couldn’t get back to contest either of the sprints. His teammate Ryder Hesjdal, who finished seventh last year and was Garmin-Cervelo’s best GC hope, also lost time in the crash, dropping from 30th at 1:22 to 48th at 4:28.

Garmin-Cervelo was unlikely to challenge in GC after Hesjdal and Christian Vande Velde lost big time in Stage One. Now the team might find it hard even to compete for stage wins, if Farrar is injured.

Next: HTC Rolls Over the Remnants  

HTC Rolls Over the Remnants

<a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/sky118478781_medium.jpg"><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/07/sky118478781_medium.jpg" alt="The peloton rides in the 218 km Stage Seven of the 2011 Tour de France. (Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images)" title="The peloton rides in the 218 km Stage Seven of the 2011 Tour de France. (Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-128854"/></a>
The peloton rides in the 218 km Stage Seven of the 2011 Tour de France. (Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images)
The peloton slowed after the crash, waiting for radio reports about which riders were down or out. The breakaway riders, Yannick Talabardon (Saur-Sojasun,) Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi,) and Gianni Meersman and Mickael Delage (FDJ) picked up the pace and passed the sprint point ahead of the peloton.

HTC, less worried about saving energy for the final sprint since main rival Tyler Farrar was out, decided to practice its leadout train and easily took the intermediate sprint.

Leopard-Trek moved up to take over the pace-setting duties, looking to put more time into its unfortunate rivals held up by the crash. HTC moved up in the final 15 kilometers, catching the break with 12.5 to go and leading the rest of the race. Leopard-Trek and Katusha briefly challenged for the lead in the final five kilometers, but HTC’s train was running full steam and nothing could derail it.

“The guys were incredible to hold the pace that they did in the last 15 kilometers,” Cavendish told letour.com. “To pull it out and keep the pace so high at the finish meant that I didn’t have to accelerate too much because we were already travelling so fast to the line.

“It’s an incredible victory and I can’t wait to celebrate with the guys tonight.”

Stage Eight: Let the Climbing Begin

Stage 8, 189 km from Aigurande to Super-Besse Sancy, contains the Tour’s first cat 2 climb, the Col de la Croix Saint-Robert, followed by a Cat 3 climb to the finish in Super-Besse Sancy.

It is unlikely that any of the top GC contenders will try any serious attacks here—the stage simply isn’t hard enough. Alberto Contador might try a late attack as he did (unsuccessfully) in Stage Four.

If an attack is to come, look for it on the Col de la Croix Saint-Robert, 25 km form the end. It is just possible a rider could open a gap and maintain it over the descents and climbs up to the final ascent. More likely, the GC contenders will simply mark each other and a breakaway will try to escape on Col de la Croix Saint-Robert.

It is very doubtful that Thor Hushovd will wear the yellow after this stage. He made a tremendous effort in Stage Four, but the climbs in Stage Eight are an order of magnitude harder.  Look for Cadel Evans, one of the Schlecks, or maybe even Jurgen Van Den Broeck to take the maillot jaune here.

Riders might want to save some energy for Stage Nine, with its eight categorized climbs and its uphill finish, which is followed by a rest day. Look for an attack on the Cat 2 Col de Prat de Bouc by riders hoping to steal a stage win, but it doesn’t seem likely any of the top GC riders will try much here—the climbs simply aren’t steep enough not close enough to the finish.

After Monday’s rest day, the Tour heads towards the Pyrenees with Stage Ten, a day for a breakaway or just maybe for the power sprinters like Thor Hushovd.

Stage 11 is another stage where the power-sprinters will compete with the pure sprinters—a lot of lumps and a Cat 3 and -4 climb will sap the sprinters, and also favor breakaway riders.

Stage Twelve is the first of the leg-breaking, lung-burning, will-sapping mountain stages, with a Cat 1 climb followed by an Hors Categorie climb up Le Tourmalet followed by an Hors Categorie mountaintop finish on Luz-Ardiden.

This is where Alberto Contador will probably test the form of his rivals and try to make up the time he lost in the first few stages. After Stage Twelve, it will be much more apparent who is really able to top the podium in Paris and who is not.

2011 Tour de France Stage Seven Result

 

General Classification after Stage Seven

1

Mark Cavendish

HTC-Highroad

5:38:53

1

Thor Hushovd

Garmin-Cervelo

22:50:34

2

Alessandro Petacchi

Lampre

0:00

2

Cadel Evans

BMC

0:00:01

3

André Greipel

Omega Pharma-Lotto

0:00

3

Fränk Schleck

Leopard Trek

0:00:04

4

Romain Feillu

Vacansoleil

0:00

4

David Millar

Garmin-Cervelo

0:00:08

5

William Bonnet

FDJ

0:00

5

Andreas Klöden

RadioShack

0:00:10

6

Denis Galimzyanov

Katusha

0:00

6

Jakob Fuglsang

Leopard Trek

0:00:12

7

Thor Hushovd

Garmin-Cervelo

0:00

7

Andy Schleck

Leopard Trek

0:00:12

8

Sébastien Turgot

Europcar

0:00

8

Tony Martin

HTC-Highroad

0:00:13

9

Jose Rojas

Movistar

0:00

9

Peter Velits

HTC-Highroad

0:00:13

10

Sébastien Hinault

AG2R

0:00

10

Robert Gesink

Rabobank

0:00:20