Tour de France 2009
Stage One: Monaco - Brignoles, 187km
Sunday 5th July 2009
Live Ticker PART ONE
Giles Belbin's Stage Preview
After overnighting in Monaco the riders depart the principality for the last time, skirting the Med and heading into Nice, where the race's first sprint takes place, before turning inland. The stage takes in four classified climbs but with the last of these, the Col de l'Ange, coming some 60kms before the finish, this stage is nailed on to end in a sprint, meaning we should get an early indication of whether anyone has the legs to beat Mark Cavendish in a straight dash to the line.
Brignoles WikipediaTM Fact(?): Brignoles' famous sons include Saint Louis of Toulouse, born in 1274 and actor Jean-Baptiste Maunier, born in 1990.
General Classification after Stage One
1. Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) 19m32s
2. Alberto Contador (Astana) @ 18s
3. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin - Chipotle) @ 19s
Points Classification after Stage One
1. Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) 15pts
2. Alberto Contador (Astana) 12pts
3. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin) 10pts
King of the Mountains Classification after Stage One
1. Alberto Contador (Astana) 3pts
2. Tony Martin (Columbia) 2pts
3. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin) 1pt
Yong Riders Classifcation after Stage One
1. Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) 20m04s
2. Tony Martin (Columbia) @ 1s
3. Vicenzo Nibali (Liquigas) @ 5s
1245 CEST - Stage Two begins in Monaco; the weather is fine, and unsurprisingly the Peloton still consists of those who started the race yesterday (180 to be precise
1248 CEST - First attack of the day comes from Cofidis' Samuel Demoulin.
Call me cynical, but I don't think that move will last....
1300 CEST - Attacks from Igor Anton (Euskatel), Fabian Wegmann (Milram), Gonzalo Ramirez (Agritubel)and Amets Txurruka (Euskatel) all followed, but they, like Demoulin, were caught on the slopes of La Turbie, the opening climb of the day.
1301 CEST - First climb of the day (3rd Category) was won by Tony Martin (4pts), followed by Marcus Fothen (3pts) Lefevre (2pts) and Duque (1pt).
Those points make Martin the Virtual KoM leader.
1305 CEST - Following the climb, Stef Clement (Rabobank), Cyril Dessel (Ag2R), Jussi Veikkanen (La Francaise des Jeux) and Stephane Auge (Cofidis) attacked and now have a twenty five second lead over the Peloton. The pack don't looked that bothered just yet.
1320 CEST - 160km to go. The breakaway group now lead by 1m05s.
1322 CEST - The four man group now lead by 1m41. One suspects that their lead will grow to around eight or nine minutes.....Then Columbia and Quick Step will start working, and it will come down quicker than Denis Menchov does on wet Italian cobbles.
1324 CEST - First sprint of the day at Nice was won by Auge, followed by Dessel and Clement. The sea along the promenade looks as beautiful as it always does, and is probably far warmer than wen they pass it during the early season Paris-Nice race.
1331 CEST - 152km to go, the gap is now 2m54s. Nothing else to report on, really. Talk among yourselves, I'd say.
1334 CEST - My favourite comment following the Time Trial was from Bradley Wiggins, who wrote on his Twitter: 'Could not have done anymore today, I was at 70kph+ on the decent. How do you do it Fabian?'.
It's a question we're all asking. The man is a BEAST!
1338 CEST - Stef Clement is the 'Leader on the Road'. He finished in 46th place yesterday, 1m28 behind Cancellara. The breakaway group that he is in now leads by 3m06s.
Interestingly, there has been little reaction from the Rabobank camp following Menchov's awful Time Trial. Rabobank Press Office merely called it 'a bad day' and something that could 'happen to anyone'.
1346 CEST - We're just over one hour into the race, and we've already covered 45.5km. The breakaway group are on the second climb of the day - the 4th category Cote de Roqufort-les-Pins.
1347 CEST - Quick Step's Jurgen van de Walle has crashed. He's back on his bike fairly quickly, luckily.
The Peloton have sped up slightly, decreasing the lead from slightly over three minutes, down to 2m54s.
1350 CEST - The gap will increase again, as the Peloton are slowing to let people have a natural break.
No sign of those upfront wanting to have a 'breather' yet.
1352 CEST - Clement is leading out the sprint at the second climb of the day. Dessel has taken a flyer, followed by Veikkanen. Auge and Clement can't keep up, while the Finn takes the points ahead of Ag2R's Dessel. Auge crosses in third place.
I'm not sure what the exact temperature is today, but it's far hottter than yesterday. The conditions in the French Riviera make a change from the wet and windy conditions that sometimes occur during a opening week in Northern France.
