Cycling Safari

Stage 7: St. Gregoire to Rennes, 52 km / 32 mi

- by Cathy Mehl

At last, the anticipated Individual Time Trial arrived in the Tour and the first shake-up in the General Classification. After five stages of flat roads and very little change atop the leader board, Stage 7 offered the opportunity for the overall contenders to show their true form. Doing well in the first long Time Trial of the Tour is important to those who hope to wear the Maillot Jaune in Paris July 23rd.

Racing against the clock, the rolling hills at the beginning of the course gave way to flat roads into the city of Rennes, the capital of Brittany, where several 90-degree turns would lead the riders to the finish. Perfect conditions of 20C and little or no wind made for fine racing today. There were three intermediate time checks along the course at 16.5, 36.5 and 46.5kms before the finish at 52km.

Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Assistant Sports Manager Dirk Demol had this to say as he looked ahead to the day: “A good day would be George in the top 5, the time gaps shouldn’t be too big without a Lance or Ullrich in the race. I think all the Top 15 riders will be within 2 minutes of the stage winner. I think we can see Paolo finish Top 10, and hopefully Popo and Jose don’t lose too much time as well. This course looks to be a very good route for Zabriskie and Landis; we’ll just see how the boys can do. ”

Sebastian Lang (Gerolsteiner) held the early lead for over three hours at 1:02:47 before the last twenty riders were on course, among them the heavy hitters like Dave Zabriskie (CSC), Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner), Bobby Julich (CSC), Discovery Channel’s George Hincapie and Floyd Landis (Phonak). With Americans touted as big favorites in this stage, the first big casualty of the day was a Tour-ending crash by Julich as he went down on a curve and was seen holding his wrist as he was loaded into the ambulance. Leipheimer also had some problems on the course and lost over five minutes, his director confirming no mechanical problems, just a bad day on the bike.

In the end, the day belonged to T-Mobile’s Serguei Gonchar, as he rolled out tenth from last on start, and proceeded to lead at every time check along the way, including the one that counted – the last one - with a winning time of 1:01:43. Having five career wins for Time Trials in the Giro d’Italia, Gonchar had never won a stage in the Tour, but he made it count today, grabbing both the win for Stage 7 and the Maillot Jaune as he now leads the race by one minute over Landis. It was a fine effort by Gonchar, and combined with strong efforts by teammates Michael Rogers (4th), Patrik Sinkewitz (6th) and Andreas Kloden (8th), T-Mobile looks to be a force on the roads of this year’s Tour as they took over the lead in the Team Classification.

The best performance by a pre-race favorite was the ride put in by Phonak’s Floyd Landis at 1: 02:44, good enough for second place. It’s reported that the UCI forced Landis to lower his handlebar position just before today’s start, and soon into the race the bars cracked, forcing a quick bike change on course. But he gained back most of the time he lost, and has now opened up a substantial gap over his other GC contenders.

Discovery Channel’s Paolo Savoldelli, George Hincapie,and Yaroslav Popovych had good rides today as well, but DC riders will now have to look to the mountain stages to make up the time lost in this stage. And while not considered a favorite for the overall classification, Zabriskie also didn’t turn in a good performance today and one wonders if the stresses of team CSC are beginning to take a toll on their riders.

Discovery Channel’s Viatcheslav Ekimov was on course early in the day, but maintained a sixth place standing for much of the race, and only slipped out of the top 20 in the final few minutes of the race. Even at forty years of age and riding his 15th Tour, Ekimov can still put in a fine performance.

Stage 8 tomorrow has one more sprinter’s day before a well-deserved rest day on Monday, and then the race takes us into the difficult Pyrenees.