Stage 15
The Galibier, Telegraphe, Croix de Fer and the Madeleine.
Wanting to make something of the race, Contador made a couple of attempts early on to get away. He was chase down on all occasions though
Agritubel's Mercado instead was able to go on a solo breakaway
Uran went for some KoM at the points with a potential 2nd up for grabs - he could only take 16 poitns for 7th though, behind the stronger climbers Kreuziger, Fothen, Efimkin, Augustyn and Gerdemann
Efimkin used his attack to stay away and by the early part of the Col de la Croix de Fer he had caught up with Mercado
Trailing him by 2 minute is Sella, who attacked at the foot of the Croix de Fer along with Cavendish and Bazayev. Cavendish actually kept with Sella for a couple of kilometres before the Italian went solo.
Perhaps it was the fact that 20th and 32nd overall, or maybe Dekker is feeling good today - but on the Col de Croix de Fer Robert Gesink took to the front and started to destroy the whole field
His efforts continued to whittle down the group of GC contenders, as well as closing the gap on Efimkin and Sella. With a kilometre and a half to the top, the 13 men with Gesink are Pereiro, Augustyn, Kohl, Schleck, Dekker, Gomez Marchante, Evans, Popovych, Brajkovic, Kreuziger, Menchov and Rogers, as well as Bazayev who had been caught following his earlier attack
By the descent, Gesink's work had reduced the group to 7: Himself, Schleck, Dekker, Evans, Kohl, Augustyn and Pereiro.
Behind them, riders were scattered - but Iglisnkiy and Contador were now pushing hard to possibly regain contact with Evans
However, Contador then punctured
While having caught 3 of Evans' big GC rivals - Rogers, Menchov and Kreuziger - Iglinskiy chose to stop pushing
By the foot of the Madeleine, Gesink had pulled over while Augustyn was also gapped
Dekker made the first move
But Schleck inevitably went past him
Kohl and Evans both now hard to work to chase Dekker, a rival in the GC for both of them (Dekker is 2 minutes behind Kohl and 2 minutes ahead of Evans). Pereiro is with them and Augustyn has rejoined the group
A culmination of big efforts from Kohl and Evans - plus Sella slowing Dekker down, allowed the Dutchman to be caught
But Sella continued to slow the group in order for Brajkovic's group to catch up. Lead domestiques for their respective leaders are also with Brajkovic: Popovych, Gomez Marchante and Gesink. Evans tried to move round Sella but Sella responded by moving back ahead of him.
As Brajkovic made contact, Dekker attacked once again!
He shouldnt have any blue bar at all yet pulls out a minutes gap! So, can he be caught again? Popovych and Augustyn duly bury themselves, with Gomez Marchante keeping a watchful eye as Kohl, Evans, Pereiro and Brajkovic are pressured to keep up
In front and almost forgotten amongst the action, Schleck has caught and then dropped the lone attacker Efimkin
Andy Schleck's climbing is really a step above the rest this year
With a few kilometres to the top, Dekker is keeping at a minutes gap over Evans' group. A chance of a podium is slipping away so Evans decides to act. Having just taken his penultimate drink giving him a full Green bar, he also takes his last drink for some blue bar. On a +5 day with the final 35km after the climb largely a descent, he hopes it could go well
But it doesnt at all, unable to get clear - his red bars rapidly rise from 1 to 3, and what could have been a great move could no turn out badly
The positive though is that Brajkovic is substantially gapped and so can he sit in with Augustyn, Kohl, Pereiro and Popovych.
Surprisingly Evans is not the only one in a bit of trouble - Kohl is struggling too, as Augustyn and Pereiro pull away inside the final 7km.
Battling to avoid running out of energy, Evans can be grateful that he is not forced to go solo. Thats not something Andy Schleck will be feeling right now though, he revels in being on his own, dominating the race in style. The back of him is all his rivals see once he gets going, and he takes another stage win
2 and a half minute later, Dekker comes across to take 2nd, a minute ahead of Pereiro who outsprints Augustyn for 3rd
6th for Evans, on the same time as Kohl. He lost a minute on Pereiro/Augustyn but at least was able to gain a minute on Brajkovic. He now leads Pereiro and Brajkovic by 3 and a half minutes in the GC
After Brajkovic came in in 9th, it was over 5 minutes until Gesink took 10th, in a group with Rogers, Van den Broeck and Efimkin. Rogers - plus the likes of Kreuziger and Menchov - may well have seen their Top 5 hopes end today.
1 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC 6h13'58
2 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK + 2'32
3 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM + 3'32
4 John-Lee Augustyn DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
5 Yaroslav Popovych TEAM ASTANA + 4'03
6 Bernhard Kohl TEAM ASTANA + 4'28
7 Cadel Evans DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
8 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC s.t.
9 Janez Brajkovic DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 5'37
10 Robert Gesink RABOBANK + 10'51
11 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
12 Jurgen Van den Broeck PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
13 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
14 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS + 11'33
15 Denis Menchov LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
16 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
17 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK s.t.
18 Linus Gerdemann CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 13'14
19 Maxim Iglinskiy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 14'52
20 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
21 Stijn Devolder EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
22 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER s.t.
23 Domenico Pozzovivo BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
24 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
25 Vladimir Gusev QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 15'54
26 Juanma Gárate QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
27 Oliver Zaugg GEROLSTEINER s.t.
28 Stefano Barberi QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
29 Kim Kirchen LIQUIGAS s.t.
30 Levi Leipheimer RABOBANK s.t.
31 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
32 Emanuele Sella DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 16'43
33 Fran Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 18'59
34 Bauke Mollema SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
35 Michael Rasmussen CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
36 Sébastien Joly TEAM CSC s.t.
37 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
38 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER + 20'03
39 Alexis Castro DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
40 Joaquim RodrÃguez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
41 Dainius Kairelis BARLOWORLD s.t.
42 Leonardo Duque CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 24'36
43 Gerhard Trampusch BARLOWORLD s.t.
44 Zdenek Stybar AGRITUBEL s.t.
45 Francis Mourey FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
46 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
47 Maurice Coué TEAM ASTANA s.t.
48 Pedro Nicacio BARLOWORLD s.t.
49 Charles Wegelius RABOBANK s.t.
52 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
GC
1 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC 68h01'49
2 Bernhard Kohl TEAM ASTANA + 13'00
3 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK + 13'07
4 Cadel Evans DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 17'11
5 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM + 20'39
6 Janez Brajkovic DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 20'40
7 Denis Menchov LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 26'27
8 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM + 26'43
9 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS + 27'15
10 John-Lee Augustyn DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 28'53
11 Jurgen Van den Broeck PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 29'31
12 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 30'29
13 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 30'35
14 Yaroslav Popovych TEAM ASTANA + 34'40
15 Linus Gerdemann CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 36'01
16 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK + 36'55
17 Robert Gesink RABOBANK + 37'31
18 Kim Kirchen LIQUIGAS + 43'08
19 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 43'26
20 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 47'36
21 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER + 47'46
22 Stijn Devolder EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 48'31
23 Maxim Iglinskiy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 49'18
24 Domenico Pozzovivo BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 53'42
25 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 53'43
26 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 58'32
27 Edvald Boasson Hagen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1h02'05
28 Emanuele Sella DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 1h02'35
29 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1h02'58
30 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER + 1h03'42
Points
1 Edvald Boasson Hagen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 257
2 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 216
3 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER 207
4 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL 174
5 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 158
KoM
1 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 310
2 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC 210
3 Bernhard Kohl TEAM ASTANA 171
4 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS 156
5 Denis Menchov LAMPRE - FONDITAL 131
8 Cadel Evans DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 108
