Sylvain Calzati of the AG2R team has handed the hosts their
second stage victory of the Tour de France after winning the
181-kilometre eighth stage from St Meen Le Grand.
Ukrainian Serguei Gonchar, of T-Mobile, retained the race
leader's yellow jersey with a 1min 00sec lead on American Floyd
Landis ahead of Monday's rest day.
A day after Gonchar and T-Mobile team shook up the peloton by
dominating the seventh stage time trial to take command of the
race, this stage, finally, bore witness to a successful
breakaway.
In the end, Calzati capped a brave solo attack Sunday with over
30 kilometers to race to cross the finish line alone with a
two-minute lead on his earlier breakaway companions Patrice Halgand
and Kjell Carlstrom.
Despite his Italian-sounding name, it gave France a welcome
second stage win of the race after Jimmy Casper's victory on stage
one, and on the day they are bidding to win football's World
Cup.
Perhaps as a result of their successive efforts over nearly a
week of consistent efforts, the sprinters decided not to chase down
the ultimately decisive breakaway which formed after 47 kilometers
of racing.
All the big teams, except Discovery Channel, had a rider in the
breakaway and none of them were real yellow jersey threats.
It meant the peloton could sit back, and keep the group within
relatively easy reach, which they did as the leaders went on to
build a lead of seven and a half minutes after the 65-kilometre
mark.
The Phonak team of American Floyd Landis, who now have one eye
on the yellow jersey as he is in second place overall behind
Gonchar, started to get twitchy and their turn setting the tempo
dropped the deficit to 6:15 20 kilometers further on.
However none of the teams in the chasing bunch appeared
motivated to give chase and the group managed to keep their
advantage steady until, in the closing 30 kilometers, Calzati
decided to up the ante.
The 27-year-old Frenchman pulled away from his six-man group on
a small climb. Despite attempts by Halgand and Carlstrom to follow
suit, Calzati's turn of pace soon had them trailing.
With the peloton at over two and a half minutes behind him with
15 kilometers still to ride, Calzati's victory chances looked solid
as he drove for the finish line with a favorable cross wind pushing
him on.
The AG2R rider held his nerve to finish in style, claiming his
first stage win of the race.
For Calzati - a former winner of the prestigious Tour de
l'Avenir - the victory had special meaning.
"It's fabulous, especially when you think I was the last rider
to be picked for the Tour de France team," he said. "Last year I
crashed out injured, but today I told the team's mechanics that I
was going to be at the front."
?
(AFP July 10, 2006)