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Stage 7 - 2010 Tour of Britain
September 11-18; UCI 2.1 | Home Page for News & Reports
Stage 7: Bury St Edmunds to Colchester (94 miles, Sept 17)
Vacansoleil rider Borut Bozic took the win on Stage Seven from Bury St Edmunds to Colchester, in a day dominated by a classic ‘will they won't they' two man breakaway from Tom Murray and Pieter Jacobs.
Above: Bozic celebrates his stage victory in Stage 7 having coming close the day before
After stage six's tour of the north Norfolk coast and Broadland, the penultimate stage of the 2010 tour headed into Suffolk and Essex for 152.3km of racing between Bury St Edmunds and Colchester. On the way were three categorised King of the Mountains climbs at Foxearth (44kms), Milden Hill (62kms) and Ballingdon Hill 20 kilometres later. Sprint points were also up for grabs at three locations; Long Melford, Braintree and Tiptree.
Above: HTC-Colombia and Team Sky on the front chasing down escapees Murray and Jacobs.
As has been the case throughout the race, we didn't have to wait long for the first attacks to come. Just a few kms out from the start proper, a four man group containing Travis Meyer (GRM), Ronan McLaughlin (SKT), Liam Holohan (RAL) and Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (RCS) went clear. McLaughlin and Holohan quickly decided not to persist - however Meyer and Tiernan-Locke carried on but eventually called it a day and were absorbed into the chasing peloton.
Above: AN Post riders in attacking mode.
Around the same time three riders called it a day properly - Elia Favilli (ISD), Saxo Bank's Alex Rasmussen and Vaconsoliel's Pim Lighart abandoning and heading for an early bath amid a flurry of attacks from various riders, including a dig from the ever combative Cameron Meyer, clearly not fatigued after his long break on Stage 6 in the company of Jaroslav Marycz. All attacks came to nought however, until Tom Murray (SGS) and Pieter Jacobs (TSV) finally made it stick, gaining almost three minutes on the group as the race crested the first KoM, Murray getting maximum points ahead of Jacobs, while back in the peloton Vacansoleil's Johnny Hoogerland grabbed third place and guaranteed himself the KoM jersey, barring incident.
Above: Vacansoleil's Borut Bozic soaks up the sun on the podium.
Murray and Jacobs' lead wavered a little but they were still two and a half minutes ahead as they passed the first sprint at Long Melford, with Jacobs getting the upper hand this time. Back in the pack, Saxo Bank's Richie Porte and Team Sky's Russell Downing wrapped up the lesser points. Slowly but surely however, the peloton began the eke away at Murray and Jacobs' lead, as the stage claimed yet another casualty - this time Rapha Condor's Dan Craven, who was forced to abandon after a crash with a suspected broken wrist.
Above: Cervelo's Jeremy Hunt on an early attack
The second KoM came at Milden Hill, 62kms in, and once again it was Murray who crossed the summit first, the pair now 1:48 ahead of the chasing group. It looked as if the sands of time were running out for the leaders, however the lead continued to expand and contract wildly - dropping to 1:40 at one point, then stretching out again to over three minutes.
Above: Overall race leader Michael Albasini sprays the bubbly. Can he hold on for the victory into London?
Foxes, Murray and Jacobs still eluded the baying hounds of the peloton by over two minutes as they flashed through massive crowds in Sudbury and were still well clear over the final King of the Mountains point at Ballingdon Hill, 82kms in. And again, Murray proved that, of the pair, he had the climber's legs, taking top points, while back in the peloton, lead-out man extraordinaire Mark Renshaw took some unlikely KoM points ahead of Sky's Matt Hayman.
Above: De facto King of the Mountains winner Johnny Hoogerland only has to keep it tyres-down tomorrow to walk away with the polka dot jersey.
The leaders passed through Braintree, still 1 minute 30 seconds ahead of the pack, with Jacobs besting Murray in the stage's second sprint. Indeed, it looked as if the duo would continue to work together and try to stay away together to the finish. However, just beyond Heybridge, Jacobs attacked his partner-in-crime Murray, who didn't appear to respond and was quickly caught by the pack, with Sky and HTC-Colombia orchestrating the chase.
However, the lone Topsport Vlaanderen rider wasn't about to roll over - managing to stay away alone for another 30 minutes before finally getting caught by the peloton on the outskirts of Colchester.
