Stage 6 Recap — And How To Bet Tomorrow’s Stage 7
Dear God. We’re good, and we just keep getting better. I challenge the Versus crew to match our results so far in telling you each day what the next day’s stage will entail. Our crystal ball is warmer than the underside of your Mac AirBook. You techies will appreciate what that means.
Anyway, let’s review for the pleasure and glory of yours truly, some of the things we told you yesterday would unfold today.
As you’ll no doubt recall, we said the following things -
“Stage 6 is when things start to get interesting as the climbers try to out-do each other and to put time on the sprinters and TT guys, and the GC guys try to stay near the front while staying out of the “red zone” physically…
“It’s a chance for “young guns” to show some leg and possibly put some of the big names in danger…
“Suffering 150 kilometers of ups and downs before the big climbs begin will plant the seeds for some interesting breakaways.
“Who would we expect to see taking a flyer….climbers…hoping to possibly recover minutes of time on the pack, or aggressive riders….looking for an opportunity for a big surprise that could put them back into GC contention.
“…you don’t have to be a pure mountain guy to win it.
“Some jersies we’ll be watching for surprise attacks possibly early on will include Oscar Periero, Denis Menchov, Jaroslav Popovich, Jens Voigt, Sandy Casar, Will Frischkorn, Danny Pate, Thomas Voekler, Ricardo Ricco, and Frank Schleck.
“You’ll also see every French climber looking for a little breakaway group to work in with.
“Cadel will stay near the front, doing peleton-algebra to keep up with the riders who’ve jumped ahead and making sure none of them get enough time to upset his GC standing. Cadel will keep an especially close eye on Schumacher, Kirchen and Vande Velde, Hincapie, Menchov and Voigt.
“This stage shouldn’t overwhelm Cadel, but the uphill finish will have all of the big names going into the red zone, while I’d look for some of the young guns who have shown their wings climbing steeper hills in the Tour d’Italia to try to break him.
“Once again, this will be a stage that won’t hand Cadel the win…[but] we think he’ll survive in good position.
“We’re hoping Jens or Andy or Ricardo, or maybe Kim Kirchen can manage to ratchet up the drama…”
Let’s say it again — did we nail this, or what?
Anyway, by now you know how it all came out. Ricco took his first ever Tour stage, and we weren’t surprised at all. It was made for him, and we’d said so.
Valverde went aggressively, as he had to, and Cadel sucked Valverde’s tire to the finish line.
Frank Schleck also needed to ride aggressively, because he does this once a week or so when his mind comes back from wandering in the woods.
Kim Kirchen notched fifth place on the day and climbed into yellow in the GC, showing he’s serious about remaining a GC podium threat and intending to ensure Cadel Evans has to work for the top spot if he’s to earn it this year.
Denis Menchov and Carlos Sastre rode well, as they needed to, but not enough to make up time on Cadel. In fact, they lost a few seconds and Cadel’s gotta be feeling pretty confident about his ability to stave them off on the more serious mountain stages ahead.
In total, there weren’t a lot of surprises in terms of who did well on Stage 6. However, there were some real surprise disappointments on the day, and there are some riders who managed to dig themselves into a bit deeper of a hole than they should have. Here are some examples -
2006 Tour winner by default, Oscar Periero, managed only 13th place. Not bad for anybody else, but he should be capable of more.
Christian Vande Velde arrived 23 seconds behind Ricco, and those will be tough seconds to make up on another day.
Falling off his bike at just the wrong moment left Stefan Schumacher, who’d been wearing yellow all day, in 25th place and looking to don Gerolsteiner’s baby blue again tomorrow. Stephan, it’s called Following Too Closely. Don’t Do It.
After Schumacher, Damiano Cunego and Andy Schleck rolled in. They lost more than a half minute on Ricco’s finishing time, and added to their GC deficit. I have to say, I expected one of them - namely Andy - to fire the afterburner today and give Ricco some competition. Perhaps some of brother’s Frank’s lethargy rubbed off in the team bus.
Another young gun who failed to bring his A-Game was Kanstantsin Siutsou. This guy tore peoples’ legs off on Brasstown Bald at the Tour de Georgia in April, taking the stage and the GC win in the process. Maybe he’s just waiting for some harder climbs before he shows what a talented climber his is. On the other hand, he added more than a minute to his own deficit, so we’d counsel him not to wait TOO MUCH LONGER, thank you very much.
Finally, good old George Hincapie lost a minute twenty on the day, and slips out of the GC top ten position (#7, specifically) he started the day in, and now rests in 15th, almost two minutes back from teammate Kim Kirchen.
Where the GC Stands after Stage 6
Okay, so Kim Kirchen now sits in yellow, a whopping six seconds ahead of Cadel Evans. Schumacher fell from grace, and from his bike, and now sits in the #3 position. Christian Vande Velde is 44 seconds behind Kirchen, and sits in 4th place. Surprisingly, in our view, is that David Millar is #5 at this point. He’s having a great Tour, for sure.
Some other notables include Thomas Lovkvist, who didn’t have his best day today, and now sits almost a minute off the GC lead, just ahead of Denis Menchov who has the #7 position. Valverde’s “recovery” today from his mediocre TT performance finds him sitting #8, two spots in front of teammate Oscar Periero.
Stijn Devolder is ninth, and Carlos Sastre is further down the list at 12th spot. The Schleck brothers sit at 17 (Frank) and 18 (Andy), and the rambunctious Riccardo Ricco is now in 31st in the GC, almost 4 full minutes behind Kim Kirchen.
Predictions About Stage 7
About a 2 on a scale of 10, in terms of excitement.
We’re anticipating tomorrow’s rollers will launch at least one French-centric breakaways that will be given very little latitude to upset the peloton. They’ll get their face time on Versus and some Mountains points, and little else. A group sprint will take place, and we’d put our money on Mark Cavendish and his great Columbia leadout train to take it once again.
Don’t look for any meaningful changes in the GC standings until we get the Pyrenees in coming days.
Categories: Humor, System6, Tour de France
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