Tour De France: Sylvain Chavanel Takes Yellow After a Bruising Second Stage

Stage two of the 2010 Tour de France was a 194km jaunt through Belgium from Brussels to Spa. Unusually early in the tour, the riders will face some hilly terrain with a scattering of category three and four climbs—nothing to challenge the genuine climbers in the field, but sufficient to knock the wind out of the sprinters.

HTC’s Adam Hansen was forced to withdraw from the race after his superhuman effort in the first stage. It was confirmed overnight that Hansen had indeed broken his collarbone as suspected making his recovery from his stage one crash even more remarkable. 

Xavier Florencio of Cervelo was the only other rider missing from the stage start, reducing the field to 194 riders.

Given the number of crashes in the closing stages of the first stage, there would have been a number of very sore bodies. Most prominent of these was Astana’s Alberto Contador, who received a nasty whack on the leg, although the reigning champion refused to concede any discomfort.

Predictably, the breakaway came almost immediately after the start of the race proper and a group of eight riders, including Quick Step’s team leader Sylvain Chavanel headed out, but weren’t allowed to extend much more than a three minute gap on the main field.

While the breakaway shared the sprint and king of the mountain points between them, the main field were content just to keep the leaders within striking distance.

Team Saxo Bank, protecting Tour leader Fabian Cancellara, took up making the pace at the head of the field. Jens Voigt and Stuart O’Grady, in what has become a customary position established their presence off the front of the peleton, forcing the pace when necessary.

O’Grady, the nuggetty Australian, is starting his 14th Tour—passing the record for most starts by an Aussie that was set by compatriot Phil Anderson.

As the skies darkened and rain began to fall, the conditions started to wreak havoc on a number of riders with a crash towards the back of the main bunch. Most riders managed to get going, but Mikael Delage of Omega Pharma-Lotto suffered a nasty cut to the face and was forced to abandon the tour.

That was just the beginning of the carnage. The wet roads and steep, tight descent of the Cote de Stockeu saw a number of crashes claiming leaders from many teams, including one of the Tour favourites, Andy Schleck of Saxo Bank and stage one winner Alessandro Pettacchi.

Schleck dropped around three minutes on the peleton and looked like he was in a bit of trouble, but seemed to get his rhythm back fairly quickly.

The disruption of the crashes—including one of the camera bikes which skidded gracefully into the trees—shattered the cohesion of the peleton which fragmented and lost pace, letting the leading pair of Chavanel and Jurgen Roelandts of Omega Pharma-Lotto extend their lead to a minute and a half, before Chavanel decided to try things for himself.

The peleton reformed with 15km to go, after allowing Andy Schleck and his team to re-join, and set about trying to bring Sylvain Chavanel.

Fabian Cancellara gave a quality demonstration of what the Tour de France is all about—teamwork. Although he may have been able to retain the race leader’s yellow jersey for a few more days, he sacrificed the opportunity to chase the leader to keep the jersey, in favour of cruising to allow his more fancied teammate to re-join the bunch.

It also highlighted another curious facet of professional cycling, that other teams—normally the fiercest competitors—took the collective decision to neutralise the race so that no one could capitalise on the misfortune of others. They all want to win, but they want to beat their opposition on fair terms.

Besides, as the cliché goes, you cannot win the Tour de France in the first week, but you can certainly lose it.

Sylvain Chavanel maintained his lead to claim the stage and the yellow jersey as Tour leader.

The main bunch arrived in remarkable fashion with the riders refusing to sprint in protest at the condition of the roads on the stage and a very animated Fabian Cancellara arguing for the the entire stage to be neutralised and the standings after the previous stage to be reinstated.

It will be interesting to see the outcomes as this is discussed after the race. It will be equally interesting to see if the reverse would happen in the Saxo Bank team are leading and Astana or Radioshack riders crashed and need nursing through to the finish.

While most riders seemed to have survived, the cobblestone roads facing the riders tomorrow will challenge those riders feeling the effects and carrying minor injuries. Looks like we’re in for another exciting stage.

Standings after Stage Two

1.     CHAVANEL Sylvain      QUICK STEP         10h 01' 25"  
2.     CANCELLARA Fabian     TEAM SAXO BANK     + 02' 57"
3.     MARTIN Tony         TEAM HTC - COLUMBIA     + 03' 07"
4.     MILLAR David         GARMIN – TRANSITIONS+ 03' 17"
5.     ARMSTRONG Lance     TEAM RADIOSHACK     + 03' 19"
6.     THOMAS Geraint     SKY PRO CYCLING    + 03' 20"
7.     CONTADOR Alberto     ASTANA         + 03' 24"
8.     LEIPHEIMER Levi     TEAM RADIOSHACK     + 03' 25"
9.     BOASSON HAGEN Ed.     SKY PRO CYCLING     + 03' 29"
10.     GERDEMANN Linus     TEAM MILRAM         + 03' 32"