Tuesday 7 July 2009

Follow the Tour sweep stake!

Anth is in charge of the sweep this year, here is his report after stage three...

Bonsoir tout le monde!

A bit of a surprise day in le Tour aujord'hui. Not really that Mark Cavendish made it two sprint wins out of two on a pan-flat stage, but more the way the peloton broke up in the crosswinds with around 30km to go. This meant a bit of shuffling in the order as Andy 'I'm riding for Wake honestly' Richards was in the right place at the right time, moving up to 3rd in the overall classification.

Biggest loser of the day? Bit of a left field suggestion this, but Bradley Wiggins. He had started the day a mere 6 seconds behind Matt Ball, but the yellow jersey was another who managed to find himself in the lead group. Six seconds was a possible margin to jump in the team time trial of stage 4, but the minute at which the gap now stands is probably asking a bit much (Matt Ball is, after all, a former world time trial champion).

Andy Richards' teammates (Malcolm Wake and Bill Young), also contenders for the top prize, will be ruing the mistakes today, but realising it's a 3 week race they'll be looking ahead to the mountains where they know that Matt ball likely won't have the legs, and Andy Richards could be tested.

Everyone's favourite dour-faced Aussie, Denise Schofield, meanwhile did what she does best. Sitting in the field, letting everyone do the work, before threatening to rip someone's head off for going near her dog.

Latest standings sont ici:
http://www.citycycling.co.uk/TdF/tdfsweep.html

No big drug stories broken yet, though Allan Black moved up a number of places by the end of the day and may soon be subject to a random urine test.

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