Sunday, July 05, 2009

Stage 2: Monaco to Brignoles

It seems that Yauheni Hutarovich (FdJ) wishes to hold onto the Lanterne Rouge for a while. He finished today's bunch sprint stage in 179th position at 7:14 behind the entire peloton, with only Andreas Klier of Cervelo for company.

It looks as though Hutarovich may hold position for the next few days. He gave a couple of recent interviews:

Velo 101 (in French), from an interview in Monaco on July 3rd (badly translated):

"What feelings do you feel the day before the departure of your first Tour de France? "
"The best possible ones. I have just gained my national championship for the second consecutive year. A selection for the Tour, I am really in a dream."

Another French site, 7sur7, indicates he had a fall in Stage 2, accounting for his late arrival at the finish line (badly translated):

"Unhappy - The Bélarussian of Française des Jeux Yauheni Hutarovich, began his Tour de France in the worst way. Last against-the-watch in the inaugural time trial Saturday in Monaco, he fell with less than 20 km from the finish of the second phase, between Monaco and Brignoles. In the plan of the team, Hutarovich is supposed to dispute the sprints for stage wins."

Klier apparently had a wheel problem today and had to wait for a mechanic.

Jurgen van der Walle of Quick Step (2008 national champion) crashed today in stage two. He's the first rider out of the 2009 Tour, in the hospital with a punctured lung and broken clavicle. http://tinyurl.com/r3ejgf Incredibly, he apparently attempted to continue for some time after the crash in that condition! That brings the peloton down to 179 riders.

There were a few other crashes today. As always during the Tour I'll add details on the injuries and abandons as I can dig them up from the very sporadic medical releases that are posted online. I'm not sure it would be any easier to get these details sitting in that hot press tent on site, though.

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Comments:
what a pity for Jurgen Vandewalle
 
Indeed they are tough competitors, certainly hard to be out so soon. I'm worried about Michael Rogers as he had a fall in the prelim ride around the course the day before the time trial and then had wheel problems on the same stage too and he's not had the best luck with the Tour...

Interesting little blog by the way and its nice to know someones thinking of all those riders who aren't doing so well as those at the front of the pack
 
Here's an interesting piece on Mick Rogers today - claims to have started the break - good luck for the team!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/differing-accounts-from-cavendish-and-rogers-on-stage-3

Thanks for the kind words!!
 
Preview: Tour de France: Stage 12. by: Gerald Weinand. Thu Jul 16, 2009 at 00:00:00 AM EDT. With ten stages to go counting this 12th one, the race is now past the halfway point. Of course, the ride through the Alps awaits, but for now, ...
More here:Tour de France: Stage 12-video
 
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