Oh boy, one of the best PCM-stories ever continues!!! Leipie showed some guts today, but the outcome was pretty bad for him. Luckily Gesink and Reus couldn't keep up with Schleck, so Leipie stays in 3rd. Good luck in the remaining of this Tour!!
@miggi133: Don't get your hopes up This could have been a one-off.
@roturn: Thanks! I guess I can say the same about your Garmin story.
@dienblad: Thanks, but I also think it's one of the slowest PCM stories
It's always a highlight to see a new post here A very entertaining stage, and I think it was good to try. Better a third place but you have tried everything to reach the win than a second place wondering what could have been.
Tactics meeting
The Tour continues to the most visited city after Paris, which is Bordeaux. These final flat stages are often an opportunity for the breakaway specialists that are still somewhat fresh after almost three weeks of racing, but the sprinters haven't had their day too often in this Tour, so I would expect them to keep tight control over the race today. Besides, Bordeaux is traditionally a sprint finish.
We haven't had an individual Discovery stage win yet, so Taylor Phinney latched on to the breakaway to try his luck. It was a grueling hot day, with temperatures reaching 35 degrees celsius. The heat didn't seem to bother Oscar Sevilla (Saunier Duval), Rolland (Silence-Lotto) & the ever-aggressive Paul Martens (Rabobank) though. These three were the big names of the break.
The peloton coped pretty well too. No chances were taken, so Phinney & co were reeled in long before the finish. Someone who didn't cope today was Katusha's Vladimir Karpets (6th overall). He went down with 16km to go, and would lose himself a few minutes. Tough luck for the big Russian.
As the line was approaching, Liquigas made sure Bennati was near the front of the bunch. Karpets had no chance of catching back on with the peloton putting the hammer down to keep things strung out.
And Bennati, who's had a poor Tour de France, was right in the mix! He was in pole position alongside Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) and Geslin (Vorarlberg) as the sprinters blew past the red kite.
Despite Taylor Phinney going nowhere with the breakaway, today was a good day for Discovery. Because of Karpets' badly timed crash, Roman Kreuziger moves up a place in the general classification, to 7th.
The French still hasn't won a stage yet, believe it or not. Will tomorrow see a change of their luck? Or maybe Discovery's luck?
Ups, I've missed stage 17 update. Great to see two new updates, hopefully it'll last until the end of the Tour?
Pity to lose the 2nd place on the overall, but well you've tried. Also, seeing Bertie lose a lot of time and the yellow jersey on such a stage is priceless. Waiting now for the TT, the Top 3 might be defined but Kreuziger's got a chance to pass Cobo (though I don't know their TT stats with random potential).
Tactics meeting
The riders will be happy to see that the weather forecast is a bit more cloudy for this flat stage across French countryside. Will the sprinters grab their opportunity today as well? It seems like every stage has GC-changing potential this year, as Kreuziger moved above Karpets in the standings because of a crash yesterday. Will everybody stay upright on the road to St. Maixent L'Ecole?
We still had hopes of a breakaway going clear, so Sergio Paulinho was sent up the road together with riders like Rolland (Silence-Lotto), who was in yesterday's break as well. Where does he get the strength from? Sandy Casar was here as well, hoping for a repeat of last year, when he won stage 19 from a breakaway.
But yesterday's victory had gotten Rojas firing. With Johan Van Summeren on the front, Caisse d'Epargne wasted no time in bringing back the glory hunters.
But it was Liquigas that took control of the last kilometres, and managed to put Bennati on the front sprinting for the win!
But the Italian had Cunego (Katusha) and Rojas (Caisse d'Epargne) bearing down on him! Bennati was desperately trying to hang on!
And he almost did, but it was another Italian, Damiano Cunego, who got the win. He's getting a habit of winning the occasional Tour de France sprint. One of his two stage wins from last year was from a bunch sprint as well.
Speaking of saving themselves, hopefully Levi Leipheimer and Roman Kreuziger have something left in the tank for the final time trial tomorrow. The big story is the fight for the overall win though. Andy Schleck can't be sleeping well at night, knowing that Contador is just one and a half minute behind. It's going to be a battle royale!
