BRADLEY WIGGINS will have enjoyed his ride through Artemare. The residents of that pretty village in the department of the Ain celebrated their inclusion in the route of yesterday’s 10th stage by covering their streets and squares with yellow balloons in a salute to the leader’s jersey, which Wiggins was defending with impressive authority.
The first serious attempts to separate him from the maillot jaune were expected during a stage that started in Macon, on the banks of the Saone, and finished in the small town of Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, in the foothills of the Jura.
They came on schedule but neither Cadel Evans, second overall, nor Vincenzo Nibali, in fourth place behind Chris Froome, Wiggins’s Sky team-mate, could put a dent in the margins by which they trail the Englishman after a stage won in heroic style by 32-year-old French rider Thomas Voeckler.
After an indifferent opening week, Voeckler burst into life yesterday, joining the initial 25-strong break on the 194.5km stage and forcing the selection of the final quintet, completed by Luis Leon Sanchez of Spain, Dries Devenyns of Belgium, Michele Scarponi of Italy and Jens Voigt, the 40-year-old German rider.
Voeckler led over the hors-categorie 1,501m Col du Grand Colombier and the third-category 1,051m Col de Richemond, taking the king of the mountains from Fredrik Kessiakoff of Sweden as he did so.
His tongue was lolling, his chin was jutting, and all France was roaring him on as the group swept through the sinuous bends of the descent from the Richemond towards the showdown over an uphill drag to the finish.
Voigt and Devenyns attacked in the outskirts of Bellegarde, and the Belgian was ahead as they passed a large blue factory whose vast chimney had been repainted with the red and white polka dots. But Voeckler churned up the hill and ground his opponents to dust, blowing a dainty kiss to his ecstatic public as he crossed the line.
Wiggins finished 13th, just over three minutes behind Voeckler and tight on the wheel of Evans, who had made belated and unavailing attempts to burst clear in the final kilometre.
The real action, however, had come on the downslope of the Grand Colombier, where Nibali showed his hand. There has been a theory that the principal danger to Wiggins will come not on the climbs, where he and his team demonstrated their strength at the weekend, but on the descents, at which Nibali and Evans are allegedly more adept.
“I think there’s a bit of a misunderstanding about that,” Dave Brailsford, Sky’s team principal, said on the eve of the stage. “Bradley’s one of the best Madison riders in the world, and if you want to ride the Madison you’ve got to be skilful. But he doesn’t take risks. People mistake that for being a poor descender. He’s not.”
Yesterday, however, Nibali took the opportunity to test the notion, plunging down the steep ramps and swooping around the hairpin bends of a poorly surfaced descent from the Grand Colombier.
He opened a gap of 50 seconds over the large group including the yellow jersey and his outriders. Their effort had encountered a small hiccup when Evans ran wide on the first bend of the descent and forced compatriot Michael Rogers offline, resulting in a puncture for Wiggins’s powerful Australian team-mate.
Ritchie Porte, another of Sky’s Aussies, and Froome took over the duty of chasing Nibali, who was assisted for a while by Liquigas colleague Peter Sagan, But as the descent bottomed out in the village of Lochieu they were hauled back and, shortly after Sagan had fallen back in exhaustion, the Italian was caught.
“It all went to the script today,” Wiggins said. “We were waiting for it to come, and it worked out.”
Nibali, however, did not appreciate the leader’s curtain speech. “Yes, Sky are going really well,” he said. “But on the finish-line, Bradley turned around and looked at me as if to say, ‘See that?’ If he wants to be a champion I think he needs to show his rivals a bit of respect. It’s just his way. In this sport we don’t have people punching and kicking each other like in football. But turning and looking at someone like that, it’s not very nice. They’re going well at the moment, but the wheel of fortune can turn.”
Evans looked forward to a dramatic day today – “the toughest of the race,” Wiggins added last night – on which the riders enter the Savoy Alps and cross the cols of the Madeleine and the Croix de Fer on the way to a summit finish at the ski station of La Toussuire.
* Guardian Service
