Gallopin gets third in Porrentruy as white jersey race tightens
After their stage seven finish on the mountaintop of La Planche de Belles Filles went a bit awry, Radioshack-Nissan bounced back in solid fashion as the most well-represented team at the end of a difficult stage eight in Porrentruy. The Luxembourg-based squad put five men in the top fifteen at the finish, highlighted by Tony Gallopin’s third spot, behind stage winner Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat) and runner up Cadel Evans (BMC Racing).
Gallopin’s result, combined with the unexpected struggles of current white jersey holder Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis), brought the race for the young rider’s jersey much closer. After Taaramäe’s brilliant ride to La Planche de Belles Filles yesterday, the Estonian seemed to be zeroing in on the white jersey already. But after losing 2’21” today, he is now just 26 seconds ahead of Gallopin. Pinot used his stage win to close down in third, 1’14” behind the Cofidis rider.
After many breakaway groups failed throughout the morning, Gallopin found one that was finally given some room, and began thinking about a stage win, but not the white jersey.
“I worked for the team in the beginning of the week and I thought about the stage win today,” Gallopin admitted. “It was almost possible but Thibaut is a great climber. He is part of a group of young French riders and we all work very hard. I don’t know him so well, but I’m happy for him today. I followed some groups and I was in the front – I tried to follow the best. I’m happy for our team today too. We had four riders in the front and we are trying for the team classification.”
With the drop of Taaramäe from fourth to tenth overall, Radioshack-Nissan’s Haimar Zubeldia bumps up to fifth, Maxime Monfort sits in seventh, and Gallopin rises to eleventh. Chris Horner and Frank Schleck sit 14th and 15th respectively. As some of Sky Procycling’s climbing domestiques lost a bit more time today, Radioshack-Nissan also took over the lead in the teams classification, with a margin of 2’51” over the British squad.
Horner seemed especially pleased to have stayed out of trouble and participated in a good day for the team.
“We had a fantastic team today. Jens [Voigt] was a man on a mission [going away solo in an early escape – ed.] to crush everyone’s legs and Tony was unbelievable, such a good rider and good teammate,” Horner enthused. “Then over the top it was Zubeldia, Frank and myself and then later we caught Tony. We had four in the front group, trying to work for the stage win. I think it was a good show of the team working together and a spectacular stage.
“We had so many goals today. Tony could possibly go into the white jersey, there was the team classification and the possibility of a stage win, plus Zubeldia is there on GC. So many different reasons to be working in the break so we just had to put our heads down and drive it to the finish. I was hoping we could catch the last guy so maybe Tony could get a stage win.”
Though still a bit lukewarm with media after the stage, Schleck responded to whether such a positive stage would increase morale amongst the team’s climbers. “The mood was never bad, even though sometimes we have hard times, but not between the riders. Not yesterday, and not any time,” Schleck stated. “We did get a nice result today, so everyone is happy of course, but that doesn’t change [or affect] the mood between the riders.
“You don’t really have much time to think about this,” Schleck said regarding particular team tactics on the final climb and descent into the finish. “Once Vincenzo Nibali and Jurgen Van Den Broeck attacked, we saw on the top there were only five riders left. We had Zubeldia there so we had our GC guys in the back and Tony Gallopin in the front. We waited until we caught Tony and then received the order to go full gas. It worked out good for Zubeldia.”
With the 41km time trial to Besançon tomorrow, Radioshack-Nissan will need more positive results to maintain their team lead, as Team Sky sends out noted specialists Michael Rogers, Richie Porte, and Chris Froome.