Post #500 in the topic, #9000 for me



Stage 2

Perhaps the only sprinters day of the tour (Manan will abandon on Stage 3 to go and ride Tirreno) and there are a lot of sprinters here to contest it.

The sprint trains setting up are pretty chaotic with riders switching all the way up to 3km to go. Manan takes the TMobile led train of Burghardt and Ciolek. Hushovd, Boonen, Petacchi and Napolitano are all on the other side of the road.


Ciolek is looking good, with only Gasparotto close to him


But the young german is no match for Tom Boonen, who wins the stage


1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 4h11'41
2 Gerald Ciolek T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
3 Enrico Gasparotto LIQUIGAS s.t.
4 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
5 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
6 Danilo Napolitano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
7 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
8 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
9 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
10 Matti Breschel TEAM CSC s.t.
11 Olaf Pollack GEROLSTEINER s.t.
12 Alberto Loddo TEAM MILRAM s.t.
13 David Kopp GEROLSTEINER s.t.
14 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
15 Marvin Van der Pluijm UNIBET.COM s.t.
16 Graeme Brown RABOBANK s.t.
17 Sebastian Siedler TEAM MILRAM s.t.
18 Alberto Ongarato LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
19 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
20 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC s.t.
21 Maarten Tjallingii T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
22 Allan Davis TEAM MILRAM s.t.
23 Julian Dean CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
24 Samuel Dumoulin AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
25 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.

Good Luck, you have some, as your crash count hasn't gone up recently

Stage 3

Classified as a hilly stage but Contador will be using the bike setup he uses for Mountain stages due to the steep slopes.

Tom Boonen is the first wearer of the ProTour leaders jersey and is seen here descending a tough climb in the middle of the stage, which exposed Kloden, Gerdemann, Fothen and Gomez Marchante as being out of form - they were all dropped amongst others.


The action all came on the Col de la Croix, as Pellizotti attacked


Contador countered and soon moved past him


As things started to settle down, Di Luca, Contador, Vaugrenard, Valjavec, S.Sanchez and Di Gregorio make up the front group - Valverde is stuck in group 2.


Di Gregorio is dropped from the lead group and Valverde's group is caught by the peleton as Frank Schleck makes his move


Schleck reaches the front group as Contador takes the KoM points

Samuel Sanchez appeared to be struggling but with a descent next, he did not lose contact.

The gap had been 1 minute at the summit, and over the subseqent 30km it rose to 1'43. The idiots in the front group decided that the weakest sprinter, Contador, should lead out.


Contador wasnt going to sprint until he had to, and so while the sprint could have started at 3km to go, it ended up starting inside the final kilometre


Samuel Sanchez wins the stage!


Contador's delaying tactic worked as he took 2nd, but it also meant they gained less time on the peleton. Allan Davis sprinted to 7th, lowering the gap back to just over a minute.


1 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA 5h33'42
2 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
3 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
4 Danilo Di Luca UNIBET.COM s.t.
5 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
6 Benoît Vaugrenard T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
7 Allan Davis TEAM MILRAM + 1'03
8 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
9 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER s.t.
10 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
11 Manuele Mori FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
12 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
13 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
14 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
15 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
16 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
17 Mathieu Sprick T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
18 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
19 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
20 Christophe Moreau CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
21 Constantino Zaballa CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
22 Pietro Caucchioli COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
23 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
24 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
25 Pieter Weening RABOBANK s.t.
36 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
60 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
149 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 13'49
166 Laszló Bodrogi DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 22'37
167 Roger Hammond DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 23'33
172 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 33'09
173 Volodymyr Dyudya TEAM MILRAM s.t.

