Procycling's daily Tour de France dispatch - stage 6
Cavendish, Felline, Sastre, Roux
Crying for England or, er, the Isle of Man
French Sports and Health minister Roselyne Bachelot said that Mark Cavendish's tears in Montargis on Thursday had "warmed her heart". One Italian colleague in the press room clearly didn't agree: "English [sic] cry babies!" the journalist in question was heard to mutter as Cav turned on the waterworks.
Felline landing on his feet - just
Fabio Felline of Footon-Servetto admitted to us yesterday that he's hardly living up to his name (minus one "l") in his first Tour de France. The youngest rider to start the Grande Boucle since 1947, the 20-year-old confessed that he's been less than cat-like thus far in the Tour.
"The hardest thing is staying on my bike. The speed hasn't surprised me, the nervousness in the bunch has," Felline told Procycling.
Sastre relying on stealth
Clearly irked by the media's disregard for his title defence last year, 12 months on, Carlos Sastre is apparently warming to the role of Tour de France darkhorse. "I think people have probably forgotten too quickly that he won two summit finishes at the Giro just over a year ago," Sastre's Cervelo teammate Dan Lloyd told ProCycling yesterday.
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"I think it suits him now that not many journalists are talking to or about him. He was OK on the cobbles and looks good," Lloyd said.
The bad news for Sastre is that his sweetly spinning legs haven't gone unnoticed in the peloton: last night Andy Schleck predicted that the Spaniard and Ivan Basso would be "big factors" in the Pyrenees.
Roux the revisionist
FDJ Tour debutant Anthony Roux says that he wouldn't swap places with Lance Armstrong for anything. "Frankly, I wouldn't want his life," Roux told Aujourd'hui newspaper. "Everyone's always shouting 'Lance, Lance, Lance'. It gets suffocating".
One would think the sporadic cries of "cheat" and "doper" would be more asphyxiating, but, hey, what do we know?
Saxo wrencher says motor is possible
Catching up with one of Saxo Bank's four mechanics in Montargis Friday morning, Procycling was surprised to hear one of the men behind the rider most talked about in reference to what has been coined "motorised doping" say that he believes a motor inside a bicycle is indeed possible - but impossible not to see or hear.
"I think it's possible, but you need to change a lot of things. You have a battery, you have a noise, so actually it's totally stupid to come with a story like this; you would see it, you would hear it," said Roger Theel.
He added that after 14 bikes were inspected following the prologue in Rotterdam, Cancellara's machine was again X-rayed after the third stage to Arenberg's Porte du Hainaut - but still no motor.
Don't have a cow, man
If, in stage 6's televised coverage of the Tour, you witnessed numerous cows on the roads to Gueugnon, it's because this town is at the centre of the region devoted to the breeding of Charolais cows. We'll let you know how they taste later tonight...
