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Stage Notes: Noval in gauze; Freire has his doubts; Cavendish's bad luck
Benjamin Noval vows to fight on despite a horrible crash in Thursday’s stage when he smashed into a car window that Discovery Channel officials say was the fault of an inattentive Bouygues Telecom sport director.
The 28-year-old Spanish rider barreled into the back of a Bouygues Telecom team car Thursday after coming off the day’s final climb in the harrowing, eight-climb stage and suffered horrible cuts to his right arm and chin.
Noval gutted it through Friday’s 199.5km sixth stage with his arms, hand, chin and leg wrapped in gauze and bandages.
“It was a really hard stage. The first thing was to get through today and then we’ll take it little by little. I have stitches all over, in my arm, my hand, my chin, some 25 to 30 stitches in all,” Noval told VeloNews at the finish line in Bourg-en-Bresse. “I hit the car from behind and I broke the rear window. I cut myself and was banged up pretty bad. Let’s see if I can finish the Tour.”
Discovery Channel officials on Thursday said an inattentive Bouygues Telecom sport director was at fault.
“He had already done his job for the day of protecting Levi and Alberto, so on the last climb he sat up and just cruised to the finish. In the downhill all of a sudden a car braked in front of him and he went straight through the back of the car. It was a Bouygues Telecom car,” Bruyneel said Thursday evening. “We’ve seen the images of the crash now on the television. The car had a French TV crew inside the car and the director was entertaining the camera, explaining race tactics as he was driving and going all out downhill. I think it’s pretty dangerous to do that.
“There are some people who talk about the danger or usefulness of using radios in a race and I have my opinion on that, but I definitely have my opinion about TV cameras in the race cars. Seeing certain directors trying to be the star of the show and wanting to entertain the TV while they have to drive and think about the safety of the riders. It’s definitely very dangerous. That’s why we never have TV cameras in the car, or at least if we do we pretend that they are not there. I don’t think we can say the same of everybody.”
Noval, meanwhile, had no choice but the suffer through Friday’s stage.
He said the slow pace and gentle profile helped him during what was otherwise a long day. Noval — who rode on the last two winning teams during the Lance Armstrong era — said he hopes to make it through the Alps.
“Tomorrow is going to be a very hard for me and even harder on Sunday, but the idea is to try to get to the rest day to recuperate,” he said. “Tomorrow is a stage for the favorites to see each other, but even more so on Sunday. There are other riders who have to take control of the race before us, so we’ll be patient.”
Freire doubts Tour future
The days could be numbered for three-time world champ Oscar Freire.
The Spanish sprinter — second Friday for the second day in a row — is suffering from a saddle sore that’s not getting any better and he said he might not race much more because he doesn’t want to risk losing the world championships for the third year in a row.
“I have to speak with the doctor, because the problem is not getting better,” he said at the line Friday. “I don’t want to go to the hospital. If I keep going, maybe I will end up in the hospital. I’ve been through this before and I don’t want to lose the rest of the season.”
Freire missed his hometown world championships in 2005 in Madrid after surgery to remove a saddle sore that later became infected. Last year, complications from an osteopathic treatment created blinding headaches and pain derailed his bid for the Salzburg world’s.
The Rabobank sprinter said he might not make it out of the Alps for fear that the cyst could become infected or worsen that he would need another surgery.
He voiced frustration because as his condition worsens, his legs are getting better.
“I’m feeling better every day but the problem is getting worse. Twice in second place is frustrating,” he said at the finish. “It was not an easy sprint today. It was slow during the stage, so everyone wants to try the sprint. Everyone had a lot of power today. In the final, I was going to Boonen, but he changed his route twice, so I backed off a little. Boonen was good in the final.”
Cavendish shreds front wheel in lead-in to sprint
British rookie sprinter Mark Cavendish (T-Mobile) had another frustrating what-might-have-been experience on stage 6. After crashing on stage 1 and missing out on a chance to sprint for glory on his home turf in England, Cavenish ended stage 1 by limping across the line with a trashed front wheel.
T-Mobile’s Bernard Eisel got into good position with a few hundred meters to go and thought he had Cavendish on his wheel. But Cavendish was just trying to keep his himself upright.
“Bernard was looking to lead out Cavendish,” said T-Mobile general manager Bob Stapleton. “But Cavendish had bumped with somebody else and taken out one of his wheels.”
That somebody else happened to be stage winner Tom Boonen, whose rear derailleur didn’t treat Cavendish’s front wheel gently.
Despite pulling 5 spokes out of an unmarked deep-dish Zipp front wheel, Cavendish managed to keep his bike upright and finished third from last, two minutes down.
After the race T-Mobile staff marveled at the destroyed wheel, which flopped loosely around the hub.
With the race heading into the Alps tomorrow, Cavendish’s chances may well be over, as the young sprinter has already stated his intention to pull out of the race well before Paris.
But T-Mobile certainly has many more wheels. Cavendish and his teammates rode unmarked deep Zipp 404 front wheels and even deeper Zipp 808 rear wheels for today and the earlier flat stages. For tomorrow, the climbing wheels will come out.
“We’ve got eight different types of wheels for the Tour,” Stapleton said. “We opened the equipment quiver as wide as we can. You’ll see three different manufacturers’ wheels out there.”
- by Ben Delaney
VeloNews editor
