Lidl-Trek pro grabs bottle and breaks finger in bizarre Giro d’Italia incident (and riders dodge soigneur standing in road); Mark Cavendish relegated in Tour de France sprint; Fred Wright’s “worst day of my life”; Bad Roglič crash + more on the live blog

Ah, the feed zone. A chaotic, nervous place where stray musette handles, anxious soigneurs, and hungry, weaving riders can wreak havoc on the bunch, creating a recipe for embarrassing crashes.

Or, if you’re Sean Kelly and PDM, a handy spot to attack and thoroughly annoy all your rivals (that’s one for the old-timers).

For Lidl-Trek’s multidisciplinary star Lucinda Brand, however, the feed zone during yesterday’s Giro d’Italia stage resulted in one of the more bizarre injuries of her long, distinguished career.

On the mountainous, hot stage to Urbino, won in sensational fashion by solo escapee Clara Emond, Brand attempted to grab a much-needed bottle from a roadside swanny – only to break her finger in the process.

Ouch...

The 35-year-old, a previous three-time stage winner at the Giro, is no stranger to suffering hand injuries in strange circumstances, sustaining a fracture in a metacarpal bone on her right hand while warming up before the Tabor round of the Cyclocross World Cup in October 2022.

So the Dutch star was well-used to the protocol after yesterday’s stage, which she described a “bit less fun”, thanks to her botched bottle grab:

However, Brand confirmed last night that she will be able to continue the race and help support her Lidl-Trek leader, the current pink jersey Elisa Longo Borghini.

“The good news, it isn’t as bad as the one they already fixed. Let’s see how I feel tomorrow morning but the doctors have [given] the green light,” she wrote on Instagram.

And speaking ahead of today’s fifth stage of the Giro, a rolling 110km affair from Frontone to Foligno, Brand – with her heavily bandaged hand – appeared upbeat about her chances of finishing the race, even with a broken finger.

Something went wrong yesterday for @lucinda_brand grabbing a bottle at the feed zone… 🤔

She has started today’s stage and hopefully we’ll see her finishing it 👊#GirodItaliawomen pic.twitter.com/K3JY1lsA7X

— Lidl-Trek (@LidlTrek) July 11, 2024

“An unfortunate feed yesterday, right?” the Lidl-Trek staff member asked her in a video for the team’s social media.

“Yes, it went a bit wrong!” Brand laughed.

“A broken bone, but luckily it’s all in place and we’ll see how it goes today. Hopefully it’ll be fine. I can brake, so as long as it’s safe, we keep continuing.”

Well, at least she’s been relieved of water-carrying duties for a day or two…

After one of the Tour de France’s strangest, most chaotic bunch sprints in recent memory, Mark Cavendish and Arnaud Démare have both been relegated by the race jury for ‘irregular sprinting’.

Former world champion Cavendish, who crossed the line in fifth, could be seen flicking across from wheel to wheel before making a dramatic move from right to left just as the sprint opened up, forcing Cofidis sprinter Bryan Coquard to veer off himself to avoid a collision.

Van Aert ?
Démare ?
No! BINIIII 🏆#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/8M5Yxlkal1

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 11, 2024

At the same time, third-placed finisher Démare jumped off the wheel of his Arkéa lead-out rider, before drifting over to the barriers, a move that prompted Wout van Aert to stop pedalling for a brief moment and which the Belgian has blamed on his failure to win today’s sprint in Villeneuve-sur-Lot.

Both riders have been stripped of their top five placings and relegated to 67th and 68th on the stage.

Well, I think it’s fair to say that winning No. 35 hasn’t dulled Cavendish’s tendency to take risks during a sprint – or the commissaires’ ability to clamp down on some of the Tour record-breaker’s more, ahem, chaotic moments…

First, Lucinda Brand breaks her finger grabbing a bottle, then this EF Education-Cannondale swanny gets stuck in the middle of a charging peloton during a feed zone with 25km remaining during today’s stage to Foligno:

Jeepers.

Madness stepping so far into the road (a few other swannies were closer to the side), but fair play for keeping so calm, allowing the bunch to navigate their way past safely.

