Monday, 5th July, 2010

Tour De Pez: Braving The Waters Of Spa!
Monday, July 05, 2010  6:38:44 PM PT

by Matt Conn


The Australian Perspective
When the route for the Tour de France was published last year, Aussie Scot Sunderland, at that point still assigning Team Sky with their preparations for their first Tour de France, said of these two days in the south of Belgium and the north of France, that it wasn't possible to win the Tour here but it sure would be possible for some riders to lose the race.

Paul and I caught up with Scott last week in Belgium for a coffee and a chat and as we met up with him in the village, it seemed like a suitable time to quiz him on what he thought about the upcoming stages.

“Today, you've got the climbers, like Gerrans, Vino and Sanchez who can be right up there like a classic. But there are also the top GC riders. Coming in to the Stockeu it could be a little bit humid, then with the yellow jersey there and the guys who could win the stage along with the GC guys, you might have 25 riders up there at the front fighting for position. They need to be really on their toes. Anyone who is not attentive today in the last few kilometres could pay for that.”

“And for Tuesday it won’t be possible for everyone to be up front keeping out of trouble, so riders will have to take risks. It's funny, riders were saying that they didn't want to take risks in the prologue, but Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, if you don't want to take risks in those stages, I don't know what you are doing here at the Tour de France.”


Sunderland and Peiper catching up at the start. The ex-Aussie pros can sometimes be found out on their bikes together, solving the problems of the world on the roads of Flanders.

One Team who had a double dose of bad luck in yesterday's stage into Brussels was the HTC Columbia squad. The bad luck started when Adam Hansen crashed early in the stage and broke his sternum and a rib. Of course, we found out about the extent of his injuries after he had remounted, chased back to the front, helped set up the sprint for Cavendish and then gone to hospital for x-rays.

We talked to team DS Alan Peiper: “To lose a guy like Adam Hansen is a bit of a blow. We planned his whole year around riding the Tour de France and taking the role of George Hincapie in preparing the sprint for Cav as third or fourth last man. We kept him out of the National championships and Tour Down Under specifically to prepare him for that and that was a big sacrifice for him. He was really, really ready for the Tour and then to break bones and be out of the Tour is a disaster for him.”

The second piece of misfortune was when Mark Cavendish crashed on the right hand bend at 2000m to go.

“We were disappointed in the team with yesterday, because when you kick off the Tour with a stage win, the pressure is off, both for Mark and the team. Bike riders are resilient and they're used to the fact that they've got to just get on with it. We'll adjust to the situation and move on.”

In terms of what caused the crash, Peiper said it was a combination of factors.

“Mark touched Bernie's wheel and then laid it over, Renshaw's back wheel was off the ground trying to stop. It was a dangerous corner and we communicated that to the riders but they have to wait and see what the others are doing too. As much as you can say take it easy in that corner, if the other guys are sprinting into it, you've got to sprint into it. You can’t just lose 20 places like that.”