AFTER the trials and tribulations of
the mountains, it's time to turn our attentions back to the sprinters.
Stage 10 sees the peloton at the opposite
end of the country to the Pyrenees with a 197km route through Brittany
from Saint-Gildas-des-Bois to Saint-Malo.
The profile shows just one Cat 4 climb
coming 55km from the finish although there are a couple of uncategorized
lumps early in the stage which may prove a springboard for a breakaway.
The last part of the course hugs the
coastline and can be described as rolling but shouldn't be testing unless
there is a wind coming off the Channel. The final 5 km are pretty straight
with just a slight dogleg right with 350m to go to test the sprinters.
A break will be allowed to go early
on and while the responsibilities will be on Team Sky to keep it in check,
it should be a fairly easy day for them. Once over the Cote de Dinan expect
some of the sprinters teams to come and give them a hand in reeling the
escapees back.
Favourites for the stage are the usual
suspects. Mark Cavendish, Andre Greipel, Peter Sagan, Alexander Kristoff
will all be in the mix again. Greipel looks the strongest at the minute
but you can never count out Cav. Or Sagan for that matter.
If you want outsiders for the sprint
then look to the former race leader Daryl Impey to be involved. He is in
great form and I think Orica Green Edge will hand him the opportunity to
go for the win ahead of Matt Goss. Euskatel's Juan Jose Lobato del Valle
has also been impressive through this race and should gain another top
10 finish here.
If the wind does get up, and the forecast
has it coming from the north east which will be behind the field for the
last 10km or so, then we could see someone try and jump away from the group
along the coast. Juan Antonio Flecha has been very active this year as
has his team Vaconsoleil as they attempt to attract new sponsors. A lone
attack suits Flecha's style down to the ground and he certainly has the
power to back it up. If the peloton hesitate and allow someone like him
to go they may miss out altogether.
***********************************************************************************************
The Points Classification (Green
Jersey)
There is more than one race within the
Tour de France. Not everyone can win the yellow jersey so in 1953 the organisers
introduced the Malliot Vert for the best daily finisher. The colour green
was chosen because the sponsor at the time was a lawn mower producer.
Usually this is a competition for the
sprinters. Points are available to the first 15 finishers on each stage
and there are more on offer on the flat than in the mountains or time trials.
There is also one intermediate sprint
each day which also gains points towards the classification.
So for a stage like today 45 points
are awarded to the first man across the line with the rest getting 35,
30, 26, 22, 20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 respectively.
For medium mountain stages the winner
gets 30 points with 20 points going to the winner of a high mountain stage
or time trial.
Intermediate sprints also awarded 20
points to the first across the line.
Last years winner Peter Sagan looks
on course to retain his title. He currently holds a fairly substantial
lead in this competition, a full 93 points clear of Andre Greipel in second
and 106 points ahead of Mark Cavendish in third.
Sagan owes this lead predominantly to
his ability to get over mountains and hills better than his rivals and
in particular to stage seven. Here he was able to hoover up a full 65 points
while his main competitors struggled to get over the climbs and picked
up nothing.
It is worth noting that you don't have
to win the most stages to get this jersey. Cav won six stages in the 2009
tour and five in 2010 yet finished second in this classification.
And I would expect Greipel and Cavendish
to both rack up more wins than Sagan this time around. But nothing, other
than a crash and abandonment, will stop the Slovakian from taking
the title again.
No comments:
Post a Comment