Tour De France 2008: A 2006 win haunts ex-yellow jersey Stephan Schumacher
In the 2006 ENECO Tour, (at race around the countries of
There were time bonuses for the top 3 finishers that could change the final standings of the race. Phillip Gilbert had already taken first place so the available points was for 2nd and 3rd. Since it was his race to lose, race tactics dictated that Hincapie should just stay glued behind Schumacher and he race would be his. But then in the last 100m, a fan, who was obviously cheering for Gilbert, thrust his arm from outside the barrier hitting Schumacher and causing him to swerve unintentionally. Hincapie could not react on time and fell to the ground. Schumacher would get 3rd place and a 4sec time bonus, enough to beat a fuming Hincapie by 1sec!
When asked if he deserved the victory, he said, “I shouldn’t be ashamed. I have deserved the victory. I don’t know what to say. This is my biggest victory, but not my most beautiful. I must process all this first.”
Fast forward to yesterday and it was deja vu all over again! Except that Schumacher was on the receiving end of the bad karma. In the last hundred meters of uphill finish of Stage 6, Schumacher was preparing for the sprint with the first group. He was sitting behind Kim Kirchen, a teammate of Hincapie. Suddenly, Kirchen moved a little to the right and his rear wheel touched with the front wheel of Schumacher causing the German to hit the ground when the sprint was about to start.
Luckily for Schumacher, he can still regain the yellow jersey since there are till over 2 weeks to go in the Tour de France. For Hincapie in 2006, he was left with full of, “what ifs?”.
But the crash should not take away the brilliant victory of Ricardo Ricco, the 24yo Italian whose mouth is as fast as his legs. He beat Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans to the line for his first TdF stage win. However, I think that the replay showed that Alejandro wasn’t interested contesting the sprint.
What now for Ricco? The runner-up in last May’s Giro d’Italia was a last minute roster addition to this team Saunier Duval and he had said that he was only after experience and stage wins. But with his good form, I think that he’ll have to reassess his objectives. While he is an explosive climber like Valverde, his liability is his time trialling. I think that he’ll develop that skill a few years down the road but this year, I don’t think he’ll even be top 5 in
It is usual for a team not to overly stress a rider as young as Ricco in the TdF. Remember that Greg Lemond was held back by his team for three years before being unleashed in the TdF. Lance Armstrong was also pulled out of the race by MOTOROLA after 10 days of racing back in the 1993 edition.
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