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Tour Stage 2: Sprinting at its finest [VIDEO]

Roar Guru
2nd July, 2012
5

Tour De France Stage 2 was world class sprinting at its absolute finest. The best in the business going head to head. They turned up to play and did not disappoint.

In the intermediate sprint Goss took line honours slightly ahead of Renshaw with Cav and Sagan following very closely behind.

The intermediates are important for building points and also allowing the sprinters to rev the engine up before they hit the finish.

Heading into the last 1.3km itwas absolute chaos – as it always is in the first week of the tour.

Lotto put their train into position to set Griepel up. The finish is always quite narrow so it is extremely difficult to push your way to the front as you often cannot get the ‘top’ line into the corners.

At 1.3km Oricas-GreenEDGE pounced to take the lead but Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto) pushed across marginally to box Goss in.

This was an expert manoeuvre and shut down Orica-GreenEDGE’s lead out train and allowed Lotto to push the whole way in the dominant position.

With 1km to go Sagan showed maturity beyond his experience and snagged onto Griepel’s wheel.

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The Lotto train began to peel away as the bunch closed in on the 300m to go mark. Goss, who was almost gone after being boxed in managed to push himself up and around sevreal riders with Cav sitting on his wheel.

Whilst it is very hard to analyse at the speeds they are going at – make no mistake about the level of skill that it takes to do this. Goss and Cav are the masters of moving up and through the bunch to get themselves into position.

At the 200m mark it was a Lotto rider leading out Griepel, followed by Cav, Goss and Sagan all lined up behind. The Lotto rider peels off with about 120m to go and the sprinters open up.

Griepel, who has a higher sustained power level, drives for the line but that superior kick and low centre of gravity that Cav has pushes him ahead with Cav taking the line by half a wheel. Goss comes in third about a bike length behind with Sagan 6th. A truly epic finish to the stage.

I have been impressed with Orica-GreenEDGE’s lead-out train. They have quickly come to stamp their authority on their ability to move through the peleton and contest the sprints. They showed this at the Giro and have demonstrated it again at the tour.

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