Glee for McGee

Australian wins last-ditch sprint as Armstrong loses time

A mixed day for the English speakers as a last-ditch attack by Australian Bradley McGee saw him gain a stage win while favorite Lance Armstrong lost time in a crash, reports Cycling Weekly magazine.

"I DIDN’T crash, but I’ll have to go faster in Monday’s time trial,” was how Lance Armstrong (U.S. Postal) summed up what was the key incident of the first week of the Tour.

Indeed, all due respect to Bradley McGee (fdjeux.com) for following up fellow-Australian Robbie McEwen’s success Tuesday for Lotto with a fine winning attack of his own in the last 300 meters, but the day’s biggest point of interest came two kilometers earlier when one of the first week’s many pile-ups nearly scuppered the American’s race.

“Somebody went into Roberto Heras, and Heras then rode into my back wheel,” the American revealed afterwards. “I didn’t crash, but I had to put one foot down and straighten the handlebars.”

What it meant IT could have been worse for Lance Armstrong. The Texan’s experience of the crashes that have sent riders to hospital at a rate of one per day since the team time trial has caused him so far a delay of 27 seconds, but nothing more serious. More than the time loss itself, the triple Tour winner is probably more annoyed that this will almost certainly guarantee ONCE-Eroski the opportunity to ride Monday’s time trial armed with knowledge of Armstrong’ time checks. Most probably this will become irrelevant if Armstrong rips the opposition to pieces as he did in the first long time trial at Metz in 1999, and again last year in the mountain time trial. But it will certainly spice up the 52-kilometer race against the clock. However, ONCE-Eroski’s determination to hold onto the lead was enough for them to seek some unlikely allies in the shape of Alessio to help bring back the three breakaways prior to the break. Keeping the American at bay until Monday is clearly a priority. Armstrong apart, stage seven will be remembered as the day on which Christophe Moreau was forced to throw in the towel for the general classification. This will further reduce the French contingent’s already limited chances of taking stage wins.

The whole U.S. Postal team waited for Armstrong as he sorted out his bike, but they need not have bothered; accelerating hard on the final tiny climb that led to the finish outside Avranches, the Texan easily outpaced all eight of them, and in doing so provided probably the most reassuring sign that all is well despite the near-miss.

The damage, then, was minimal, although race leader Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (ONCE-Eroski)and all the major race favorites barring Christophe Moreau (Crédit Agricole) -- in far more serious trouble than Armstrong -- took 27 seconds on the American champion, who was led in across the line by Mapei-Quick Step star Andrea Tafi, with Laurent Jalabert (CSC-Tiscali), delayed by the same crash, close behind.

“I’m not upset,” Armstrong insisted, but it was the first time Armstrong had been caught out in a first week pile-up since 1999, and showed that not even the apparently invulnerable American can avoid uncomfortably close shaves with an early exit from the race.

Race casualties

He was not the only crash victim, on a day which, had it not been for the pile-ups, would have had little interest bar the bunch sprint or late attack on the final short, sharp climb.

The most serious accident by far in terms of sheer numbers came with around seven kilometers to go -- just as the ONCE and Alessio-driven peloton had the three breakaways of the day, Leon Van Bon (Domo-Farm Frites), Franck Renier (Bonjour)and Anthony Morin (Crédit Agricole) well within their sights.

As the bunch topped 70kph on a road which wound through lush green Normandy countryside, suddenly, and for reasons which remain unclear, more than 20 riders hit the deck on both sides of the road.

On the left, Spaniard Oscar Freire and Lampre rider Luciano Pagliarini came off the worst, both rolling into a ditch. Brazilian Pagliarini was unhurt, but none of Freire’s Mapei teammates bothered to wait for the double world champion, who remounted and set off alone, rubbing his back in pain.

Freire was still looking dazed when he crossed the line more than six minutes down on McGee. He was later taken to hospital, and later decided to quit the race.

In stark contrast to Freire’s isolation, no less than four Crédit Agricole riders waited for French leader Moreau, who was left fighting back the tears after his tumble.

Given a new bike by directeur sportif Roger Legeay, Moreau gingerly remounted and rode past a race ambulance soon to contain French national champion Didier Rous, after the Bonjour rider was forced to quit the Tour with a broken left collarbone. Moreau lost more than four minutes, and finished with his morale and his Tour chances in tatters.

Strike two

Then, just as the peloton was cranking up the pace once more, another crash broke the race apart. “There are riders everywhere!” French TV commentators yelled.

Without a shadow of the doubt, the most important victim was Armstrong. He was waited for by Viatcheslav Ekimov, and though the Texan looked uninjured, he had had a nasty shock nonetheless, dropping, however briefly, to eighth overall.

At the front end of the peloton, now down to some 90 riders, the action was hotting up for the finish. First, Fassa Bortolo’s promising young rider Ivan Basso put in a powerful dig on the Avranches climb, and then, as the summit loomed, pint-sized Basque rider David Etxebarria (Euskaltel-Euskadi) had a crack of the whip. Etxebarria’s close friend Pedro Horrillo (Mapei-Quick Step) -- usually Freire’s guardian angel but fighting his own battles on stage seven -- overtook the orange rider with around 400 meters to go and seemed certain to cross the line first, until Australian Bradley McGee (fdjeux.com) kept to the plan he had outlined to a TV channel from down under that morning and charged out of the peloton.

Edging past the Mapei rider, who threw up his arms in frustration, the former track star was whooping with delight as he took the sprint finish by a country mile, and fdjeux.com ’s first Tour stage for five years.

“It was all a question of planning, patience and timing,” McGee revealed. “And the stage worked out exactly how I said it would go for me.” In contrast, a fair proportion of the Tour’s star riders felt stage seven had been a transition stage too far.

 

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