Every year since He Who Shall Not Be Named retired from the sport for the second time and returned to Texas, the grandest of the Grand Tours seems to get more exciting, more unpredictable, and more appealing to the masses. Thus far, the 2015 Tour has hosted more drama and intrigue than an episode of Game of Thrones, with crashes, vicious weather, and a new guardian of the coveted leader's yellow jersey for each stage so far.
As we predicted at BikeRoar a week ago, the Big Four of Froome, Contador, Quintana, and Nibali are towards the front end of the GC, or General Classification, for overall honours, although only Froome and Contador are within a minute of current leader Tony Martin of Germany.
We also made special mention of young Frenchman Thibaut Pinot and American Tejay Van Garderen, predicting big things for the talented pair. We were half right – Pinot has had plenty of attention, but mostly for the wrong reasons. His bad manners and furious temper tantrums have made for interesting viewing, particularly during Stage 3 where he refused to swap bikes with a teammate and instead sulked by the roadside, smashing his bike up and down in frustration. His poor decision-making, along with a bit of bad luck, have seen him plummet to 27th place in GC, and he has pessimistically conceded he is unlikely to be anywhere near the podium by the time the race finishes in Paris.
In contrast, Van Garderen has ridden with rare maturity, making the most of his experienced BMC teammates and staying out of trouble during every stage by positioning himself close enough to the front of the race to avoid the crashes that have plagued the peloton, but not so close that he exhausts himself or his support crew. The BMC team really are just that – a tight-knit team – and it appears they are willing to make any sacrifice necessary to get the popular American to Paris in one piece. So far, Van Garderen is the success story of the Tour.
Stage One – Individual Time Trial, Utrecht
Van Garderen's Australian BMC teammate Rohan Dennis pulled off an audacious upset on a hot and windy afternoon in Utrecht to record his first professional time trial victory and become the seventh Australian to wear the yellow jersey. German national champion, and General Classification leader after Stage 5, Tony Martin (Etixx-Quick Step) struggled in the conditions as he finished second, five seconds behind Dennis. Having won the last five opening tests against the clock in the Tour de France, Fabian Cancellara could only manage third. Dennis's win to upset the favorites was the fastest ever individual Tour de France time trial with an average speed of 55.4kph (34.4mph)
Stage Two – Utrecht to Zélande
As the sunny skies and warm weather of Utrecht gave way to treacherous conditions on the exit from Rotterdam, stage 2 of the Tour de France burst to life. When news came over race radio that Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was in trouble, Etixx-Quick Step put the hammer down and split the race to pieces in the crosswinds.
The stage spoils went to André Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) in a bunch sprint after Mark Cavendish led out with 400 metres to go, pipping Peter Sagan at the post. Fabian Cancellara finished third on the stage and took his 29th yellow jersey after Rohan Dennis (BMC) opted to sacrifice his own chances of retaining yellow by refusing to chase down the lead bunch containing team leader Van Garderen.
Stage Three – Anvers to Huy
The early part of this stage was marred by a crash so violent the race director Christian Prudhomme felt compelled to controversially neutralize the race. With the peloton humming along several minutes after passing through the feed zone, FDJ's William Bonnet clipped a wheel, went down, and skidded along the asphalt, bringing down at least 20 other riders, among them the race leader Fabian Cancellara, who appeared to suffer a concussion. Clocked at 42km-per-hour when the incident occurred, bikes and riders were catapulted spectacularly in all directions and the air was filled with screams of agony, crunching carbon fibre of disintegrating bikes and the curses of those riders struggling to remount and continue the race. A wobbly-looking Cancellara managed to get back on the road, but was forced to withdraw at the end of the stage when scans revealed he had broken multiple vertebrae. Stage favorite, Orica-Greenedge's Simon Gerrans, was forced to abandon with a broken wrist, as was Bonnet with broken cervical vertebrae.
The carnage nearly stole the show – the stage finish, up the famous Mur de Huy, which contains twists and turns as steep as 19%, nearly belonged to Chris Froome, but in the final kick he was passed by Joaquim Rodríguez Oliver, Katusha's Spanish climbing specialist. Froome's second-place finish was enough to put him in the leader's jersey overnight.
Stage Four – Seraing To Cambrai
After three frustrating days, Tony Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) got everything right during Stage 4 with a daring late attack that saw him move into the yellow jersey for the first time in his career.
Martin punctured as he tackled one of the seven sections of cobblestones during the stage, and as no support car was nearby, he switched bikes with teammate Matteo Trentin. He battled his way back into contention and forced his way through the field and into the lead group. "Suddenly, five kilometres to the finish,” he said, “ we were all together and everyone was looking at each other, nobody really wanted to pull, so I just decided to give it a chance and to go for it, and somehow I found some power and I made it!”
Stage Five – Arras Communauté Urbaine to Amiens Métropole
In a relatively flat and largely peaceful stage, German muscleman André Greipel won the stage in a sprint from Peter Sagan and Mark Cavendish. As usual, Greipel timed his effort to perfection, whereas Cavendish went too early and Sagan too late. The German has a firm grip on the green Sprinter's jersey for now, but that will probably change when the peloton arrives at the foot of the mountains. Sagan can climb and will often attack uphill, and Cavendish has improved noticeably in recent years in the hills, but Greipel is really a flat-road specialist and will in all likelihood abandon the Tour within the next six or seven days, leaving the door open for the more versatile sprinters. The smart money is on Sagan to repeat his green jersey win of last year, but sprinting is a fickle business and anything can happen.
With another four stages before the official rest day in Pau on Monday, and the ever-popular Team Time Trial on Sunday, the 2015 Tour de France has already delivered big-time, but it's only going to get better and more exciting from here on in.
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