Tactics meeting
Today, the riders will have a small pre-taste of the Alps. The 203km from Vittel to Colmar goes through the mountainous Vosges district, and offers three small mountains. The last, Col du Firstplan, could be an interesting launch pad for riders looking for a stage win. Anyway, any rider with ambitions have to endure temperatures of almost 40 celsius. The first step in the plan to get the KoM jersey back from Moncoutie is carried out today. We're planning on keeping the peloton together from the start, so Egoi Martinez can get some more KoM points.
In the boiling heat, our riders was at the front from the beginning of the stage. All breakaway attempts were neutralized quickly.
Tom Boonen is really putting in an effort to secure his green jersey. At the second intermediate sprint, just before the first mountain, he beat Valverde and claimed six new points.
Martinez established a breakaway with Moreau, Goubert, and Arroyo, but he had a bad day and was only 3rd over the first mountain, Col de la Schlucht. It still gave some more points, though.
After being 3rd on the second mountain as well, Martinez was caught before Col du Firstplan. He didn't collect too many KoM points, but he did at least reduce David Moncoutie's advantage by a few points. The other escapees were also brought back soon after.
Even though Contador tried something just before the top, nobody got any gap over the last mountain. The peloton had broken up though, and it would be exciting to see who had made it to the front group.
A quite large leading group with Cunego in front soon got one minute's lead over another large group. Several big names had failed to join the first group, among them top-ten riders like Andy Schleck, Carlos Sastre, Roman Kreuziger, Vladimir Karpets and the entire Caisse d'Epargne team. This gave us an opportunity to gain some time over some of our rivals.
Seven kilometers before the finish, a split happened in the front group. Alberto Contador came behind. Our four strongest riders were still in the lead together with Wiggins(Garmin), Efimkin(AG2R) and Casar(FdJ).
Bradley Wiggins got away from the other four who was in the lead, with 2km remaining.
Leipheimer and Popovych had used a lot of energy to pull the first part of the front group away from Contador, and they dropped off towards the end. Our two super-domestiques were eaten up by Contador and the chasers.
Wiggins was never caught, and won the 13th stage! Sandy Casar looked favourite for 2nd place, while Armstrong and Efimkin fought for 3rd.
Unfortunately, the Contador group got moving and Cadel Evans lead them in to the same time as the first five riders. The day has still brought some success though: Armstrong was 3rd on the stage, while rivals like Schleck and Sastre lost one and a half minute.
Youth ranking
1 Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank 52h30'40
2 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 32
3 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 1'43
Team classification
1 Team Columbia - High Road 155h48'33 2 Discovery Channel + 45
3 Rabobank + 59
Bradley Wiggins should be a happy man right now. On the last Pyrenee stage he was 2nd, and today's victory probably tastes good. The Englishman looks like he enjoys France, because he also won a stage in Paris - Nice. That we didn't get any gap down to Contador was a little disappointing, but it would just have been a great bonus anyway, as I hadn't expected any changes in the overall today. We should be pleased with Schleck, Sastre, Kreuziger, Karpets, and Pereiro losing 1'30 on this very light mountain stage.
The mountain goat Martinez didn't quite have the legs today, but still got 17 extra KoM points, and when Moncoutie just got one more point, this stage was in Discovery's favour regarding the KoM jersey. Another competition where we did well today, was the team classification. It was a good team effort on the stage, as we had four riders in the first group crossing the finishing line.
Tomorrow it's silent before the storm. A flat stage is on the program, before we're hitting the Alps the day after tomorrow.
Tactics meeting
Yesterday's stage to Colmar turned out to be very tough, and a stage as flat as a pancake fits well just before the Alps. There are possibilities for a breakaway win. The sprinters' teams will probably be very unpopular among the riders in the peloton if they keep a high pace today. Many will want to rest a bit, including us. The temperature has lowered since yesterday, but we're still having to cope with 30 celsius.
Among the riders who broke away was the always-attacking Johan Van Summeren. He was joined by strong riders like Pablo Lastras, Martijn Maaskant, and world champion Alessandro Ballan. The escapees really gave it a go today, and at most their lead was 20 minutes over a peloton which didn't bother to chase.
With 17km remaining, Ballan, Van Summeren, and the Cofidis rider Hary tried to attack.
The gap was rapidly closed down by Martijn Maaskant, and the breakaway was together again.
Soon after, Ballan failed to pay attention to the riders in front of him, and let Maaskant, Lastras and Smukulis(AG2R) get some meters.
Smukulis, Maaskant and Lastras increased their speed, and the other riders in the breakaway never managed to bring them back. Towards the finish, they held a lead of one minute over their fellow escapees. Maaskant, and especially Lastras at the back, had good positions for the stage win.
Garmin's Martijn Maaskant accelrated, and Lastras struggled to get his back wheel.
Dutchman Maaskant is today's stage winner, and takes Garmin's second stage win in a row!
Mirko Lorenzetto lead the peloton home 12 minutes later. Heinrich Haussler gained four points on Boonen's green jersey, but the Quick-Step rider stills leads with a large margin.
