Tour De France / Tobias Gourlay / 09 July 2009 / Leave a comment

Tobias Gourlay follows Le Tour into Spain, where opportunities for a breakaway abound.

As predicted here yesterday, Mark Cavendish won a bunch sprint in Perpignan yesterday. Unfortunately, squabbling in the peloton about who would set the pace meant it never caught up with all six of the escapees who bolted early on. Frenchman Thomas Voeckler, who traded at a high of [210.0], won the stage from Mikhail Ignatiev. Cavendish, who traded at a low of [1.53] for the stage win, came third. In-running, he was traded at [75.0] to finish in the top three. The podium finish helped Cannonball extend his lead over Thor Hushovd to 26 points in the green-jersey competition, for which he is now a [1.41] favourite.

Today's stage takes place entirely in Spain, beginning in Girona, heading south to the coast, and finishing with a steep uphill sprint in Barcelona. The gradient is against the main sprinters - Cavendish, who won the undulating Milan-San Remo classic this year, is available at [18.0] - although Oscar Freire, who has survived the Pyrenees and the Alps in previous years, is the [6.4] favourite.

There are five categorized climbs along the way; three of them are Category 4 and a couple are Category 3. None should trouble Fabian Cancellara, a [1.17] shot to retain the yellow jersey tonight, who has bulked down this year and should be improved in the mountains.

In between these relatively small climbs, there are long flat sections that are ideal platforms from which to launch breakaways. The Tour last visited Barcelona in 1965, when Jose Perez-Frances claimed a four-minute stage victory after a 125-mile solo breakaway.

It is easy to imagine one of the local riders taking a shot at glory. Freire and his Spanish team-mate Juan Antonio Flecha ([48.0]) will be very keen to boost flagging morale within Rabobank, for whom Denis Menchov has ridden dismally and promising young Dutchman Robert Gesink has withdrawn through injury already, with a home win in Catalonia.