Manx Missile beats former teammates Greipel and Goss despite doing without a lead out
Mark Cavendish (Team Sky) proved that he is still the fastest man in the World, with or without a dedicated lead out train, as he took victory in the second stage of the 2012 Tour de France between Visé and Tournai. The World champion, whose Sky team is focusing on winning the race overall with Bradley Wiggins, was able to follow the wheels of his rivals in the approach to the line before powering past them to take the win.
It was the Lotto-Belisol team that controlled the final kilometres of the 207.5km stage around the flatter areas of western Belgium, launching German “Gorilla” André Greipel into the finish. Cavendish managed to fight his way on to the wheel of his former teammate however, and was able to come around him on the line to take the stage by just over half a wheel.
Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) - another former teammate of Cavendish - was third, just behind the battle between the two big rivals.
“It wasn’t too technical but there was enough technicality to make it a bit chaotic with all the other riders there,” said Cavendish afterwards. “Normally I’m out of the way in the front but today I could kind of freestyle.
“It wasn’t as windy as I thought it was going to be and that didn’t play as much of a factor,” the World champion explained. “It’s been a good start to the race for the team. Brad stayed out of trouble and hopefully he can continue on towards yellow. We’re here to win the yellow jersey. I’m here to do what I did today.
“I’ve been on the back foot but I’ve been more relaxed than ever coming into this Tour de France as the pressure hasn’t been there for me to do anything. [A win] doesn’t give me any more confidence as it’s never easy to win a Tour de France stage, with a team or on your own.”
The stage was characterised by a three-man breakaway from Anthony Roux (FDJ-BigMat), Christophe Kern (Europcar) and mountains jersey wearer Michael Mørkøv (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank), who escaped after 22km. The trio managed to open up a lead of eight minutes over the peloton, before the RadioShack-Nissan team of yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara began to pull them back, and they were finally captured with 14km to go.
A number of different teams took control of the peloton as it sped into the finish, but it was Lotto-Belisol that led into the finishing straight; Cavendish had chosen the right wheel to follow however, and came around to hit the line first.
With the peloton finishing all together behind the World champion, there were no changes to the general classification with Cancellara holding onto his seven second lead over Wiggins.
The race traverses Belgium on its way towards France
After an Ardennes-Classic style route on stage one, the second stage was far more typical of a first-week-of-the Tour course. Starting in Visé on the very eastern side of Belgium, the day’s course would head almost due west to Tournai, close to the border with France. The only real obstacle of the day was to be the Côte de la Citadelle de Namur - the venue of the cyclocross World Cup race - after 82.5km, before following a lightly rolling route to the finish.
The stage would be an emotional one for many riders as the late Wouter Weylandt, who was tragically killed in a crash during the 2011 Giro d’Italia, took his last ever victory in Tournai, in the fourth stage of the Circuit Franco-Belge in October 2010.
After the immediate six-man break on stage one, a slow start failed to see any successful attacks until Roux escaped at the 22km point. Mørkøv and Kern gave chase straight away and they caught up with the FDJ-BigMat rider at the 28km point, by which time they were more than two minutes ahead of the peloton.
All three had made their mark in the race so far; Mørkøv had been in the stage one breakaway and picked up the polka-dot jersey; Roux had been involved in one of the crashes towards the end, and was riding with a strapped left wrist; while Kern had been forced to miss the team presentation so that he could be present at birth of his son Tom.
Kern was the best placed of the three, just 2’01” behind Cancellara in 94th place, and was soon virtual Maillot Jaune.
By the end of the first hour the trio had covered 38.2km, and had opened up its lead to 5’40”. A few kilometres later, at the 42km point, it was up to eight minutes, but this was the point at which RadioShack-Nissan sent two of its men forward and began to close it down.
With a sprint more than likely at the end of the stage, Lotto-Belisol, Argos-Shimano and Orica-GreenEdge all sent a man forward to help the chase, on behalf of Greipel, Tom Veelers and Goss respectively. Veelers was the Argos-Shimano designated sprinter for the day, since German prodigy Marcel Kittel was reportedly suffering from a stomach complaint.
Another mountain point for Mørkøv as the sprinters begin to hunt them down
Mørkøv took the single point over the top of the climb at Namur, after 82.5km - securing his polka-dot jersey for another day - and the peloton followed the trio over 6’20” later.
Steadily the gap continued to close but, with more than 100km to go the peloton was in no hurry. Through the feedzone in Temploux after 94.5km, it was down to 5’45”, while at the end of the third hour - with just over 120km covered - it was 4’35”.
Kern was allowed to simply roll over the intermediate sprint line, in Soignies with 54.5km to go, with no contest from the others. Just as had happened the day before however, the big sprinters of the peloton were brought forward by their teammates and, once again, Goss won the race for fourth place.
Seventh place for stage one winner Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) meant that the Slovakian champion took the outright lead in the points classification from Cancellara. The 22-year-old was already wearing the green jersey, since Cancellara was in yellow, but it would be his by rights at the end of the stage.
The increase in speed from the sprinters’ battle meant that they were only two minutes behind Roux, Kern and Mørkøv as they crossed the line. This was allowed to slip out to almost three minutes once more, but as it closed again with just under 30km to go, Roux attacked his companions and went off alone. Mørkøv and Kern were picked up quite quickly by the peloton, but Roux was refusing to surrender; as he entered the final 25km however, he had just 50 seconds advantage. This was not to last very long and, as the sprinters’ teams began to battle for the front of the peloton, the Frenchman was finally caught with 14km to go.
The break is over and the sprinters begin their battle for supremacy
As BMC Racing led into the final ten kilometres, a number of the crash victims of the first stage - including Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) - were shelled out the back, along with sprinter Kittel. Rabobank and Lotto-Belisol were trying to wrest control from the American team, but it was determined to keep defending champion Cadel Evans at the front - and out of trouble - until it was safely inside the final three kilometres.
Once there the Argos-Shimano team took over in force, but the Dutch ProConti team was soon muscled out by Lotto-Belisol as the two kilometre banner approached. Greipel was sat comfortably in fourth wheel, but most of his rivals were swarming all over his back wheel, waiting for the moment to go.
As they entered the finishing straight Greipel’s lead out man Greg Henderson peeled off and the German opened up his sprint. Cavendish had managed to find his former teammate in the previous kilometre though, and he pulled out himself and began to sprint for the line.
Slowly the World champion pulled alongside the German and, with just metres to spare managed to push his front wheel ahead. Behind the battle Goss was the best of the rest, ahead of Veelers and Lampre-ISD’s Alessandro Petacchi.