SSJ2Luigi wrote:
the red white and blue seems pretty representive
They are not doing bad at all, let's see if one of them can win the Tour...
think you missed what I meant, Croatia, Luxembourg and The Netherlands have a red/white/blue combination in their flag
they just differ from eachother in details
Spoiler
and before anybody says something about Van Garderen, having red/white/blue when looking at a angle is not a real red/white/blue flag
SSJ2Luigi wrote:
the red white and blue seems pretty representive
They are not doing bad at all, let's see if one of them can win the Tour...
think you missed what I meant, Croatia, Luxembourg and The Netherlands have a red/white/blue combination in their flag
they just differ from eachother in details
Spoiler
and before anybody says something about Van Garderen, having red/white/blue when looking at a angle is not a real red/white/blue flag
Yeah, I though you were referring to the Dutch only
Stage 12: Albertville - La Toussuire - Les Sybelles
The twelfth stage is the queen of the Alps. Although very short, at only 144 kilometers, the riders will have to tackle the Col de la Madeleine, the Croix-de-Fer, the Mollard and the final 18 kilometers up to La Toussuire. The fireworks from the favorites will not probably come until the last climb, as it is hard enough, but surely some differences will be made today in the GC.
The Col de la Madeleine served to form the break of the day. 6 riders formed that group, including Sergey Firsanov (Lotto), Jerome Coppel (Ag2r), Pavel Brutt (Katusha) and Tiago Machado (Saxo - Tinkoff). The Portuguese beat Brutt for the KoM points at the top. Back at the main bunch Garmin is setting the pace but they don't really have a team to do it in the mountains. The only capable domestique for Frank is John Gadret.
No attacks in the climb to La Croix-de-Fer (56 kilometers to go), but the pace was hard enough to leave only 80 riders in the main bunch. Garmin is sporadically helped by Belkin, who can set a much higher pace. The gap of the break was down to 5 minutes. At the group in the front Pavel Brutt was first this time ahead of Machado. They are accumulating lots of points today.
Right after the Croix-de-fFer was the Col du Mollard (36 kilometers to go). Sergey Firsanov was first this time ahead of Diego Ulissi but it is Pavel Brutt who leads the KoM classification at that point. The chances of the break have increased a lot as the main bunch doesn't seem keen to chase. Garmin cannot do it and the other teams are not involved. Belkin seemed to be inviting others to chase but unsuccessfully and they are already 7 minutes behind.
The break lost Jerome Coppel in the descent of the Mollard and only 5 riders remained at the front at the start of the climb to La Toussuire. It seems pretty clear that they will have to fight the stage win among themselves. Belkin finally got tired of waiting and started increasing the pace in the peloton with Rob Ruijgh, Hubert Dupont and Steven Kruijswijk. They started dropping riders off the back as soon as they started to push.
All kinds of attacks happened with 10 kilometers remaining in the stage. Franco Pellizotti and Diego Ulissi have 35 seconds on the rest of the break, but it is difficult to think that the Italians will make it all the way to the finish. Among the favorites, an attack from Frank Schleck dragged a group of 10 behind including Cadel Evans, Peter Stetina and Robert Gesink. It was a really dangerous attack and they soon got almost a minute on the group of the leader. No response so far from Bauke Mollema, Matthias Frank or Laurens Ten Dam.
The 5 riders from the early break rejoin with 6 kilometers to go. Machado and Brutt are the strongest in theory and they have been chasing the two Italians until they reeled back in. The chasing group is now 4' 40'' behind, so their chances for the stage are only increasing. In the group of the leader, 5' 25'' back, it is Ten Dam and Van Garderen who are working at the front. It seems like BMC is not happy with Stetina only at the group ahead. This cannot go down well with Stetina.
Pellizotti and Firsanov are starting to suffer in the break with 3 kilometers remaining. Pavel Brutt is now setting the pace trying to leave everyone else behind. Among the favorites the attacking group was brought back in but other attacks happened and Vanendert has now 15 seconds on Juanjo Cobo and Frank Schleck and 35 seconds on the group of the leader. It is remarkable how Matthias Frank is holding on to the yellow jersey and keeping the pace of the main group.
Tiago Machado launches the last attack within the last kilometer of the stage. He is closely followed by Pavel Brutt and Diego Ulissi once Firsanov and Pellizotti have been dropped from the leading group. The Portuguese looks the strongest for the final push. Meanwhile, Jelle Vanendert is the only rider ahead of the group of favorites and his lead is a mere 20 seconds.
