The Vacansoleil team with new Dutch champion Johnny Hoogerland(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Riders start to echelon when the winds hits them hard from the side.(Image credit: Jonathan Devich)
The Vacansoleil-DCM team has not been enjoying the sort of Tour de France that a team desperately seeking new title sponsors might want, and on stage 13 it went from bad to worse.
With only two red dossards and one day atop the team classification to its name, and Wout Poels its top GC man at 13 minutes from Chris Froome, the most the Dutch team could hope for might be a stage win and move Poels up into the top 20. However, in the howling crosswinds en route to Saint-Amand-Montrond, the entire team missed the split caused by Dutch rivals Belkin, sending Poels tumbling down the rankings by another nearly 10 minutes.
"We got a few lessons in cycling today", said directeur sportif Aart Vierhouten. "Hilaire [Van Der Schueren] had warned the guys beforehand, but apparently they weren't paying attention."
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"It was a windy day," Van Der Schueren said. "They had just stopped for a 'natural break' but so had the yellow jersey. And he did get back in the front quickly.
"Still, there is a new day tomorrow. We'll try harder then."
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