Key moments

There have been five stages that have concluded with a bunch sprint in this year’s Tour and Mark Cavendish has won four of them. The Brit wasn’t hindered by the hill in the final 500 meters: he just power to the top after another perfect lead-out from his colleagues and although his nearest rival – Tyler Farrar, this time – was closer than any of the other victories in the 2009 Tour the result never seemed in doubt. Thor Hushovd is the only other rider to have succeeded in a sprint during the 96th edition of the race but he finished fifth today and surrendered his lead in the points classification.

The Progress Report
The 192km 11th stage of the 2009 Tour de France from Vatan to Saint-Fargeau began at 12.53pm with 170 riders in the race. Kurt Asle Arvesen (SAX) was forced to abandon because of a fractured collarbone sustained in a crash during stage 10. The conditions for the stage were mild with temperatures of around 25 degrees Celsius, blue skies and a light sout-westerly breeze. There were two category-four hills on the course, the cote d’Allogny (at 40.5km) and cote de Perreuse (150km). The intermediate sprints were in Quincy (26.5km), St-Geols (73.5km) and Suilly-la-Tour (114.5km). 

Accidents In The Opening Kilometers
The first attack of the stage came from Roulston (CTT) and Beppu (SKS) in the opening kilometer. They were caught at 7km after gaining only a small advantage. There was a crash at 14km involving Vande Velde (GRM) and Rosseler (QSI). The race was neutralized momentarily at the 15km mark because of a collapsed structure that blocked the road. This was quickly resolved but it allowed the accident victims to rejoin the bunch. There was another crash, at 24km, involving Rojas (GCE) and Righi (LAM); at the same time two riders attacked. Vansummeren (SIL) and Sapa (LAM) led the peloton to the Quicy sprint and had a lead of 40” on a peloton that had split in two; the second group was at 55”. The advantage increased rapidly: 3’15” at 33km, 4’45” at 45km… but this was the maximum gain.
The average speed for the first hour was the fastest yet in this year’s Tour: 49.3km/h!
Columbia and AG2R led the peloton and, at 65km, were 3’50” behind Sapa and Vansummeren. At the second intermediate sprint, the peloton was led by AG2R and was 3’25” behind. The average speed for the second hour was 42.0km/h.

Arranging The Catch…
The Columbia and AG2R teams maintained their position at the front of the peloton. They slowly but surely reeled in the escapees: 3’45” at 89km, 3’10” at 105km, 2’40” at 125km. The average for third hour was down to 40.8km/h.
Pellizotti was led to the line of the second climb by a Liquigas team-mate and took the one point for third, 1’45” behind Sapa and van Summeren. With 25km to go, the peloton was at 1’00”. The escapees had a lead of just 20” with 10km to go; two kilometers later Milram riders also started moving forward to form a lead-out train of their own, to the right of the line of Columbia riders. The leaders were caught right at the 5km to go mark.

Fabulous Fourth For Cavendish
Even his team manager said it would be a tough stage for Cavendish to win but Bob Stapleton said mid-way through the race that he still had faith in the sprinter. “If Mark feels good,” said Columbia’s manager, “we’ll ride for him.” That’s exactly what they did and despite strong turns of pace from Milram and Rabobank riders in the closing kilometers, no other team had the control that Columbia had. They launched the dynamo on his dash to the line 100m out and he held off a strong challenge by Tyler Farrar (GRM) in the closing meters. This was the closest of his victories this year but Cavendish always appeared to be in control. Once again Nocentini finished 34th in the stage. He will wear the yellow jersey in stage 12.

His not exactly the coincidental leader but Rinaldo Nocentini admits that his days in the yellow jersey could be numbered…

“I am very happy to keep the yellow jersey for another day. My team has worked well for this and I’ve taken it a little step further. I know that it will be very difficult on Friday and it’s already not so sure that I could keep it after this stage. But I’m in good condition, so I can believe in something. Of course it would be great to be able to wear it in Italy but to do this I’ll have to defend it on the climb to Verbier and with just a six second lead over Contador and Armstrong at eight seconds, it will be difficult.”

Even in a stage with just three lowly-ranked hills, there were signs that the fight for the polka-dot jersey is far from over. Franco Pellizotti chased one point at the second climb and it means the current King of the Mountain, Egoi Martinez, had to pay attention…

“Today I saw that Pellizotti is going to be one of the biggest problems for me in the coming days. When he moved forward, I had to too. But I needed to be well ahead of him because if it’s a sprint at the top of a climb, I have no answer to him because he’s very fast. It’s difficult to keep the polka-dot jersey all the way to Paris. Today I saw that a guy like Pellizotti is going to work hard for the prize so now it’s more difficult for me than yesterday but I’m still going to do my best to keep this jersey as long as possible. I hope all the way to the finish.”

He’s won a total of eight stages in the Tour de France. He’s back in the green jersey. He’s the sprinter who has a team committed to his cause and the speed to finish off the job. Mark Cavendish is the man. He is the golden boy of British cycling and the host broadcasters were there again to speak to ‘Cav’ about this ability. ‘You’ve done it all,’ came the question immediate after the stage. ‘You’ve gone early, you’ve gone late, and now you’ve won on a hill – that must please you…’

“Yeah, absolutely. But a win is a win. Last year there were some who said that I was nothing without a [lead-out] train but I won three of them without that. The reason I got the lead-out train – the reason people are dedicated to put me in the best position – is because they know I’ll finish it off. You don’t get people who are going to work for you unless you’ve done it by yourself anyway. It’s the same as before: maybe I can win if I’m alone but with the team I’ve got, there’s no chance to lose because they’re so dedicated.
“I left it really late today and it was closer than any other sprints have been but we adapted as a team to the situation and it worked out well. We know we’re the dominant team in the sprints so if we can carry on doing what we are, we’ve got to be content with that.
“I’ve certainly got an advantage over my rivals psychologically. But I don’t think I’ve got them beaten because otherwise they’d all be out of a job. They’re all great guys and they’re all phenomenal talents – phenomenal sports people – but I think I’ve got an advantage on the others.
“I’m really happy to be back in green. It was really dangerous at the finish. There wasn’t a point where it was at all worth risking going for a few points at an intermediate sprint. That would cause more danger than its worth. We haven’t discussed it but it seems to be an unspoken agreement that we won’t risk chasing two points. With Thor fifth today, I’ve got a bigger advantage over him but it’s still going to be hard because we’ve seen how good he is: he can get in a break over the mountains but I’m still not going to change my game plan. It’s working.”