IT SEEMED, for 185km of yesterday's 14th stage of the Tour de France, that Mark Cavendish might once again provide the coup de grace to win a mass bunch sprint in Digne-les-Bains, on the edge of the Alps.
It is not the type of terrain that Cavendish, who already has four stage wins in this Tour, would usually enjoy, but yesterday's stage was marked by a strong tailwind, the type of which often means the bunch remains intact. And so it appeared until t
he final 10km, when a vicious little climb, the Col de L'Orme, finally forced a split. As several of the other sprinters' teams began to force the pace at the front the 23-year old couldn't hold on. He slipped out the back and eventually crossed the line in a small group more than three minutes down.
With that, he might also have pedalled his last in this year's Tour, with his team manager, Bob Stapleton, admitting later that he is unlikely to start today's first Alpine stage. "He's had a great Tour," said Stapleton. "There's plenty of time for him to reach Paris in the future; we're looking ahead to the next two or three years, not the next two or three days."
It was Oscar Freire who finally bagged a stage for a sprinter who doesn't come from the Isle of Man, edging out Leonardo Duque and Erik Zabel. It was a stage that, on paper, looked suited to Scotland's David Millar. Apart from being the kind of undulating course that he relishes, the omens were good: after 37km it passed through Saint-Remy-De-Provence, the town that became home to the Scotland team at the 1998 World Cup. As it turned out, 21 riders had broken clear by the time the race passed through the town – having established a lead of a minute – but Millar wasn't among them.
The race for the yellow jersey remains as open as it has been for years, with Cadel Evans holding on to the smallest lead possible: one second over Frank Schleck of Luxembourg. The Australian has seemed, in the first two weeks, to be the strongest rider in the race, but the same cannot be said of his Silence-Lotto team, which has struggled to support their leader. By contrast, Schleck's CSC squad is arguably the most powerful in the sport, and they have other cards to play, with Carlos Sastre and Schleck's younger brother, Andy, both still in contention.
Evans has admitted that he is concerned, in particular, with today's stage, which includes two major climbs, the Angel Pass and Prato Nevoso, and more than 100km of valley roads in between. If Evans finds himself isolated after the Angel Pass, which comes after just 58km, then he knows CSC could strike.
The Alps are particularly difficult this year, with Tuesday's stage including an ascent of Europe's highest pass, the La Bonette-Restefond, which has featured just three times in the Tour. Only two men hold the honour of being first to the summit, however – the legendary Spanish climber Federico Bahamontes, who led up it twice, and Scotland's Robert Millar, the 1984 King of the Mountains. Millar was first to the summit in 1993, his final Tour, beating a field that included five-time winner Miguel Indurain.
The full article contains 568 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
