Tour de France 2012: Stage 20 Rambouillet to Champs Élysées, Paris

Is it really that time of year again that me and Nick Barlow (amongst others) give you our last look at what lies in the day ahead on the road of France (an any other country) as part of the Tour de France.

First up let's short out what happened yesterday.

The man the Dutch call the "Banana with sideburns" showed why he is the man who have spent 7 days in yellow in Paris-Nice, five in the Tour of Romandie, seven in the Critérium du Dauphiné and now 13 days in Le Tour. Let us not forget he was a rather unripe banana on the second day of this year's tour. He opened more time on everyone, even his own team mate who once again in the Time Trials came second. I suspect that these two now will go into the Olympics and after helping try and secure Mark Cavendish his gold will be going head to head with Fabian Cancellera and Tony Martin amongst others to try and lift the other men's road cycling gold on the course over many roads I have ridden a bike on around Hampton Court.

In the end Vincenzo Nibali lost more time to end up 6'19" behind Wiggo overall. Froome ended up with a Dusty Bin time of 3'21" behind his team mate. With Richie Porte coming fifth  yesterday Sky managed to half the gap between themselves and Radioshack-Nissan in the team race. But it was because they were using all their men to keep the pace high until just Froome was left with Wiggins that they despite domination of the race failed to secure the team prize, which if the aggregate of each teams best 3 riders each day.

Today's final stage is usually only a ceremonial roll into Paris until the race hits the most famous Boulevard in road race cycling. The only things for certain are that the four wearers of the jerseys will be toasted with champagne. Laterne Rouge Saur- Sojasun rider Jimmy Engoulvent who is 3 hours 57 minutes slower than Wiggins will be given a red lamp to carry for the press and Wiggins with the World Champion, Nowegian Champion and other 5 remaining team mates will lead the race briefly at the start of the circuits of the Champs Élysées.

Even though the tour organisers decided to try and spice things up with two Category 4 climbs. Just in case that competition were tight heading towards Paris. As it isn't maybe the race will let Thomas Voeckler take both of those in the Polka Dot King of the Mountain Jersey, or maybe he will share the honours with Fredrik Kessiakoff with him he had a tough battle in the Pyrénées. So maybe expect the peleton to give them a point each. With not much contest, the other riding as the escort on the Côte de Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse and shortly afterward the Côte de Châteaufort.

As always on the last day the intermediate sprint will occur on the third crossing of the line of the Champs Élysées. Last year it was contested as Mark Cavendish's Green Jersey was still in play. This year the peleton may well have already let a few riders get a little up the road. So they will be working to stay away and there will probably be no sprint.


Tejay van Garderen is safe in the other Jersey for best Young Rider and I fully expect to see him as leader of the BMC team when the race starts next year, maybe with Cadel Evans helping him as a super domestique.


What everyone will want to know however is can Mark Cavendish do it again. Yesterday for Cav is all about being number 1, but not in stage winning, he finished the stage in 1 hr 11 mins 11 seconds. He wants to see just one number 1 next to his name today and that is a the front rather than afterwards. 

He has never lost on the last day of the Tour de France. He is already the only man to have won this famous stage three years in succession and the way he rode into Brive la Gaillarde on Friday it would be very rare to see anyone bet against him, especially as both the top two in the GC have already vowed to help lead him into prime position off the Place de la Concorde that last time into that straight that he owns. If he does it will be the seventh win by a Brit in this year's Tour from four different riders (or 1/3 of all the finishes) breaking the record of 2009 when all six were won by Cav.

Can André Greipel or Matt Goss spoil the party? Looking at the difference between the three of them on Friday and how Mark has won here in the past I'd say it looks unlikely, but you can never know.


Here is how he won in 2009, when a Brit for only the second time raced to 4th place, tomorrow that Brit should also be breaking records as he rides in for yellow.

In 2010 after Mark Renshow had been kicked off the Tour he did it himself. And rather like on Friday he left the rest of the sprinters for dead with an attack from a long way out.

Then last year when even despite having the luxury of two of his team in front of him off the last bend it has been the closest so far, because it was into a head wind.

Tour de France 2012: Stage 17 Bagnères de Luchon to Peyragudes

Nibali being pulled back by the last two men from the peleton.

Hear ye, hear ye. The King is dead long live the new King.

Cadel Evans (BMC) was dropped once against yesterday and this time there was no truce and no limiting of losses, nor was Tejay van Garderen required to hang back with the rest of the team to help the team leader.