Tiago Machado wins in La Toussuire! The Portuguese was far stronger in the final sprint to the line and even put 18 seconds between him and the two chasers. Brutt took the second place in the stage ahead of Diego Ulissi. Saxo - Tinkoff has been very effective to take wins this year, as they are now the third team with the most wins in the year (4), tied with Vacansoleil.
The group of the leader lost 1' 48'' to the winner of the stage, so no harm in the GC came from the break in the end. Jelle Vanendert was reeled back in with 1 kilometer to go and, even though some tried, no time gaps were open in the last kilometer. Robert Gesink took the sixth place of the stage ahead of Laurens Ten Dam and Peter Stetina.
A total of 23 riders finished with the same time, a remarkably big group considering that the stage was quite hard. It is hard to see a rider like Bauke Mollema, who usually has had a very attacking style not to try it once during the Alps. Today's result means that Matthias Frank survived the Alps on the yellow jersey and looks set to wear it at least a further couple of days. A podium would be very difficult for him but the chances of a top 10 are only increasing as the days go by.
Stage 13 will bid farewell to the Alps with a very strange stage. It looks like the organizers got it wrong and designed the stage backwards. The beginning of the stage has the tough climbs to the Grand Cucheron and the Granier only to be followed by a rather easy rest of the stage. The outcome is really difficult to predict, but the safest bet seems that a break will take the stage. To spice things up a little bit more the final kilometer of the stage is slightly uphill.
The early break was formed very easily. A group of 5 riders tried it within the first 5 kilometers and found no response from the main bunch. They are Sylvain Chavanel (Ag2r), Maxime Monfort (Quickstep), Jurgen Roelandts (Lotto), Stefan Schumacher (Katusha) and Anthony Roux (Astana). They had opened a gap of 6 minutes on the bunch at the top of the Col de Grand Cucheron. The sprinters managed to hold on to the main group in this climb easily.
The second climb of the day, the Col du Granier, had its top 137 kilometers to the finish line. The main bunch did not have a rush to climb it, as Garmin had nothing to win chasing and no other team seemed keen to increase the pace. Therefore, the gap grew to 8' 30'' for the break at the top. Julien Simon was the only rider interested in the KoM points, but he seems to be too far away to be a contender. Given the slow pace the sprinters had no trouble to get through the couple of tough climbs.
Several teams were not happy to give away the stage win to the early break and chased through the flat parts, mainly Discovery Channel, HTC and Sky. The last hill of the day started with 22 kilometers to go and they had reduced the gap to 1' 40'' at that point. It was difficult to say whether they would have time to bring them back. It is quite strange that Discovery is chasing given that the final kilometer does not particularly favor Marcel Kittel, but more punchy sprinters.
The peloton won the battle against the break as only Stefan Schumacher and Maxime Monfort were ahead with 10 kilometers remaining and their gap was 15 seconds. HTC dominated the climb to the last hill with Levi Leipheimer working in the front once his chances in the GC have gone away. There were some attacks from the GC favorites but nothing relevant as they were quickly reeled back in.
HTC seems very keen on this stage and quickly formed their sprint train. Stefan van Dijk would be the last lead-out man for Jose Joaquin Rojas. Marcel Kittel was also alert and chose the wheel of the Spaniard. On the right hand side of the road it was Sky who formed a train. Gregory Rast was working for Ben Swift with Samuel Dumoulin right behind. Other sprinters like Peter Sagan, Kenny van Hummel and Matthew Goss were also well positioned with 3 kilometers remaining.
Stefan van Dijk leaves Jose Joaquin Rojas perfectly positioned for the Spaniard to start the final sprint with slightly more than 1 kilometer to go. The road is already slightly uphill, what benefits him against his closer rivals, Samuel Dumoulin, Marcel Kittel and Kenny van Hummel. The peloton was quite stretched, so only a handful of riders can challenge for the win.
Rojas is way too strong in the first part of the sprint. With 600 meters remaining he has been able to open a gap of 10 seconds over the closest chaser. No one seems capable of threatening him. Among the chasers Peter Sagan is progressing fast with Ben Swift close behind while the purest sprinters are dropping back. Samuel Dumoulin is trying to hold on but is being already passed.
