A crazy general classification at the end of a crazy day

• Photos
• Results

By Bryan Jew, VeloNews senior writer

Dekker had time for a shower and maybe a massage before the peloton arrived.

Photo: Graham Watson

…and in back, it was just cold and wet.

Photo: Graham Watson

After an opening week at the Tour de France during which everyone was on edge, with riders struggling at their limit in the crosswinds every day, something had to give. And it finally did on Sunday.

A typical group of headbangers went out on the early breakaway, just as you would expect on a long transitional stage, two days before the first high mountain passes of the Tour. But the end result added yet another twist to this year’s Tour, turning the standings upside down, putting the yellow leader’s jersey back onto the shoulders of Stuart O’Grady, and introducing a possible wild card into the fight for the overall Tour victory.

Aussie colors: Credit Agricole green and Tour de France yellow

Photo: Graham Watson

In the end, last year’s triple stage winner, Erik Dekker (Rabobank), took the stage win on a crazy, cold, rainy day at the Tour.

The day began under unstable skies and temperatures in the 50s F in Colmar, with just a temporary break in the mid-day rain at the start. But as the peloton rolled along the tree-lined roads of the Haut-Rhin region, the rain began to fall again, and it wouldn’t let up all the way to the finish in Pontarlier, a long 222.5km away.

And soon after the skies opened up, the race broke apart. Just 5km into the race, a crash in the peloton caused a little confusion, and a small group of four escaped: Nicola Loda (Fassa Bortolo), Marc Wauters (Rabobank), Ludo Dierckxsens (Lampre-Daikin) and Aitor Gonzalez (Kelme-Costa Blanca).

Caught behind was defending champion Lance Armstrong. “The peloton was split, but we had a couple of guys waiting for Lance,” said U.S. Postal team director Johan Bruyneel.

That was enough of an opening for the break to slip away, though, and they were shortly joined by 11 others, including Dekker, his Rabobank teammate Bram De Groot, O’Grady, Servais Knaven (Domo-Farm Frites), Ludo Dierckxsens (Lampre-Daikin), Andrei Kivilev (Cofidis) and Alexandre Vinokourov (Telekom).

The presence of Vinokourov was about the only thing that could potentially slow the progress of the breakaway. Starting the day in 23rd place overall, the teammate of Jan Ullrich would be a potential general classification threat if allowed to gain too much time.

So initially, the Postal and ONCE teams went to the front to take on the chase. But then came a little bit of luck. Good for the break, bad for Vinokourov.

“I was hoping Vinokourov would have a flat, and he did,” said Dekker.

The Kazakh rider dropped back to get his wheel change, and then sat up to wait for the peloton. At that point, Postal and ONCE called off the dogs, and the break was on. At the 42km mark the gap had grown to 2:30. Seven kilometers later, it was 5:10. Five kilometers after that, 7:20.

Behind, in the cold, dreary conditions, no team had any motivation to chase, and the lead ballooned to a ridiculous 27 minutes by the feed zone at the 101.5km mark.

At that point, some questions began to arise, including whether the entire peloton was in danger of being eliminated as a result of finishing outside of the time cut. That was never really a concern, as the rules account for a situation in which more than 20 percent of the peloton finishes outside of the time limit (which was 10 percent of the winning time for Sunday’s stage), but still, there were jokes about the possibility of a 14-rider Tour de France for the next two weeks.

Also up for debate was where such a gap would be remembered in the annals of the Tour de France. The biggest gap for a group breakaway in recent memory was probably the 17 minutes gained by a group of four riders in Stage 4 of the 1984 Tour, launching Renault’s Vincent Barteau into the yellow jersey, which he held for 13 days.

On Sunday, Crédit Agricole was hoping to put O’Grady back in yellow, a day after he gave it up to teammate Jens Voigt. “We just had to make sure we didn’t miss out on any breakaways,” said O’Grady. “The same strategy as the last couple of days.”

As the lead continued to grow, to more than 30 minutes, O’Grady was virtually assured of being back in yellow by the end of the night. All that was left was the fight for the stage win as the leaders passed through a beautiful green valley along the Doubs River on their way to the finish in Pontarlier.

In the closing 40km, the attacks began to come, and with Rabobank having three riders in the break, its riders were the ones in just about every move. At about the 180km mark, Wauters and Knaven went off the front, chased down by Kelme’s Aitor Gonzalez, and then by Durand, De Groot and Ludovic Turpin (Ag2R). That group stayed intact through the twisty trip through the streets of Morteau, while behind, the breakaway was losing one rider, Festina’s Pascal Chanteur.

