Friday, July 13, 2007
Stage 6: Semur-en-Auxois to Bourg-en-Bresse
The official list of abandonments is still free of entries for today, which is hopeful news for Geoffroy LeQuatre, Benjamin Noval and Andreas Klöden, but it may not have gotten updated today yet. Noval and Klöden have been cleared to start. It looks to be a cookie-cutter flattish stage today, heading southeast with a couple of category 4 climbs.
Cyclingnews.com says that LeQuatre did finish outside the time limit, but was reinstated by the jury due to his crash (and I hope, a little bit, due to his brave finish). However, his team manager says that he will not be able to continue today.
Update: Yes, indeed, Geoffroy LeQuatre, the brave French rider for Cofidis, was subsequently listed as a DNS on the official page of withdrawals. We wish him a speedy recovery. Noval and Klöden were able to finish today's stage. The Daily Peleton says "Vinokourov has lots of stitches in his knee while Klöden has a broken coccygeal vertebra (tail bone)", and notes Noval was visiting the race doctor during the stage, so we've got several riders who are hoping the rest day comes quickly.
Speaking of time limits, does anyone have a link to the cutoff times for the 2007 stages? I haven't been able to find them. They're kind of complicated, because they depend on both the rated difficulty of the stage and also the time of the winning rider. And then they can be waived by the jury for special circumstances, as well.
Our new Lanterne Rouge is Italian rider Enrico Degano of the wildcard entry Barloworld. He crashed in the feed zone today but recovered sufficiently to finish 16th in the stage. However, in yesterday's stage 5 he was the penultimate rider ahead of Geoffroy LeQautre and finished 23:11 behind the stage winner.
In other coverage, James Raia has trotted out the standard Lanterne Rouge article again this year.
Cyclingnews.com says that LeQuatre did finish outside the time limit, but was reinstated by the jury due to his crash (and I hope, a little bit, due to his brave finish). However, his team manager says that he will not be able to continue today.
Update: Yes, indeed, Geoffroy LeQuatre, the brave French rider for Cofidis, was subsequently listed as a DNS on the official page of withdrawals. We wish him a speedy recovery. Noval and Klöden were able to finish today's stage. The Daily Peleton says "Vinokourov has lots of stitches in his knee while Klöden has a broken coccygeal vertebra (tail bone)", and notes Noval was visiting the race doctor during the stage, so we've got several riders who are hoping the rest day comes quickly.
Speaking of time limits, does anyone have a link to the cutoff times for the 2007 stages? I haven't been able to find them. They're kind of complicated, because they depend on both the rated difficulty of the stage and also the time of the winning rider. And then they can be waived by the jury for special circumstances, as well.
Only six riders lost time today, and notably, the final finisher was on a solo breakaway for 190 km:
178. ZABRISKIE David 39 TEAM CSC 05:21:52 + 00:00:53
179. CARDENAS Félix 212 BARLOWORLD 05:21:55 + 00:00:56
180. BURGHARDT Marcus 22 T-MOBILE TEAM 05:22:59 + 00:02:00
181. CAVENDISH Mark 23 T-MOBILE TEAM 05:20:59 + 00:00:00
182. CHEULA Gianpaolo 213 BARLOWORLD 05:22:59 + 00:02:00
183. WIGGINS Bradley 149 COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 05:24:41 + 00:03:42
Our final five riders in the General Classification are now:
179. ZABRISKIE David 39 TEAM CSC 06:09:12 + 00:19:17
180. KUSCHYNSKI Aleksandr 156 LIQUIGAS 06:10:11 + 00:20:16
181. NAPOLITANO Danilo 86 LAMPRE-FONDITAL 06:10:28 + 00:20:33
182. CAVENDISH Mark 23 T-MOBILE TEAM 06:12:24 + 00:22:29
183. DEGANO Enrico 214 BARLOWORLD 06:15:14 + 00:25:19
Our new Lanterne Rouge is Italian rider Enrico Degano of the wildcard entry Barloworld. He crashed in the feed zone today but recovered sufficiently to finish 16th in the stage. However, in yesterday's stage 5 he was the penultimate rider ahead of Geoffroy LeQautre and finished 23:11 behind the stage winner.In other coverage, James Raia has trotted out the standard Lanterne Rouge article again this year.
Labels: Burghardt, Cardenas, Cavendish, Cheula, Degano, Klöden, Kuschynski, LeQuatre, Napolitano, Noval, Vinokourov, Wiggins, Zabriskie