And so it was to be another sprint finish - at 1km to go, Sky were doing the work on the front, no doubt attempting to set up big sprinter Greg Henderson for a second stage win. However, it wasn't to be Henderson's day in the sun, as Vacansoleil's Borut Bozic claimed stage victory after coming close yesterday in Gt. Yarmouth. Yesterday's winner Andre Griepel was clearly a spent force today, shelled out of the pack in the final throes of the race.Going into the final stage, Albasini is still in the leader's jersey with Bozic second, while Johnny Hoogerland has wrapped up the Mountains competition. Sky's Greg Henderson leads the points completion while Golas keeps the sprinter's jersey.
Rider interviews
Mark Renshaw (HTC Columbia): A rider who made his name in this year’s Tour de France helping Mark Cavendish to a number of victories before being disqualified for an offence many thought was not worthy of such a harsh judgement, is having to work hard for two masters in the Tour of Britain.
Renshaw has been instrumental in helping out Andre Greipel, one of the world’s fastest sprinters as well as the race leader Albasini and admits “it’s been quite hard so far. We have been up there nearly everyday with one of the riders. Andre has two wins and Michael has the race lead.”
“Losing two guys through illness didn’t help and has made it a lot more difficult and I’ve had to spend time on the front working for the team here. Pinotti arrived sick and it’s a hard race so there wasn’t much chance of him getting better and Tony Martin had a bad stomach and he wanted to take it easy so he’s good for the World Championships.”
Asked if its possible to have easy days in a race like the Tour of Britain, Mark replied “It’s difficult to sit in and recover here as there are only a 100 riders in the race and it’s very hard and having the lead of the race makes it even more difficult. All in all, it is a pretty tough Tour. My job in the sprints is to put Andre in the right position and yesterday (stage 6) was a different type of sprint as Jeremy Hunt went a long way out which pretty much nullified my job.”
“Normally, I’ll try and get him (Andre) as close to the line as I can. I’m also working for the yellow jersey and so will ride on the front to try and keep it together with the other guys. This is my last race in Europe so I’ll be heading back to Australia before the Commonwealth Games. Then I’ll head back to Bathurst to see my family during the off season.”
Jack Bauer (Endura racing): Talking about stage 6, Jack explained “it was all good. We were looking out for Rob Partridge who is top 10 and first British rider - that’s important for us. We had to make sure no splits happened with Sky banging it on the front. At the end, me and Alex had a bit of a hit out but it was a real quick run it with some nasty left hand bends.”
Looking after Rob Partridge, says Jack, involves keeping him out of the wind and making sure he has enough food and drink. “During the last few days, there have been some splits and I have had to tow him across the gap and that is working out quite well because that is where my strengths lie. Initially, we thought it would be me that would be up on GC and so to have a bit of form to help support him is working out well.”
Asked about the first part of a stage and whether it is possible to sit easily in the wheels while there is chaos at the front of the peloton while riders try to break the elastic, Jack says, “no, its not easy at all because it is so fast. You really have to think about what you’re doing to stay as close to the wheel in front as possible without putting yourself in danger. If you find yourself in the wind though, you soon find yourself getting worn out. On Stage 6, there was 70k flat out and no recovery”.
Asked if the riders can tell when the bunch is going to sit up, Jack, says, ‘not really’. “We couldn’t understand why Sky drilled it yesterday morning. A couple of breaks slipped away and we placed Alex in each one and they were good combinations and we were hoping he could get away in a break.”
Jeremy Hunt: When a race begins, there is generally a long neutralised section between three and five miles generally. As soon as the field gets to the Zero Kilometre mark which follows the neutralised section, there is usually an attack straight away and the An Post riders have been very consistent in being the first ones to push the pedals down in anger.
The first attack rarely succeeds and one by one, riders will make a move and various sized groups will escape the peloton which snakes its way down the lanes at speeds in excess of 60kph (40mph). No sooner has one rider been caught, another will go and one rider who has been involved in these skirmishes is Jeremy Hunt of the Cervelo team which has had a pretty dismal Tour.
Asked about stage 6 when he got away with Cameron Meyer, Jeremy explained “I was going as hard as I could and I realised I wasn’t going anywhere yesterday. Whatever the tactics of the race, I wasn’t going to be in the break so I ended up deciding that one guy was better than two because it didn’t seem like it was going to get away. Sky wanted the bunch sprint, and if there wasn’t a Sky or Vacansoleil rider there, it wasn’t going to work. That’s why I gave up although it nearly did work!”
