Saxo Bank fires a warning.

Nicki Sorensen of Saxo Bank goes clear of his breakaway companions to win stage 12

ON paper it looked like another stage for Mark Cavendish, however Nicki Sorensen from Saxo Bank took the stage from his breakaway companions, going solo well before the finish. Sorenson highlights the strength of Saxo Bank, a team that now contains 6 individuals that have won stages of the tour - and that does not include one Andy Schleck, best placed in the overall classification from Saxo Bank. Astana are the strongest team, no doubts there (5 former stage winners & 2 overall winners) however Saxo Bank are the team that possibly has what it takes to challenge them. They have come to the tour focused on winning overall, with a team to do it. They have not played a card, Cancellara aside, yet, but one can feel that Sorensen testing his legs yesterday was Saxo Bank reminding the Peleton that they crushed everyone last year on the ride up L'Alp d'Huez and this year they can do it again. Saxo Bank are playing the waiting game, its all about the Alps and with Voight, O'Grady, Cancellara, Larson and Sorenson they are well equipt to support the Schlecks & they cover the unfortunate loss of Arveson on stage 10.

The other duel going on in Stage 12 was for the King of the Mountain jersey. Egoi Martinez still holds the polka dots, however my $22 tip, Franco Pellizotti is in second position and they duelled yesterday on each of the climbs. It was fascinating to watch, however of the 6 categorised climbs featured, Pellizotti was first over the summit four times and 3rd on the two others, the best Martinez could do was finish second - all four times to Pellizotti. Martinez has limited time in Polka Dots.

Cavendish won the bunch sprint for eighth position ahead of Hushovd to move 10 points clear of the big Norwegian.

and now for some hills........

2009 Tour de France - Stage 12

Stage 12 - Tonnerre to Vittel - 211.5 km



Fairly Flat stage with a few small climbs and a slight uphill to finish, might test the sprinters but it might take more that this to test Cavendish & Columbia - HTC.



Climbs

Km 19.0 - Côte de Baon - 2.2 km climb to 4.2 % - Category 4
Km 55.0 - Côte de Gye-sur-Seine - 2.4 km climb to 4.4 % - Category 4
Km 64.5 - Côte d'Essoyes - 2.2 km climb to 5 % - Category 4
Km 150.0 - Côte des Grands-Bois - 2.3 km climb to 5 % - Category 4
Km 156.5 - Côte de Morlaix - 2.1 km climb to 4.2 % - Category 4
Km 170.5 - Côte de Bourmont - 0.8 km climb to 11.1 % - Category 3

It might be that a breakaway tries to seize its opportunity here, could be that Columbia HTC are in the winning habit and will be delivering Cavendish stage win number 5 for 2009.

I'm betting the latter.

Betting
$2.50 to find out if it is a sprinters stage, that's Cavs price, so we will double the bet here.

Save on Tyler Farrar for top 3 at $4.

Simply Unbeatable

Cav wins again...... that is Hushovd in green, some distance behind.

Mark Cavendish took back the Green Jersey with another scintillating sprint display in stage 11 of The Tour de France. Hushovd was 5th, meaning that Cavendish now holds a 7 point advantage. Flat stages can be boring but watching Columbia ride them to perfection over the final 20km or so is exciting. Watching Cavendish scorch the final sprint is breathtaking. He does not just win, he smashes the field and leaves them in his wake - a few bike lengths behind.
No photos needed here.

I think that it is now clear that Mark Cavendish has no peer when it comes to sprinting.
He was an awesome sprinter, however in this last 12 days he has become a bonafide superstar. He is that much superior to the rest of the sprinters that given flat finish only bad luck or poor tactics are going to beat him. When you have a team like Columbia-HTC working for you and George Hincapie and Mark Renshow delivering yu to the perfect spot, the poor tactics factor rarely comes into play and as for luck, you generally make your own in cycling and his team makes sure that rarely enters the equation either.

Perhaps Mario Cipollini at his peak is the only man you can compare him to. Super Mario basically invented the sprint train, knowing that when he was at top speed no one could match him, he had the lead out, got dropped at the front and he knew that it was very rare that anyone would ever go past him. Mario rode 7 in Tour de France races, he never finished one of them, the mountains always proving too formidable and this will always be something his detractors use. He won 12 stages in 7 tour appearances, or because of withdrawals you can look at it this way - 12 wins from 61 stages completed.

