Originally Posted by bbattle
Did you notice that Chavanel didn't try to win those KOM points but was fine with second place? That was so Auge, his teammate, could still have the jersey. Often, the breakaway chaps will take turns winning the intermediate prizes instead of one of them hogging it all. Lot of good life lessons to teach a child.
Here is a quote from the other side....an after stage quote...
Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis): "It wasn't necessarily the plan for me to be in the break, it just happened. We wanted to keep the jersey."
"Stéphane Augé (Cofidis): "I need to thank Sylvain [Chavanel] today. He made the decision to leave the jersey for me [by not sprinting for first place in the last KOM]. He is a great champion. I had nine points and he had six. If he'd taken the KOM, he would have passed me, so he let Knees go ahead, and now has eight points."
"Yesterday I did a bluff [when he attacked more than 30 kilometres before the KOM]. I surprised everyone, including my directeur sportif."
He explained the electric shifting system, describing that there is a battery in the bottleholder with a wire connecting to te shifters. He said, "the system works very well and I am very happy with it." He does mention some people predict trouble with it, but he is confident that it'll work fine.
An off the wall comment about the shifting.....interesting....
GREAT SPORTSMAN none the less!!!!