Jose Joaquin Rojas wins in Annonay Davezieux! Rojas was clearly the strongest in the final uphill sprint today and only Peter Sagan could cut back on his massive lead in the last few hundred meters of the stage. In fact, both of them were so superior that 15 seconds where awarded between them and the rest of the bunch. Hubert Dupont took the third place in the stage ahead of Ben Swift and Frank Schleck.
The bad news of the day were for Laurens Ten Dam and Cadel Evans. The peloton broke in two pieces in the sprint and they both lost 1' 19'' against the rest of the favorites. Consequently, they drop out of the top 10 in the GC. It is a shame for them been able to hold on in the toughest Alps stages only to lose more than 1 minute due to carelessness in an irrelevant stage.
Andy Schleck is the worse of the two brothers so far in the story, but it cannot be said that he is not a good rider even though he has lots of difficulties converting his good abilities to actual wins. The Luxembourgish has always been among the second tier riders, as his final positions in the World Tour rankings have moved between the 14th and the 35th. However, he has only won once in the six seasons he has raced so far and it was in the distant 2009.
Andy started his career in the Leopard Trek team, where he stayed for a couple of years with unspectacular results. He spent those years working for Jean-Christophe Peraud and his brother in the mountains, but had a couple of top 10s in the Volta a Catalunya and the Tirreno - Adriatico. However, tired of working for others he moved to the then rookie Katusha Team. The Russian team assembled quite a good team with Schleck and Menchov as best riders in the mountains.
The season in Katusha was quite productive for Schleck, as he got podiums in the Criterium du Dauphine and the Eneco Tour. The bad part of his good performances was that the mood of the team was not very good as Menchov and him battled for the leading role of the team. With Menchov and the management both Russian all fell apart in the late part of the season and Andy had to look elsewhere for a team in 2012.
HTC received Schleck with open arms and a leading role but his performance was not really up to par. He got top 10 results in the Tour 2012 and the Giro 2013, but HTC was at that time 4th in the standings of the World Tour and should have a leader that provides a lot more that Andy did in those years. Especially in the first year he was overshadowed by Chris Froome, who won the Tour de Suisse in a dramatic fashion.
In 2014 his best offer was to ride for Quickstep, one of the strongest teams of the field. He accepted even though the leader of the team is Denis Menchov. That is why the management is trying to give them as different schedules as possible. Andy is not currently racing the Tour de France but has been promised a leading role for the Vuelta. He will most probably be granted that, given Menchov's less than impressive Tour so far.
Stage 14: Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux - La Cap d'Agde
The Mediterranean coast will be visited by the Tour in its 14th stage as the race approaches the Pyrenees. A mass sprint will be practically assured today as the weather reports don't give the wind much chances of appearing in the latter part of the stage. Only the short but though Mont Saint Clair has the potential to break the race in the last kilometers, but the chances of that happening are really remote.
Sky was very determined to control the break today and they only let go a rather weak group of 6 riders, including Filippo Pozzato (Quickstep), Stefan Schumacher (Katusha), Fredrik Kessiakoff (Euskaltel) and Diego Ulissi (Lampre). They had a gap of 4 minutes over the bunch in the intermediate sprint at Nimes, still with 131 kilometers remaining. In the sprint for the remaining points Marcel Kittel strengthened his grip on the green jersey by beating Yauheni Hutarovich and Andre Greipel.
The stage was very quiet until the riders reached the Mont Saint Clair, barely longer than 1 kilometer but averaging 13% it can make a lot of riders suffer is the pace is high. The break still had 1' 45'' on the main bunch with 26 kilometers remaining but Radioshack, Sky and Discovery Channel were very well organized to do the chasing. Diego Ulissi was first at the top and he managed to climb to the 3rd place in the KoM classification.
Filippo Pozzato and Francesco Gavazzi tried to make the break last a bit longer but with 8 kilometers remaining his gap had gone down to 20 seconds and they did not stand a chance against the very powerful Radioshack rouleurs. Greipel is already showing himself at the front of the pack, surely willing to repay his teammates efforts with a win. The main bunch is down to a bit more than 100 riders after the last climb but all the important men and sprinters made it through.
Only Radioshack has managed to set up a train for the finish in Le Cap d'Agde but with 3 kilometers remaining it seems a bit too early for Cancellara to leave only Daniele Bennati ahead of Andre Greipel. It looks like it is going to be a chaotic sprint. The riders that are best positioned behind the German are Ben Swift, Denis Galimzyanov, Marcel Kittel and Francisco Ventoso.
