Guardian report on Fernando Gaviria's win
Jeremy Whittle was in Sarzeau to see Team Quick Step’s Colombian rookie Fernando Gaviria take his second stage win of this year’s Tour de France. Read on ...
Kudos also to Ariel Richeze: The Quick Step rider gave Fernando Gaviria a perfect lead-out to help him win the stage. When he peeled off to leave Gaviria in front, Greipel was attacking from about four bike-lengths behind. He inched in front of Gaviria, but couldn’t maintain his effort and the Colombian got up on the line.
General Classification Top 10
Greg van Avermaet keeps the yellow jersey ahead of his team-mate Tejay van Garderen and Sky’s Geraint Thomas.
More on the crash: AG2R-La Mondiale’s Axel Domont took a particularly hard fall and has been forced to abandon.
Mark Cavendish speaks: Holding a baby that I presume is his, the sprinter seems in cheerful enough mood as he talks an ITV reporter through the closing stages of that stage. Considering he was in the thick of it, his recall of every minute detail is quite astonishing. He says his team did a decent job, but he managed to get himself blocked.
More on that crash: The top 10 in the General Classification remains unchanged, which means none of them were involved. The crash split the peloton, but Team Sky were the right side of it and none of their riders lost any time.
Unconfirmed reports suggest Katusha-Alpecin rider Ilnur Zakarin lost around a minute, while Movistar’s Mikel Landa also lost time. EF Education First–Drapac p/b Cannondale (a team name that really rolls off the tongue) rider Rigoberto Uran also went down, but was able to recover.
What of Cavendish: It seems the Manx Missile didn’t get a lead-out from his team and was struggling to find a wheel to follow. As the riders approached the finish line he could be seen throwing his arms in the air in frustration as Dylan Groenewegen cut across his racing line.
That crash towards the end: It’s still not clear how many, if any, of the main GC riders were involved in the crash that did for about one third of the peloton just before the four kilometre mark. Stay tuned and I’ll bring you news as it filters through.
Stage four top five placings
1. Fernando Gaviria (Quick Step)
2. Peter Sagan (Bora Hansrohe)
3. André Greipel (Lotto Soudal)
4. Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo)
5. Marcel Kittel (Katusha Alpecin)
How the sprint unfolded: Greipel attacked first, with Peter Sagan to his left and Gaviria to his right as you looked from behind the finish line. The German looked to have timed his run perfectly, but shot his bolt too early. Sagan inched in front of him, but it was the Colombian 23-year-old who was in first place when it mattered.
Fernando Gaviria wins stage four!!!
The rookie Quick-Step rider wins his second stage of this year’s race, beating Peter Sagan and Andre Greipel into the minor placings.
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PHOTO FINISH!!!
It’s a photo between Peter Sagan, Fernando Gaviria and Andre Greipel. I think Gaviria got up!
1km to go: It’s dead straight all the way to the finish as the breakaway group is caught. The sprint is on.
1km to go: The breakaway group is about to be caught after a heroic effort to stay away.
3 km to go: The gap is 10 seconds. Marcel Kittel, Fernando Gaviria and Mark Cavendish are all well placed near the front of the bunch, unaffected by the crash.
4km to go: The gap between what’s left of the bunch (about two thirds of the field) and the breakaway is down to 26 seconds. Mark Cavendish is still well placed, as is Greg van Avermaet. There are little groups of riders pootling along all over the road behind the peloton, trying to get back in touch.
A crash in the peloton! Somebody goes down in the peloton and about half the field is forced to stop as the riders sort themselves out.
6km to go: The gap is down to 42 seconds as the breakaway group hits a roundabout, riding into a strong headwind. They’re out the country and the road is lined with spectators on either side.
7km to go: The breakaway form themselves into a time-trial outfit to give themselves every chance of staying away as riders from Bora Hansrohe take over at the front of the peloton.
8km to go: Dimension Data put a man on the front of the group to force the pace as the gap stays at exactly a minute. This is very exciting.
10km to go: The breakaway passes under the 10-Kilometre Kite with the gap at 1min 05sec. It’s do-able, but it’ll be tough, not least because of the long, straight finish. In the breakaway, Dimitri Claeys removes his bidon for his cage and gives himself a liberal squirt in the face.
