Tour de France 2011
by Baron Halpenny, LincsMag Editor.
Date: 03 August 2011
HTC-Highroad's Mark Cavendish crowned his first ever points jersey win in the Tour de France with a third straight victory on the Champs Elysées. Cadel Evans won overall and took the coveted yellow jersey.
Cavendish took his fifth sprint win of the 2011 Tour de France race at the end of a ninety-five kilometre stage from Creteil to Paris, blasting ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway and Germany's Andre Greipel.
The 2011 Race
Running from Saturday July 2nd to Sunday July 24th 2011, the 98th Tour de France was made up of 21 stages and covered a total distance of 3,430.5 kilometres.
- The stages had the following profiles:
- 10 flat stages,
- 6 mountain stages and 4 summit finishes,
- 3 medium mountain stages,
- 1 individual time-trial stage (42.5 km).
- 1 team time-trial stage (23 km).
- Distinctive aspects of the race:
- le Galibier was climbed twice,
- 2 rest days,
- 23 level 2, 1 or highest level mountain passes or summit finishes,
- no bonuses were awarded during the intermediate sprints and stage finishes.
Early on
Philippe Gilbert was touted as the absolute favourite for the opening stage of the 2011 Tour de France and he promptly scored the victory many expected him to get, winning the first yellow jersey. Not only did he escape numerous crashes, he also had the power to hold off a late charge from his former teammate and a two-time runner-up in the Tour, Cadel Evans. Evens had only to bide his time, for there were many days of racing still ahead of them.
On the second day Garmin-Cervélo were the fastest on the team time trial, allowing Thor Hushovd to jump ahead and take the race leadership, which he retained for seven days.
In stage 3, as Philippe Gilbert held the points classification as well as the King of the Mountains classification, Cadel Evans, who was second on the only hill yielding points to that stage, wore the polka-dot jersey.
The first week and a half was notable for the number of nasty crashes involving high profile riders, with Alexandre Vinokourov, Andreas Klöden, Janez Brajkovic, Bradley Wiggins, Jurgen Van Den Broeck and Chris Horner all having to sadly withdraw due to injury.
Robert Gesink, Alberto Contador, Samuel Sánchez and Levi Leipheimer all were hit by both damage to their overall performance and the loss of valuable time due to falls in the race.
Nicki Sørensen being struck by a motorbike carrying a photographer, and then in stage 10 Johnny Hoogerland and Juan Antonio Flecha being injured after an incident with a television car was not the best of media relations with the riders.
A breakaway on stage nine saw Thomas Voeckler gain the overall lead, which he held for ten racing days in total through the Pyrenean section and all but one of the Alpine stages.
Time Secure
The riders who eventually took the top three places in the general classification, Cadel Evans of BMC Racing Team, Andy Schleck, and his older brother and Leopard Trek teammate, Fränk Schleck, occurred on stage 16, when Evans gained an important 21 seconds on Fränk Schleck and 1'09" on Andy Schleck, on the descent to Gap in what were wet conditions.
On stage 18, a 60 km breakaway by Andy Schleck gave him an advantage of more than two minutes at the highest stage finish in tour history at the Col du Galibier. But on the penultimate day Evans came second in a time trial and beat the Luxembourg pair by more than two and a half minutes to secure the vital victory.
Andy Schleck and Cadel Evans both wore the yellow jersey for only one day each, with Schleck for the time trial, and Evans then on the final stage on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
Mark Cavendish gets the Points Jersey
The stages that were suited to sprint finishes were dominated by an on form Cavendish, who won an impressive five stages, including a record third successive victory on the final stage on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris in the course of winning the points category, ahead of José Joaquín Rojas and Philippe Gilbert.
Cavendish in last years Tour de France having come second in the Points classification despite winning five stages, was obviously this year determined to stamp his mark and win the points jersey.
The first British rider ever to win the points jersey, Cavendish said afterwards there could not have been a better way to round off his battle for green than with the twentieth stage win of his career in the Tour de France.
"I finally got it, but it didn't come easy," Cavendish said, "I really had to fight for it all the way to the last finish line and I'm very tired, but it was worth all that effort."
"I had eight fantastic team-mates around me all the way, they kept working with me, I was close to getting it for the last two years and now it's finally here."
"I'm so happy, it's incredible. It's a great way to finish the Tour and a super, super emotional day."
Spaniard Samuel Sánchez, who had a win and two second places on the four mountaintop finishes, won the mountains category.
HTC-Highroad completed the 2011 Tour de France as the team with the most victories; five for Cavendish and one on Saturday for Germany's Tony Martin.
The Tour de France 2011 Route
