- HOT TOPICS:
- The new VeloNews.com (BETA)
Cancellara not ceding jersey without a fight
Fabian Cancellara’s yellow jersey might be hanging by a thread, but it’s going to take more than a snip of scissors to take it away from him.
Despite leading Lance Armstrong by just 0.22 seconds, Cancellara says that margin will be plenty to fend off the seven-time champion on the hilltop finish atop Montjuic overlooking Barcelona in Thursday’s stage 6.
“I think I’m strong enough to keep the jersey,” Cancellara said after Wednesday’s stage. “I’ve shown the past few weeks that my form is there. I feel like I am getting better and better in the race and we are looking forward already to the Pryénées.”
A surprise attack on the short but steep Montjuic climb is the perfect opportunity for Armstrong to try to raid Cancellara’s yellow jersey.
If the pack splits apart on the 2km climb, all Armstrong needs to do is gap Cancellara and he will be back in the yellow jersey, just in time to roll into the decisive first summit finish of his comeback Tour.
That would also serve as a huge psychological advantage to Armstrong in his matchup against Astana teammate Alberto Contador as the pair wrangle for leadership of the squad.
But Contador told VeloNews at the finish line in Perpignan Wednesday that he doesn’t believe Montjuic will be steep enough to create fractures in the main pack to allow Armstrong an opening to snag the yellow jersey.
“I don’t believe the final is steep enough for this,” Contador said. “But of course you have to be attentive about the splits that it could produce.”
The Montjuic hill towers above Barcelona’s harbor and the road is just over 2km long, rising about 200 vertical feet, so it’s hardly Alpe d’Huez, let alone the Mur de Huy. There’s one steep 500-meter section with ramps at 6 percent, so it might be hard enough to produce gaps within a strung-out peloton charging hard to the line for a sprint.
Fresh off winning the Tour de Suisse, Cancellara is brimming with confidence.
On Wednesday, he set a new Tour record for the most days in yellow for a Swiss rider with 13.
“Now I have the yellow more than riders like Koblet and Rominger, this day really makes me proud,” Cancellara said. “I don’t know if I will win the Tour, but I have this record now. This is good.”
Some on his Saxo Bank team even suggest that Cancellara will be able to defend the yellow jersey through the Pyrénées. As his Tour de Suisse crown proved, Cancellara is climbing better than ever and Arcalis isn’t that hard of a climb, at least when compared to other legendary Tour summits.
Saxo Bank teammate Jens Voigt says from experience that “the yellow jersey gives you extra horsepower” and Cancellara promises to go down fighting.
“After I saw Fabian winning the Tour de Suisse, I don’t think he’ll be so far off the front (at Arcalis),” Voigt said in Perpignan. “Maybe the GC riders haven’t shown all their cards. It’s just one long climb, so maybe Fabian can be up there.”
For a Tour loaded with surprises, seeing Cancellara retaining the yellow jersey on a first category summit finish should not be discounted.
Follow Andrew Hood’s twitter at twitter.com/eurohoody.
