A sprinters stage today in the Tour took the riders 198km from Olonnes-sur-mer to Redon further North. The only "climb" of the day, a short Cat 4 bridge crossing caused some serious problems for the peleton as a major split occured leaving favourites such as Sylvain Chavanel and Ivan Basso with some ground to make up.
The breakaway got off to a good start within the first 3km of the stage and built up a lead of no more than 5 minutes. They lasted well and went through the intermediate sprint taking the top 5 spots of the points classification. The riders, none of which are featured in any of the fantasy league teams this year, finally broke down with around 20km to go, though Jose Gutierrez (former Spanish TT champion) pushed on until 8km to go.
The breakaway got off to a good start within the first 3km of the stage and built up a lead of no more than 5 minutes. They lasted well and went through the intermediate sprint taking the top 5 spots of the points classification. The riders, none of which are featured in any of the fantasy league teams this year, finally broke down with around 20km to go, though Jose Gutierrez (former Spanish TT champion) pushed on until 8km to go.
Into the final 2km and the sprinters teams who had been working hard for the 8km prior began to seriously ramp up the pace. HTC seemed to have things under control though with 1km to go Cavendish lost the wheel and their train fell apart. It was Garmin-Cervelo who stepped up to take over with yellow jersey wearer Thor Hushovd taking a huge turn on the front to slingshot Tyler Farrar to his first ever Tour de France stage victory.
Fantasy League
Today's win for Farrar sent shockwaves through the fantasy league leader board. Team M&M gained a huge 132 points from the success of Farrar and Edvald Boassen Hagen amongst others and shot from 8th to 2nd place. Team Type 2 also rocketed into 3rd position.
Yesterdays lantern rouge winner, Hanan/Thompson Cycling, went from last to 8th place today just showing how much difference one rider can make to a teams points haul - especially early on in the race.
Most teams have now picked up a good level of points from one of their riders with Thor Hushovd, Jose Rojas, Philippe Gilbert and Tyler Farrar each netting over 100 points each at this stage. The lagging teams, perhaps more suited for the mountains, will undoubtedly gather some significant points once we hit the Pyrenees.
Tomorrows stage is another sprinters day though with the deceivingly tough Mur-de-Bretange to get over I think there may be some fireworks on the horizon.
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