Tour de France: From Flats to Hills, Saxo Bank Defends the Yellow Jersey

This year’s Tour de France really has gotten off to a dramatic start, with crashes and cobblestones shaking up the leaders in unexpected ways even before the big climbs start on Saturday. Team Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara is still in yellow, but his teammate Frank Schleck has crashed out of the race with a broken collarbone, leaving his brother Andy as the team’s best hope for the mountain stages and the overall win.

Commenting on Frank’s crash in an article on Velonews, Saxo Bank rider Jens Voigt expressed frustration with the cobblestone stage, declaring it a “stupid” choice by the race organizers and asking for a public apology. With Frank gone, other Saxo Bank riders such as Chris Anker Sorensen will have even more work to do getting Andy safely through the rest of the race. Although Stages 4 and 5 were relatively easy stages, there are big climbs ahead, so the riders will need to save all the energy they can. View Stage 4 and 5 power data from Chris here to get a better idea of what an “easy” day at the Tour de France really looks like.

Saxo Bank was not the only team that had a tough start to the race – Mark Cavendish of HTC Columbia also lost one of his best lead-out riders in Stage 1 when Adam Hansen crashed out, and Radioshack’s Lance Armstrong lost time to Alberto Contador with a flat tire on the cobblestones in Stage 3. Without his dominating lead-out train, Cavendish has been struggling a bit to sprint to the line with the notable exception of Stage 5, and Armstrong was hoping to gain time against Contador on the cobbles rather than lose it. With Cadel Evans now the leading GC rider, Schleck, Contador and Armstrong will have their work cut out for them in the big hills ahead.

Stay tuned for more data and analysis as the race leaves the flats behind for the mountains, and be sure to sign up for our free SRM sweepstakes!