Fabian Cancellara attack pulls Slovakian champion clear on the final climb
After almost coming down in the previous day’s prologue Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) cruised to a simple sprint victory at the end of stage one of the 2012 Tour de France, between Liège and Seraing. The 22-year-old Slovakian champion was able to take advantage of an attack from yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan) in the final kilometre and a half; he sat on the Swiss powerhouse’s wheel as he raced for time gains on the peloton, and was able to quite easily come around him at the finish to take his first ever victory in the Tour.
Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky), who had managed to bridge across to the leading duo with just under a kilometre to go, took third place, just ahead of a charging Philippe Gilbert (BMC Racing) at the head of the splintering peloton.
“Yesterday I was a bit unfortunate, because I expected to do a better prologue, but I had a small incident … luckily I did not fall!” said a pleased Sagan afterwards. “Today, after a hundred kilometres I started to think of victory. I was not at my best in the first part of the stage. I must thank the guys laps of my team because they all did good work in the last kilometres. They helped me to stay in front of the group, at times when it was very dangerous.
“In the last three kilometres it was really difficult. We talked a lot with my director, and we agreed on the fact that there was only one rider to watch: Fabian Cancellara. When he made the effort, I immediately followed. He continued to ride hard in the final, but I have not taken any turns because I knew I was at my limit.”
The 198km stage around the hills and forests of the Ardennes was dominated by a six-man breakaway from Yohann Gène (Europcar), Pablo Urtasun (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Maxim Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale), Nicolas Edet (Cofidis), Anthony Delaplace (Saur-Sojasun) and Michael Mørkøv (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank). The group went away in the very first metres of the stage, and managed to build a maximum lead of 4’50” on the early climbs of the stage, but were steadily reeled in and finally captured with eight kilometres to go as the peloton squared up for the final climb to the finish.
Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) put in the first big attack with two kilometres to go, but was unable to get away, but Cancellara’s move was more successful and formed the winning break.
With Gilbert pulling the peloton up to the heels of the three-man group Cancellara was not able to take any time gains, and – aside from Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEdge) and Patrick Gretsch (Argos-Shimano) dropping out of the top ten – there was little change to the top of the general classification.
Into the Ardennes for a Doyenne-style stage and the break gets away from the gun
Stage one was to be a Liège-Bastogne-Liège style stage around the Ardennnes countryside, peppered with five 4th category climbs. The Côtes de Cokaifagne, Francorchamps, Liemeux, and Barvaux would be followed by the climb to the finish line on the Côte de Seraing.
Gène, Urtasun, Bouet, Edet, Delaplace and Mørkøv escaped immediately the flag was dropped and, despite being held up briefly by a closed railway crossing, set about building themselves a healthy advantage. Behind the break, a series of small crashes saw a number of riders hit the deck, including Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Robbie Hunter (Garmin-Sharp), then Anthony Roux (FDJ-BigMat) and Bram Tankink (Rabobank). Everybody managed to rejoin the peloton, but Martin – who had been the only rider to puncture in the previous day’s prologue – appeared to be having some problems.
Before long Mørkøv, who had finished 51st in the prologue, 24 seconds behind Cancellara, was the virtual Maillot Jaune on the road.
Edet attacked for the single point at the top of the Côte de Cokaifagne after 42km, but was beaten to the line by Mørkøv, while Urtasun took the point at the Côte de Francorchamps just a few kilometres later. As they began the descent, with almost 50km covered, the six riders’ lead over the peloton was up to 4’50”.
As eight of the nine members of Cancellara’s RadioShack-Nissan team came to the front however, the gap to the leaders began to reduce. It came down to less than three minutes but, as Mørkøv led the break over the top of the Côte de Liemeux after 94km, the Luxembourg-registered team led the peloton over 3’47” later.
