Posted on 07/07/2004 12:44:28 AM PDT by concentric circles
Mayo's Wasquehal Waterloo - McEwen snatches Maillot Jaune by one second
On the flat, windy fields where WWI's trench warfare raged almost 90 years ago, the Tour de France peloton battled and battered each other for position on the pave and in the innumerable turns on Stage Three. And at the end of the tumultuous, dramatic 202.5km stage, the Tour's fastest ever including pavé, a stage that took the Tour back to France, it was fittingly a Frenchman riding for a French team who won.
Jean-Patrick Nazon (Ag2r) took his team's second stage win today and his second career Tour stage win, throwing his bike for the win just ahead of crafty German sprinter Erik Zabel (T-Mobile), while yesterday's stage winner Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo) switched his Maillot Vert for the race leader's treasured Maillot Jaune.
"I just had great legs today," said Nazon. Already 5th and 3rd in this year's Tour, Nazon got a call from his older brother Damien, himself a sprinter on Crédit Agricole who isn't at the Tour this year. "Damien told me that I had to win today and that motivated me a lot. I was always well placed on the pavé and was able to beat Zabel who I knew was coming on my right. I'm really happy and want to share this win with my brother."
Robbie McEwen (Lotto-Domo) was even happier than Nazon today. The tough bantamweight Queensland sprinter made an audacious early move as yesterday but was passed with 50m to go by Nazon and Zabel, but still kept sprinting. But McEwen's 8" bonus was just enough to give him a 1" GC lead on Maillot Blanc Fabian Cancellara (Fassa Bortolo) and take the Maillot Jaune from Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole).
"I'm really happy to have the Maillot Jaune, as it's the first time I've had the leader's jersey in a grand tour, but I really wanted to win the stage! If I won the stage I would have had it anyway. I was a little bit far back with a kilometre and a half to go and when I finally found a gap I just decided to go. In the end it was a little bit too far... Nazon was very strong today."
Today's difficult stage had two key sections of pavé used in Paris-Roubaix that made everyone very nervous today before the stage. The entire peloton knew that a crash or a mechanical at the wrong moment could finish their Tour de France hopes and that's exactly what happened for Team Euskaltel-Euskadi. After Mayo crashed with six other riders, he couldn't get back to the front group. The front peloton of 83 riders raced in to Wasquehal almost four minutes ahead of the group Maillot Jaune, which contained a shattered Iban Mayo and his entire Euskaltel squad. Amid a stream of Basque expletive deleted, the angry, dejected Mayo declared after Stage Three that "It was the worst moment for me to crash... but in the Tour, it's possible to lose this much time. I think that now the Tour is now lost for me because it's difficult to gain back so much time and so is a podium place."
Lance Armstrong and his US Postal Service-Berry Floor team made the most of their opportunities today as Hincapie, Landis and Ekimov powered the front group that exploded the Tour GC today. A tired, dusty Armstrong said in Wasquehal "I had some experienced guys today to help me out (on the pavé) with George and Eki. It's unbelievable racing on the pavé; the second section wasn't as bad as the first."
Armstrong's team director Johan Bruyneel elaborated on Stage Three's action, saying "It was a bad day for some guys... and it was expected. For sure today you can not win the Tour de France, but you can lose the Tour de France. Nothing is finished yet, but almost four minutes for Mayo is a very, very important gap. Still, nobody waited but it was too nervous over the last 60km... Nobody waited for the Maillot Jaune either, and he was also behind."
How it unfolded Ever aggressive German rider Jens Voigt (CSC) attacked after only 3km today and was joined by Rabobanker Bram De Groot. By 20km, the duo had a gap of 2'30" and climbing. By Meerbeke where Voigt took the sprint points after 42km, the break had gained 5'35", with the average speed a blazing 46.8km/hr. After De Groot collected the points on the cobbled climb of Het Muur ahead of Voigt, with Bettini in 3rd 3'55" behind, the pace had settled down to 42.6 km/h average after two hours of racing. The gap went back up by the feed zone after 105km, where the duo had pounded out a lead of six and a half minutes on the chasing peloton. Plenty of punctures and mechanicals punctuated today's stage for riders like Levi Leipheimer, Magnus Bäckstedt and Tom Boonen, to mention a few. Up front, breakaway rider Jens Voigt had a bike change just before the first pavé sector to a special pavé bike.
As the first pavé section approached, panic reigned with 70km to go near Wallers as everyone fought for position before entering the 2.8km. stretch of cobbles. Seven riders hit the deck, including Iban Mayo and his Euskaltel teammate Iker Flores, two Quick.Step riders, Rogers and Bramati, Noval (USPS-Berry Floor), Gerrit Glomser (Saeco) and Marco Velo (Fassa Bortolo), who ended up in a ditch on his back with a broken collarbone and abandoned
After Mayo's crash, the entire Euskaltel team dropped back for him and began a desperate chase across the French countryside. As the peloton hit the first pavé section in Erre with 64km to go, US Postal powered away on the front 3'07" behind the break and they were now closing fast on the escape. With Hincapie, Ekimov and Landis hammering on the front, Postal's fast past caused a big split in the peloton and in the ensuing chaos, first 20 and eventually 40 riders had gapped the rest of the peloton, including Maillot Jaune Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole). Across the flat terrain of northern France, the desperate chase by the Hushovd / Mayo group continued and with 53km to go in Millionfosse, Voigt and De Groot were still away, with the Armstrong group closing at 30" and the Maillot Jaune at 2'30".