At the 25km mark, the remaining seven riders rejoined the six leaders, but just as the catch was made, Knaven and Dekker counterattacked, quickly gaining a 15-second gap. Again it was Gonzalez who chased them down, this time tailed by Wauters, setting up the final group of four.

Coming into the finishing town of Pontarlier, Knaven, Dekker and Wauters took turns attacking, but the finish came down to a four-up sprint, despite Wauters almost sliding out on a right-hand turn with 2.5km to go.

As the riders hit the 1km-to-go mark, Wauters took the front, although the pace was slow until he began to wind it up with 500 meters to go. With 250 to go, the Spaniard Gonzalez — who had chased down just about everything — jumped into the lead and looked like he might pull off the win, but at the line, Dekker came around from fourth spot and took the win decisively, capping off a breakaway of more than 200km.

Of course, that’s nothing new for the Dutchman, who last year spent nearly 900km in breakaways en route to his three stage wins. Dekker got off to a slow start in this year’s Tour, but he’s now scored the second win for his team, to go along with Wauters’s win in Antwerp on Stage 3.

“I feel better day after day,” he said. “I was ill for a few days after we left [the start] in Dunkirk, but now I feel okay.”

He definitely felt better than O’Grady, who, after taking the yellow jersey, was shivering and began to turn blue during a radio interview. “Today was an epic day,” he said before being taken away to warm up. “I’m absolutely freezing at the moment.”

But at least O’Grady could get warm a half hour before the rest of the peloton, which was finally driven home by the CSC and Crédit Agricole teams on a day when no one was at all motivated to chase. For the 161 riders in the peloton, it was across the line, straight to the team buses, and back to the hotels as soon as possible.

While Dekker took the stage, and O’Grady regained the yellow jersey (as well as taking over the lead in the green-jersey points competition), Cofidis’s Kivilev will also draw some attention in the upcoming days. The strong climber hasn’t fared well in the cross winds of the opening week, which was why he was 26 minutes behind at the start of the day, but now he’ll have a 11-to-13-minute head start on riders like Bobby Julich, Armstrong and Jan Ullrich as the race heads into the critical mountain stages beginning with Tuesday’s stage to Alpe d’Huez.

The true contenders should emerge once those mountains arrive, but for now, Stuart O’Grady lead the Tour once again, with François Simon (Bonjour) in second and Bram De Groot in third, while riders like Armstrong, Ullrich, Joseba Beloki (ONCE), Christophe Moreau (Festina) and Bobby Julich (Crédit Agricole) are all more than 33 minutes behind in the overall standings. A crazy general classification at the end of a crazy day.

Photo Gallery

Results

Stage 8 : Colmar — Pontarlier
(Click for overall standings after Stage 8)