Daniele Bennati moves to the side and Andre Greipel starts sprinting with a bit more than 1 kilometer remaining. The Italian has done a great job of filtering out lots of potential enemies for his leader, as the head of the bunch is much stretched. Among those who are threatening are Marcel Kittel, Ben Swift and Denis Galimzyanov, who all responded well to the German as soon as he started to push.
Ben Swift is trying to move to the side of Greipel with 600 meters remaining. The German is starting to show signs of tiredness and he still has a long way to go. Kittel also seems to have an outside chance of getting the stage, but anyone outside of those three is out of the picture by now.
Ben Swift wins in Le Cap d'Agde! The British powered past Andre Greipel and held off a charging Marcel Kittel in the last few meters of the stage. This is the long awaited first win of the season for Swift, who had won 7 times last year. The British is not doing a bad season at all but the pressure of the lack of wins was starting to weigh on him. Swift will also take the green jersey from Marcel Kittel by a tiny 2 points.
Andre Greipel was again quite disappointing and finished down in the third place of the stage after being perfectly lead out until the last kilometer. The top 5 was completed by Jose Joaquin Rojas and Yauheni Hutarovich. Tomorrow's stage will be very different as the riders will have two tough climbs, especially the Mur de Peguere before the finish in Foix.
The fifteenth stage of the Tour de France will give us the first taste of the Pyrenees. The Port de Lers and the Mur de Peguere will be climbed in the second part of the stage, but the top of the second climb is almost 40 kilometers from the finish line. The main favorites are not expected to attack but some of the riders that need to gain back time should shake the tree a little bit to see if they can come back in the hunt for a podium place.
The Col de Portel was only 30 kilometers after the start in Limoux. A group of 8 quite strong riders was already established at that point, as Garmin's attempts to control the situation were fruitless. It included Marco Pinotti (BMC), Rigoberto Uran (Lotto), Igor Anton (Euskaltel) and Samuel Sanchez (Discovery Channel). They had 1' 10'' over another group of 3 riders and 1' 45'' over the main bunch at the top of the climb.
The three riders that were chasing at the start of the stage, Maxime Monfort, Kanstantsin Siutsou and Jerome Coppel, made it to the break to form an 11 men group. Everything was quiet, with their gap progressively growing in the flat towards the Port de Lers. Halfway through that climb (69 kilometers to go) they had a nice 6' 45'' gap on the main bunch and what is best for them is that no other team is collaborating with Garmin. The American team does not have the climbers to chase. In the break, the rider best placed in the GC is Igor Anton, 17 minutes behind.
The main bunch slowly dragged itself to the top of the climb losing 7 minutes to the break and with no signs from other teams to increase the pace. Rigoberto Uran had a puncture in the break and is losing 1' 40'' to the front group. The Colombian is chasing hard but he will have a hard time making it back. Meanwhile, Pierre Rolland weirdly crashed in the ascent. The Quickstep rider is 12th in the GC and had no difficulties coming back to the bunch.
Rigoberto Uran managed to connect with the front group again at the start of the climb of the Mur de Peguere after a suicidal descent. The break kept its 11 members at the top of the climb (37 kilometers to go) as Samuel Sanchez leads Igor Anton at the top of the mountain. Tom Boonen seems to be suffering to keep the pace but has managed to hold on in the very hard last 3 kilometers of the climb. The main bunch lost additional time in the climb as the gap grew to 7' 30''. It has been a pretty disappointing day in terms of the fight for the GC as no one even tried to attack.
Jerome Coppel tried a solo attack with 15 kilometers remaining but he was quickly reeled back in. He tried again with 5 kilometers remaining and it seems like there are some doubts among the rest of the group as only Jean-Christophe Peraud is chasing. There is 12 seconds between the two French, that could well fight for the stage among themselves.
Jean-Christophe Peraud caught and left Jerome Coppel behind and is ready to enter the last kilometer of the stage 22 seconds ahead of his 10 chasers. His fellow Frenchman Jerome Coppel has just been caught by the rest of the riders from the break, where Kanstantsin Siutsou is making most of the work to chase.