11km to go: Marcel Kittel’s Katusha team take up the cudgels at the front of a peloton that finally seems to have realised there’s work to be done if they are to reel in the escapees.
14.6km to go: We approch the business end of the race and the gap is down to 1min 40sec as Fernando Gaviria’s Quick Step team force the pace at the front of the bunch. Quick Step rider Niki Terpstra does a turn on the front, then looks behind him and gives FDJ rider Arnaud Demare a telling off for not doing enough at the front. Disharmony in the peloton is good news for the breakaway, but I suspect the jig will soon be up for them as they’re losing 10 seconds per kilometre.
19km to go: It seems Doug isn’t the only reader to have got of the wrong side of bed this morning. “Please stop perpetuating the Sagan elbow myth,” writes Andrew D. “Frame by frame analysis clearly shows that Sagan was freeing himself from Cav’s hood, and doesn’t make contact of any consequence with his elbow. This kind of commentary is ruining my experience of this feed. Then you take a jab at Bobke? Please just focus on the race at hand.”
A couple of things, Andrew. I haven’t made any comment of any kind on who was in the wrong or right in the Sagan-Cavendish controversy of last year’s Tour. Neither did I “take a jab” at Bobke. Finally, this “feed’ is not all about you and your specific needs, whatever your sense of deluded entitlement. I can assure you that you haven’t missed anything important during these entertaining diversions and if I focused exclusively on “the race at hand”, in which nothing has happened at great length for over four hours, it would get very tedious, very quickly. And nobody wants that.
22km to go: The gap is 2min 03 sec and Mark Cavendish’s Dimension Data are upping the ante in the peloton, obviously feeling confident that they can tee their man up for a stage win. Once more for the record, our four-man breakaway comprises Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty), Jérôme Cousin (Direct Energie), Dimitri Claeys (Cofidis) and Anthony Perez (Cofidis).
27km to go: Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) and Tim De Clercq (Quick Step) tow the peloton along with the gap a steady 2min 47sec.
31km to go: Our four-man breakaway continue their long exercise in almost certain futility, with a lead of 2min 49sec to protect for as long ass the chasing peloton will let them. It’s very much a cat-and-mouse situation, with the peloton performing the role of giant, amorphous, Lycra-clad cat. On very rare occasions, a lazy or careless cat will let the mouse escape, but I’ll be astonished if that happens today.
33km to go: “That 11 year old interview with Cav is quite the throwback - ‘T-Mobile’, ‘DVDs’, ‘MySpace’, ‘Lance Armstrong’ without the preface ‘disgraced former cyclist/science project’,” writes Nick Cuff. “Must say I agree with you about the ‘pleasures’ of the Isle of Man too. Anyway, what chance a Cav victory today? Sadly can’t see him getting past Eddy Merckx’s record now, given his form and the new kids on the block, but would be nice to see him clutch one of those cuddly lions just one more time.”
38km to go: The best thing about that Bob Roll clip from the Kelloggs Tour is hearing the wonderful voice of Phil Liggett in his prime,” writes Richard Searle. “His voice was the sound of my summers growing up in the 80s and he singlehandedly made me fall in love with the Tour. He had his critics in recent years and his unapologetic support for Lane Armstrong grated, but when I hear his voice it’s like sprinkling magic dust onto the cycling footage.”
Gah! William Fotheringham, of this parish, has been in touch to say that he beat me to the publication of Mark Cavendish’s first interview with a British paper by just over 10 hours. Here’s his slightly less entertaining effort.
44km to go: AG2R La Mondiale rider suffers a mechanical, stops and climbs off his bike. his team car skids to a halt and a mechanic jumps out of the back seat. Except he does so just before the car stops and manages to whack Gallopin across the hip/backside with the car door as he opens it. Ouch! Gallopin is clearly in pain as he waits for his back wheel to be replaced, but gets back on his bike and is given a push by the man who has just accidentally assaulted him. I suspect that may be a topic of animated conversation in the team hotel later.
45km: There were quite a few big names involved in that crash: Mikel Landa, Robert Gesink, Dan Martin, Bauke Mollema and Jakob Fugslang. They’re all back on their bikes and have rejoined the peloton.
