Tactics meeting
We continue the journey along the Mediterranean, and finish today's flat stage in Perpignan, not far from the Spanish border. We will just enjoy the view from the peloton and make sure we keep our first four GC places. The sprinters will have a hot day today, the forecast says temperatures above 30 celsius. It's not unthinkable that a breakaway goes clear for the stage win, if the sprinters' teams need a rest after the team time trial.
Nick Nuyens and Enrico Gasparotto were the most prominent riders of today's four man breakaway. Gasparotto took enough KoM points to be riding in polkadot tomorrow. Unfortunately for the breakaway, the sprint teams didn't lay down at all.
Quite the contrary. The pack caught the break 20km before the finish, and with 12km remaining, three big powerhouses were leading the main field. Fabian Cancellara, David Millar and Edvald Boasson Hagen made sure the last kilometers of the stage were a true hell.
In the other end of the pack, Matti Breschel startet the sprint early. Bennati, Feillu, Haussler, Boonen in green, and Cavendish in white had placed themselves in a row behind the Dane and just waited for the right moment to overtake him.
But Breschel was very strong today, and got an incredible win! Even though Boonen and Cavendish came close in the end, the Saxobank rider held on in an impressive manner.
Points ranking
1 Tom Boonen Quick-Step 75
2 Mark Cavendish Team Columbia - High Road 60
3 Matti Breschel Team Saxo Bank 59
KoM ranking
1 Enrico Gasparotto Lampre N.G.C 13
2 Lars Boom Rabobank 11
3 Nick Nuyens Rabobank 10
Youth ranking
1 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road 14h24'34
2 Tony Martin Team Columbia - High Road + 4
3 Edvald Boasson Hagen Team Columbia - High Road + 24
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 41h33'53
2 Team Columbia - High Road + 1'01
3 Caisse d'Epargne + 2'26
Matti Breschel is the hero of the day. The Dane won after a really long sprint. The victory took him up to 3rd in the points ranking while moving Napolitano down the list. The Katusha rider weren't even in the sprint. Actually, none of Katusha's great sprinters were among the top 20 on the stage. Disappointing performance from the Russian team.
I've already made Klöden and Paulinho's national champion jerseys myself, so I'm capable of some easy designs.
If I do another season, maybe I'll make some more jerseys, or alter the main jersey a little bit, just to get a little change For the Tour 09 it's a little late, as I have posted most of the stages somewhere else already.
Tactics meeting
Today it's really hot. We're heading inland towards Barcelona, and the temperatures are over 40 celsius. That's not ideal on the day before we're hitting the mountains. Today's stage is flat, but the finish is on a little hill outside the Catalonian capital. My guess for the stage win is Alejandro Valverde. The Spaniard is on home soil, and the finish fits him perfectly.
The only riders who could bear the thought of a breakaway in the extreme heat was Mikhail Ignatiev, Samuel Dumoulin and Daniele Bennati. The pack had no problems catching them before Barcelona, though.
Just outside the city, the hill sprint commenced. Matti Breschel was relegated to lead-out man as he helped Fränk Schleck. The Luxembourg man had Heinrich Haussler on his wheel. Sergei Ivanov was going at full speed closest to the camera, while Sylvain Chavanel was pulling Boonen through the middle.
Haussler launched himself from Fränk Schleck's back wheel, and closed in on Ivanov. It was looking like the Russian would take the win, though.
But Haussler had other plans. He was going really fast, and they went over the line together! After waiting for the photo finish, Haussler was announced as winner. Haussler, Ivanov and Boonen in 3rd had finished so strongly that they got a little time difference of 14 seconds back to the rest of the pack.
KoM ranking
1 Enrico Gasparotto Lampre N.G.C 13
2 Mikhail Ignatiev Team Katusha 12
3 Lars Boom Rabobank 11
Youth ranking
1 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road 18h36'37
2 Tony Martin Team Columbia - High Road + 4
3 Edvald Boasson Hagen Team Columbia - High Road + 24
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 54h10'02
2 Team Columbia - High Road + 1'01
3 Caisse d'Epargne + 2'26
Heinrich Haussler defied the heat and the difficult finish, and sprinted to a great stage win. My tip, Valverde, came 14th. Mark Cavendish was nowhere to be seen, and lost contact with Boonen in the fight for the green jersey. The Belgian took 26 new points today, and if he continues to place high on the flat stages, I can see no one taking the jersey from him.
Enrico Gasparotto keeps his KoM jersey today, but if he doesn't do something really special, he will lose it on the mountain stage tomorrow. None of our riders used much energy today, except being boiled in the heat like everyone else, so Discovery Channel should be quite fresh for tomorrow's climbing challenges.
Tactics meeting
Today, the Tour begins for real. The first mountain stage takes us to the principality of Andorra, and finishes with a climb to Arcalis, the highest finish of the Tour. We're thinking of sending Egoi Martinez in a breakaway, as the stage offers a lot of KoM points. On the climb to Arcalis, we'll ride defensively and control the other riders, while we're keeping our advantage in the GC. Today we'll probably see which of our rivals who has to be closely watched as the Tour de France progresses.
Martinez lead the four man breakaway over most climbs today, and collected 55 points. That means the KoM jersey for our Spaniard tomorrow.
Martinez and the others were caught at the start of the Arcalis climb. That's when Vladimir Karpets decided to attack. Karpets had a lot of time to get back, as he was 3'43 behind Levi before the stage.
Efimkin, Barredo, Wiggins and the Caisse d'Epargne riders Rodriguez and Pereiro joined Karpets.
When Karpets & co had gotten a lead of 1'50, Evans and Valverde accelrated. Andy Schleck had already attacked, and we sent Andreas Klöden to control them.
