Last nights stage saw the unfortunate withdrawal of two of the pelotons better known riders in Tom Boonen and Bradley Wiggins. Boonen
was one of several big names to crash on Wednesday, when he finished over 13 minutes off the pace after battling through the pain barrier to reach the line.
Wiggins crashed heavily during stage 7, with the pile-up also catching out a number of big-name riders, including Astana's Roman Kreuziger, RadioShack trio Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner and Yaroslav Popovych, and the promising Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Cervelo). They finished in a group of 80 riders which rolled in more than three minutes behind winner Cavendish.
Cavendish proved too strong for his rivals and took the bunch sprint ahead of Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre), Andre Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) and Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil).
Cavendish repeated his win in the same town from 2008, in what was a textbook lead out by HTC, with 5 HTC riders inside the last 2.5km setting the pace.
Super-Bresse Sancy 190 km
This stage will be a test for Thor Hushvod to retain yellow. Whilst he's looked pretty strong over the past week, especially of the steeper finishes, the yellow jersey could still change hands at the end of this stage. The final ramps are steep enough to split the field and to ensure all the yellow jersey favourites will be working hard. Whilst Cadel could make a case for gaining the yellow jersey, I think it would be smart for him to let someone like David Miller (Garmin-Cervelo) at +8 secs to take it one so that he doesn't have to defend the jersey as soon as they enter the Pyrenees.
Should be a good stage to view, especially the second half as the GC guys stake their claim and try to exert some pressure on opposition teams.
Beer for the stage: Holgate Temptress Chocolate Porter. A beer to be sipped and enjoyed, velvety smooth and flowing with dark malty characters, softened to perfection with a delicate touch of vanilla bean. At this time of night, its perfect as a dessert in itself or to compliment anything based around chocolate. On the UCI list of banned substances due to its performance enhancing capabilities. Floyd Landis may have had one in 2006, yet to be verified however.
Bière locale: 2 local breweries, both about 20km off route. Ferme brasserie des Sagnes in
Les Sagnes produce an Amber and a Blonde, whilst Brasserie de la Creuse is in Felletin make a Blonde and Amber (both 5.5%) and a Brune (4.5%). Both breweries produce a limted range, but very much in keeping with the styles of beer successfully produced and enjoyed in the local area. As the tour rides its way into the mountains, there will be more and more picturesque spots to enjoy a local beverage, and no doubt share with a few local characters.
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