After a week of ho-hum racing, Stage 14, a relatively flat an uninspiring 199km roll from Colmar to Besancon, the yellow jersey almost changed hands...almost. What looked like your average days escape nearly turned into so much more for ageing veteran George Hincapie when he finished in a breakaway around 5 minutes ahead of the peleton. Unfortunately he was 5 seconds short of taking the golden fleece from Italian Rinaldo Noncentini. Fellow escapee Christophe Le Mevel also shot up into the top 10 and now sits 5th 43 seconds behind the leader.
The victor on the day was Russian national champion Sergei Ivanov who broke clear from the escape with 11km to go to ride to his second career Tour victory. He had a good 16 seconds to spare over Irish national champion Nicholas Roche who finished 2nd. New Zealender and Tour debutant Hayden Roulston finished third.
The peleton arrived some five and a half minutes later led by Mark Cavendish. However in a controversial decision he was relegated to the rear of the field for dangerous riding in the last kilometre. This was a double blow, as green jersey wearer Thor Husvhod was second of the main bunch and was thus promoted up to 13th overall. This gives Hushovd a generous 18 point lead in the points competition, and I think there is some chance he may now hold it all the way to Paris, with the Champs Elysee now looking the likely last chance for the sprinters this year.
Despite the break's large time gain it is no real concern for the GC men who all finished in the main bunch. Hincapie and Le Mevel will lose sufficient time in the Alps to not seriously challenge for the overall classification.
Yellow Jersey - Rinaldo Noncentini
Green Jersey - Thor Husvhod
Polka Dot Jersey - Franco Pellizotti
White Jesrey - Tony Martin
The victor on the day was Russian national champion Sergei Ivanov who broke clear from the escape with 11km to go to ride to his second career Tour victory. He had a good 16 seconds to spare over Irish national champion Nicholas Roche who finished 2nd. New Zealender and Tour debutant Hayden Roulston finished third.
The peleton arrived some five and a half minutes later led by Mark Cavendish. However in a controversial decision he was relegated to the rear of the field for dangerous riding in the last kilometre. This was a double blow, as green jersey wearer Thor Husvhod was second of the main bunch and was thus promoted up to 13th overall. This gives Hushovd a generous 18 point lead in the points competition, and I think there is some chance he may now hold it all the way to Paris, with the Champs Elysee now looking the likely last chance for the sprinters this year.
Despite the break's large time gain it is no real concern for the GC men who all finished in the main bunch. Hincapie and Le Mevel will lose sufficient time in the Alps to not seriously challenge for the overall classification.
Yellow Jersey - Rinaldo Noncentini
Green Jersey - Thor Husvhod
Polka Dot Jersey - Franco Pellizotti
White Jesrey - Tony Martin
Photo from Yahoo Sports.
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