Team Columbia took care of business during Stage 8 on an utterly and completely wet from start to finish day in the Tour de France.
From Figeac to Toulouse, the cyclists raced 107 miles in the rain. The breakaway group of Jerome Pineau and Laurent Lefevre of Team Bouygues Telecom, Christophe Riblon of AG2R and Amets Txurruka of Euskatel dwindled to Pineau and Txurruka, who were predictably caught with a little under 3 miles to go.
Then Columbia took control of the race, reminiscent of Team Discovery days.
Mark Cavendish rode the perfect sprint at the end after a nasty right turn by swinging out to the right from fifth place to win the stage by five bike lengths. Teammate Gerald Ciolek finished second.
The Columbia team has now won two stages and they keep the lead in the overall (Kim Kirchen retains the Yellow Jersey with a six-second advantage), points (Kirchen is tied with Oscar Freire of Rabobank) and youth classifications (Thomas Lovkvist of Columbia).
The top five riders overall stayed the same at the end of the day:
1 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence – Lotto, :06 behind
3 Stefan Schumacher (Ger) Gerolsteiner, :16
4 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30, :44
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank, 1:03
You may have noticed that this has been written by Missus Bis. I am filling in for Biking Bis, who is on the road somewhere south of Seattle on his way to Portland in the STP sponsored by Cascade Bicycling. You can follow him on this blog or by Twittering BikingBis.
And, if all this sunshine and racing talk has you in the mood for more black lycra, check out Redmond Derby Days, with criterium races from 2 to 7 p.m. The day ends with fireworks at 10 p.m. Go to www.redmond.gov for info.
Recent Comments