Tactics meeting
It's the biggest day of Andy Schleck's carreer. The Luxembourger takes the yellow jersey into the final time trial with an advantage of 1'33 over Alberto Contador. Schleck seems to have better form than Contador, but he's still a bit lacking in the TT department. We have a great stage on our hands. For us, Leipheimer just have to secure his 3rd place overall. Kreuziger can see himself move up in the standings if he performs well. Cobo in 6th is just 50 seconds ahead, and not particularly good against the clock.
Our team is pretty stacked with time trial talent. Taylor Phinney showed that he can be quite fast at the end of a grand tour by posting the best time so far when he crossed the line.
Gustav Larsson was the first of the really big guns. He was at another level compared to Phinney, crushing the young American by more than 3 minutes.
Larsson actually beat Klöden by almost 3 minutes as well. The main helper for our two leaders was sitting in a provisional 2nd place at the end of his ride.
World TT champion Fabian Cancellara is not as strong at the end of three tough weeks as he is when he's fresh. The Swiss could do nothing about Larsson's leading time, finishing 12 seconds too late.
Cadel Evans is much better at recovering, which showed today. Rabobank's second in command was really in command of the time trial by the time he finished. The lead by 10 seconds over Larsson for Evans.
Evans, who has won the final Tour TT for the last two years now, wouldn't win today. Former triple World TT champion Michael Rogers made sure of that. It was a great ride by the T-Mobile leader, relegating Evans to 2nd by more than half a minute.
So, Roman Kreuziger, could he improve his standings? Taking a minute out of Cobo presented no problem, but with Rogers' incredible ride and also a good performance by Karpets on the place behind Kreuziger in the GC, our young gun actually lost himself a place in the overall standings. Kreuziger was 2'36 behind Rogers in the time trial.
With Kreuziger disappointing us a bit, we had to put all our faith in Leipheimer. Levi went much better, but it didn't make much of a difference, as he could neither move up nor down in the GC. Provisional 5th, 51 seconds behind Michael Rogers.
And then it was time for the top duel. Could Contador wrestle Schleck out of the yellow jersey to win his third Tour de France? Or would Schleck's amazing attack on stage 17 prove decisive? Contador really laid down the marker by finishing a close 2nd, 11 seconds behind Rogers, who was now pretty certain to win the stage.
Bambi on the ice really had to do the time trial of his life if he was to bring the Tour victory home. He would have to finish 9th, ahead of Kreuziger. Did anyone really believe he could do that? It wasn't a total collapse, but Schleck managed to lose the Tour by almost the same margin as he led it by coming into the time trial. He ended 12th on the stage, 3'07 behind T-Mobile's Rogers.
Tour win number three for Contador is a fact, and it was probably the hardest one for him so far. He still got it by a healthy margin though. Andy Schleck hasn't improved his time trialing much since last year, and stood no chance against the speedy Spaniard.
The star of the day, however, was Michael Rogers. He always loses big chunks of time in the mountains, but his ability against the clock has seen him notch up his third top ten finish in the Tour if he get to Paris in one piece. It must be the most anonymous 6th place overall for a long time, as he hasn't been seen at all in the Pyrenees or Alps.
Levi kept his podium place without problems, and got a decent 6th in the stage. Roman Kreuziger was more disappointing. He managed to get passed by both Rogers and Karpets in the GC, so despite leapfrogging Cobo, he lost a place in the end.
Not the best day for Discovery. Also Contador retaking yellow isn't very interesting. But nevertheless it was a good tour for the team. The situation and then gaps of the Top 2 on GC reminds me of last year's tour irl. Did Schleck also announce he'd spent a lot pf time on the wind tunnel and had improved his TT a lot?
lluuiiggii wrote:
Not the best day for Discovery. Also Contador retaking yellow isn't very interesting. But nevertheless it was a good tour for the team. The situation and then gaps of the Top 2 on GC reminds me of last year's tour irl. Did Schleck also announce he'd spent a lot pf time on the wind tunnel and had improved his TT a lot?
The good thing about PCM is that Andy Schleck shuts up in the media
Last stage of the Tour coming up during the day. It's been a long time coming...
Of course we had the usual nutters trying to break away. Here it's LPR's Marco Cattaneo. The Italian wildcard team has been extremely anonymous in this Tour.
Not far from the finishing line, a big crash happened! In dramatic circumstances, Tony Martin (13th overall) had to abandon because of his injuries. At least he got to Paris. Others involved in the crash were Sandy Casar (Cofidis), Sylvain Chavanel (Quick-Step) and Cadel Evans (Rabobank). Evans lost himself a few minutes, which meant he would drop from 12th to 15th overall.
