As the years have gone by since I got interested in the sort, professional cycling has become more and more a game being controlled by directeur sportifs and scientists than a spectacle preformed by cyclists. During races many riders seem to be glued to their power meters thinking of the numbers that have been drilled into them during training sessions waiting for the order to attack. Orders which, as time goes by, seem to come higher and higher up final climbs. The rest of the time the generals sit in their carriages, letting a breakaway hang by a thread before telling the peloton to advance and swallow them up. What this leads to are smaller time gaps and fewer daring escapes by GC contenders. Winning margins of over 15 minutes by breakaways should be consigned to the black and white era.
So in 2006 I would have never imagined I would witness five riders escape with over 200 km to go and finish 29 minutes and 57 seconds ahead of the rest at the finish. The gap was so big that if the race jury had applied the rules strictly then only Jens Voigt, Oscar Pereiro, Sylvain Chavanel, Manuel Quinziato and Andriy Grivko would have contested the rest of the race as the time limit for the day was 29 minutes.
However, amazing as these numbers are, behind them lies the calculations of the Phonak teams directeur sportif John Lelangue. His star rider Floyd Landis was leading the race but the rest of the team had been finding things tough going, particularly in the Pyrenees a few days previous. As the gap to the break kept growing during the stage he realised that one of the escapees could move into top spot overall. If that were allowed to happen then the pressure would be off Phonak for the coming Alpine stages. And he really wanted rid of the yellow jersey because the top placed rider in the break was Oscar Pereiro who started the day in 46th place at 28 minutes 50.
At the finish line Voigt took victory and his second ever stage win, Pereiro was a close second and had the chance to go into yellow with Chavanel third. The French escape artist was bitterly disappointed at the finish. Not only had he missed a great opportunity for a stage win but he would now get catapulted up the GC making it less likely he would be allowed into any breaks in the coming days.
As Pereiro crossed the line there were around 28 minutes to the peloton. In the final 25 km Rabobank and AG2R hit the front, presumably to keep Landis in yellow, but soon faded and when everyone reached the finish they knew there was a new race leader. Pereiro now lead Landis by 1 minute 29 seconds.
Had Phonak done the right thing? There were seven stages left, three of those in the mountains and one time trial. Pereiro was a decent climber and tester and had a strong team behind him. Also, Phonak would only cede race leader duties for one stage before the Tour reached the Alps where Landis would presumably want to take the race lead again anyway.
The question would be answered in the next week of racing, and quite a few more after that besides.
James Rannoch CC 