47km to go: With the breakaway under control, the peloton slows down to let those involved in the crash catch up with them. Some riders use the slowing down of the peloton to pick up drinks from their team cars, while the four lads in front get to extend their lead again. The gap is 2min 08sec.
49km to go: In the breakaway, Jerome Cousin drops back to his team car for a pep talk and a couple of bottles of water. Back in the bunch there’s a crash, with several Astana riders, along with colleagues from other teams, coming a cropper. It doesn’t look anything too serious, but there’s 10 or 12 riders involved who are going to have some catching up to do.
53km to go: The gap is down to 1min 17sec, with a sprint for bonus seconds available to the first three riders across the 38km-to-go line very much ahoy! Will the seconds go to three of the four men in the breakaway, or will they be reeled in over the next 15 kilometres.
58km to go: A moment of controversy as Peter Sagan and another rider – I know not who – appear to have a very full and frank exchange over some unknown matter on the right side of the peloton. Further up the road in the breakaway, Anthony Perez takes the only King of the Mountain point on offer today at St Jean La Poterie.
60km to go: The gap is down to 1min 36sec. Meanwhile, this from David Hudson. “So glad that Doug mentioned Bob “Bobke” Roll, as it gives me an excuse to dig out one of my favourite bits of bike throwing: Bob losing the sprint into Cardiff on the 1987 Kelloggs Tour as he unclips just yards from the line. It’s at 4min 50sec.”
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63km to go: With approximately 90 minutes worth of racing left today, the riders pass through Saint Sauveur with the gap between our four leaders and the bunch hovering around the 2min 20sec mark.
70km to go: The gap drops below two minutes for the first time. To celebrate, here’s an email from Drew Goldie: “Our friend Doug who doesn’t like Mark Cavendish (and it was hardly Cav’s fault that Sagan got kicked out the race) might like to know that John Degenkolb said that if he’d not slammed on his brakes on Stage Two [of this year’s race] then he’d’ve been taken out by Sagan just as Cavendish was,” he says, stoking the embers of today’s row to pass the time. “He was distinctly not happy, not with Sagan and not with the commissars.”
Froome-watch: Having gone back to his team car for a chat, before pulling into the roadside for a comfort break, Chris Froome has just been paced back to the back of the bunch by his 21-year-old Colombian team-mate Egan Bernal.
73km to go: The gap is 2min 10sec and the sprinters’ teams have been working to reduce the gap and here’s how they’ve shared the workload.
The collaboration between the sprinters' teams has already taken the gap down to 2'16" with 74km to go #TDF2018 #TDFdata pic.twitter.com/s0n7JjbWtU
— letourdata (@letourdata) July 10, 2018
76 km to go: Chris Froome has retreated to talk to the team car but no drama, just routine stuff. That breakaway alliance of Frenchmen and Belgians is now a dwindling 2’ 17” clear. By the time it reaches 60km out and a category four climb beckons, expect to see them hauled back. Anyway, here’s some footage of that intermediate bunch sprint a few clicks back.
🏁 - 97 km
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 10, 2018
Van Keirsbulck wins the intermediate sprint. Behind them, @FndoGaviria gets some precious points. 💚
Van Keirsbulck remporte le sprint intermédiaire. Derrière, Fernando Gaviria grapille quelques points. 💚@WeLoveCyclingFR#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/JNDQXueK3b
An email: “Afternoon Barry, and afternoon Doug, who appears to have got out of bed on the wrong side today,” says longtime listener and friend of the show, Guy Hornsby. “I can understand how fans may dislike Cav, because he can rub people up the wrong way. But the best racers are often fairly selfish, unapologetic characters, because without it they would’ve been second.
“I think Cav’s wit is dry, and I like him, but he doesn’t suffer fools, and nor should he. I thought Sagan’s move looks now just as it did then: aggressive, closing a gap that was still there when Cav pulled through it, and the elbow - after contact between both riders - sent him down.
“It was reckless and dangerous, and while kicking Sagan off the tour was over the top, being blanked from the stage would’ve been fair. Just as many think Cav gets too much support, Sagan isn’t above criticism, and for all the wheelies and fun interviews, no one should be above reproach. I say this as as a big Sagan fan too. There were no winners on that day.”