But who is the new King. It should be Bradley Wiggins. But if some misfortune overcomes the Maillot Jaune today Sky still have the fall back of Chris Froome. Vincenzo Nibali (LIQ) tried again yesterday to break the Sky one-two but if Froome wasn't pacing Brad back to his wheel, Wiggo was doing the same for Chris. The stage yesterday saw the three of the them locked together taking time out of all the other contenders. Jurgen van den Broeck (LOT), Haimar Zubeldia (RNT) and van Garderen were in the group 58 seconds down lead across the line by Nico Roche (AGM).

Early on there were 38 of the 152 riders still left in the Tour in a breakaway up the field. That is 25% of the race, just not any of the 10% that matter. In that Group was Thomas Voeckler (EUR) who ended up taking the top spot on both of the Hors Catégorie Climbs of the day and both the 1st Category Climbs. On the Col d'Aubisque second over the top were the Polka Dots on the back of Fredrik Kessiakoff, who was 4th over the Tourmalet but was outside the top 6 for the Col d'Aspin and the Col du Peyresourde, with only 34 points on the day Kessiakoff ended the day with 4 points less than Voeckler in the King of the Mountains.

Voeckler who attacked alone for the last climb and with only Brice Feillu for the one before that was not surprisingly the comabtive rider of the day as well as winning the stage by 1'40".

Today's stage in the final Mountain stage of the Tour. It is over 143km not all of them new to this years race as once the road circles around to Saint Aventin it is back up the Peyresourde in the reverse direction to yesterday before a short part of the descent before turning off the the left for the climb to Peyragudes.

After 17km of today's loop though the road starts to go up with the first category Col de Menté, the 15th time this has been a mountain in le Tour. In 1971 it was tackled in the direction we are going today on the way to Bagnères de Luchon during stage 14. Eddy Merckx was 7 minutes behind Luis Ocaña in yellow at the time and on the decent both men were taking risks, Merckx fell on a bend into a retaining wall, Ocaña following close behind could not avoid him and crashed himself. Although Merckx was up and off again quickly Ocaña's couldn't release his toe clips quickly and Joop Zoetemelk collided with the prostrate Ocaña. The Spaniard was helicoptered off the mountain his Tour over and the following day Merckx refused to wear the Maillot Jaune as a mark of respect.

Without that crash, which is marked by a memorial on the spot as they came down it is possible that Merckx may not have been one of the five time winners of Le Tour. But it is a constant reminder to all leaders that the race is not won until all the corners on all the descents are negotiated.

After the Col de Menté there is a relatively flat section of today's race. Although the category 2 Col de Ares and Category 3 Côte de Burs do intervene. Then at 95 km into the stage the climbing resumes again in earnest. 


First up is the 11.7km climb up the Port de Balès which is only in it's 3rd Tour having featured in 2007 and 2010 previously it is the day's only Hor Catégorie climb. The Average gradient is 7.7% but there is a three km section that averages over 9% 5km from the end. If Vincenzo Nibali still has any designs on winning this Tour it is likely to be at that point that he is going to have to attack. The descent is not likely to allow him to pull out a gap on Wiggins and it is doubtful that the gentler climb of the Peyresourde before taking the addition to Peyragude is going to going to offer him much opportunity to gain enough time.

After 16.5km of descending the Tour will find itself on familiar roads as for the next 12.5km they are going back the way they came yesterday. As they summit the Peyresourde and take part of the descent before turning off up to the Peyragudes ski station. The final climb itself is less than 3km, but along with the Peyresourde it is counting as a 1st category climb. There is a km of flt racing at the top and if Nibali reaches the plateau with Wiggins and/or Froome in close attendance his Tour is over and he will only have a podium position.

There are 62 King of the Mountains points on offer today, twenty of them for the mountain finish and I doubt that either Voeckler nor Kessiakoff will be there to pick up those. With Chris Anke Sorenson 40 points behind Voeckler and with only a maximum 7 more KoM points available between Peyragudes and Paris today should be the day that the Polka Dot Jersey finds it final recipient. if neither Voeckler nor Kessiakoff pick up any early points from a break away though it may come down to who if either can get into a break tomorrow. Voekler really only needs to secure 4 points more than Kessiakoff today to be sure. 9th on the Port de Balès or 4th on the Col de Menté or 10th on the Peyragudes if Kessiakoff fails to score.

If Peter Sagan (LIQ) gets through this final mountain stage his 102 point lead should be enough for him to be riding the green jersey into Paris and all the way to the line. Seeing as he has worn it since the start of Stage 2 and as of right since the start of Stage 3 his dominance in that competition has been almost absolute.

Yesterday Tejay van Garderen (BMC) was given the nod by Cadel Evans to race on for the White Jersey as best young rider and not come back to support the defending champion who said later that he was suffering from stomach pains. If he stays in contact or ahead of Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) who lost a little time to now be 3'48" back in that competition he should also be wearing that jersey all the way to Paris. However, Pinot along with Pierre Rolland (EUC) are both on track to be in the Top 10. If they do, after last year it will only be the second time since 2000 that more than one French cyclist has filled spots in the top 10, but with both in the early days of their careers rather than experienced men it holds the greatest hope for France to end the home Grand Tour drought since Bernhard Hinault.

