The final transition stage turned out to be quite the thriller but not as most expected. Everything looked to be growing to script as an early break swelled to 20 riders, sprinkled with great stage riders like Cadel Evans, Luis Leon Sanchez, Kim Kirchen, Nicolas Rouche, Syslvian Chavanel, and Daniele Bannati. As the Astana and the Saxo Bank squad sat back to gear-up for the ascent up Mont Ventoux tomorrow a Rabobank took to making the pace on the front of the peloton. The well known Dutch team, that has been surprisingly quiet in this years tour pulled back the most of the strong break by the base of the late cat 2 and then reeled the late attackers in by the summit. The pace by Rabobank thinned the peloton over the climb, but the big sprinters of Hushovd, Farrar, and even Cavendish helped by his teammates were still in contact. Two other riders attacked at the end of the climb, but knowing there man Cavendish was there, columbia got on the front and brought these two men back with 2k to go from the finish. George Hincapie was now on the front now trying to setup the unlikely field sprint on the uphill finish for Cavendish. Columbia did not have their big lead out train ready and only had Hincapie and strongman Tony Martin to leadout Cavendish, with the Manxman's favorite leadout man Mark Renshaw as casualty of the climb. Hincapie relinquished his duties to martin with just under a k to go and Martin drove Cav to within 400 meters, but with the likes of Hushovd, Milram's Benard Ciolek, and Farrar in his slipstream the Manx Missile would have to do something very special to pull out the W from this far out. But that exactly what he did, with the worlds best breathing down his neck and on a slight incline showed that lighting strike faster than thunder, never letting his Norwegian rival get around him and flying to his 5th stage win. An incredible win for Cavendish on a day many believed he would have little chance. This win just shows that if Cav is sitting in the peloton with as little as 2 teammates with a K to go he is going to win, no sprinter has ridden with that kind of dominance in this decade. With the win Cavendish gobbled up 35 more points but only gained 5 on Hushovd who held on to 2nd and still leads the race for green comfortably. Even if Cav wins in Paris Hushovd only need to finish in the top 10 to hold of the Manxman, something he should have no problem with. Despite the surprising prevail of the peloton today there was a minor shake up in the GC as the disorganized field sprint cut a split in the peloton coming up to the line. Lance Armstrong was able to hold onto to sprinters and stay at the front, gaining a likely unsubstantial but welcomed 4 seconds on his rivals, all coming in with the rest of the peloton right behind.
If you have not been watching and only reading this blog to keep up with the tour please take note, DO NOT miss tomorrow's coverage of Mont Ventoux on Versus. I will guarantee the stage will be absolutely nuts on the years final ascent, this climb is so hard someone died on it once, yeah its gonna be off the hook. And you know that the excitement will be amplified 200x by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin's commentery. The brit in the booth will be dropping one liners like riders off the peloton, similes that capture the pain and beauty that is the tour de france.
Now to look at the stage. Its 144k of rolling hills featuring 3 cat 3s and a cat 4 before the riders hit the base of the Mont. Here that peloton should be mainly intact. Likely some brave riders in an early breakaway will meet their fate on Ventoux a few minutes early. The climb will be over 20k long and have a gradient of 7% with some pitches much steeper. I look for Saxo Bank to be on the front early to launch attacks from Frank and Andy Schleck in an attempt to isolate Alberto Contador, to if not make up the unlikely 4 four minutes on the spaniard to at least try and show that he is mortal. Despite their efforts Contador will probably hang around and throw in some attacks of his own in the final 3k to try to take home one more stage victory to go along with his yellow jersey. The day will be a real test for lance armstrong, who despite that fact that he has shown solid climbing legs has not been able to successfully attack against the best in this year's tour. I look for him to ride with pride tomorrow, no longer babysitting on the wheels of Contador's rivals but riding for the win, to try to add some hardware to his podium finish. Though im cheering for Wiggo to move up from 4th, it will be tough for Bradley Wiggans to make up time on Armstrong and hold off older schleck and kloden to try and grab a podium spot, but assuredly Vande Velde and Zebriskie will do their best to take care of him. Either way it should be a great day, so sit back and enjoy the tour's final fireworks.
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