The Stage 3 #TourDeGif - It doesn’t get more well-drilled than @BMCProTeam in a #TTT. Smashed it today. Metronomic performance. Congrats to @GregVanAvermaet now in yellow. #TdF2018 #TourDeFrance2018 #Cholet pic.twitter.com/qYqniNWWuK
— Grunshaw (@MrGrunshaw) July 9, 2018
Intermediate sprint - full result
- 1. Guillaume Van Keirsbulck 20
- 2. Dimitri Claeys 17
- 3. Anthony Perez 15
- 4. Jérôme Cousin 13
- 5. Fernando Gaviria 11
- 6. André Greipel 10
- 7. Peter Sagan 9
- 8. John Degenkolb 8
- 9. Alexander Kristoff 7
- 10. Marcel Kittel 6
- 11. Arnaud Démare 5
- 12. Max Richeze 4
- 13. Daniel Oss 3
- 14. Thomas De Gendt 2
- 15. Rick Zabel 1
Next to be immortalised in the #TourDeGif - winner of Stage 2, the mighty @petosagan. Somehow, I don't think this will be his only stage win with the #pave approaching. Will he still be in yellow after the #TTT? @BORAhansgrohe #TourdeFrance2018 #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/KSn9TOcYUp
— Grunshaw (@MrGrunshaw) July 9, 2018
91km to go: Guillaume van Keirsbulck wins the intermediate sprint at Derval from Dimitri Claeys, Anthony Perez and Jerome Cousin.
95km to go: “As today is so boring, why not liven up your feed by featuring my #TourDeGif animation project - a daily animated gif of each stage winner,” writes Neil Grunshaw. “I thought I’d mirror the suffering of the riders over the next 3 weeks by embarking on an endurance animation project - if anything, animation actually involves far more physical suffering than Grand Tour racing. Easily.”
First up, stage one winner Fernando Gaviria ...
OK, quick recap for #TourDeGif. Stage 1, @FndoGaviria of @quickstepteam getting his head down for the win. He was so unlucky yesterday, but he's sure to back on the podium this week and he's in the white jersey #Colombia #TourdeFrance2018 #TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/ddT42QAjBa
— Grunshaw (@MrGrunshaw) July 9, 2018
99km to go: Nothing continues to happen at great length, although the gap continues to drop. It’s currently at 4min 32sec. All this nothingness has prompted this philosophical query from John Cook.
“I’ve always wondered this as a cyclist and as one that doesn’t race,” he says. “What does the peloton do most of the day? Do they have buddies on other teams that they chat up as they go along on days like today? I imagine that for most of the day it’s just a really fast group ride? Or do they have to stay rank and file with their teams?”
I suppose, John, it depends on what stage of the stage they’re in and whether or not their team has a man in the breakaway. Early doors, they can probably do what they like, move around the peloton chatting to pals while eating canapes. As the stage approaches its business end, and it’s time to reel in the breakaway, assorted teams start having to get their ducks in a row ahead of the climax.
103km to go: Guillaume van Keirsbulck takes a turn at the front of the breakaway group, leaning on his handlebars with his forearms, his hands crossed in front of him as he gazes ahead of him. He looks thoroughly bored as he pedals along at 42 kilometres an hour. It’s one of those days on the Tour.
“The Tour has many traditions and Cavendish having a go at a cameraman seems to have become one of them!” writes Matt Cast. I remember a time, 11 years ago, when Mark Cavendish had never even ridden a Tour. I think this was one of his first, if not his very first interview with a British newspaper.
105km to go: The gap is closing a little. A man on an official race motorbike has just shown our four-man breakaway a blackboard with 5min 45sec chalked on it.
Doug writes: “Calling biased BS on that comment,” he says. “Cavendish got himself injured and out of the race and kept the rest of us from being able to watch Sagan in the Green Jersey competition by trying to move into a gap that didn’t exist. Sagan had to steady himself to keep from going over, but Cavendish is both a crybaby and a bully so still moans about it even though years before he had said that a sprinter should never try to do what he himself did in that situation.
“As Bob Roll [American former cyclist and commentator] said at the beginning of this year’s race, after the authorities admitted last December they should not have disqualified Sagan, Cavendish is about the only person left who thinks Sagan did anything wrong.