GC
1 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 9h53'28
2 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 9
3 Benoît Vaugrenard T-MOBILE TEAM + 10
4 Danilo Di Luca UNIBET.COM + 11
5 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC + 28
6 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 40
7 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 48
8 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 54
9 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 55
10 Santiago Botero SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 58
11 Marco Pinotti T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
12 Joost Posthuma RABOBANK + 1'03
13 Thomas Lövkvist TEAM MILRAM + 1'04
14 Rik Verbrugghe COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 1'05
15 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'07
16 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
17 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 1'08
18 Christophe Moreau CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 1'09
19 Evgeni Petrov TEAM CSC s.t.
20 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'13
21 Grischa Niermann RABOBANK + 1'14
22 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'15
23 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
24 Nicolas Vogondy AGRITUBEL s.t.
25 Héctor Guerra CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
26 Pieter Weening RABOBANK + 1'16
27 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER + 1'17
28 Constantino Zaballa CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
29 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
30 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'18

Nice job taking the overall

Yep, good stuff with Contador

good luck with the GC, should be a good challenge

Stage 4

Another tricky stage today, Benoit Salmon is shown here taking the KoM points on the tough 2nd climb of the day. Gomez Marchante and Fothen are both in the breakaway.


The climb had a big effect on the peleton as it split into 3 groups


The front two groups would merge together but the larger 3rd group would not recover. This group includes Sastre and Vaugrenard.

As we reach the final hill, Yuri Trofimov shows his strength to leave his companions behind, Lampre's Vasseur was the last to let go.


But Trofimov is caught as Di Luca attacks!


Schleck, Sanchez and Valverde counter but Contador is unable to (no blue bar) and can only watch as his rivals pull away


Danilo di Luca goes solo at the front and has a large gap over the 3 man chase group.


Victory for Di Luca, and the yellow jersey with it!


Valverde takes 2nd place


Gadret leads in Groupe Maillot Jaune, 2 minutes after Di Luca


1 Danilo Di Luca UNIBET.COM 3h55'39
2 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 32
3 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA s.t.
4 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
5 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 1'51
6 Manuele Mori FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
7 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
8 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
9 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
10 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
11 Pieter Weening RABOBANK s.t.
12 Johan Vansummeren QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
13 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
14 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
15 Yuri Trofimov QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
16 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
17 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
18 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
19 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
20 Juanma Gárate QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
21 Constantino Zaballa CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 3'41
22 Simone Masciarelli DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
23 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 5'27
24 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
25 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
26 Óscar Pereiro CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
27 Cândido Barbosa EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
28 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER s.t.
29 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER s.t.
30 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
31 Enrico Gasparotto LIQUIGAS s.t.
32 Yon Bru EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
33 Giovanni Visconti TEAM ASTANA s.t.
34 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
35 Dimitri Fofonov CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.

GC
1 Danilo Di Luca UNIBET.COM 13h49'12
2 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 34
3 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC + 55
4 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'38
5 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'46
6 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 2'26
7 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 2'40
8 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 2'53
9 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 3'01
10 Pieter Weening RABOBANK + 3'02
11 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 3'03
12 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 3'04
13 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS + 3'16
14 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 3'17
15 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
16 Manuele Mori FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 3'19
17 Juanma Gárate QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 3'24
18 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 3'26
19 Constantino Zaballa CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 4'53
20 Benoît Vaugrenard T-MOBILE TEAM + 5'32

unlucky, are you going to try to get the jersey back, or is it too late in the race to make up the 2 mins?

Well the next stage goes up and down Ventoux and Contador won by 2 minutes over Di Luca and 3 minutes over the rest of the favourites - but then the game crashed after everyone had finished :x

Ill have to do the stage again

Last years winner: Jens Voigt
Team: Perez, Millar, Efimkin, Stevic, Manan, Marzoli, Sulzberger and McCann

Stage 1

David McCann went with the breakaway and won one of the KoM sprints, he would not get the jersey though. A surprise inclusion in the breakaway was Davide Rebellin, last years winner of Paris-Nice.


It comes to a sprint and Paolini leads out Bennati, Zabel and Pozzato. Freire is behind Eisel


Pozzato makes his move before Bennati and edged infront.


But Bennati came back at him


Its going to have to go down to a photo finish!


I thought Bennati had won but ...

Pozzato is the winner!

1 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS 3h43'58
2 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
3 Óscar Freire RABOBANK s.t.
4 Erik Zabel PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
5 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t.
6 José Joaquín Rojas CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
7 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
8 Fran Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
9 Luca Paolini LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
10 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
11 William Bonnet CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
12 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
13 Robert Förster GEROLSTEINER s.t.
14 Ivan Stevic DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
15 Ruggero Marzoli DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
16 André Greipel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
17 Andrea Moletta GEROLSTEINER s.t.
18 Mark Cavendish T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
19 Angelo Furlan UNIBET.COM s.t.
20 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC s.t.
21 Jesús Del Nero SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
22 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
23 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
24 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
25 Joaquim Rodríguez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.

