Stage 2 took the riders from bruxelles to Spa over 201 Kms. As the famed site of healing hot springs, Spa has been frequented as a watering-place since as early as the 14th century. Though other sources of healing hot mineral springs have become famous throughout the world, it is the town of Spa which has become eponymous with the spa.
The terrain was hilly and not mountainous and the riders encountered a whole host of problems along the way. Lance Armstong, Bradley Wiggins, the schleck brothers all suffered crashes and bruises. The biggest casualty being American Christian Vande Velde who pulled out of the Tour de France after breaking two ribs.
It ended up being an excellent day for the french as Sylvain Chavanel of Quick Step finished the race in pole position after a long breakaway of more than 200 Kms. Chavanel won with a huge margin of 3 minutes 56 seconds over the peloton. In the process he had for keeping the yellow jersey and the green jersey. With this time buffer, he is expected to keep the yellow jersey right up till the Alps.
The reason why Sylvain Chavanel got such a big lead up front was the reluctance of the team of yellow jersey rider Fabian Cancellara to chase him down. The Saxo Bank pair of Andy Schelck and Frank Schelck were dropped off from the main pack and Cancellara and team in the peloton were awaiting their re-arrival, thus considered it infeasible to chase down Chavanel, their main focus for this race being getting the Schelck brothers into contention for the overall prize at the end of the year.
The finish for the Peloton was rather controversial with the pack led by Cancellara deciding against contesting the sprint for the second place. They wanted to protest the poor race conditions, roads.. but the people at Spa and worldwide TV audience surely was disappointed with this poor decision of the riders.
Another reason was that most sprinters were not in the peloton due to the haphazard incidents encountered earlier in the race.
Stage Standing:
1 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 4:40:48
2 Maxime Bouet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 0:03:56
3 Fabian Wegmann (Ger) Team Milram
4 Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha
5 Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram
6 Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto
7 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team
8 Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Team Milram
9 Matthieu Ladagnous (Fra) Française des Jeux
10 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Team HTC - Columbia
General Classification:
1 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 10:02:25
2 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 0:02:57
3 Tony Martin (Ger) Team HTC - Columbia 0:03:07
4 David Millar (GBr) Garmin - Transitions 0:03:17
5 Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack 0:03:19
6 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:03:20
7 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:03:24
8 Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Transitions 0:03:25
9 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack 0:03:25
10 Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team
Looking Forward:
Day 3/Stage 3 - Wanze to Arenberg Porte du Hainaut 213 km
Tomorrow is another flat stage towards the border of France and the sprinters will be up for it. Let's hope for some slick action and also that injured riders like Wiggins and Frank Schleck make a quick recovery.
A day in pictures