Tom Murray: The Sigma Sport Specialized rider was one of many from his team that were pictured trying to get in a move that stuck. Eventually, it was Tom that made a move, was joined by a rider from Topsport and that was it – the stage was theirs.
He said of the time out front, “It was pretty windy, but good to finally get on the front as I have been trying everyday and finally made it. It was really hard out there today with only two people. There were a lot of really exposed lanes for the first 50 or 60k. It was hard to get away and then hard to keep the gap. I was in at least five or six moves and everyone in the team were also covering moves and trying so hard to get down the road.”
Tom and his cohort in the break had to withstand a chase behind when GC contender Richie Porte tried to sprint a surprise but once that had been snuffed out, the lead grew again and the duo held sway at the front of the race.
“The other guy in the break was really strong and dead smooth. The main difference between this and a Premier Calendar race say, is the speed you have to go at to get off the front of the bunch. Once you have got off the front and establish the break, you can kinda play with the time gaps a bit and use your head a bit. Because there are a 100 guys all capable of getting off the front, it is so much harder than racing here.”
Cheering on Tom seemed to be half of Suffolk with towns and villages packed. “The crowds have been really good the last few days and it does give you a buzz. Once the bunch caught me, I tried to stay with it until the last 10k when I pulled the pin.”
Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil): In the press conference later, the stage winner explained how he felt when he was faced with such a steep climb to the finish line after the final bend. “I was a little bit surprised when I came round the corner and saw the last 300 metres! I have to say thanks to my teammates though because they have worked all year for me but I have had a very difficult season. After two victories in February, I haven’t had such good results but finally, I won today and I am so happy.”
“When the break had gone, Sky and Columbia made the chase and keep the gap and we didn’t have to do anything until the last 3k. Then the guys bring me to the perfect position on the wheel of Greg (Henderson) and I stay there until the last 150 metres where I was able to beat him and that make me happy because he is a good sprinter and I have a lot of respect for him.”
“Our team is good in a race like this and we help each other a lot and as you can see, our results are good. The team spirit is good because of that. For me, this is a big victory because there are a lot of good riders here and every race is hard to win but it is also hard to compare (to his win in the Vuelta).”
Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil): Sitting next to the stage winner and teammate was the 2010 King of the Mountains in the Tour of Britain. He said of the Mountains victory, “Yesterday, I was pretty sure of winning the jersey, but you never know what is going to happen because a big group could have got away with Richie (Porte) and they may have taken all the points.”
“I am very happy to bring the jersey to London. Some teams are probably less motivated in UCI 2.1 races but for us, they are all big. I looked at the programme for September and I said, I wanted to do the Tour of Britain because I think it is a beautiful race.”
“It is more beautiful than I already expected. I think all the schools are empty for the race and it has been lovely to be here.” Borut Bozic then added laughing “even if it has been bad weather, it has been a beautiful race!”
Brief Results
Stage Result
1 Borut Bozic Vacansoleil Pro Cycling 03:24:15
2 Greg Henderson Sky Pro Cycling Team st
3 Richie Porte Team Saxo Bank 00:03
4 Pierpaolo De Negri ISD-Neri Giambenini st
5 Koen De Kort Skil-Shimano st
6 Jonathan McEvoy Motorpoint-Marshalls Pasta st
7 Stijn Neirynck Topsport Vlaanderen st
8 Alexandre Blain Endura Racing 00:06
9 Jack Bauer Endura Racing st
10 Zak Dempster Rapha-Condor-Sharp st
Overall Classification After Stage 7
1 Michael Albasini Team HTC-Columbia 27:26:40
2 Borut Bozic Vacansoleil Pro Cycling 01:05
3 Richie Porte Team Saxo Bank 01:14
4 Greg Henderson Sky Pro Cycling Team 01:16
5 Johnny Hoogerland Vacansoleil Pro Cycling 01:32
6 Patrick Sinkewitz ISD-Neri Giambenini 02:12
7 Christian Meier Garmin-Transitions 02:30
8 Robert Partridge Endura Racing 02:32
9 Koen De Kort Skil-Shimano 02:35
10 Marco Frapporti Colnago-CSF Inox 03:31
