Tour de France - Week One
A Review of the Tour de France 2008 – Week One
The first week of the 2008 Tour de France has proven to be nothing if not eventful. Traditionally the opening week is a relatively quiet time for the race's main contenders with the Tour's sprinters taking prominence in a series of flat stages. Not so this year. With perhaps the most interesting route in years, the first week of the 2008 Tour has seen some surprising results.
GC Contender Takes First Stage
The first surprise came on the very first stage, a 197.5 kilometre ride from Brest to Plumelec in Brittany. With 300 metres to go one of the major favourites for overall victory in the General Classification (GC), Spanish rider Alejandro Valverde, launched an attack managing to comfortably take the win by a second.
What makes this result a surprise is not so much that Valverde took the victory but that he opted to attack and contest the win. He is a serious contender for overall victory and it is rare indeed for such a rider to take risks and expend valuable energy so early in the race. With Valverde in the maillot jaune on day one, it remained to be seen if his Caisse d'Eparge team would attempt to defend the jersey in the days to come.
French Riders Prominent in Breakaways
The opening week of this year's Tour has seen French riders prominent in a number of breakaways. During Stage Two Sylvain Chavenel and Thomas Voeckler escaped from the peloton and at one point held a lead of over six minutes. With 57 kilometres to go they were joined by another two French riders from the Agritubel team. The four riders worked well together but could not hold on and the peloton caught them with under one kilometre to go.
However, the next day saw a change of fortune. Again there was a break of four riders this time two of whom were from France – Dumoulin of Cofidis and Feillu of Agritubel. This time the breakaway succeeded and there was a double celebration for the French nation as Dumoulin took the stage victory and Feillu moved to the top of the GC and took over the yellow jersey. With Thomas Voeckler also leading the King of the Mountains competition, France had much to celebrate during the podium presentations.
Time Trial Surprise
Stage Four's Time Trial saw perhaps a surprising result with Gerolsteiner rider Stefan Schumacher taking both the victory and the yellow jersey. He outperformed more acknowledged time trialists such as David Millar, Cadel Evans and also beat world champion Fabian Cancellara by over 30 seconds. Cancellara later conceded that he knew pretty early on that the stage would not be his, telling velonews.tv, 'I was not the machine that normally I can be.'
The biggest loser on the day though was Valverde who gave up over a minute to his main GC rival Cadel Evans, time he will need to recover in the mountains.
Middle Mountain Mayhem
After a rare flat stage, won by British rider Mark Cavendish, the Tour headed into the Massif Central and two stages in the middle mountains.
The stages saw a wave of attacks with the Caisse d'Epargne, Columbia and Gerolsteiner teams all featuring prominently in order to protect their leaders. Stage six, the first summit finish of this year's race, to the ski station of Super Besse, was won by Riccardo Ricco of Saunier Duval with Team Colombia's Kim Kirchen taking over in the yellow jersey and Cadel Evans moving up into second place. Stage seven saw Caisse d'Epargne rider Luis-Leon Sanchez breakaway in the final kilometres to take an emotional win, pointing to the heavens as he crossed the line. At the stage finish Sanchez said, 'I dedicate this victory foremost to my brother who died a few years ago.'
So, with no fewer than four different riders pulling on the golden fleece over the course of the first seven stages there has been plenty of interesting developments during the first week of the tour.
The first high mountain stages in the Pyrenees are now looming large on the horizon, including this year's first hors category climb up the legendary Col de Tourmalet. With Cadel Evans well placed and Alejandro Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne team looking very strong, not to mention three fancied CSC-Saxobank riders quietly not too far off the pace, a fascinating second week is in store.
General Classification after Stage 7
1. K. Kirchen (LUX) COL: 28 hours, 23 mins, 40 sec
2. C. Evans (AUS) SIL: @ 6 seconds
3. S. Schumacher (GER) GST @ 16 seconds
Selected others:
5. D. Menchov (RUS) RAB: @ 1 min, 3 seconds
6. A. Valverde (ESP) GCE: @ 1 min, 12 seconds
12. C. Sastre (ESP) CSC: @ 1 min, 34 seconds
13. F. Schleck (LUX) CSC: @ 1 min, 56 seconds
14. A. Schleck (LUX) CSC: @ 1 min, 58 seconds
References
Cycle Sport Magazine, July 2008 Edition
Official Tour de France website