Ah, the fun, carefree life of a soigneur…

They do look cool, to be fair…

> Canyon steps into the cycling footwear market with new Tempr CFR racing shoes

According to data gathered by Garmin and published today, female cyclists are the fastest growing demographic within the tech company’s Connect online fitness community, with a nine per cent increase in activities logged by women over the past year.

Cycling activities in general increased by seven per cent, Garmin says, while indoor cycling experienced an even bigger jump, rising by 12 per cent.

Garmin users who cycle an average of at least 70 miles a week possess normalised power output of more than 180 watts, which the company says is indicative of the age-old maxim ‘the more you ride, the better you ride’, with Garmin also noting that cyclists who ride 90 miles per week are achieving an average VO2 max figure in the mid-50s, which, depending on your age, will likely land you in the ‘superior’ athlete category.

Meanwhile, Italian Garmin users are racking up the most time on their bikes, with each ride lasting an average of just over two hours (I wonder if that includes the coffee stop?) and 29 miles, while cyclists in Denmark are the most powerful (averaging 196 watts) and those in the pan-flat UAE the fastest (16mph).

As someone whose 2008-era CatEye bike computer has been dead for about seven years, this all means nothing to me…

She may have narrowly missed out to Chiara Consonni on the race’s first sprint in Volta Mantovana on Monday, and was forced to watch her teammate Niamh Fisher-Black take the spoils on the following day’s summit finish to Toano – but there was no stopping Lotte Kopecky this afternoon in Foligno, as the world champion converted those second places into her first victory of the 2024 Giro with a devastatingly dominant, stunning sprint.

Placed to perfection by a textbook lead-out by her SD Worx team – which was polished off by a superb burst of speed from Barbara Guarischi, who still finished fifth despite spending the last 100m celebrating her teammate’s victory – Kopecky was in a league of her own once she accelerated, finishing bike lengths ahead of Consonni and Arlenis Sierra.

This time, the sprint was not close: @LotteKopecky turns on the jets and flies to victory 🏆

Stavolta la volata non è stata al photofinish: Lotte Kopecky ha premuto sull’acceleratore e si è involata verso la vittoria 🏆

⏮️ Ultimo Kilometro#GirodItaliaWomen #WonderfulWomen pic.twitter.com/SZsGJZkgEd

— Giro d'Italia Women (@girowomen) July 11, 2024

Aided by the bonus seconds for winning the sprint, Kopecky now sits just three seconds behind pink jersey Elisa Longo Borghini as the Giro prepares for a decisive, and brutal, three days in the mountains – where the world champion will hope to turn one more second place into overall victory.

After questions over his tactics and team’s fuelling strategy yesterday, in the wake of the ‘mini-bonk’ that allowed Jonas Vingegaard to regain ground and outsprint him in Le Lioran, Tadej Pogačar’s stage 12 didn’t get off to the best start, as a touch of wheels in the bunch brought down the yellow jersey.

While appearing unhurt in the immediate aftermath of the crash, the spill did force the race leader into a bike change and a tetchy, frustrated ride back through the cars to the peloton, complete with a Cavendish-esque remonstration with the commissaires:

There's been a pile-up in the peloton and GC leader Tadej Pogacar is among them! 😨

He seems unharmed, but the same can't be said for a few other riders caught in the crash.

TDF 2024 | @SBS & @SBSOnDemand | June 29 - July 21#SBSTDF | #couchpeloton | #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/dkbBw9zXGi

— SBS Sport (@SBSSportau) July 11, 2024

Alpecin–Deceuninck’s Jonas Rickaert looked to have suffered the most in the pile-up, after a lengthy spell on the ground, but is now back on his bike.

Fabio Jakobsen, meanwhile, after two weeks of suffering at the back of the bunch anytime the road veered skywards, finally pulled the plug on his Tour during today’s stage.

Crash in the peloton, bike change for Pogačar. Jonas Rickaert on the ground but he's back riding now. Meanwhile Fabio Jakobsen stops. pic.twitter.com/H57KTtEeYJ

— the Inner Ring (@inrng) July 11, 2024

The lanterne rouge heading into stage 12, the DSM-firmenich PostNL sprinter – who sportingly, if slightly forlornly, waved to the cameras as he headed to his team car at the side of the road – quits the race eight days after his fifth-placed finish behind Mark Cavendish in Saint-Vulbas, his best showing at this year’s Tour.

