After the withdrawal of sprinter Tom Veelers on Friday the riders of Team Argos-Shimano promised to attack whenever they could in the remainder of the Tour de France. During Saturday’s thirteenth stage to Le Cap d’Agde they already delivered. While Roy Curvers got himself in an early breakaway, Matthieu Sprick went for the win in the last kilometer.
At some moment it seemed Curvers had a good chance to make it to the finish with his fellow escapees. Quite quickly and easily they picked up a nine minute lead. But when Jimmy Engoulvent and Jérôme Pineau started upsetting the cooperation, the gap was pretty soon back to just five, six minutes. “On every hill they went full throttle. Then I realized it would be difficult to keep the pack behind. Especially with today’s windy conditions.”
Curvers finished 81st in Le Cap d’Agde. Leading a third group on 11 ’11”.
Within sight
Just like Curvers, Matthieu Sprick also pulled at trick during Saturday’s stage. But his, according to team manager Rudi Kemna, ‘very good move’ stranded within sight of the finish. When the helpers of the sprinters were tired, the 30-year-old Frenchman slipped away from the peloton and linked up with Luis-Leon Sanchez, who had moments before escaped.
“But Sanchez didn’t cooperate”, Sprick said afterwards. “I don’t know if he was tired or just thought that we would stay away anyway, but I knew that we had to pull hard to make it. I also knew that the last two kilometers were slightly uphill. That was a possibility for me, because I don’t stand a chance in a sprint with guys like André Greipel, Peter Sagan and Boasson Hagen. We had to work together in order to make it.”
Now Sprick and Sanchez came up just too short. The Frenchman came in 21st, in the same time as winner Greipel.
Believe
On Sunday the peloton will take on the first Pyrenees mountains. Perhaps we can expect Koen de Kort in the attack. If the Dutchman keeps his word like Curvers and Sprick – and has a bit of luck, he will attack. Earlier on the 29-year-old Dutchman stated he ‘liked’ the fourteenth stage from Limoux to Foix. Kemna thinks de Kort has a chance. “I believe in Koen.”
