NOT an easy stage here!: 
NOT an easy stage here!:
By John Wilcockson
VeloNews editorial director
This report filed July 14, 2006
Following their blank-out on the big Pyrenean climbing stage on Thursday, Discovery Channel team boss Johan Bruyneel sat down his riders Friday morning to tell them "another Tour is beginning for us." Then just before the stage 12 start in Luchon, Bruyneel told Yaroslav Popovych to "go out and win the stage." And that's just what he did.
It wasn't all joy for Discovery, though, because two of its nine riders left the race. Paolo Savoldelli, injured after colliding with a spectator while returning to his hotel from the Pla-de-Beret finish Thursday evening, was too dizzy to follow the pack on the first (Cat. 2) climb Friday and dropped out. The Italian was soon followed onto the day's list of five abandons by Spanish teammate Benjamin Noval.
Down to seven men, Discovery will have to ride even smarter if they want to win again. On Friday, when a 14-man break went clear early, Discovery (led by José Azevedo) led the chase to bring it back; George Hincapie jumped into the next attack and stayed clear until 94km; Popovych immediately counterattacked and brought home the stage win two and a half hours later.
Racing the whole of stage 12 at 46 kph on mostly hilly back roads added to the difficulties of a stage run in humid, 90-degree weather. Conditions are forecast to be similar on Saturday, when the 160 survivors face the longest stage of the Tour: 230km from Béziers to Montélimar.
The stage, which features five Cat. 4 climbs and many undulations in between, is perfect for a breakaway. Discovery is sure to try to get into the attacks, although with Popovych (10th overall at 4:25) and Azevedo (19th at 7:42) both marked men, and with Hincapie unlikely to break out again after his efforts on Friday, the responsibility for making the winning break lies with Spaniards Egoï Martinez and José Luis Rubiera and Russian veteran Viatcheslav Ekimov.
The sprinters showed Friday that they are content to pick up the green-jersey points remaining after the break has scooped up the first ones. Several of them (Robbie McEwen, Tom Boonen, Thor Hushovd and Daniele Bennati) went into breaks Friday before Rabobank's Oscar Freire got into the winning move to finish third. He picked up 26 points to go into second place in the points competition, now only 25 points behind leader Robbie McEwen.
If a sprinter is again allowed to get into the breakaway that matters (it won't be Freire), the most likely candidates are Erik Zabel (Milram) and Hushovd (Crédit Agricole), who are respectively 71 and 87 points back - in other words, out of contention.
Wouldn't it be great to see Zabel, 36, and Ekimov, 40, fighting out the stage victory in Montélimar Saturday afternoon? Both long in the tooth, they might have a problem biting into the city's specialty, nougat candy, but a win for the old guys would leave a good taste in the mouth.