On this the first rest day of the Tour de France we have been invited to a press conference at Falcon – STARK. Rumour has it that they have three new riders to announce, but no names have been released yet.
We are very happy to be able to please our sponsors with three new riders from three of our main countries.
The Lost Talent
Spoiler
Thomas Löfkvist was for many years expected to be Swedens first great stage racer in many years, perhaps even a future Grand Tour winner. He haven’t quite managed to live up to that yet, according to himself partly due to lacking support from his home country. With his signing to our team those days are over and he will get the chance to show his full potential.
The Eternal Surprise
Spoiler
Jussi Veikkanen made himself known to the general public back in 2009 when he became the first Finnish rider to wear the mountain jersey in Tour de France – at a time next to no one in the general public knew his name. And then last year he managed to pull a surprise win in Tour of Beijing. A win that saved his team from relegation. On top of that he has several Finnish championships and is defending Finnish TT-champion.
The Prodigal Son
Spoiler
Jakob Fuglsang disappointed a lot of Danish Cycling Fans when he left Bjarne Riis to be a domestique for the Schleck-brothers a few years back. He is a rider that deserves his own chance and as the best Danish stage racer we needed him on this team. Jakob is defending Danish Champion, three times winner of Post Danmark Rundt and much more.
And then we have a bit of news about the future of one of our riders. Søren Nissen, part of our Tour squad, have decided to leave us for Christina Watches – Onfone. We understand his decision as we still haven’t offered him a contract and we wish him the best of luck.
Other News
A couple of surprising moves was also announced on this restday: Tom Boonen have signed with:
Spoiler
where he will be riding alongside his biggest rival Fabian Cancellara
Another day for the big guys finishing on Tourmalet.
Right from the start RadioShack take the responsibility that comes with the yellow jersey.
With about 50 km to go all of a sudden Saxo-Tinkoff take over in the front working to keep the break containing riders like Mollema, Kreuziger and Porte.
At the foot of Tourmalet Contador and Hesjedal leave the other favourites behind. Nibali manage to pull away from them with 8 km to go and three km later he has just over a minute.
That gets Contador and Hesjedal to attack. The Spaniard gets away from the Canadian but never quite get up to Nibali.
Much smaller mountains today – finally. This terrain suits our riders much better, so you will see us chasing the win today.
When the break goes away Daniel Kreutzfeldt is quick to get in there. Unfortunately for Daniel, Saxo – Tinkoff wasn’t quite satisfied with the break and reeled it back in.
But it all went OK anyway as Hushovd got a spot in the next break. This break is much more effective and when the break starts climbing the last hill of the day they have 15 minutes gap on the peloton. Hushovd is not the strongest climber in the group so Visconti and Santambrogio manage to pull away on the climb.
Thor works hard, but since his companion Ravard is not willing/able to help catching the front duo they never manage to catch up with the Italians.
Since the Frenchman didn’t work at all the last 30 km he had that bit of extra energy to beat Thor.
Sometimes chasing the big triumph can cost you the small ones, but that’s the way we ride. Falcon – STARK chase the win – not the third place…
Results:
1. Mauro Santambrogio, BMC
2. Giovanni Visconti, Movistar
3. Anthony Ravard, AG2R La Mondiale
4. Thor Hushovd, Falcon - STARK
5. Anthony Geslin, FDJ - BigMat
Swift & Co. will be aiming to get back in the game today, but with the hills early on a break might still have a chance.
For some reason the pictures from this stage have vanished, but the race report is intact in the spoiler...
Spoiler
After a lot of struggling to get into position Søren Nissen manage to get in the break. Not that the peloton allows them much of a gap, but still it was a hard day to get away.
In the end after having been kept within less than two minutes for 20 km the break actually manage to get a proper gap. At most over 8 minutes but Liquigas, Lotto and Rabobank really want the sprint.
Admitted Søren is the weakest of the 14 breakers on paper, so I told him to sit at the back of the break to save energy for a while. If he is to have any shot what so ever he needs fresh legs and a well timed attack in the finish…
With 20 km to go they still have almost three minutes. Looks like the break might actually make it!
Søren does his best attacking at the right time and initially getting a bit of a gap but Kushynski, Boom, Offredo and Maaskant proved stronger today.
A great day for the Netherlands as Boom takes the win in front of Maaskant. Nissen did good to get in the break and be there in the finish, it just wasn’t his day today…
Results:
1. Lars Boom, BMC
2. Martijn Maaskant, Garmin - Sharp
3. Yohann Offredo, FDJ - BigMat
4. Aleksandr Kuschynski, Katusha
5. Peter Sagan, Liquigas – Cannondale
18. Søren Nissen, Falcon - STARK
Stage 13
Again today it looks like the sprinters will be gunning for victory, but it is also one of the last chances for a breakaway to succeed, so you will see us out in front.
