Spills, No Thrills

Photo credit © Fotoreporter Sirotti

Another day of crashes highlighted stage two of this year's edition of the Tour de France.
The slick and narrow roads on the decent of the Cote de Stockeu split the peloton and could have been a disastrous for one of the favorites, Andy Schleck.  The main peloton was split into two sections with Andy, riding teammate Matti Breschel's bike, approx. one km behind.
In a show of sportsmanship the lead section with yellow jersey holder, Fabian Cancellera, held off pursuit of race leader Sylvain Chavanel giving Andy the opportunity to join the main peloton.  In the end, there was no sprints to the finish.  The main peloton, containing all of the Tour favorites crossed the line 3min and 56sec after Chavanel.
Stage 3 prediction:  Sprinters are now getting edgy. Don't look for any breakaway to succeed.  A few hills and only one Cat 4 climb early, finishing with 120 km flat, look for all the sprinters to be there at the end.  Thor Hushovd is a bit upset after today and will put that anger to use on stage 3. Tyler Farrar is banged up as is Mark Cavendish.  Robbie McEwen is also looking much better.  Another classic battle between Thor and Robbie in stage 3.

 Results - Stage 2

1 Sylvain Chavanel (FRA) Quick Step 4:40:48   2 Maxime Bouet (FRA) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:56   3 Fabian Wegmann (GER) Team Milram     4 Robbie McEwen (AUS) Team Katusha     5 Christian Knees (GER) Team Milram     6 Jurgen Roelandts (BEL) Omega Pharma-Lotto     7 Thor Hushovd (NOR) Cervelo Test Team     8 Linus Gerdemann (GER) Team Milram     9 Matthieu Ladagnous (FRA) Française des Jeux     10 Bernhard Eisel (AUT) Team HTC - Columbia

General Classification (Yellow Jersey)

1 Sylvain Chavanel (FRA) Quick Step 10:01:25   2 Fabian Cancellara (SUI) Team Saxo Bank 0:02:57   3 Tony Martin (GER) Team HTC - Columbia 0:03:07   4 David Millar (GBR) Garmin - Transitions 0:03:17   5 Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack 0:03:19   6 Geraint Thomas (GBR) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:03:20   7 Alberto Contador Velasco (ESP) Astana 0:03:24   8 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack 0:03:25   9 Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:03:29   10 Linus Gerdemann (GER) Team Milram 0:03:32

Point Standings (Green Jersey)

1 Sylvain Chavanel (FRA) Quick Step 44 pts 2 Alessandro Petacchi (ITA) Lampre-Farnese Vini 35   3 Jurgen Roelandts (BEL) Omega Pharma-Lotto 34   4 Mark Renshaw (AUS) Team HTC - Columbia 30   5 Thor Hushovd (NOR) Cervelo Test Team 26   6 Robbie McEwen (AUS) Team Katusha 24   7 Matthieu Ladagnous (FRA) Française des Jeux 22   8 Daniel Oss (ITA) Liquigas-Doimo 20   9 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (ESP) Caisse d'Epargne 19   10 Sébastien Turgot (FRA) Bbox Bouygues Telecom 19