Jean-Christophe Peraud wins in Foix! The French surprised everyone else from the break by attacking with 5 kilometers to go and maintaining a great pace in the flat to the finish line in Foix. This is the second win for French riders in this Tour de France after the win by Samuel Dumoulin. In the sprint for the second place Samuel Sanchez kept Tom Boonen, Luis Leon Sanchez and Jose Serpa behind.
The main bunch made it home 9' 29'' behind at a quite slow pace and that promoted Igor Anton to the 22nd place in the GC slightly more than 8 minutes behind. All in all the stage was quite disappointing as all the favorites wasted an opportunity to test the yellow jersey of Matthias Frank. It is understandable that riders like Tejay van Garderen are just waiting to the long time trial to take the yellow jersey or a podium place but the pure climbers should give it all to open the gaps in the GC. I am thinking of riders like Frank Schleck and Robert Kiserlovski, who are well within shot of the podium but will lose lots of time in the 52 km long time trial.
The Tour gave us a taste of the Pyrenees, although ignored by most of the riders, but will not let us enjoy the mountains for two more days. Today the stage is flat in general towards Pau and tomorrow will be a rest day. The outcome of today's stage is not very predictable, as the stage is quite bumpy even if there are no categorized climbs. The Tour is already in its final week and a break could well win the day against the teams of the sprinters.
Seven men formed the break of the day, including Taylor Phinney (HTC), Luca Paolini (Quickstep), Anthony Roux (Astana) and Sebastian Langeveld (Movistar). Several teams did not particularly like a break that big but eventually gave up on the chasing after a few kilometers. Therefore, they reached the intermediate sprint in Mascaras with a gap of 3' 30'' on the main bunch. The few points remaining in the sprint were taken by Jose Joaquin Rojas ahead of Marcel Kittel and Peter Sagan.
The teams of the sprinters were not fooled today by the break and they managed to reel them back in with a bit more than 10 kilometers remaining. The wind was blowing quite strongly today and that probably played a part in the favor of the main bunch. However, it is also seemingly taking a toll on the riders at the peloton, as the group is much stretched and many riders are doing great efforts to stay in the group.
Today's stage as been harder than it was previously expected and with 3 kilometers remaining only Radioshack has something slightly resembling a sprint train. Daniele Bennati crashed earlier in the stage and it is Frank Schleck who is working for Andre Greipel, a rather odd move from Radioshack as Schleck is a rather poor lead-out man and should be saving energy for the Pyrenees. The riders best positioned behind the German are Marcel Kittel, Kenny van Hummel, Jose Joaquin Rojas and Ben Swift.
Greipel stayed what looked like an eternity behind Frank Schleck and only started sprinting with around 700 meters to go. Obviously, a few riders had already gone past him. Denis Galimzyanov was the first to launch the sprint and keeps the leading ahead of a threatening Rojas, who has already won twice in this Tour. The third spot is for Ben Swift in the green jersey while Matthew Goss is fourth on the right hand side of the road.
Ben Swift wins in Pau! It took some time for the British to start winning this season but he seems to have the pressure off and has taken the second win in the race. He will extend his lead in the green jersey by a big margin. It was not an easy victory for Swift though. Jose Joaquin Rojas is clearly also in top shape and they held a fight for the win until the last meters of the stage.
The third place was taken by Yauheni Hutarovich with a sprint on par with the two ahead of him, only his bad positioning ahead of the sprint took him out of the fight for the stage. Matthew Goss and Tyler Farrar completed the top 5. The negative surprise of the day came from Robert Gesink. The Dutch climber got caught in a break probably caused by the strong wind and lost 1' 28'' at the finish line. He will drop out of the top 10 in the GC as a result.
One of the most awaited stages is the seventeenth, between Pau and Bagneres-de-Luchon. The riders will have to tackle the Aubisque, the Tourmalet, the Aspin and the Peyresourde before the downhill finish in the famous town of the Pyrenees. The favorites did not give out a great show three days ago on the way to Foix but today the show should be much better. The main point of interest will be to see whether Matthias Frank can hold on to the yellow jersey one more day. In principle he was only supposed to wear it a few days but the Swiss has been a real surprise so far.
Garmin had no way to control the break this morning and they decided to let whoever wanted to take the break go. Therefore, it ended up being huge. No less than 13 riders had joined in a group at the top of the Aubisque, including Igor Anton (Euskaltel), Janez Brajkovic (Quickstep), Marco Pinotti (BMC), Rinaldo Nocentini (Katusha), Samuel Sanchez (Discovery), Rigoberto Uran (Lotto) and Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre). They had a gap of 7 minutes on the bunch, which was quite dangerous as Igor Anton was only 9' 30'' behind in the GC.
