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96th Tour de France

Stage 2 - Monaco to Brignoles - 187.0 km (116.0 mi)

05 July 2009

Mark Cavendish wasted no time, returning to his winning ways in the first road stage of the 2009 Tour de France with an expert lead-out by his Columbia teammates and a finishing kick toward the line in Brignoles that was thoroughly unpassable by any other challenger. It was a battle of youth, as Cavendish (24 years old) pipped Tyler Farrar (25 years old), the American rider for Garmin-Slipstream that came in confident. Knowing that he had the potential to best Cavendish -- Farrar won a head-to-head duel in the sprint finish of Stage 3 of this spring's Tirreno-Adriatico race -- Farrar rode his wheel to the line. But the Manxman was not about to let anyone pass through his slipstream... not even the man from Slipstream.

So Cavendish took his fifth Tour stage victory in just his second Tour start. The British speedster will never be confused for Eddy Merckx or Lance Armstrong... he simply does not have the physique to contend for the yellow jersey. But he could challenge the record of one of these riders -- with five stage wins already to his name and the potential to ride at least another ten editions of this race, he could average four wins a season over that period and overtake Merckx's career record of 34 stage victorie. If he keeps this up, and is able to make it to Paris this time, not even the reappearance of Tom Boonen will prevent him from donning what should be the first of many green jerseys, a just reward for this man's particular skill set.

The road which ended with Cavendish dominating Farrar and crew began with the 180 riders departing Monaco at 12:42 PM local time and heading westward toward Nice and beyond onto French soil proper. The road climbed almost immediately, up the third-category, 491-meter La Turbie. Attacks shot off one after another right from the gun, but no one could get away before the summit. Over the top, yesterday's revelation Tony Martin (Columbia) led the way to take the King of the Mountains points to become the virtual leader of the mountains classification ahead of Contador. Martin might be my biggest miss of the year so far from my Tour preview --a 25-year-old who first turned professional last season, the German rider has already finished second in the final time trial of the 2008 Giro, taken the King of the Mountains spoils at this year's Paris-Nice and Tour de Suisse, and looks like he might be the next great German GC contender.

Once on the downgrade, four riders escaped from the peloton to try their luck at a long breakaway. The quartet of Stef Clement (Rabobank), Cyril Dessel (Ag2r), Jussi Veikkanen (Francaise des Jeux), and Stephane Auge (Cofidis) arrived alone ahead of the pack in Nice for the first sprint point of the day, 27 kilometers into the stage and 160 kilometers left to go. Auge beat Dessel for the six-point prize, Veikkanen finishing third for the final intermediate points. Ninety seconds later, the main field made their way through Nice.

The route soon turned away from the coast of the Cote d'Azur, heading inland toward the finish far away in Brignoles. Over the fourth-category Cote de Roquefort-les-Pins, none of the other riders in the breakaway could challenge Veikkanen for the first-place points. By the town of Grasse, sixty kilometers into the stage, the breakaway had grown their advantage to around five minutes on the field. Behind in the peloton, there was a crash which brought down several riders, including Saxo Bank's Frank Schleck. No one faced serious injury, thankfully, and the field was back up and riding away without too much disturbance.

Entering the Var region and leaving the Alpes-Maritimes behind, the riders came up on the Cote de Tournon. The fourth-category climb once again yielded victory for Veikkanen, a 28-year-old Finnish rider wholooked determined to see how the polka-dots looked on his back. Ten kilometers later, the four riders came through the town of Fayence for the second intermediate sprint of the day. This time it was Stef Clement who looked for a little glory, beating out Dessel and Auge to the line to take the second sprint. Nearly a hundred kilometers down, the riders pushed on toward Garron -- where replenishment was waiting in the feed zone.

With food in hand, the final climb of the day loomed up the road just beyond Draguignan. Five minutes after the lead quartet grabbed their musettes (food bags), the main pack came through the same point. The gap was not shrinking at all, but then neither was it growing. The peloton, led by yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara's Saxo Bank teammates, was content to string the rabbit represented by the breakaway up the road, biding their time and energy before pulling them back into the fold. Up ahead, largely unworried by the fact, the four found their way up the Col de l'Ange. Once again, Veikkanen picked his way up the short climb to take the summit spoils. With the final three points up for offer today now in Veikkanen's coffers, the Finn found himself poised to take the polka-dots in Brignoles.

Soon after the descent, the leaders were in Lorgues for the final intermediate sprint before the finish line. For a second time it was Clement over Dessel and Auge, the three riders allowing Veikkanen his mountains points and splitting the sprint points amongst themselves. With fifty kilometers left to go, all that remained for the companions was to tyr to get to the finish line ahead of the peloton. But the sprinters had other ideas. Through Lorgues, the gap had already come down below five minutes for the first time in hours, and the Columbia and Milram teams started assisting Saxo Bank at the front. Forty kilometers from the finish, the difference was below four minutes. The chase was on in earnest, and now it was a constantly shifting game of calculations to see if the four could remain free of the pack all the way to Brignoles.