As the peloton passed through the feedzone at Baraque de Fraiture shortly afterwards – which was the highest point of the stage at 606 metres – local rider Maxime Monfort (RadioShack-Nissan) was allowed to briefly jump ahead of the peloton to meet his family and friends.
As the gap to the leaders tipped over the four minute mark once more a few raindrops began to fall on the race, but thankfully it was only to be a very brief shower.
The sprinters have a practice run as the peloton calls time on the break
Gène won the fight for the intermediate sprint in Érezée with 81.5km to go, while 2’30 behind him a big battle between the Orica-GreenEdge, Sky, Lotto-Belisol and Rabobank teams, saw Matt Goss beat Mark Cavendish, André Greipel and Mark Renshaw in the race for seventh place.
Having allowed their lead to slip out to almost four minutes again, with 65km to go RadioShack-Nissan’s Jens Voigt began to pick up the pace and pull back the six leaders.
With 50km to go, the gap was down to just 1’40”. The RadioShack-Nissan team was still getting no help from its rivals however, and the urgency of the chase dropped off a little; at the 40km to go point it was still 1’25”.
As the race entered the final 30km the gap was down to exactly a minute, and a number of other teams began to move forward; BMC Racing was showing itself prominently, as it brought local rider Philippe Gilbert forward. It was far too soon to catch the six leaders however, and the peloton’s pace dropped a little again to allow them to stew out front for a bot longer.
Inside the final 25km a crash at the side of the peloton saw Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank) and Michael Rogers (Team Sky) come down, while a few kilometres further on a far bigger incident – as riders swerved to avoid a camera wielding fan at the side of the road – saw many more riders hit the tarmac.
The second incident involved local rider Monfort, Thomas Voeckler (Europcar), and Movistar team leader Alejandro Valverde; all riders seemed to be okay, but the reaction in the peloton saw the speed rise and many of those affected were faced with a stiff task to get back on. The net effect of this was also to drop the leader’s advantage to just 30 seconds, as they passed under the 20km to go banner. Several echelons were forming behind the main peloton as it traversed an open stretch of road.
BMC Racing, Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Team Sky took control of the peloton as the race snaked downwards through some trees. Into the final 15km the gap to the six leaders was just 15 seconds, as Bouet led them across the river Meuse.
Finally the break is over as the contenders line themselves up for the final climb
Lotto-Belisol, then Garmin-Sharp, the Astana battle for the front of the peloton as it raced along the banks of the wide river, but the sextet’s lead had grown to 20 seconds again. Under the ten kilometre banner it was just five seconds though, as Orica-GreenEdge led the charging peloton behind them.
Edet tried to jump away first, but Bouet managed it the second time; he was just prolonging the agony however and, as the other five were pulled back with nine kilometres to go, the Frenchman was finally caught a few hundred metres later.
Lotto-Belisol and Garmin-Sharp were fighting for the lead again, and it was André Greipel himself leading the line at 60kph as they crossed the river again with six kilometres to go.
As the peloton crossed the bridge Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) punctured, and had no chance of making it back into the peloton before the finish.
George Hincapie (BMC Racing) pulled defending champion Cadel Evans forward, and Sagan jumped onto the Australian’s wheel as they went by. The Orica-GreenEdge team was still leading the peloton, but Evans was now poised behind Goss, with Sagan right behind him.
Onto the steepest part of the climb, with two kilometres to go, Chavanel accelerated clear, but was just not able to open up a decisive enough gap and was gradually pulled back. With a kilometre and a half remaining though, Cancellara made his move, and only Sagan could go with him.
Boasson Hagen gradually battled his way across to the two leaders, as Cancellara vainly signalled for Sagan to come through and do some of the work. With 500 metres to go they spread across the road but, with Evans leading the charging peloton behind them, Cancellara went again. The RadioShack-Nissan rider was the first to open up his sprint, but Sagan simply cruised past him and took the line several lengths clear; first putting his hands on his hips, and then flapping his wings as he freewheeled to an easy victory.