After yesterday's gruelling stage, the second time winner, Mark Cavendish, had this to say:
“I’m just the guy who puts my hands in the air…”
“It was a hard stage actually, up and down all day long. It was incredible to win today, you’re not going to shut me up – I’ve got a lot of talking to do and I missed out on saying all of what I wanted to yesterday.
“It was harder than what most of us expected it to be. Special mention to a couple of guys on my team, Maxime Monfort and Bert Grabsch, we had to give Kanstantsin a rest today because he’s got work to do in the mountains for Mick Rogers. It was a long, hard slog for our guys but they rode incredibly well. They kept the gap down and then it was a case of everybody jumping in at the end.
“We knew it was going to happen, we knew it was going to be a tactical last climb but it played in our favor a little bit because it stopped us having to follow the chase at the end and we were able to just infiltrate into the lead-out. That was good, it was different to what we normally do.
“I just followed Mark [Renshaw] as usual and it was just a case of finishing off the incredible work that my team-mates did.
“We’re a team and I’m just a part of what’s functions like a great machine. Yeah, I’m just the guy who crosses the line with my hands in the air… but that’s the goal of cycling, to display the logo sponsors. And we’ve got to figure out the best way to do that and one way is to win bunch sprints. I’ve got to finish off the work that they do, and it’s an incredible machine to be part of.
“I don’t know where I stand with the green jersey. It’s still far off but I’ll just plug away. We’ll try and win stages and see what happens. After the mix-ups of the first few days, it put us on the back foot and we’ll do what we normally do and I’ll see how I go.”
Stage 7 - Tournus Station des Rousses 165.5 km
Medium mountains - A sporting perspective : An initial cull
This medium-altitude mountain terrain will be more difficult than Liège-Bastogne-Liège, because the climbs last for between 6 and 12 kilometres, starting at the 40 km mark. Thereafter, there is not even a single centimetre of flat road; it will be up, down, up, down and so on and so forth. At the finishing line, there may still be around thirty riders together. The slopes are not massively difficult, so it is not necessarily a stage for a major climber, more so for a rider like Cadel Evans or David Moncoutié. However, an initial cull will take place and those who are not on form, who will not reach the front of the race, may already be looking at a Tour that is lost.
Destination town today: Station des Rousses
• Stage town for the first time
• Population: 6,286
• Winter / summer holiday resort in Jura (39)
Another major first for this stage finish in Les Rousses, a pretty village in Haut Jura that, together with three other towns in the surrounding area – Bois d’Amont, Lamoura, Prémanon – forms a family summer vacation and winter ski resort. The birthplace of skiing in France, the resort is also well known to cyclists as the climb to Les Rousses (1,140 m, level 2 or 3 climb), which leads to the Faucille pass, has been ascended more than 40 times since 1911.
The French-Swiss resort of Les Rousses (6,300 inhabitants), situated at the heart of the Haut Jura Regional National Park in the Franche-Comté area of France, offers the ideal altitude for relaxing holidays in a peaceful and protected natural setting. Used by the French teams to prepare for cross-country skiing events, the resort is the birthplace of Jason Lamy-Chappuis, the combined cross-country ski champion at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. It is also known all over the world for the famous Transjurassienne event (76 km of cross-country skiing). In summer, Les Rousses offers a wide range of activities for all the family: hiking, mountain biking, swimming in the two lakes, sailing, canyoning, golf, ice skating, horse riding, adventure trail in the underground passages of Les Rousses Fort. In winter, all activities revolve around snow: downhill skiing (40 lifts), cross-country skiing (220 groomed kms), snowshoe trails and footpaths, dog sleighing, tobogganing, biathlon, kite-surfing, ski joëring. Finally, you can view our craft work and visit our museums all year round.
Recharge your batteries in Les Rousses!
13 CANCELLARA Fabian TEAM SAXO BANK 28h 37' 30"
95 HUSHOVD Thor CERVELO TEST TEAM 118 pts
135 PINEAU Jérôme QUICK STEP 13 pts
39 THOMAS Geraint SKY PRO CYCLING 28h 37' 50"
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