And finally... today could be the day that means Bradley Wiggins takes the Maillot Jaune into the start box in last place for the Time Trial. With a Time Trailer like him that would be hard to make up by anyone, and with Fabian Cancellera nursing his new daughter and Tony Martin nursing his fractured wrist there isn't any obvious winner of the stage on Saturday so here is a good luck song from a fellow fan.

Tour de France 2012:....and on the tenth day they rested

....but not before another little bit of Tour history.

Yesterday was the race of truth. And the truth was rather revealing.

One of the first men to lay down a marker for the day was World Time Trail champion Tony Martin (OPQ) who came in with a time of 53'40". When asked at the end who would beat that time he said Fabian (Cancellera) (RNT) would be fastest at the end. It was a sentiment echoed by David Millar (GRS) but he also mentioned that Wiggo and Froome Dog would not be far behind.

Cancellera did indeed go faster, a whole 1'19" faster and it was looking like the four times world champion was laying down a marker for this stage. However, Teejay van Garderen (BMC) looked like he was going to take that away from him 3 seconds up at the first check and still 2 at the second. However, he lost time in the final part of the race and ended up 9 seconds back on the Swiss power horse. It wouldn't win him the stage but was enough to lift him back into the White Jersey as best young rider.

Chris Froome (SKY) may have been back in the colours of Sky after his one day in the Polka Dots, but he was a man on a mission, he was much faster than van Garderen at all the check points and reached the line 22 seconds faster than Cancellera but by this point we knew that one man had a chance to go faster and that was his team leader.

Haimar Zubeldia (RNT) was next to cross the line just 4 seconds down on the time set by Martin earlier in the day. Then Denis Menchov (KAT) and Vincenzo Nibali (LIQ) the latter one second faster, in what at the time were 7th and 6th places, for Nibali in particular that was an exceptional finish. But the big two that every one had been talking about before the Tour were still to come in.

Out on the course Cadel Evans (BMC) was losing time to Froome and Bradley Wiggins (SKYY) who was coming behind him. It became apparent that he wasn't so much racing for the Maillot Jaune (Yellow Jersey) but to stay in second place. In the end he lost 1'08" of his lead over Froome to be just 14 seconds ahead of one Brit, but it was the one still on road that in the process of setting up history. Bradley Wiggins did just what he had done in the week long Tours he had already won this year he took control of the Time Trial and dominated it. He was 35 seconds ahead of his team mate but had opened up a further 1'43" on Evans.

It was Wiggins first stage win in the Tour, the first time that Britain filled first and second spot on one stage. It was also the Third Brit to win a stage in the same Tour, and when Wiggo pulls on Yellow again after the rest day he will equal the most consecutive days that a Brit has worn that famous jersey in the Tour.

In last year's Vuelta Froome was on the podium one step ahead of Wiggins who was returning from his broken collarbone in the first week of the 2011 Tour. He was being touted as the heir apparent to Wiggins. He may well be part of the duo of outstanding all rounders if he can keep up his support of Wiggins through the Alps and Pyrénées. Sky for the second Grand Tour in a year have two men capable of being in the top three once the shorting out of the GC starts.

As I said yesterday the top 10 may well face a bit of a shake up as a result of the Time Trial, he is how they managed.

• 1. (nc) Bradley Wiggins (SKY) 39h 09' 20" (nc)
• 2. (nc) Cadel Evans (BMC) +1'53" (+1'43)
• 3. (+3) Chris Froome (SKY) +2'07" (+35")
• 4. (-1) Vincenzo Nibali (LIQ) +2'23" (+2'07")
• 5. (-1) Denis Menchov (KAT) +3'02" (+2'08")
• 6. (-1) Haimar Zubeldia (RNT) +3'19" (+2'20)
• 7. (nc) Maxime Monfort (RNT) +4'23" (+2'15)
• 8. (+9) Teejay van Garderen (BMC) +5'14" (+1'06)
• 9. (-1) Jurgen van den Broeck (LOT) +5'20" (+3'09)
• 10. (-1) Nicolas Roche (AGM) +5'29" (+3'08")

Out of the Top Ten now is Rein Taaramae (COF) who is now in 12th only 43 seconds behind van Garderen for the white jersey.

I'd like to say enjoy the rest day, but being in yellow Brad will have a lot of press to do as well as doing a long run on the bike at some point. But I'm sure he'll enjoy knowing that his lead and dominance in the Time Trail is now making his opponents think how can they eek out enough time to challenge his lead.