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Crashing out of a race is never a pleasurable experience but doing so when wearing the leader’s jersey is particularly grating.
Add to that the fact that the leader after Stage 1 here, Nacer Bouhanni of FDJ, actually landed on his face, and you can imagine that he woke up this morning not in the best of moods (video below).
Fortunately Bouhanni’s injuries were not too serious, but he is out of the race.
As tends to be the case though, one man’s misfortune turns to another’s gain, and in this case the recipient was Cannondale’s Elia Viviani, who took over the race lead.
He now leads Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) by seven seconds and Damien Gaudin of Europcar by eight.
Of the potential winners, best placed are Peter Velits (Omega Pharma–Quickstep) is at 11 seconds, Blanco’s Robert Gesink at 14 seconds, and Richie Porte (Sky) at 17 seconds.
The best place Australian is Leigh Howard of Orica-GreenEdge at 14 seconds, who took a very handy third on the stage.
The long 200.5km stage was won with authority by Marcel Kittel, Argos-Shimano’s young sprinter. It was a hard day at the office though for all involved, with block headwinds forcing the speeds down.
“The final was really hard,” Kittel said, who manoeuvred his way expertly through a congested front line to take the win.
“I found my way through and powered on to the finish line.”
The rhythm of the race was suspended for a time after Bouhanni crashed as the peloton slowed to see if he would rejoin. Once an ambulance was called however, the leaders knew he was out and the racing resumed.
“The last 80km were really nervous today,” continued Kittel. “We lost the race leader, Bouhanni, so his team stopped working and we took the responsibility together with Orica-GreenEdge.
“But it was not easy to control the bunch and it was very chaotic. When we brought back the four leaders it became clear that we were heading for a bunch sprint.
“We had planned to stay together and come to the front with our train really late, and that’s what we did,” Kittel explained.
“Our team did a perfect job in the finale, keeping the train together and staying up front. I was able to start the sprint late, with 200m to go, and I went around and was able to win. I am really proud of the team. It was a very long day—not easy, but everyone worked hard until the final meters.”
Viviani is a sprinter and as such is expected to lose the race lead once the road goes up. Chavanel is looking in great form and very strong, though his focus will be the Ardennes Classics later in the spring.
Watch for Gesink and Porte as the road climbs. The Dutchman has proven himself here before, it’s time soon for the Australian to follow suit.
Stage 5, with the finish up to La Montagne de Lure, should be the first real testing ground.
Today’s stage is a 170.5km run from Chatel-Guyon to Brioude, slightly bumpy in places but we should get another group finish.
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