Wiggins devastated as a 'gutted' Cav wins again

17th stage win for Cavendish

After yesterdays post I decided to have a day off from ‘blogging’ the Tour De France. Stage seven, an unremarkable stage in that it is the only stage other than the final day with no inclines worthy of the ‘King of the Mountain’ points. Nothing much should happen, HTC would control the race, catch the inevitable break, and give Mark Cavendish the chance to repeat his first ever win here in 2008.

But bike racing is fraught with difficulties, a moment of bad luck can cost you everything. Ask Andy Schleck, who after slipping a chain as he attacked Contador in last year’s race, lost 39 seconds, the exact amount he finished behind the controversial Spaniard at the end of the race.

And so the 2011 tour has now had another major moment. Team Sky celebrated last night after Boassen Hagen won their first stage ever in the tour, and they occupied 6^th 7^th and 8^th overall with Geraint Thomas in the white of the best young rider. All that has now changed. Sky’s game plan was blown out of the water as a crash halfway through the stage brought down British champion and one of the favourites Bradley Wiggins. A broken collarbone ended his chances, but as the rest of the team waited for their leader they lost over four minutes before resuming racing with Wiggins taken off to an ambulance.

Perhaps more gut wrenching was that the form of Wiggins was so good, his ‘numbers’ pre Tour were excellent, stage winner and good friend Cavendish believed that he had a chance to win overall such was his conditioning. Sky gave themselves five years to get a British winner, 2011 will go down as a massive missed opportunity for both rider and team.

Wiggins' Tour hopes over

Despite all their efforts, Sky’s remaining riders were unable to catch the main peloton, along with 80 other riders, including RadioShack’s top man Levi Leipheimer, losing over three minutes by the finish. Thomas losing his young riders jersey, Boassen Hagen now a long way down the general classification, the game plan in tatters.

On any other day, the big news would have been the good news of another Cavendish win, moving him to third in the green jersey standings. Today Wiggins heads home, and surely with it the hopes of Sky.