Some big names have lost time already (Rebellin finished in the peleton though):
139 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA + 2'55
141 Michael Rasmussen DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
158 Janez Brajkovic DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 3'38
166 Tom Danielson DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 5'52
172 Alexander Efimkin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'48

double unlucky

i bet he has -5 for form when you play it again

yet more evidence for my theory that computer games do cheat

p.s where are milram in that T-A stage? i'd have thought someone would at least get into the top 25!!!

Their team for the race is Lorenzetto, Rigotto, Jurco, Bideau, Velo, Wesemann, Ghisalberti and Ponzi. Lorenzetto took 34th in Stage 1.

Petacchi is in Paris-Nice, Zabel rides for Predictor.

Rasmussen allways seems to go to Discovery and Contador allways leaves them. In every single game I saw/played... weird.

Stage 5

Its the toughest stage of the race and the only mountain stage (not including the mountain tt on the final day). Mont Ventoux is usually only seen in the Dauphine or the Tour, but not this year!


And halfway up Ventoux, Frenchman Remy di Gregorio attacks, Contador counters immediately.


Schleck and Sanchez go too as the last survivor of the breakaway, David Canada, is caught.


Schleck is stuck behind Canada and falls back to the peleton and Pellizotti has made it clear to make it a 4 man lead group


Valverde finally makes his move but he cant do it! As he loses ground on Contador's group, Di Luca makes his move.


Di Luca joins the other 4 as they start to create a gap


Valverde attacks again and does manage a gap, although he has no chance of catching the lead 5.


The situation is not ideal for Contador since 2 riders ranked above him in the GC are with him, but this is a great chance to distance Valverde and Schleck.

Pellizotti takes the KoM points.


And Samuel Sanchez comes to the fore in the descent as they build a 2 minute gap on Valverde - and 4 minutes on everyone else.


Like in an earlier stage, Contador is forced to lead out, and while the sprint could start with 2km to go, it only starts with 500m to go!


Di Luca still manages to win the stage though!


1 Danilo Di Luca UNIBET.COM 4h38'13
2 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
3 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA s.t.
4 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
5 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
6 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'35
7 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL + 3'26
8 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
9 Mathieu Sprick T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
10 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
11 Nicolas Vogondy AGRITUBEL s.t.
12 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
13 Benoit Salmon AGRITUBEL s.t.
14 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
15 Juanma Gárate QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
16 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
17 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
18 Oliver Zaugg GEROLSTEINER s.t.
19 Johan Vansummeren QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
20 Ludovic Turpin AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
21 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
22 Moisés Dueñas AGRITUBEL s.t.
23 Giovanni Visconti TEAM ASTANA s.t.
24 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
25 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
26 Malcolm Lange UNIBET.COM s.t.
27 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER s.t.
28 Evgeni Petrov TEAM CSC s.t.
29 Dimitri Fofonov CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
30 David Arroyo CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
31 Iván Parra COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
32 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
33 Pieter Weening RABOBANK s.t.
34 Óscar Pereiro CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
35 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
36 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
37 Mauricio Ardila RABOBANK s.t.
38 Thomas Lövkvist TEAM MILRAM s.t.
39 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
40 Saul Raisin FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
54 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

GC
1 Danilo Di Luca UNIBET.COM 18h27'19
2 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 38
3 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'52
4 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS + 3'18
5 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 3'19
6 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC + 4'27
7 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 5'58
8 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 6'12
9 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 6'25
10 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 6'33
11 Pieter Weening RABOBANK + 6'34
12 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 6'35
13 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'36
14 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 6'49
15 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
16 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 6'50
17 Juanma Gárate QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 6'56
18 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'58
19 Santiago Botero SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 9'52
20 Thomas Lövkvist TEAM MILRAM + 9'58
21 Evgeni Petrov TEAM CSC + 10'03
22 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 10'07
23 Nicolas Vogondy AGRITUBEL + 10'09
24 Héctor Guerra CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
25 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER + 10'11

Stage 2

Sergei Ivanov went on a long solo breakaway today


But he is caught with 1.2km to go as O'Grady leads out Haussler and Marzoli, while Freire leads out Bennati.