1357 CEST - The Peloton cross the top of the second climb of the day, 4m02 in arrears.
Maillot Jaune Cancellara has at least 6 of his team-mates pulling upfront. Armstrong and Contador have been lurking behind him for most of the stage. No sign of Evans and Sastre upfront just yet.
DailyPeloton writer Chris Graetz has his money on Heinrich Haussler to win the Green Jersey Competition, but I still think Oscar Freire's consistency will see him win it. Despite being the fastest Sprinter out there, I'm doubtful that Cavendish has that consistency just yet.
1408 CEST - 130 kilometres to go. Paris-Roubaix winner Stuart O'Grady is keeping things ticking over on the front for Saxo Bank.
1408 CEST - 130 kilometres to go. Paris-Roubaix winner Stuart O'Grady is keeping things ticking over on the front for Saxo Bank.
1413 CEST - DP writer Andy McGrath is feeling rather bloated after eating all his chocolate cakes yesterday (that's 24, folks) in one sitting. He told me his record is 36 in one sitting, second only to Jan Ullrich.
Mind you, I won't mention my own pizza-eating habits...
1421 CEST - 120 kilometres to the finish. As the bunch winds through Grasse, the deficit to the four fugitives is 4'13".
Saxo Bank star Frank Schleck has had a tumble with Igor Anton. He's just remounted and is riding again. These first few road stages are ultra-nervous, and we can expect to see a fair few more crashes in the coming days.
1427 CEST - Schleck is getting a nice tow from behind his team car. He's not moved from the rear of the Skoda for a little while now.
Back to the break: looking at the composition of the group, it's a pretty handy foursome:
Ace time-trialist and recent Dauphiné stage winner Stef Clement, handy Finn Jussi Veikkanen, former Tour maillot jaune and stage winner in Jausiers last year, Cyril Dessel. Last but not least, there's Stephane Augé, who lives for getting up the road in breaks as much as possible.
Definitely the new Jacky Durand, much in the same vein that Evans is Raymond Poulidor.
1430 CEST - 113km to go. The gap to the destined-to-be-caught breakaway is 4m27s.
Nick Bull has been joined by Andy McGrath and Chris Graetz in the ticker, disproving the notion that he's just been having conversations with himself.
1435 CEST - The leaders have left Grasse and are on the third climb of the day, the 4th Category Cote de Tournon.
Grasse, incidentally, has nothing to do with a Tom Boonen hobby.
Daily Peloton Tour 2009 Tom Boonen joke-counter: 3. And we've only had one and a half stages.
1438 CEST - I've just noticed Cyril Dessel has the most horrific yellow shoes on. If you thought the Ag2R kit was bad enough on it's on, you should see this combination. It's like an homage to the Castorama days.....
Anyone who remembers Laurent Brochard in his heydays will understand that the French aren't so chic when it comes to cycling fashion. Good to see Vladimir Karpets following in his mullet-wearing wheel tracks.
1441 CEST - Frank Schleck is getting another bike, possibly the original machine he was on earlier before his fall.
In front, Jussi Veikkanen takes the points over the top of the third climb of the day, the Cote de Tournon. Dessel and Augé follow close behind, while Clement made no effort to follow his three companions. He's getting into the habit of coming last, it seems.
Tony Martin is still the KoM leader on the road, as he had points on the board this morning, and was first up La Turbie, the day's opening climb after 8km.
1446 CEST - Lance is talking to former US Postie George Hincapie.
Possibly saying how George's team mate Mark Cavendish is extremely brash. Lance, remember, wasn't cocky at all in his Motorola days...
100 kilometres to go. Our four leaders - Clement, Augé, Veikkanen and Dessel - have a lead of 5'15".
1450 CEST - The peloton pass some scantilly-clad women on the roadside. You have to love these scorching temperatures, don't you.
1451 CEST - Igor Anton getting some medical attention to his hand.
We're having a bit of a debate about the current yellow jersey. Can "90kg-and-proud-of-it" Cancellara really top ten in this Tour, as Irish cycling legends Steven Roche and Sean Kelly believe?
1454 CEST - Cancellara has a rather dashing yellow Specialized machine for today.
It's as if he knew he would...let's be fair, I think everyone thought that too. The course was as tailor-made for him as the 2007 London one.
1457 CEST - The Maillot Jaune is having his seatpost altered by his mechanic.
1500 CEST - Stef Clement leads the break over the hot-spot sprint at Fayence; it was uncontested.
Coverage continues in Part Two of the ticker...
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