Stage 14


Chris Hoy had a great form for the prologue - but bad daily form and his hopes were wrecked. His hopes were again hit today by a bad daily form but he still led for quite a while. Shown here passing Keinath and Nazon simultaneously. Hoy would eventually finish 15th.


The stage itself would be won by Andreas Kloden


But the interesting battle would be between Contador and Dekker for the maillot jaune


Sadly the battle was little. Contador had a daily form of -1, he needed +4 or +5 to be in with a shout. Dekker had won enough time by the first check alone


And it got worse at the 2nd check, even though Contador had gained a position


From a 40 second lead to a 45 second deficit. Still, this race isnt over yet.

1 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL 1h16'45
2 Janez Brajkovic DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 9
3 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK + 19
4 Jurgen Van den Broeck PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 26
5 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC + 41
6 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM + 48
7 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK + 1'02
8 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS + 1'07
9 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'43
10 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER + 2'08
11 Yaroslav Popovych TEAM ASTANA + 2'12
12 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 2'21
13 Julián Rodas TEAM ASTANA + 2'31
14 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'36
15 Chris Hoy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'44
16 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
17 Denis Menchov LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 2'53
18 Robert Gesink RABOBANK + 2'54
19 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC s.t.
20 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 2'56
21 Andriy Grivko FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 2'57
22 Joost Posthuma RABOBANK + 2'58
23 Olaf Pollack GEROLSTEINER + 3'01
24 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 3'02
25 Benoît Vaugrenard T-MOBILE TEAM + 3'03
26 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 3'09
27 Tom Danielson DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 3'17
28 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 3'18
29 Alexander Kvachuk SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 3'30
30 Martin Mortensen LIQUIGAS + 3'45
31 Mark Cavendish T-MOBILE TEAM + 3'46
32 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 3'52
33 Ben Hermans TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 3'59
34 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'00
35 John Devine DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 4'01

GC
1 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK 57h00'10
2 Alberto Contador DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 46
3 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC + 3'36
4 Janez Brajkovic DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 3'54
5 Andreas Klöden LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 4'21
6 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM + 6'08
7 Yaroslav Popovych TEAM ASTANA + 7'33
8 Markus Fothen GEROLSTEINER + 9'33
9 Linus Gerdemann QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 9'53
10 Denis Menchov LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 11'04
11 Gilberto Simoni SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 11'36
12 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 12'02
13 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK + 12'15
14 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS + 13'24
15 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 13'46
16 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 18'38
17 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 20'31
18 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 20'35
19 Robert Gesink RABOBANK + 20'44
20 Jurgen Van den Broeck PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 23'07

tough

should be very interesting

ooooh hard luck

some aggressive riding in the mountains will be interesting

the beast is back!

Transfer News

To strengthen our climbing unit, we have signed David de la Fuente from the Andalucia team. His move to the continental team has not worked out and he was disappointed that his team did not earn a Vuelta wildcard (They were given to Karpin and Agritubel)

Saunier Duval have also been busy strengthening their team for the mountains. David Arroyo signs from Caisse and Haimar Zubeldia signs from Rabobank. Rabobank meanwhile, have signed Charly Wegelius.

Current French Champion Sebastien Joly will leave Francaise des Jeux and sign for CSC, while Kim Kirchen will move to Liquigas from T-Mobile.

whose the current french champion again?

Sébastien Joly

Oops, I didnt mean to miss off the name p3druh was right though

Stage 15

A hilly stage where Contador may look to attack Dekker on the last climb ahead of the descent into the finish.


But the 2nd hilly was surprisingly tough, Contador lost half his blue bar and the rest of the team lost all of theirs. Contador had been sticking close to Dekker, so was not right at the front when 11 riders got clear.


Andy Schleck is the only Top 5 rider in there but they are all strong. Nevertheless, I am not too worried. However, on the 3rd classified climb of the day - the group has got over 3 and a half minutes - Schleck is the virtual race leader.


So Perez, Oliphant and Stevic helped Rabobank and Discovery with the chase


The gap was going down a bit and over the top of the 4th climb, Andy Schleck left behind the rest of the group.


At the foot of the fifth and final climb, Contador injected some pace into the chase by attacking.


Kloden helped out with the work once he caught up with Contador, but Dekker just sat on their wheels for some reason.


Up front, Andy Schleck won the stage


Dekker and Contador finished just over 2 minutes back - Andy Schleck has brought himself back into overall contention now.


Results didnt export so had to screenshot them from the 'Latest Results' page:

Dekker vs Contador nice battle.

Stage 16



A day for the breakaway? I hope so, as Millar went with the large break.


And it was indeed a day for the break. 11km to go and the gap was still at 2'35. But with Napolitano and Sutton in thew break, Millar could not afford to sit back - so attacked.


He picked up a 30 second lead - but could Millar sustain it?


It looks like it, only a super sprint from Napolitano or Sutton can stop him now


And although the gap closes, its not by enough. Millar wins!


1 David Millar DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 3h21'30
2 Robert Retschke TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
3 Danilo Napolitano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
4 Iñaki Isasi EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
5 Geert Steurs PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
6 Christopher Sutton COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
7 Jean-Patrick Nazon AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
8 Markus Eichler UNIBET.COM s.t.
9 Enrico Poitschke AGRITUBEL s.t.
10 Jean-Marc Bideau TEAM MILRAM s.t.
11 Rubens Bertogliati SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
12 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t.
13 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
14 Gerald Ciolek T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
15 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC s.t.
16 Óscar Freire RABOBANK s.t.
17 Jimmy Engoulvent CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
18 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
19 Nicolas Portal CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
20 Fran Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
21 William Bonnet CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
22 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
23 José Joaquín Rojas CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
24 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
25 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
26 Allan Davis TEAM MILRAM s.t.
27 André Greipel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
28 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
29 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
30 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
31 Vladimir Efimkin PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
32 Tyler Farrar COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
33 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
34 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA s.t.
35 �ngel Vicioso TEAM MILRAM s.t.

great win with Millar

Super win!!! Im glad you won it, brit champ shines again. Good luck with the GC, hope you can take back enough time from a stomping Dekker

Are there any flat TT's left?

A rest day preceeds the final 5 stages of the race. Stage 17 has plenty of mountains culminating in a climb up the Morzine, while Stage 18 finishes up Alpe d'Huez. Stage 19 is a Mountain Time Trial while Stage 20 is the last chance for favourites in a mountain stage ending in a descent towards Grenoble. And Stage 21 is of course the road to the Champs Elysses.

DFL were pleased to announce a further two signings for next season. Maxim Iglinskiy has underperformed the past two seasons for Astana and will become a real asset for the team.

We have also signed a promising looking young Basque rider, Justo Tenorio, who was also being chased by Euskaltel.


The biggest shock of the rest day was a transfer involving Riccardo Ricco. He has signed for Wiesenhof! Wiesenhof face an unlikely battle to survive in the ProTour so I dont know why Ricco signed for them.

If Wiesenhof go down, Ricco will be a free agent because they always have a release clause so my question is:

Will you sign Ricco?

you should, then you got someone for the hills and a super helper for contador!

great win by millar btw. I hope contador can take the yellow

i doubt if ricco wants to be a helper though

Well if I were to buy Ricco he would be Giro and Ardennes leader - not Contadors helper but Ill see how things turn out over whether its worth trying to get him