While house sellers tout “Location, location, location” as the three most important attributes of real estate, bike race sprinters must credit “Position. Position. Position.”
For instance, Britain's Mark Cavendish had an ideal position in Friday's finish of Stage 6 of the 2010 Tour de France in Gueugnon behind teammate Mark Renshaw. The HTC-Columbia riders were following three cyclists for Garmin-Transitions, including Tyler Farrar.
As the finish line approached, Cavendish was delivered alongside the Garmin cyclists by Renshaw. Then Cav handlily beat Farrar across the line by more than a bike's length.
Cheaper by dozen
It marked the British sprinter's 12th Tour de France stage win in three years. The breakdown down is 2008 — 4; 2009 — 6; and 2010 — 2. After the race, Cavendish said:
“I just followed Mark [Renshaw] as usual and it was just a case of finishing off the incredible work that my team-mates did. … We’re a team and I’m just a part of what’s functions like a great machine. Yeah, I’m just the guy who crosses the line with my hands in the air… but that’s the goal of cycling, to display the logo sponsors. And we’ve got to figure out the best way to do that and one way is to win bunch sprints. I’ve got to finish off the work that they do, and it’s an incredible machine to be part of.”
Meanwhile, the overall classification remained nearly static with Fabian Cancellara leading the race (Garaint Thomas and Thor Hushovd moved up 3 seconds each.) The Swiss rider for Saxo Bank has led the Tour since the prologue, except for the one day when Sylvain Chavanel took the yellow jersey .
The peloton approaches the foothills of the Alps on Saturday with some medium mountains, but goes into full-bore climbing mode in Stage 8 on Sunday with a mountaintop finish at Morzine-Avoriaz.
Post-race action
It seems there was more action in the 5 minutes after the finish than most of the 141-mile ride.
Shortly after the finish, a video cameraman trying to get to Cavendish collided with Robbie McEwen, knocking the already injured Australian to the ground.
Then two cyclists, Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) and Rui Costa (Caisse d’Epargne), got in a fistfight. Barredo claims that during the race, Costa gave him an elbow shot in the midsection. At the finish, Barredo slipped the front wheel off his bike and attacked Costa, according to VeloNews. Here's a link to the video.
It's a good thing racers don't carry their own bike pumps anymore, or else they could have really whacked each other.
Selection
American Lance Armstrong, who sits in 18th place at 2:30 behind Cancellara, expects 30 or so bike racers to contest the finish on Saturday. Stage 8 on Sunday, however, should reshuffle the overall leaders. Speaking of General Classification, they are:
Top 10 overall
1. Fabian Cancellara, Saxo Bank
2. Geraint Thomas, Sky – 20 seconds behind
3. Cadel Evans, BMC – 39 seconds
4. Ryder Hesjedal, Garmin – 46 seconds
5. Sylvain Chavanel, Quick Step – 1:01
6. Andy Schleck, Saxo Bank – 1:09
7. Thor Hushovd, Cervelo – 1:16
8. Alexandre Vinokourov, Astana – 1:31
9. Alberto Contador, Astana – 1:40
10. Jurgen Van Den Broeck, Omega Pharma – 1:42
—-
18. Lance Armstrong, RadioShack – 2:30
Stage 6 was 141 miles from Montargis to Gueugnon in France's Burgundy region. Mathieu Perget (Caisse d’Epargne), Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel-Euskadi) formed a breakaway gain up to 8 minutes on the peloton. They didn't survive out front to the finish line, however.
Jersey leaders
Who are the other leaders, you ask. They're all listed at the Tour de France website:
Yellow jersey — Fabian Cancellara
Points (green) jersey — Thor Hushovd
Team standing — Saxo Bank
Mountain (polka dot) jersey — Jerome Pineau
Youth (white) jersey — Geraint Thomas
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