Blog: Menchov, Cavendish, Pozzato and other Tour dispatches
Denis Menchov was caught out in stage 3 (AFP/Getty Images)
Tour de France start villages are always a slap-up breakfast of quotes, info and rumour, and this year's Grande Boucle is apparently no different. Here are a few amuse bouches from my morning rounds on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday ...
Most reports from yesterday's third stage to Nantes suggested that Denis Menchov and Riccardo Riccò had been caught out by Litu Gomez's crash 23km from the finish, but it seems that explanation flattered the Rabobank and Saunier Duval riders. Conversations with various directeur sportifs last night and this morning confirmed that a shift in the wind direction, some quick thinking and serious wattage from Quick Step were in fact Menchov and Riccò's undoing. So fast was the pace set by the Belgian team that the Schleck brothers were apparently among the riders fighting to stay with the first group. And if CSC perhaps weren't capable of pulling, we can't help wondering why Silence-Lotto and Caisse D'Epargne, in particular, weren't more willing.
Click here for the rest of Dan's amuse bouches from the Tour.
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