Halfway through the climb to the Tourmalet, Garmin keeps setting a steady pace that only allows the break to increase their gap. The difference is up to 13 minutes, what means that Igor Anton is now the virtual leader of the GC by more than 3 minutes. As long as riders like Edvald Boasson Hagen, Thor Hushovd and Nick Nuyens are working at the front of the pack they are not going to reduce that gap.
The break reaches the top of the Tourmalet (76 kilometers to go) with Rigoberto Uran ahead of Daniel Martin and Rinaldo Nocentini. The Italian is moving back into contention for the mountain's jersey as he sits third provisionally only 6 points behind. The difference with the peloton at the top has rocketed to 13' 45''.
Some of the climbers finally tried to attack in the last kilometers of the climb to the Col d'Aspin. A group of 6 riders, including Frank Schleck, David Lopez and Robert Gesink opened a small gap of 30 seconds over the group of the leader. The increase in pace was a big blow to Matthias Frank, as he now seems to be left with no teammates. Meanwhile, at the front of the race Rinaldo Nocentini has moved to the top of the KoM classification.
The first attack was unsuccessful but as soon as the climb to the Peyresourde started (22 km to go) a new round of attacks started. The first to go was Robert Gesink, quickly followed by Cadel Evans and Jelle Vanendert. The group of the leader had shrunk to 65 riders at the bottom of the last climb of the day. In the break, Jean-Christophe Peraud attacked and he seems to be slowly opening a small gap.
The last kilometers of the Peyresourde are almost a long straight and Jean-Christophe Peraud seems to be hitting a wall. He still has 3 kilometers to the top and 25 seconds on the group. Danilo di Luca tried to join him in the attack but the Italian did not have the strength. Meanwhile, Robert Gesink is the only rider ahead of the group of the leader. He has 15 seconds on a group where Matthias Frank is starting to react to the attacks himself.
Peraud could not keep up with the pace and Samuel Sanchez blasted past him without giving him a chance to follow. The Spaniard is first at the top of the Peyresourde and will face the 13 kilometers descent with 30 seconds on Jean-Christophe Peraud, 45 seconds on Igor Anton and 55 seconds on the rest of the break. Among the favorites, Rob Ruijgh and Juanjo Cobo have joined Gesink. They have 30 seconds on the 23 riders remaining in the group of the leader. They still have a few kilometers to climb and Frank seems to be suffering a bit.
Ruijgh and Gesink try to push at the last kilometers of the climb but the work of the BMC team reduces their gap to only 20 seconds at the top. Matthias Frank seems to have overcome his previous weaknesses and is set to defend his yellow jersey one more day. In is also remarkable that the best strategy for the Garmin team is to let the breaks win the stages, as that does not allow the favorites to take any bonus seconds.
Matthias Frank cannot attack climbing but he surprisingly does so in the descent towards Bagneres-de-Luchon. He was joined by Cadel Evans as soon as the trio that was ahead was reeled back in. Meanwhile, at the front of the race Samuel Sanchez is still holding 25 seconds over Jean-Christophe Peraud and looks set to take the stage win.
Samuel Sanchez wins in Bagneres-de-Luchon! The Spaniard has won most of his stages through time trials but to take one of the toughest stages in the Tour de France is a nice change for him. His attack was 2 kilometers from the top of the Peyresourde and he built a gap big enough to hold on to the lead. His gap was a big 45 second in the end over Jean-Christophe Peraud with Lars Boom, Przemyslaw Niemiec and Vincenzo Nibali completing the top 5.
In the group of the leader, who was quickly reeled back in, Jelle Vanendert managed to open a small gap but awkwardly he was not awarded any time gap at the finish line. They arrived 5 minutes behind the winner, so no threats from Igor Anton in the GC, although he is now 16th. Nevertheless, 26 riders seems like a bit too much in the group of the leader for a stage like this.
Matthias Frank holds on to the lead ahead of the last mountain stage of the Tour de France. He knows that even if he keeps the jersey tomorrow he will surely lose it in the time trial given the small gap he has. One has to wonder whether other teams should take the pace setting from Garmin in the early climb of tomorrow's stage or at least at the Port de Bales.
