Stage 11: Who Needs A Team?

Today's lesson is the importance of a quality team.

Astana took advantage of the cross-winds and split the field. Their team is still one of the strongest in the field. They saw a weakness in the peloton and they exploited it.

Ag2r is not a strong team. So when that field split in two, they could not protect Moreau. Moreau has already been having a bad day, having had a minor crash and suffering some road burn. He spent the day in the back of the peloton, and he just couldn't react to the split. And his team was not strong enough to pull it back. And Moreau is probably done.

Then, sometimes a strong team doesn't matter. Quickstep is a pretty strong team on the sprints, and they led the peloton in the final few km, reeling in every break. And then they took a wide turn in the last kilometer and Boonen ends up crashing into a barrier. And it let Hunter back into the points race.

No one is going to confuse Barloworld with Team CSC, but they have done a good impression. Robbie Hunter took advantage of the crash and picked up 25 points on Boonen in the green jersey race, making himself a real contender. It's also the team's second stage win. And look where they are in the classifications:

Soler is 17th in the GC
Hunter is 2nd in points classification
Soler is 2nd in climbing classification
Soler is 3rd in the youth classification
Siutsou is 4th in the youth classification
OK, the team sits 16th in the team classification, but still...

Maybe you don't need to be a strong team to have a good Tour.