2014 Tour de France: second rest day analysis

The riders of the 101st Tour de France are taking their second well-earned rest day in Carcassonne before three days in the Pyrenees with two summit finishes, a time trial and two flat stages. Let’s pause and look at what has developed in the Tour.

Nibali Supreme Barring disaster, Vincenzo Nibali will win this Tour de France. He is set to become the sixth rider to win all three Grand Tours.

The Shark of Messina is dominant. His current gap of 4:37 over second place Alejandro Valverde is the largest from first to second since Lance Armstrong to Ivan Basso in 2005. There’s reason to believe his lead may increase too, for Nibbles can’t stop attacking on mountain finishes. His three stage victories are the most for a Tour winner since Armstrong’s five in 2004. And, yes, I know Armstrong’s seven wins have been scrubbed from the record, but the numbers still exist.

The Great Podium Melee While Nibali seems to have the yellow jersey sewn up, the scrap from the podium is superheated. Valverde is hanging onto the second spot by his fingernails, while the French White Jersey Fracas between Romain Bardet and Thibault Pinot takes place just behind him. Bardet must make time on Pinot and Tejay Van Garderen in the Pyrenees, because he’s the least accomplished chrono rider of the three. Bardet’s Ag2r teammate Jean-Christophe Peraud is also a long shot for the podium, but it’s most likely to come down to two Frenchman, a Spaniard and an American grappling for two spots. Sit back and enjoy.

Polka Dot Fever Another fine battle is for the King of the Mountains competition. Rafal Majka threw his casquette in the ring by going from 0 points to 88 in two summit stages after finishing runner up to Nibali on Friday and then winning on Saturday. Also with 88 points is Joaquim Rodriguez, who wears the jersey after winning Friday’s Souvenir Henri Desgranges on the Col d’Izoard. It’ll be an entertaining donnybrook in the Pyrenees between Majka and El Purito, but Nibali is climbing so well he could take the polka dot honours incidentally.

Sponsorship A few teams came to the Tour with sponsorship woes or with rumours of mergers swirling about them. Word came on the rest day that Belkin, once Rabobank, then Blanco, would receive backing from the Dutch national lottery a la Lotto-Belisol (Belgian lottery) and FDJ (French). Belkin will also have the backing of company BrandLoyalty. The owner of the other Dutch squad, Giant-Shimano (whose most recent incarnation was Argos-Shimano), also announced was getting a second sponsor but wouldn’t name it. These revelations will assuage the riders’ worries.

One of the ProTour’s strongest teams, Belgian squad Omega Pharma-QuickStep, will be known as Etixx-QuickStep next year as a sports nutrition brand that’s part of Omega Pharma will be the name sponsor.

The Canadians It’s been interesting watching Orica-GreenEdge teammates Christian Meier and Svein Tuft “battle” each other on the GC. Over the last ten stages, Tuft and Meier have traded the top Canadian position back and forth, all within ten spots of one another. Meier is the leading Canadian now at 127th, with Tuft in 131st nearly seven minutes down on his compatriot. Neither is close to the lanterne rouge distinction that Tuft won last year after coming dead last – Giant-Shimano’s Ji Cheng, the first Chinese rider to contest the Tour, looks to have that spot locked down.

2014 Tour de France GC
1) Vincenzo Nibali (Italy/Astana) 66:49:37
2) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) +4:37
3) Romain Bardet (France/Ag2r) +4:50
4) Thibaut Pinot (France/FDJ.fr) +5:06
5) Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC) +5:49
6) Jean-Christophe Peraud (France/Ag2r) +6:08
7) Bauke Mollema (The Netherlands/Belkin) +8:33
8) Leopold Konig (Czech Republic/NetApp) +9:32
9) Laurens Ten Dam (The Netherlands/Belkin) +10:01
10) Pierre Rolland (France/Europcar) +10:48
127) Christian Meier (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +2:49:13
131) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-GreenEdge) +2:56:25