'Super' Mario Cipollini - The Lion King

Super Mario's 'thing' was always the Giro d'Italia - the tour of Italy. Hey, he is Italian! It was stage wins at this race that he coveted and he holds the record of most Giro stage wins with 42 in all (Eddy Merckx holds the TdF record with 34 - he only competed 7 times!). His first stage win came in 1989 and his last in 2003, the 2004 Giro was the only time he did win a stage at the Giro. He won 3 Maglia Ciclamino (mauve jersey) in the Giro - the points classification equivalent of the TdFs Green Jersey. In 1999 he took 5 stage wins, in 2002 he won 6 stages. His best effort of Le tour was 1999 when he won stages 4,5,6,7 and set a record for consecutive stage wins. He then withdrew! So 42 wins at the Giro from 14 appearances. An average of 3 per event.

............and he always made sure he looked good doing it, however controversial it was.

Cavendish is in his 3rd tour. He withdrew in stage 8 of the 2007 edition. Last year he won 4 stages and withdrew after stage 14 in preference of the olympics, this year he has won 4 so far from 11 contested. So from 32 completed stages of Le Tour he has 8 wins already.

The other some consider the Greatest Sprinter ever was Erik Zabel. Zabel won 6 consecutive Green Jerseys at the Tour from 1996-2001. He also won 3 consecutive points competitions at the tour of Spain (Vuelta a España) from 2002-2004. He was ultra consistent, could win one day classics, get over mountains and was fast. But he only won 12 TdF stages. A bit harsh saying 'only' however he competed in 14 tours and completed 13 of them (withdrew in stage 14 of his first tour.) He was a points gatherer, not a prolific stage winner. People admired sprinters like Zabel though, he would always climb well through the mountains and front up at the next stage and be prepared to win, not like Mario who simply did not like climbing. In a pure sprint finish though, zabel would be finishing second to Super Mario almost every time.

Zabel is employed by Columbia -HTC as an advisor/consultant to Cavendish and the sprinters their - he has stated that he rates him in the top 3 sprinters of all time with Mario Cipollini and Frenchman André Darrigade. Already!

Darrigade rode in the 50s and 60s, he won 22 stages in 14 appearances (2 withdrawals) at the tour de france, a record for a sprinter. He was the winner of the Green Jersey twice, im not sure how he lost it in 1958 when he won 5 stages.

So back to Cavendish, he has been beaten just 3 times in sprint finishes this year. 1 to Alessandro Petacchi at the Giro when Petacchi and his team went early, got the jump and Columbia could not reel him in. Farrar beat him in stage 3 of the Tirreno - Adratico, again by having Cav out of position and getting the jump. The only other time he was beaten this season was at the Giro when a rider crashed in front of him in the sprint. No hope there. You cant include stage 6 to Barcelona that Hushovd won, as Cavendish did not try and win it. So really all things being equal, tactics have beaten him twice and luck once. Columbia have improved their sprint train since the Giro (thank Erik Zabel), they are not even giving other teams a look in and making sure that no one has the opportunity to go early.

This man is 24. He won Milan- San Remo this year, a cycling monument. He has 5 stages of the Giro in 2 appearances (and withdrawals). He has won 8 stages of The Tour from 32 completed. That is one in 4, pretty impressive when you consider he is not going to be winning over hills or Time Trials. He has 10 more years at the top, this man could win 40 Tour de France stages.

Quite simply Cavendish is about as close as you can be to unbeatable.

Sit back and enjoy because you are witnessing something special.
This boy is a once in a life time sprinter.

A freak

2009 Tour de France - Stage 11

Stage 11 - Vatan to Saint - Fargeau - 192 km

The race heads close to Paris today, but they do have to go across the alps before they hit the Champs Elysees.

Simlar day to yesterday.

Flat stage, 2 climbs - cat 4s.

bunch finish.

But......

Uphill at the end.

Betting

Cav is $3.20
back him

Hushovd $2.20 to place
back that as well as a saver.

Cavendish ruins Bastille Day for the French!

Cavendish does his best aeroplane impersonation as he wins stage 10

Mark Cavendish won stage 10 of the tour in the same fashion as he won stages 2 & 3 - easily.

But it all played out as planned.
The Bastille Day French breakaway (well 3 of the 4 were french) - check.
The Peleton Never letting the breakaway out of sight due to not having race radios - check.
The teams of the sprinters pulling in the breakaway 2km before the finish - check.
Cavendish displaying dazzling acceleration to claim another stage - check.

The highlight for me was watching the overhead of the last 1.5km as George Hincape led team mates Aussie Mark Renshaw and Cavendish with Hushovd and Farrar sitting on the wheel of cavendish. But by the time Renshaw pulled off with 150m to go the race was all but over, a quick burst of speed from the fastest man on two wheels and that was it.

Scintillating

Hushovd retains the Green Jersey but cav pulls back 5 points on his lead which is back to 11 points.

Otherwise a pretty quiet Bastille Day.
Unless you are French.