And Heinrich Haussler wins the stage!


1 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER 4h38'38
2 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
3 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
4 Ruggero Marzoli DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
5 Óscar Freire RABOBANK s.t.
6 Erik Zabel PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
7 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
8 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
9 Fran Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
10 José Joaquín Rojas CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
11 William Bonnet CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
12 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
13 Jesús Del Nero SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
14 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK s.t.
15 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
16 Assan Bazayev CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
17 Robert Förster GEROLSTEINER s.t.
18 Angelo Furlan UNIBET.COM s.t.
19 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA s.t.
20 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
21 Andrea Tonti QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
22 Francesco Chicchi UNIBET.COM s.t.
23 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
24 Dimitri Muravyev TEAM ASTANA s.t.
25 Mark Cavendish T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.

GC
1 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER 8h22'25
2 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 1
3 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
4 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC + 3
5 Steffen Wesemann TEAM MILRAM + 5
6 Óscar Freire RABOBANK + 7
7 Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER s.t.
8 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA + 8
9 Erik Zabel PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 11
10 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
11 José Joaquín Rojas CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
12 Fran Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
13 Ruggero Marzoli DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
14 William Bonnet CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
15 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.

Stage 6


The break today is Burghardt, Mercado, Velits, Phinney, Davis, Fofonov and Vasseur.

Cedric Vasseur seems determined to take the KoM jersey


Itrs quite a hilly stage today, and the break is given a huge lead. The final KoM of the day is with 41km to go. Vasseur wins it and has secured the KoM jersey, he will wear it all the way to Nice. He has also now dropped the rest of the breakaway.


Contador went on attack from the peleton with 11km to go and had a gap of 42 seconds with 2.6km to go.


But noone can catch Cedirc Vasseur, who takes a well deserved win


Contador is caught by the sprinters though as Duque outsprints Boonen for 2nd


1 Cédric Vasseur LAMPRE - FONDITAL 5h13'32
2 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
3 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
4 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
5 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
6 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
7 Danilo Di Luca UNIBET.COM s.t.
8 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER s.t.
9 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
10 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
11 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
12 Giovanni Visconti TEAM ASTANA s.t.
13 Enrico Gasparotto LIQUIGAS s.t.
14 Cândido Barbosa EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
15 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA s.t.
16 Manuele Mori FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
17 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
18 Yon Bru EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
19 Martin Elmiger AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
20 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
21 Fabio Gilioli UNIBET.COM s.t.
22 Iñigo Landaluze EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
23 Antonio Quadranti UNIBET.COM s.t.
24 Constantino Zaballa CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
25 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS s.t.

GC

1 Danilo Di Luca UNIBET.COM 23h40'51
2 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 38
3 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'52
4 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS + 3'18
5 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 3'19
6 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC + 4'27
7 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 5'58
8 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 6'12
9 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 6'25
10 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 6'33
11 Pieter Weening RABOBANK + 6'34
12 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 6'35
13 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'36
14 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 6'49
15 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.

Stage 3

A tough climb early on in the stage saw Discovery's Danculovic beat everyone to the top


Preben van Hecke of Predictor is 2nd over the summit and is the only survivor of attacks from that climb (even Danculovic has been caught) and has been joined by Andreas Klier as they reach the first of the 2 intermediate sprints


There is an intermediate sprint with just over 14km to go and Freire wins it.


But Millar was up there fighting for the points.. why? Its a great launchpad for an attack!


The pace in the peleton slowed as the sprinters dropped back and Millar quickly had a gap of a minute.


The chase behind is hindered by a massive crash


And David Millar wins the stage, taking the leaders jersey with it!!!


Freire is 2nd, Zabel 3rd.


Perez was involved in the crash, but is not injured and did not lose any time.