Carlos Sastre and Alberto Contador exploited all the confusion, and attacked together.
Popovych upped the pace of what was left of the peloton, and pulled Lance and Levi up the mountain. Quite a lot of strong riders were ahead of us now.
The riders who Klöden followed had made a quite big chase group behind the Karpets group. In Klöden's group were Valverde, A.Schleck, Kreuziger, Evans and Contador, among others.
Klöden was eventually dropped, together with Evans and Vinokourov. This didn't look good for us.
Lance decided to take action, he stood up from the saddle and left Leipheimer's group. Levi was tired, and Armstrong was in a hurry to catch up with the riders in front. He and Levi were one minute behind Contador&Schleck and two minutes behind Karpets&Wiggins.
Levi Leipheimer was really exhausted, and was now 2'20 behind Sastre who was in the lead. A lot of Levi's GC advantage looked like it would disappear.
Armstrong quickly caught Klöden and Evans, and they were now 1'30 behind Sastre and 50 seconds behind a large favourite group with Contador and Andy Schleck.
No one could beat Carlos Sastre, who conquered Andorra Arcalis in style!
Nine riders came in 34 seconds behind Sastre, among them were Valverde, Schleck, Wiggins, Contador and Kreuziger. Four riders were between this group of nine and the Armstrong group.
Lance Armstrong lead Rogers, Evans, Vinokourov and Andreas Klöden over the line 1'41 behind Sastre and about a minute behind Contador's group. Popovych pulled Levi to the finish almost one minute further back. Klöden therefore takes over the yellow jersey from Leipheimer, and all the other favourites has come significantly closer.
Youth ranking
1 Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank 24h55'47
2 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 32
3 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 44
Team classification
1 Caisse d'Epargne 73h06'44 2 Discovery Channel + 1'08
3 Astana Cycling Team + 3'23
I take off my hat for Carlos Sastre. Impressive climbing from the little Spaniard. Our catastrophical riding is partly my responsibility as a sports director. To wait and see, and try to pull the peloton up the the favourites after their attacks, was a tactic which didn't work at all. Especially not when Levi Leipheimer had such a bad day. A big mistake by me. A small plus is that Lance looked good when he took back a minute on the leading group.
Levi has to give the yellow leader's jersey to teammate Klöden, who is just 18 seconds in front of the nearest rival Bradley Wiggins, and just 45 seconds ahead of Alberto Contador. We also lose our lead in the team classification. As a little consolation, Martinez will ride in the polkadot jersey tomorrow, after a successful breakaway.
We have confirmed that a lot of the GC contenders look like their in good shape, and Contador has already come dangerously close in the GC. There are two days left in the Pyrenees, but none of them are mountaintop finishes. From now on, we must ride a lot less conservatively, and answer attacks more efficiently!
You completely right,it´s your entire fault....with such team you must take command on mountain and not wait for others....bad decision from you,almost costed yellow.Lance was great.Hope to see more agressivity from your team.
Tactics meeting
The second Pyrenee stage of the Tour begins with a tough climb to Port d'Envalira at 2400 meters above sea level, and continues with two easier climbs towards the finish in Saint-Girons. As race leaders, we'll take more responsibility than yesterday. The long descent after Col d'Agnes which is the last climb, will probably make sure no favourites get away, but that doesn't mean we can't drop some of them.
Egoi Martinez broke away towards the first mountain together with David Moncoutie and Eros Capecchi. More points waited for him at the top.
Moncoutie was stronger than Martinez and the Frenchman got 40 points on Port d'Envalira. Our climber got 35.
David Moncoutie had enough strength to go on a solo breakaway, and on the second mountain, he was almost seven minutes ahead of the bunch.
With Moncoutie still in front but now looking to be caught, we set the pace on the last climb. The pack was reduced significantly, and after a while, only the strongest were left in the front group.
Not far from the top, Yaroslav Popovych was dropped. It didn't matter, because he had done a great job: Cadel Evans and Thomas Lövkvist had also cracked. A few meters further up the road, Carlos Barredo had also hit the wall.
The front group brought back Moncoutie, and two more highly placed riders fell off. Levi Leipheimer and Bradley Wiggins, 4th and 3rd in the GC respectively, had to let go of the other favourites. That meant Levi was falling out of the top ten, just two days after he was in yellow.
Andy Schleck won the sprint among the 15 riders still in the front group. Andreas Klöden and Lance were there, and keep their two top spots in the GC. Cadel Evans, Levi Leipheimer and Bradley Wiggins lost time today.
Nobody lost more than Alejandro Valverde, though. The Spaniard who was 5th in the GC before the stage, finished together with riders like Haussler, 3'34 behind Lance & co. The myth about Valverde always having a bad day looks to be more than a myth.
Youth ranking
1 Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank 29h32'25
2 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 32
3 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 1'43
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 86h59'36
2 Caisse d'Epargne + 36
3 Team Columbia - High Road + 5'12
A day with mixed results. Levi's breakdown at the end and Martinez' loss of the KoM jersey are bad news, but we did crack a few of our rivals and we took back the lead in the team classification. The team effort today was exceptional, and Yaroslav Popovych should have credits for his job on Col d'Agnes, where Evans was dropped.
I have no idea what Alejandro Valverde was doing today. He wasted his chances for a good GC placing, and I would guess Caisse d'Epargne will now ride for Oscar Pereiro instead. Perhaps Valverde has nothing left after his fantastic first half of the season, when he won almost every race he entered.
Tomorrow, there's a similar stage where the final descent towards the finish is even longer. A good team effort like today is expected!
what a stage win