The sprinters wouldn't let themselves be affected by what happened further behind. Around the last bend, Bennati had his Liquigas boys ready, while Saxo Bank's Haussler was leading out teammate and Danish champion Michael Mørkøv.
Bennati, who is without stage wins in this Tour, was once again fading. Geslin (Vorarlberg) and Feillu (Agritubel) were at the head of the race!
It was so close! Four riders lunged for the line, and it was Romain Feillu and France who got it! It's the first French stage win, and it definitely was worth waiting for! The Agritubel man kept his powder dry until the greatest sprint of them all!
The greatest rider of them all is Alberto Contador. The Spaniard claims his third Tour win in five years. The Paris crowd is getting used to this by now.
Despite a very poor start to the Tour, Alberto Contador brought home the win in the end. He also grabbed himself a stage win atop Ax 3 Domaines, and is now totalling five Tour stages.
Levi Leipheimer didn't have what it takes in the mountains, and wasn't as strong in the time trials as usual either. This might have been his last opportunity to win the Tour.
The young Rabobank climber Kai Reus got his definite breakthrough in this race. The huge Dutch surprise finished a sensational 4th. Reus will be a force to be reckoned with in years to come.
Michael Rogers got so many minutes in the time trials (including the TTT) that he finished 6th despite not having a single top ten finish in the mountains, and often losing minutes.
Despite being a genuine favourite at the Grand Depart in Paris this time, Alejandro Valverde failed at the Tour de France yet again. His team got some success though, with Rojas' stage win.
Points ranking
1.
Andy Schleck
Saxo Bank
271
2.
Fabian Cancellara
Liquigas
229
3.
Damiano Cunego
Katusha
208
4.
Anthony Geslin
Vorarlberg - Corratec
197
5.
Romain Feillu
Agritubel
191
He didn't win the Tour, but he won almost everything else. Andy Schleck was rampant, and notched up four stage wins, including one on Alpe d'Huez, on his way to winning the green jersey. He is the first non-sprinter to win it in ages. The sprinters present at the Tour were not among the World elite, and because of a few breakaways, they didn't get too many chances to shine either.
Kai Reus was not the only surprise in the mountains. Austria's Gerhard Trampusch came out of absolutely nowhere to win at Luz Ardiden. He also takes home the polkadot jersey by being very active in breakaways. He even finished 24th overall. Not bad at all for a 32 year old Tour debutant.
Youth ranking
1.
Robert Gesink
Quick-Step
85h50'19
2.
Roman Kreuziger
Discovery Channel
+ 6'23
3.
Bauke Mollema
Rabobank
+ 35'44
4.
Vitaliy Buts
Lampre
+ 42'22
5.
Daniel Martin
Garmin - Transitions
+ 42'32
Before the Tour, we had a goal of winning the white jersey with Roman Kreuziger. His injury, which kept him out of the Giro, also hampered his Tour preparations, so he was no match for Dutchman Robert Gesink. Gesink completed the impressive feat of winning the U25 jersey in both the Giro and the Tour in the same season.
Team classification
1.
Discovery Channel
254h47'35
2.
T-Mobile
+ 7'56
3.
Rabobank
+ 14'37
4.
Quick-Step
+ 29'36
5.
Silence - Lotto
+ 43'58
The team classification is ours as always. We have won it every year since I took over this team, just as we always have won the team time trial. It's a nice thing to bring home, but we still haven't won an individual stage since Armstrong in 2009.
On the team front, the wildcards enjoyed mixed success. Vorarlberg - Corratec had a fantastic race, winning the climber's jersey and a mountain stage, while Geslin got the Austrians several 2nd places in the sprints. The Italian teams were generally very disappointing. LPR did nothing, the same goes for Ceramica Flaminia, who are actually ProTour this season. Lampre was also anonymous, while Cancellara brought Liquigas some success when Bennati couldn't deliver.
So, that' another Tour gone by. It had one of the best stages in recent years, stage 17, which was won by Andy Schleck, and also some of the biggest surprises for years. The 98th Tour de France enters the history books as an exciting race with many twists and turns, but eventually a deserved winner.
This could have been a one-off.