1 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 3h34'07
2 Óscar Freire RABOBANK + 30
3 Erik Zabel PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
4 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
5 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
6 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t.
7 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
8 Fran Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
9 Patrice Halgand CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
10 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
11 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
12 Luca Paolini LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
13 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
14 Jesús Del Nero SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
15 Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER s.t.
16 Steffen Wesemann TEAM MILRAM s.t.
17 Christopher Sutton COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
18 Mirko Lorenzetto TEAM MILRAM s.t.
19 Assan Bazayev CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
20 Ruggero Marzoli DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
21 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC s.t.
22 Andrea Moletta GEROLSTEINER s.t.
23 Riccardo Riccò SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
24 Dimitri Muravyev TEAM ASTANA s.t.
25 Giampaolo Cheula SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.

GC
1 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 11h56'33
2 Óscar Freire RABOBANK + 27
3 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 28
4 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER + 29
5 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS + 30
6 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
7 Steffen Wesemann TEAM MILRAM + 34
8 Erik Zabel PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 36
9 Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER s.t.
10 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA + 37
11 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
12 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM + 40
13 Fran Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
14 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
15 Jesús Del Nero SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
16 Luca Paolini LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
17 Ruggero Marzoli DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
18 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC s.t.
19 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
20 Assan Bazayev CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.

Stage 7


The final climb to Le Grand Duc should be interesting

Pliuschin went with the break today


But his energy ran out with 32km to go


Di Gregorio attacked on that climb, and with Di Luca and Sanchez countering, Contador went aswell


Sanchez, Contador, Chavanel and Di Luca make up the lead group as they head towards the decisive final hill.


But as we came to it, Contador fell apart. Schleck and Valverde has made it up to the group and things did not look good


Chavanel also fell away and Sanchez got dropped as Di Luca battled Valverde and Schleck.


And Di Luca takes another stage win, surely securing the Paris-Nice title

Valverde 2nd, Schleck 3rd and Sanchez 4th.

Phillipe Gilbert took 5th, but where is Contador?


Contador cracked twice on the final hill and loses a lot of time today, not even finishing as the best DFL rider


1 Danilo Di Luca UNIBET.COM 5h38'22
2 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
3 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
4 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 46
5 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'52
6 Mathieu Sprick T-MOBILE TEAM + 2'05
7 Manuele Mori FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
8 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
9 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
10 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
11 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER s.t.
12 Johan Vansummeren QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
13 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
14 Matti Breschel TEAM CSC s.t.
15 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
16 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
17 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 2'42
18 Giovanni Visconti TEAM ASTANA s.t.
19 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 2'51
20 Cédric Vasseur LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
21 Thomas Lövkvist TEAM MILRAM s.t.
22 Bernhard Kohl TEAM ASTANA s.t.
23 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
24 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
25 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
26 Nicolas Vogondy AGRITUBEL s.t.
27 Yuri Trofimov QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
28 Santiago Botero SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
29 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
30 Benoît Vaugrenard T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
31 Moisés Dueñas AGRITUBEL s.t.
32 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
33 Allan Davis TEAM MILRAM s.t.
34 Benoit Salmon AGRITUBEL s.t.
35 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
36 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
37 Juanma Gárate QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
38 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
39 Alexandre Pichot QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
40 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 3'42
41 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
42 Renaud Dion LIQUIGAS s.t.
43 Anthony Charteau CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
44 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
45 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
46 Pieter Weening RABOBANK s.t.
47 Martin Elmiger AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
48 Óscar Pereiro CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 4'09
49 David Kopp GEROLSTEINER + 5'06
50 Matej Mugerli LIQUIGAS s.t.

GC

Things dont look great for us, but I do think Contador can get back ahead of Pellizotti on the final stage mountain itt.

1 Danilo Di Luca UNIBET.COM 29h19'07
2 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 1'30
3 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 3'21
4 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC + 4'31
5 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS + 5'29
6 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'40
7 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 8'23
8 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 8'33
9 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 8'44
10 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 8'55
11 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 9'00
12 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
13 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 9'22
14 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9'33
15 Juanma Gárate QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 9'53
16 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 9'55
17 Pieter Weening RABOBANK + 10'22
18 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 10'38
19 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER + 12'22
20 Manuele Mori FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 12'27

Millar's win was tactical genius(plus a nice pileup)