IT SEEMED, for 185km of yesterday's 14th stage of the Tour de France, that Mark Cavendish might once again provide the coup de grace to win a mass bunch sprint in Digne-les-Bains, a town on the edge of the Alps, with stunning views of the mountains.
It is not the type of terrain that Cavendish, who already has four stage wins in this Tour, would usually enjoy, but yesterday's stage was marked by a strong tailwind, the type of which often means the bunch remains intact. And so it appeared until t
he final 10km, when a vicious little climb, the Col de L'Orme, finally forced a split. As several of the other sprinters' teams began to force the pace at the front – possibly in a bid to drop Cavendish – the 23-year-old couldn't hold on. He slipped out the back of the peloton and eventually crossed the line in a small group more than three minutes down.
Up ahead, Oscar Freire finally bagged a stage, edging out Leonardo Duque and Erik Zabel in a evenly-matched sprint. It was a stage that, on paper, looked perfectly suited to Scotland's David Millar. Apart from being the kind of undulating course that he relishes, the omens were good: after 37km it passed through Saint-Remy-De-Provence, the town that became home to the Scotland team at the 1998 World Cup, and which adopted the team, and the Tartan Army, with such enthusiasm.
As it turned out, 21 riders had broken clear by the time the race passed through the town but Millar wasn't among them.
For Millar – and certainly for Cavendish – the chance of a stage win has disappeared until at least Thursday, when the roads flatten again after three tough stages in the Alps, broken up by tomorrow's rest day.
The race for the yellow jersey remains as open as it has been for years, with Cadel Evans holding on to the smallest lead possible: one second over Frank Schleck of Luxembourg. The Australian has seemed, in the first two weeks, to be the strongest rider in the race, but the same cannot be said of his Silence-Lotto team, which has struggled to support their leader. By contrast, Schleck's CSC squad is arguably the most powerful in the sport, and they have other cards to play, with Carlos Sastre and Schleck's younger brother, Andy, both still in contention.
Evans has admitted this week that he is concerned, in particular, with today's stage, which includes two major climbs, the Angel Pass and Prato Nevoso, and more than 100km of valley roads in between. If Evans finds himself isolated after the Angel Pass, which comes after just 58km, then he knows CSC could strike.
The Alps are particularly difficult this year, with Tuesday's stage including an ascent of Europe's highest pass, the La Bonette-Restefond, which has featured just three times in the Tour. Only two men hold the honour of being first to the summit, however – the legendary Spanish climber Federico Bahamontes, who led up it twice, and Scotland's Robert Millar, the 1984 King of the Mountains. Millar was first to the summit in 1993, his final Tour, beating a field that included five-time winner Miguel Indurain.
The full article contains 558 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
