Tour de France Weekend Recap
This has been a big weekend for Tour de France cyclists. The group took part in stages 6, 7 and 8 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which has changed the overall standings a little, meaning that Fabian Cancellara isn’t wearing the yellow jersey anymore.
The sixth stage of the race was won by Mark Cavendish, who had just won stage 5 the day before. He was all smiles as he crossed the finished line. He said that it was a hard stage - harder than expected - but it felt incredible to win. This was his second win in this year’s Tour, and those to follow him in the top five were Tyler Farrar, Alessandro Petacchi, Robbie Mc Ewen and Gerald Ciolek (in that order).
Saturday’s stage 7 was won by Sylvain Chavanel, giving him a second win for the Tour as well. He said that he had legs of fire and knew he was on climbs that suited him very well. The rest of the top five to follow him in the stage were Rafael Valls Ferri, Juan Manuel Garate, Thomas Voeckler and Mathieu Perget.
Andy Schleck was the one to win stage 8 on Sunday. He says that he took some good morale from knowing that he could attack without Alberto Contador following him. This is a fantastic stage win, as everything worked out perfect, he continued. He also promised his team that he will continue to fight until he falls off his bike. The others to follow him in the top five for the stage were Samuel Sanchez, Robert Gesink, Roman Kreuziger and Alberto Contador.
Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong has ruled out winning this year’s Tour. After falling to 39th overall on Sunday, he says that his Tour is finished. He said that it just wasn’t his day yesterday, as he was quite banged, but he wants to enjoy his last 2 weeks. Armstrong was involved in 3 crashes during stage 8, one of which took him down. Below are the top 10 overall standings:
- Cadel Evans 37h57′09”
- Andy Schleck +20”
- Alberto Contador +01′01”
- Jurgen Van Den Broeck +01′03”
- Denis Menchov +01′10”
- Ryder Hesjedal +01′11”
- Roman Kreuziger +01′45”
- Levi Leipheimer +02′14”
- Samuel Sanchez +02′15”
- Michael Rogers +02′31”