1. DEKKER Erik (Nl), Rabobank, in 4:59:18;
2. GONZALEZ Aitor (Sp), Kelme;
3. KNAVEN Servais (Nl), Domo-Farm Frites, both s.t.;
4. WAUTERS Marc (B), Rabobank, at 00:04;
5. O’GRADY Stuart (Aus), Credit Agricole, at 02:32;
6. TEUTENBERG Sven (G), Festina;
7. DURAND Jacky (F), La Française Des Jeux;
8. DE GROOT Bram (Nl), Rabobank;
9. DIERCKXSENS Ludo (B), Lampre-Daikin;
10. LODA Nicola (I), Fassa Bortolo;
11. TURPIN Ludovic (F), Ag2r, all s.t.;
12. SIMON François (F), Bonjour, at 02:36;
13. KIVILEV Andrei (Kz), Cofidis, at 02:40;
14. CHANTEUR Pascal (F), Festina, at 09:23;
15. HUNTER Robert (RSA), Lampre-Daikin, at 35:54;
16. ZABEL Erik (G), Deutsche Telekom;
17. FRUTTI Matteo (I), Lampre-Daikin;
18. GUTIERREZ José Enrique (Sp), Kelme;
19. CAPELLE Christophe (F), Bigmat Auber ’93;
20. AUGER Guillaume (F), Bigmat Auber ’93;
21. MOREAU Christophe (F), Festina;
22. ULLRICH Jan (G), Deutsche Telekom;
23. BENETEAU Walter (F), Bonjour;
24. VOIGT Jens (G), Credit Agricole;
25. AGNOLUTTO Christophe (F), Ag2r;
26. VAN DE WOUWER Kurt (B), Lotto;
27. BRARD Florent (F), Festina;
28. JULICH Bobby (USA), Credit Agricole;
29. GONZALEZ GALDEANO Igor (Sp), O.N.C.E.;
30. BOTERO Santiago (Col), Kelme;
31. KLODEN Andréas (G), Deutsche Telekom;
32. BAGUET Serge (B), Lotto;
33. ROUS Didier (F), Bonjour;
34. BESSY Frédéric (F), Credit Agricole;
35. AERTS Mario (B), Lotto;
36. GARZELLI Stefano (I), Mapei;
37. HUSHOVD Thor (N), Credit Agricole;
38. JALABERT Laurent (F), CSC-Tiscali;
39. GUESDON Frédéric (F), La Française Des Jeux;
40. SORENSEN Rolf (Dk), CSC-Tiscali;
41. BELOKI Joseba (Sp), O.N.C.E.;
42. BLAUDZUN Michaël (Dk), CSC-Tiscali;
43. PRADERA Mikel (Sp), O.N.C.E.;
44. HEULOT Stéphane (F), Bigmat Auber ’93;
45. SEVILLA Oscar (Sp), Kelme;
46. EKIMOV Vjatceslav (Rus), U.S. Postal;
47. TAULER Antonio (Sp), Kelme;
48. JENNER Christopher (NZ), Credit Agricole;
49. GUTIERREZ Ivan (Sp), O.N.C.E.;
50. MORIN Anthony (F), Credit Agricole;
51. ARMSTRONG Lance (USA), U.S. Postal;
52. HINAULT Sébastien (F), Credit Agricole;
53. VAINSTEINS Romans (Lat), Domo-Farm Frites;
54. JAKSCHE Jorg (G), O.N.C.E.;
55. CHAVANEL Sylvain (F), Bonjour;
56. ETXEBARRIA David (Sp), Euskaltel- Euskadi;
57. WESEMANN Steffen (G), Deutsche Telekom;
58. STEELS Tom (B), Mapei;
59. ODRIOZOLA Jon (Sp), iBanesto.com;
60. LARSEN Nicolay Bo (Dk), CSC-Tiscali;
61. BELLI Wladimir (I), Fassa Bortolo;
62. VERSTREPEN Johan (B), Lampre-Daikin;
63. SORENSEN Nicki (Dk), CSC-Tiscali;
64. HAMILTON Tyler (USA), U.S. Postal;
65. HINCAPIE George (USA), U.S. Postal;
66. PERRAUDEAU Olivier (F), Bonjour;
67. VAN HYFTE Paul (B), Lotto;
68. VERHEYEN Geert (B), Rabobank;
69. MANCEBO Francisco (Sp), iBanesto.com;
70. MILESI Marco (I), Domo-Farm Frites;
71. SERRANO Marcos (Sp), O.N.C.E.;
72. BOOGERD Michaël (Nl), Rabobank;
73. MERCKX Axel (B), Domo-Farm Frites;
74. WADECKI Piotr (Pol), Domo-Farm Frites;
75. CHAURREAU Inigo (Sp), Euskaltel- Euskadi;
76. BROCHARD Laurent (F), Jean Delatour;
77. VAUGHTERS Jonathan (USA), Credit Agricole;
78. TRENTIN Guido (I), Cofidis;
79. BOTCHAROV Alexandre (Rus), Ag2r;
80. LELLI Massimiliano (I), Cofidis;
81. HALGAND Patrice (F), Jean Delatour;
82. PENA Victor Hugo (Col), U.S. Postal;
83. BOUVARD Gilles (F), Jean Delatour;
84. CASERO Angel (Sp), Festina;
85. GARCIA-ACOSTA Vicente (Sp), iBanesto.com;
86. KIRSIPUU Jaan (Est), Ag2r;
87. GARCIA CASAS Félix (Sp), Festina;
88. GONZALEZ GALDEANO Alvaro (Sp), O.N.C.E.;
89. BARTOLI Michele (I), Mapei;
90. NIERMANN Grischa (G), Rabobank;
