It was a day of heavy damage in Monday’s second stage of Paris-Nice.
No, no one crashed, but a half-dozen favorites were all-but-eliminated when Team CSC and U.S. Postal Service collaborated to drive a deep five-minute wedge into the eight-day race.
Five Postals and the entire CSC team drove a lead group of 36 into Montargis in the windy 166.5km stage across rolling farmland south of Paris.
Spanish rider Pedro Horrillo (Quick Step) rejoiced in his most important victory of his career while two-time defending champion Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile), Erik Dekker (Rabobank), Laurent Brochard (Ag2r), Sandy Casar (FDJeux.com), Alex Zülle (Phonak) and Dario Frigo (Fassa Bortolo) were among the favorites left with pie on their faces some 5 minutes, 15 seconds adrift. “It was stupid, stupid, stupid… I am the stupidest rider here today.”
Erik Dekker
(Rabobank)
“I can only blame myself,” said Dekker, who started the day tied for second four seconds back to Team CSC’s Jorg Jaksche. “It was stupid, stupid, stupid. I came here to win this race, but now I don’t know what to do. I have no excuses, I just missed it. I am the stupidest rider here today.”
CSC in Driver’s Seat
Team CSC, meanwhile, was relishing its job well-done. The team played the tactic perfectly, catching Dekker and many of the other favorites sleeping at the wheel after coming through the day’s first points sprint at 77km at Maisse.
Rebellin took second in the sprint to inch within six seconds of Jaksche, winner of Sunday’s opening time trial near Paris. Following the hard effort, Dekker and the others drifted to the back of the bunch as the peloton came out of five Category 3 rated climbs.
The course pushed out of the rolling hills south of Paris onto wide-open wheat fields. Team CSC sport director Alain Gallopin comes from this region of France and warned the team before the stage to watch for echelons. About 8km before the day’s feed zone at 90km, CSC punched the accelerator.
“My job was to get those time bonuses at the sprint and I was pissed that Dekker beat me,” said Team CSC’s Jens Voigt, who took third to the Dutchman. “Those sprints are hard, they’re like a world championship sprint, I swear. After that, everyone was taking it easy and Riis told us to stay near the front.”
“First Piil went, then I yelled, ‘Go, go, go!’ When you do that, you don’t hesitate, you don’t look back,” Voigt said. “We got some good collaboration from U.S. Postal and Chocolade Jacques, but we did most of the work.”
Team CSC’s Bobby Julich initially was caught out of position, but came back up with a second group that caught on. Julich, after a very strong opening time trial, moves up to third overall.
“When you make an effort like that, you have to make it count,” said Team CSC manager Bjarne Riis. “We eliminated some guys, but (Davide) Rebellin is still very strong. You have to be aggressive, but you have to pick the right moment. It was good today.”
U.S. Postal Service helped drive the bunch to the line and was looking for the stage-win for George Hincapie. Unfortunately for the Posties, Floyd Landis wasn’t in the first group and fell out of contention.
Levi Leipheimer (Rabobank) and Tyler Hamilton (Phonak) also missed the break, though Hamilton wasn’t looking for major results in his season debut, especially considering he had the flu late last week.
The stage ended with one circuit into Montargis, where a hard left turn with 500 meters to go and a rising finish added a twist to the day’s finale.
Horrillo — the Spanish rider who got the wrong kind of headlines in the 2002 Tour de France when he celebrated too early coming into Avranches in Stage 7 and lost the stage to Brad McGee – saw his chance.
“Our plan was to work today for (Tom) Boonen, but he wasn’t with the lead bunch so I thought about my chances. I studied the finish coming in on the first lap and realized that I had to be at the front coming out of the turn,” Horrillo said.
The Quick Step rider launched his attack early, riding with his hands on the upper section of the handlebars as he grinded toward the finish line. There was no arm-lifting until he was well past the line.
“On that day back in the Tour, I lifted my arms not because I thought I won, but because I was angry that I had lost,” Horrillo said. “Paris-Nice is not the Tour de France, but it’s the most important victory of my career so far. One day I want to go back to the Tour to win.”
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