“The sooner Cavendish is out of the sport, the better, before he gets someone seriously injured.”
Crikey.
Another email: Doug English has been in touch to take graver exception to the closing line of William Fotheringham’s stage preview. Specifically, where Will says: “The race should have a more controlled pattern now – breakaway, chase, sprint – where it is to be hoped that Peter Sagan will stay in a straight line avoiding last year’s controversy.” Those are my italics. Anyway, over to you, Doug ...
111km to go: A reader email: “I’m sure that his team can set him up fine for a sprint without the radio,” writes Matt Cast on the subject of Mark Cavendish’s electronic issues. “But it is still handy so that he can get information about any dangers coming up on the road ahead, about how his rivals are looking and if any of them have dropped behind, about who is where if there is a split in the pack etc.”
A fair point, well made. I suppose also, when your team is sponsored by a company that specialises in “information technology services”, being unable to share information with your chief sprinter due to technological shortcomings is not a particularly good look.
116km to go: The peloton passes the gothic L’Eglise Saint Pierre, with the gap still at seven minutes. BMC rider Patrick Bevin tows the bunch along, with assorted Movistar riders just behind him. Their team leader, Nairo Quintana, is already two minutes off the pace with just three stages behind him.
120km to go: The gap from the four man breakaway to the peloton is just under seven minutes. The four escapees are unlikely top be harbouring any realistic notions of staying away and winning the stage, but stranger have happened. Here’s a compilation of some of the best breakaways from Cycling Weekly.
126km to go: The four-man breakaway of Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty), Jérôme Cousin (Direct Energie), Dimitri Claeys (Cofidis) and Anthony Perez (Cofidis) have a lead of 6min 48sec on the peloton, which is being led by Patrick Bevin of BMC, as the main field keep an eye on the gap.
Cav radio pack latest: His radio pack back in place under his shirt and his ablutions attended to, Cavendish sets off to rejoin the peloton after losing at least two minutes while having his technical difficulties attended to. You’d wonder if it’s really all that important for him to have a radio on a day like today, when nothing much is happening. If his team haven’t figured out how to set him up for a sprint at this stage, the presence or absence of a voice in his ear isn’t going to make much difference. Or am I talking nonsense? Answers on a postcard, or in an email, please.
Cav radio pack update: This is by far the most exciting thing to have happened so far today. Cavendish dismounts, goes into the grass verge to retrieve his radio and has it reinstalled by the mechanic, who is now out of the team car. The Dimension Data rider then gets cross with the cameraman who is filming all this excitement, as he wants to have a pee in private at the side of the road.
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136km to go: The peloton crosses Le Ponte de Barel, with Mark Cavendish dropping out of the bunch and going back to his team car to get some adjustments done to his radio pack. It’s a right palaver - he’s riding alongside the car with a mechanic hanging out the window fiddling about under his shirt, at which point the radio pack bounces out on to the road and lands in a ditch.
Today’s finish: At the business end of the race in Sarzeau, the riders will negotiate a left-hand turn with four kilometres to go and then Today there’s one left hander with 4km to go before a very, very, very, very, very, very long finishing straight of four kilometres that rises in the final two.
Of course, this isn’t the first time in his career that Burghardt has endured mid-Tour misfortune. Eleven years ago, he was unlucky enough to crash into the world’s hardest Labrador.
Updated
150km to go: The gap from the four-man breakaway to the bunch is now out to 7min 47sec.
Mitchelton Scott video diary: The Australian team finished a very creditable fourth in yesterday’s team time trial, just nine seconds off the pace. Here’s how they plotted and executed their ride.
158km to go: The gap is 7min 28sec and growing as the heli-cam gives us a nice aerial view of the Chateau de la Groulais. A mediaeval castle constructed in the 13th century and heavily remodelled in the 16th, it is located in the commune of Blain in the Loire-Atlantique département of France, according to Wikipedia.
Lawson Craddock watch: The EF Education First-Drapac rider from Texas has been riding with a broken shoulder and a badly cut face since crashing 100 kilometres into the first stage and says he is taking the Tour each stage at a time. ““I’m going to fight like hell,” he said yesterday. “I’ll see how I feel, the last thing I want to do is put others in danger as well as myself. I’ll give it my best shot and if I can get out there and get going, you better believe I am not just going to stop.”