The peloton was now flying. In the next five kilometers up to Carces, the gap came down another full minute. The pace, which once looked like the quartet might be capable of staying away, now looked like they might be caught any minute. With thirty kilometers left, the gap was at 2:10; with 24 kilometers remaining, it had dissipated to just 1:28. Soon thereafter, Saxo Bank drifted off the front and left the pacemaking to the sprinters' teams. In Cabasse, twenty kilometers from the end, the gap was down below a minute, and the caravan of race officials which had been driving in the gap between breakaway and peloton now prepared to pass the four leaders, a sure sign that the chase was nearly complete.

Just outside ten kilometers remaining, the four leaders started glancing back to view the hard-charging pack barreling down upon them. From the main field, Katusha's Mikhail Ignatiev burst forward to unite with the breakaway. But rather than cooperate, the Russian turned this into a solo effort by blowing right past the four floundering leaders to make his own pace. He was able to hold a ten-second gap off the front for about six kilometers, but the five-kilometers-to-go banner marked the point where everyone came back together.

All that was left now was the run-in to Brignoles and the sprint across the line. Cavendish and the Columbia team set up. Boonen, happy to be back in the Tour despite suffering from some vaguely-disclosed stomach bug, sat about twenty spots back in his Belgian national champion's jersey. Garmin-Slipstream started assembling to put Tyler Farrar on Cavendish's wheel. Milram worked to set up Gerald Ciolek. All the sprinters were itching for this first test of the 2009 Tour. But it was Cavendish who, expectedly, took the full rewards. With Farrar on his wheel but unable to pull free, the Manx Missile opened the gap with each pedal stroke to finish over a bike length free across the line. Don't bet against many more scenes reminiscent of this one in the coming days and weeks and, indeed, in the coming editions of the Tour de France. Cavendish is here for the long haul...

RESULTS - STAGE 2

1. Mark Cavendish (Columbia) 4:30:02
2. Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream)
3. Romain Feillu (Agritubel)
4. Thor Hushovd (Cervelo TestTeam)
5. Yukiya Arashiro (BBox-Bouygues Telecom)
6. Gerald Ciolek (Milram)
7. William Bonnet (BBox-Bouygues Telecom)
8. Nicolas Roche (AG2R-La Mondiale)
9. Koen De Kort (Skil-Shimano)
10. Lloyd Mondory (AG2R-La Mondiale) all s.t.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank) 4:49:34
2. Alberto Contador (Astana) +0:18
3. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream) +0:19
4. Andreas Kloden (Astana) +0:22
5. Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) +0:23
6. Levi Leipheimer (Astana) +0:30
7. Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) +0:32
8. Tony Martin (Columbia) +0:33
9. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) +0:37
10. Lance Armstrong (Astana) +0:40

POINTS CLASSIFICATION

1. Mark Cavendish (Columbia) 35
2. Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Slipstream) 30
   
3. Romain Feillu (Agritubel) 26
   
4. Thor Hushovd (Cervelo TestTeam) 24
   
5. Yukiya Arashiro (BBox-Bouygues Telecom) 22
   
6. Gerald Ciolek (Milram) 20
   
7. William Bonnet (BBox-Bouygues Telecom) 19
   
8. Nicolas Roche (AG2R-La Mondiale) 18
   
9. Koen De Kort (Skil-Shimano) 17
   
10. Lloyd Mondory (AG2R-La Mondiale) 16

KING OF THE MOUNTAINS

1. Jussi Veikkanen (Francaise des Jeux) 9
2. Tony Martin (Columbia) 6
3. Cyril Dessel (AG2R-La Mondiale) 5
   
4. Alberto Contador (Astana) 3
5. Markus Fothen (Milram) 3
6. Stephane Auge (Cofidis) 3
7. Laurent Lefevre (BBox-Bouygues Telecom) 2
   
8. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream) 1
9. Stef Clement (Rabobank) 1
10. Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) 1
    

BEST YOUNG RIDER

1. Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) 4:50:06
2. Tony Martin (Columbia) +0:01
3. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) +0:05
4. Jerome Coppel (Francaise des Jeux) +0:19
5. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) +0:28
6. Robert Gesink (Rabobank) +0:43
7. Nicolas Roche (AG2R-La Mondiale) +0:55
8. Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo TestTeam) +0:57
9. Niki Terpstra (Milram) +1:01
10. Rui Costa Faria da Costa (Caisse d'Epargne) +1:04

TEAM CLASSIFICATION

1. Astana -- 14:29:52
2. Saxo Bank -- +0:31
3. Garmin-Slipstream -- +0:44
4. Liquigas -- +1:25
5. Columbia -- +1:46
6. Euskaltel-Euskadi -- +2:03
7. Silence-Lotto -- +2:13
8. Francaise des Jeux -- +2:40
9. Quick Step -- +2:45
10. AG2R-La Mondiale -- +2:55