Yesterday afternoon, Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar captivated the cycling world as they battled side-by-side on the drag to the finish in Le Lioran, the defending champion pipping his great rival for a redemptive, iconic, narrative-shifting win, at the end of a thrillingly epic stage in the Massif Central which has blown this year’s Tour de France wide open.

An hour further back down the road, and a million miles away from the fight for yellow, Fred Wright was in a world of pain.

Wright battles on the gravel on stage nine (A.S.O./Charly Lopez)

The former British champion, as we noted on the live blog, was dropped from the bunch early on yesterday’s 211km stage, as a constant flurry of attacks streamed off the front, the breakaway and peloton refusing to settle.

While Cofidis riders Ion Izagirre, a double Tour de France stage winner, and Alexis Renard, called it quits and headed to their hotel for a much-needed break from the constant pain, Wright continued on, plugging away into the Cantal Mountains as the broom wagon loomed ominously behind.

It wasn’t enough, unfortunately. The relentless pace of the UAE-driven peloton saw Vingegaard and Pogačar cover the 211km, featuring four proper climbs at the finish and 4,177m in elevation, in 42.5kph – the fastest stage covering over 4,000m of elevation this century.

> Advantage Jonas Vingegaard? Defending champion lands huge psychological blow by catching and outsprinting Tadej Pogačar in epic battle in Massif Central

Wright, who finished second on a stage at the 2022 Tour and eighth in the uphill sprint on Saturday’s eighth stage, won by Biniam Girmay, crossed the line one hour, one minute, and 50 seconds behind the leading duo – and eight minutes outside the Tour’s time limit.

Speaking to ITV after he finished – which was very decent of him, given the circumstances – the Bahrain-Victorious rider said he had never suffered as much in his life, as he leaves this year’s Tour with his head held high.

👏 BRAVO @fred_wright0

Out of time today but he finished the stage bravely.
Hors délais aujourd'hui mais il finit l'étape au courage.#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/wZqK45DNYY

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 10, 2024

“That was the worst day of my life,” Wright said. “I really had to suffer then, and I wasn’t much fun. I’m not sure what happened to be honest. It was an easy day yesterday, but in the finish I felt terrible, I couldn’t help the boys.

“So I kind of was like, okay, I’ll go into today with a fresh mind. I’m always going to be up for it, and I’m always going to stay positive.

“At the start, for the first one or two kilometres I was involved. But I just suddenly had a bit of a moment, where I was like I feel terrible. I just didn’t have any power left. I was on my own from very early on. And I’ve always been good at TTing, working out what I’ve got, this is where I need to push.

“I’ve got no regrets, because that was all I had. It’s just a shame it was me alone. I wouldn’t have wished this on my worst enemy – not that I’ve got any enemies! I don’t think I’m going to suffer like that again, which is hopefully a good thing!”

Fair play Fred. You’ll be back.

Cycling’s great barrier safety question has reignited, this time over in the US, following a shockingly nasty incident at a crit in Salt Lake City at the weekend:

> Cyclist undergoes surgery to reattach arm after gruesome criterium crash when limb caught barrier

Ouch…

In news that puts the trials and tribulations of the Tour de France into stark perspective, Ukrainian track sprinter Andriy Kutsenko was killed earlier this month while fighting for his country against Russia, the Lviv Regional Military Administration has reported.

34-year-old Kutsenko was a multiple national champion on the track, and set a national record for the kilo time trial at the 2017 European Championships in Berlin, with a time of 1:02.935. He was also part of the Ukrainian team who broke the national record for the team sprint at the same event, recording a time of 44.487 seconds.

Representing Ukraine between 2006 and 2016, he also took part at the 2013 world track championships.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he returned home from Italy, where he had lived with his family, to volunteer with his country’s armed forces, serving in its 47th Separate Mechanised Brigade for two years. He was killed in fighting on 3 July, and was buried in Zhovkva on Tuesday.