Earlier this morning, he told an interviewer that his every waking minute off the bike is devoted to recovery and trying to make his shoulder as comfortable, but it sounds as if the 26-year-old is in a lot of pain. Craddock is raising money to help restore a velodrome that was damaged by Hurricane Harvey in his native Texas last year.
172km to go: The gap is 6min 35sec and the race’s virtual leader is Wanty rider Guillaume van Keirsulck. He’s the highest ranked of the four breakaway riders, having begun the day with a deficit of 4min 54sec.
176km to go: And I’m al;ready running out of things to say. This is clearly shaping up to be one of those leisurely stages where the breakaway stays clear of the peloton until the final kilometres of the stage, deluding themselves with the notion that this might just be their day, before getting swallowed up by the bunch as the sprinters prepare to duke it out for the win on today’s four-kilometre finishing straight.
180km to go: The gap from the four escapees to the peloton is now at 5min 59sec, with the bunch making no effort whatsoever to reel them in.
Those leaders again: Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty), Jérôme Cousin (Direct Energie), Dimitri Claeys (Cofidis) and Anthony Perez (Cofidis). That’s two Belgians and two Frenchmen, who are all obviously in a rush to get to the team hotel and watch tonight’s World Cup semi-final.
186km to go: The four-man breakaway have opened a gap of 2min 45sec on the bunch, which is being headed by assorted Sky and BMC riders.
191km to go: Your four-man breakaway: Guillaume Van Keirsbulck (Wanty), Jérôme Cousin (Direct Energie), Dimitri Claeys and Anthony Perez (Cofidis).
On the UK TV coverage, co-comms guy David Millar suggests that the riders of Cofidis have clearly had the mother of all dressing downs from their directeur sportif after their awful time-trial effort yesterday.
Updated
They’re racing: Christian Prudhomme drops the flag and the attacks start. There’s an immediate breakaway of four riders, including two from Cofidis.
A couple of mechanicals and a crash: Christian Prudhomme emerges from his car’s sun-roof and signals to the peloton to slow down. A couple of riders have crashed and Bora Hansgrohe rider Marcus Burghardt has crashed. They’ll start racing once the trio have rejoined the bunch.
Tour de France bingo: The riders continue their roll-out, waiting for the flag to signal the beginning of the day’s racing and in an adjacent field, a blonde woman in a billowing dress gallops alongside them on a horse, waving her straw hat. It’s a Tour staple that never gets old or tired.
From Vendée to La Baule, thanks for the warm welcome @paysdelaloire! See you! 💛🙏
— Le Tour de France (@LeTour) July 10, 2018
De la Vendée à La Baule, merci pour l'accueil @paysdelaloire ! 💛🙏#TDF2018 pic.twitter.com/6UXiZX3RUx
Off we go: The picturesque setting of La Baule is the setting for today’s roll-out, which is scheduled to last about 20 minutes before the day’s racing begins in earnest.
It’s a sunny day with little wind, writes minute-by-minute reporter from London bunker, which may detract from the afternoon’s excitement. As is customary, the riders are being led out by an official Tour car containing race director Christian Prudhomme.
The main jersey holders Greg van Avermaet (yellow), Peter Sagan (green), Dion Smith (polka dot) and Soren Kragh Anderson (white) lead the peloton on their leisurely procession through the streets.
The top 10 on General Classification: Following BMC’s victory in yesterday’s team time-trial, the Belgian Classics specialist and Olympic road race champion Greg van Avermaet will start today’s stage in the yellow jersey.
Stage three report: Jeremy Whittle was in Cholet to see Greg van Avermaet get zipped into the yellow jersey, while Chris Froome and Team Sky also enjoyed a good day. The poor start endured by Mark Cavendish’s Dimension Data team showed no sign of getting better.
Stage four: La Baule-Sarzeau (195km)
From William Fotheringham’s stage guide: Into the cycling heartland of Brittany for a third sprint day - no wonder the young Australian fastman Caleb Ewan was devastated to be left out. The race should have a more controlled pattern now – breakaway, chase, sprint – where it is to be hoped that Peter Sagan will stay in a straight line avoiding last year’s controversy.