With 40km to go in Noumain, the break was finally caught and there were now about 40 riders up front, including Armstrong, Landis, Hincapie, Ekimov, Azevedo & Padrnos (USPS-Berry Floor), Ullrich, Kessler & Ivanov, (T Mobile), Hamilton, Jalabert, Gutierrez (Phonak), Basso, Voigt, Julich (CSC), Maillot Vert McEwen (Lotto-Domo), Maillot Blanc Cancellara (Fassa Bortolo) who was Maillot Jaune virtuel, De Groot & Leipheimer, Kirsipuu & Nazon (Ag2r), and Hondo (Gerolsteiner), while the group Maillot Jaune Hushovd, including Mayo and his entire Euskaltel team, was flat out about 2' behind in pursuit.
The gap between the Armstrong / Cancellara group and the Hushovd / Mayo group had stabilized at 2' with Illes Balears-Banesto now helping Euskaltel in the chase, but up front the lead group, which had swelled to half the peloton, was just too motivated. On the final sector of pavé in Gruson-Carrefour de l'Arbre with 25km remaining, the front group accelerated again as the chase became disorganized. Through Hem and into Roubaix on the outskirts of Lille, the gap continued to increase and by the finish in Wasquehal, the gap to the chase group, which also contained Christophe Moreau (Crédit Agricole) and Denis Menchov (Illes Balears-Banesto) had lost almost four minutes. JP Nazon took the sprint from Erik Zabel, with Maillot Jaune Robbie McEwen in third. Thanks to the 8" bonus, the Lotto-Domo man was able grab the Maillot Jaune from Hushovd, with just a 1" advantage over Maillot Blanc Cancellara.
Graham Watson
Viatcheslav Ekimov leads the chase on the first section of pavé at Erre.
Graham Watson
Armstrong then finds company in the leading group with Hamilton and Ullrich.
I feel sorry for these guys that get badly hurt.. all the work they put in, shot down the tubes by an unlucky spill..
Note to race organizers, we already have a race over cobblestones. Let's leave it out of the Tour from now on.
If team Postal dominates the trial today and only picks up the "allowed" 2:30, I scream like a banshee if I were Lance. What a pile of crap.
Thanks for the post, pictures. Lance Armstrong is truly one the greatest athletes of all time.
Note to race organizers, we already have a race over cobblestones. Let's leave it out of the Tour from now on.
Let's have the "nanny state" even more involved in our lives also?
The "cobblestones" are simply an old roadway - the danger is from the other bikers who are cutthroat euros, not the inanimate rocks (shades of the SUV).
While we're at it, why don't they all wear football padding to protect them? airbags would help?
If Euskatel loses the maximum 2:30, Mayo will be out in all but name. 6+ minutes will be too much to make up, especially considering he'll give up another couple minutes at the last time trial. And then there were four (three of whom are Americans!)...
Note to race organizers, we already have a race over cobblestones. Let's leave it out of the Tour from now on.
Agreed. The outcome of a 23-day race shouldn't be decided by 2km of flat racing.
If team Postal dominates the trial today and only picks up the "allowed" 2:30, I scream like a banshee if I were Lance. What a pile of crap.
Leave it to Europeans to invent such a rule. Maybe next year we can work it so that the TTT is just an exhibition and no time is lost. Utterly ridiculous.
?
The race is almost 3400 km long. Why should 3km of flat racing factor so heavily in the final outcome?
It is their race - why not? They wanted it in there probably for geo-political reasons - the bikers voluntarily race - want more?
This is the same as wanting to ban auto racing around corners because there are crashes there - lets ban hills that kids take skate boards down -- OH! I just thought of one you would love - let's ban KIDS! Then there would be no accidents.
Yes, this is the 'nanny state' mentality. Oooh, you got a boo-boo. Let hillary fix it for you.
A nanny state mentality would be me calling for an American boycott or the force of law to ensure no pave sections ever appear in the TDF again. I'm merely stating I don't think it should be in. Period.
This is a pretty simple distinction. I'm not sure why it's lost on you.
Thanks again, concentric circles! :-)
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What does the "nanny state" have to do with race organizers? What a stupid statement.
If cobblestones were part of every Tour, you would have a (marginal) point, but they aren't. It isn't a test of who can ride on bad roads, it is a test of the best rider over 3 weeks.
No suprise, Team Postal wins the team time trial.
Yep, and the time losses (not surprisingly) worked against them. What a dominant performance - I can hardly wait to get home and watch it on OLN tonight!
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