As promised my riders are very active in the early parts of the stage but it really was a tough day for the break to establish. In the end we managed to get both Christopher Juul-Jensen and Thor Hushovd out there.
For a long time the peloton kept the break under two minutes, but Thor and especially Christopher really worked hard to make it work and in the end the peloton let go of them and with 90 km to go the break had expanded to more than nine minutes and the peloton didn’t look like they were planning to do anything more and just as it started looking really good for the break Europcar’s South African champion Daryl Impey crashed.
Poor guy had lost two minutes before he got back on the bike, but eventually fought his way back up. I would be surprised to see him with a strong finish though…
With 80 km to go the gap was up to 12 minutes – largely thanks to a lot of work by Juul-Jensen.
The work ended up costing a lot for Christopher, and with 20 km to go he has to let go of the gap. Now it is all up to Thor to finish the job.
There’s a good few fast guys in the break, but none that Thor shouldn’t be able to beat - especially as many of them start hanging in the back with 10 km to go.
3.5 km to go and 9 riders left to fight for it. From the front: Westra, Stybar, Sulzberger, Hushovd, Boom, Maaskant, Bazayev, Bole and Impey.
Westra puts in a strong opening sprint and actually manage to get a small gap to the other breakers, except of course for Thor who is perfectly positioned.
Given an opportunity like that Thor knows better than most what to do!
This will be a day either for the big guys or good hilly riders. A break should have good chances today, but I don’t expect a very large group to reach the goal together.
Ole Haavardsholm was first to hit the break, but with riders like Kreuziger and Ballan in there he wouldn’t have had a chance in the finish and RadioShack wasn’t quite pleased with the break either…
A large group with Kreutzeldt work hard to get away but with Movistar, RadioShack and even yellow jersey Contador chasing hard it didn’t stand much of a chance either.
But then with 120 km to go the peloton seems to realize that none of the breakers were within an hour in the GC, so the break was finally allowed to go.
Still RadioShack and Katusha made sure that the break never got too far away so when they hit the climbs Pietropolli, Kreuziger and Ballan starts pushing up the speed. Sadly that was too much for Daniel today.
It was hardly unexpected that Rodriguez had big plans today, but I don’t think anyone had expected him to attack already with 25 km to go.
And it probably would have been smarter of him to have waited until Saxo-Tinkoff and RadioShack had been decimated a bit...
5 km to go and both Chris Anker and Fuglsang are at the front chasing the break almost two minutes ahead.
In the front Kreuziger and Ballan starts paying for all the hard work they have put in to the break all day.
Instead Westra has a small gap when opening the sprint, but again today the Dutch champion was beaten right at the finish.
This is not the toughest mountain stage of the race, but with two TT’s and only one other mountain top finish left it is time for Andy Schleck to show something if he still want a top-10 as defending Tour-winner. Likewise Rodriguez will have to win some time before the TT’s if he want a shot at the podium.
I have told my riders to get through the day as easy as possible.
As announced my riders stay in the peloton to save energy today, but that doesn’t stop a lot of other riders going in the break. Most surprisingly Andy Schleck, who before todays stage was down more than 11 minutes in the GC. At the top of the first mountain of the day he is in virtual yellow!
A tough one for Andy, but I salute him for not just giving up.
Since the chase almost every day has been organized by RadioShack the peloton can’t quite seem to organize the chase as most teams only send a single rider to help in the front – that’s all they’ve got while RadioShack has 4 riders in the favourites group.
10 km to go and only Vanendert can still keep up with Andy, who has about 11 minutes to the Contador-group.
And then the fireworks begin among the favourites. Nibali attacks and Contador doesn’t follow him at first but rely on Chris and Rodriguez to reel in the Italian.
After a hard days work the Dane haven’t got what it takes anymore and in the end Contador has to attack himself to join Nibali and Hesjedal ahead.
Right at the front Schleck is still doing all the work. Now 10 minutes ahead of Contador. Finally with 1,5 km to go Andy manage to get rid of Vanendert and he regains a bit of his honour by riding the last km alone to triumph.
Now all he can do is to wait and see if it takes him back in the GC struggle.
1. Andy Schleck, RadioShack - Nissan
2. Jelle Vanendert, Lotto Belisol Team
3. Pablo Lastras, Movistar Team
4. Daniele Pietropolli, Lampre - ISD
5. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale
88. Søren Nissen, Falcon - STARK
Tom Boonen have signed with:
JJ Rojas sign with:
Tour de France 
Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondal
Ryder Hesjedal, RadioShack - Nissan
Bauke Mollema, Rabobank
Andy Schleck, RadioShack - Nissan
Thor Hushovd, Falcon - STARK
Ben Swift, Sky
Tejay Van Garderen, BMC Racing Team
Aleksandr Kuschynski, Katusha
Peter Sagan, Liquigas – Cannondale
Søren Nissen, Falcon - STARK
Assan Basayev, Astana
Grega Bole, Lampre - ISD
Andreas Klöden