91. GOUVENOU Thierry (F), Bigmat Auber ’93;
92. BETTINI Paolo (I), Mapei;
93. VINOKOUROV Alexandre (Kz), Deutsche Telekom;
94. ATIENZA Daniel (Sp), Cofidis;
95. BRAMATI Davide (I), Mapei;
96. CEREZO Francisco (Sp), CSC-Tiscali;
97. CASPER Jimmy (F), La Française Des Jeux;
98. HEPPNER Jens (G), Deutsche Telekom;
99. BOLTS Udo (G), Deutsche Telekom;
100. SCHNIDER Daniel SUI La Française Des Jeux;
101. LEYSEN Bart (B), Mapei;
102. PIEPOLI Leonardo (I), iBanesto.com;
103. PETACCHI Alessandro (I), Fassa Bortolo;
104. MAIGNAN Gilles (F), Ag2r;
105. SASTRE Carlos (Sp), O.N.C.E.;
106. BROZYNA Thomasz (Pol), iBanesto.com;
107. CAPELLE Ludovic (B), Ag2r;
108. BALDATO Fabio (I), Fassa Bortolo;
109. ROBIN Jean-Cyril (F), Bonjour;
110. SALMON Benoit (F), Ag2r;
111. LOTZ Marc (Nl), Rabobank;
112. DEN BAKKER Maarten (Nl), Rabobank;
113. PINOTTI Marco (I), Lampre-Daikin;
114. RENIER Franck (F), Bonjour;
115. MONTGOMERY Sven SUI La Française Des Jeux;
116. SEIGNEUR Eddy (F), Jean Delatour;
117. RUBIERA José Luis (Sp), U.S. Postal;
118. GOUBERT Stephane (F), Jean Delatour;
119. BLANCO Santiago (Sp), iBanesto.com;
120. LAISEKA Roberto (Sp), Euskaltel- Euskadi;
121. SVORADA Jan (Slv), Lampre-Daikin;
122. MENGIN Christophe (F), La Française Des Jeux;
123. CASTRESANA Angel (Sp), Euskaltel- Euskadi;
124. CARDENAS Félix (Col), Kelme;
125. VIDAL José Angel (Sp), Kelme;
126. ZUBELDIA Haimar (Sp), Euskaltel- Euskadi;
127. TOSATTO Matteo (I), Fassa Bortolo;
128. BELOHVOSCIKS Raivis (Lat), Lampre-Daikin;
129. ETXEBARRIA Unai (Ven), Euskaltel- Euskadi;
130. IVANOV Serguei (Rus), Fassa Bortolo;
131. NARDELLO Daniele (I), Mapei;
132. VERMAUT Steve (B), Lotto;
133. BOUYER Franck (F), Bonjour;
134. VOGONDY Nicolas (F), La Française Des Jeux;
135. POZZI Oscar (I), Fassa Bortolo;
136. VAN HEESWIJK Max (Nl), Domo-Farm Frites;
137. HERAS Roberto (Sp), U.S. Postal;
138. CASSANI Enrico (I), Domo-Farm Frites;
139. SERPELLINI Marco (I), Lampre-Daikin;
140. KJAERGAARD Steffen (N), U.S. Postal;
141. GARCIA Marcelino (Sp), CSC-Tiscali;
142. MAGNIEN Emmanuel (F), La Française Des Jeux;
143. PASCUAL RODRIGUEZ Javier (Sp), iBanesto.com;
144. MATTAN Nico (B), Cofidis;
145. LIVINGSTON Kevin (USA), Deutsche Telekom;
146. MUSEEUW Johan (B), Domo-Farm Frites;
147. JIMENEZ Eladio (Sp), iBanesto.com;
148. MILLAR David (GB), Cofidis;
149. GUERINI Giuseppe (I), Deutsche Telekom;
150. PEREZ Luis (Sp), Festina;
151. VERBRUGGHE Rik (B), Lotto;
152. ROUX Laurent (F), Jean Delatour;
153. DEMARBAIX Sébastien (B), Ag2r;
154. BLIJLEVENS Jeroen (Nl), Lotto;
155. SIVAKOV Alexei (Rus), Bigmat Auber ’93;
156. JAN Xavier (F), Bigmat Auber ’93;
157. LOPEZ DE MUNAIN Alberto (Sp), Euskaltel- Euskadi;
158. BERTOGLIATI Rubens SUI Lampre-Daikin;
159. LINO Pascal (F), Festina;
160. NAZON Damien (F), Bonjour;
161. RODRIGUEZ Fred (USA), Domo-Farm Frites;
162. MC GEE Bradley (Aus), La Française Des Jeux;
163. ORIOL Christophe (F), Jean Delatour;
164. MIKHAILOV Guennadi (Rus), Lotto;
165. MENCHOV Denis (Rus), iBanesto.com;
166. LAMOULLER Loïc (F), Bigmat Auber ’93;
167. TALABARDON Sébastien (F), Bigmat Auber ’93;
168. . JALABERT Nicolas (F), CSC-Tiscali;
169. . CUESTA Inigo (Sp), Cofidis;
170. PASCUAL LLORENTE Javier (Sp), Kelme;
171. BERGES Stéphane (F), Ag2r;
172. BERNARD Jérome (F), Jean Delatour;
173. MONCOUTIE David (F), Cofidis;
174. PIIL Jakob (Dk), CSC-Tiscali, all s.t.;
175. AUGER Ludovic (F), Bigmat Auber ’93, at 36:23;

. . FORNACIARI Paolo (I), Mapei, Abandon;
. . BASSO Ivan (I), Fassa Bortolo, did not start;