Youth ranking
1 Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank 57h26'13
2 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 32
3 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 1'43
Team classification
1 Caisse d'Epargne 170h29'37
2 Team Columbia - High Road + 5'35 3 Discovery Channel + 6'20
As expected, the stage ended with a breakaway winning, and Martijn Maaskant was the strongest today. Garmin - Slipstream have had great success the last few days, with Maaskant's victory today and Wiggins' yesterday.
For Discovery, the stage was very uneventful. Pablo Lastras, who was in the breakaway, made sure Caisse d'Epargne borrows the lead in the team classification for a while, but we're going to fix that when we reach the Alps. Tomorrow it all begins, with a mountaintop finish at Verbier. Finally, it's our turn to be in the spotlight again, and we'll fight with all we've got to keep Lance Armstrong in yellow. We're looking forward to it!
Tactics meeting
We've reached the second of the Tour's three mountain top finishes. The Verbier ski resort is hosting a stage finish for the first time in TdF history. It's a scary day for the overall classification, as Armstrong lost more than a minute to Contador on Arcalis. That was mostly because of a tactical error though, which will not be repeated today. We'll watch Contador closely, and make sure he doesn't get away. We would have liked to gain some time on him, but that will probably be too difficult for Lance. This stage also offers 50 KoM points before the final climb, so if Martinez has good legs, he may be allowed to go after those points.
Egoi Martinez broke away on the first mountain, and led Anthony Roux(FdJ) and Ryder Hesjedal(Garmin) over the first climb.
The three escapees were eventually joined by Sylvain Calzati of Agritubel. Egoi Martinez had a good day, and collected all 50 KoM points before the Verbier climb. The breakaway was caught just after Col des Mosses, the penultimate mountain.
At the start of the last climb, Vladimir Karpets attacked. You should think he was crazy, as he had 23km of steep mountain ahead of him.
Damiano Cunego tried to join him. Karpets had now been in the lead for a while. There were 8km left to the top, and the Russian led by 1'30 over what was left of the peloton.
With 7km remaining, Alberto Contador attacked!
Contador, with Armstrong on his wheel, quickly caught Cunego. Karpets was 50 seconds ahead.
Carlos Sastre got up to Armstrong, who struggled to keep up with Contador.
Also Andy Schleck and Denis Menchov joined the accelration. Together with Contador, Sastre, and Armstrong, they made a group of five riders who chased Karpets. The Katusha rider still held a lead of 50 seconds.
With 2km remaining, Andy Schleck and Carlos Sastre climbed away from the other three.
They caught poor Karpets just before the line.
Andy Schleck was the strongest, and won his second Tour de France stage this year!
40 seconds later, Armstrong finished with Contador and Menchov. Mission accomplished: Contador had not won a single second!
Andreas Klöden and Bradley Wiggins(Garmin) did not have a good day. The 2nd and 6th in the GC, respectively, lost 1'40 to Schleck and 40 seconds to Armstrong, and therefore fell a few places in the classification. Two riders doing even worse, were 3rd overall Michael Rogers, and Levi Leipheimer. Those two crossed the line two and a half minutes behind Andy Schleck.
After Vladimir Karpets' heroic effort, it must be disappointing for the Russian to see Andy Schleck steal the stage win just in front of his nose. The three first to the top of Verbier all lost time on the 13th stage to Colmar, so now we're back to status quo in a way. The exception is of course Klöden and Rogers, who no longer hold the two places behind Armstrong in the GC. Contador is still a minute behind, which is great.
We really put David Moncoutie in his place today. Egoi Martinez is today's great breakaway hero, and collected all 50 points that he realistically could get. Our Spaniard rides in the polkadot on the next stage, and we have no plans of giving that jersey away again.
Caisse d'Epargne increased their lead in the team classification today, after Klöden and Leipheimer's weak showing. We're looking to get back the lost time later in the Alps and on the TT in Annecy, but I have learned that we never should let another Caisse d'Epargne rider go in a breakaway again like we did with Lastras yesterday.
The riders stay in Verbier for tomorrow. There is a rest day, which is welcome ahead of the last two Alp stages.
Tactics meeting
One of the shortest stages of the Tour is definitely not among the easiest. The course goes over two tough mountains, but the long descent after the last one - the Petit-Saint-Bernard - will make sure that anyone getting a lead over the top will struggle to hold on. We're just going to control our closest rivals. It will be difficult for anyone to gain time today, considering the stage profile.
Two riders were in front at the top of Grand-Saint-Bernard, the first mountain. Marco Marzano (Lampre) and Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) got most points at the top, but none of them were any threat in the King of the Mountains competition.
Four minutes behind the two leaders, Thor Hushovd had found his climbing form. He had been joined by Quinziato (Liquigas) and Oroz (Euskaltel). These three led the peloton by five minutes.
The pack, led by Contador, caught the two last escapees Marzano and Duque with 6km remaining to the top of the last mountain.
Contador brought the 13 man leading group over the top. Except Roman Kreuziger, 10th in the GC, all of the top ten riders were hanging on.
Klöden lost contact just over the mountaintop, and fell behind during the descent, as the leaders gave it full throttle downhill.
There were 12 riders left in the leading group during the descent. Except Klöden, all the nine best placed riders were there. The four others were Gerdemann, Pereiro and the Discovery riders Leipheimer and Popovych.
Contador began the sprint early, and got a small gap.
The small gap persisted until the line, and Alberto Contador won his first Tour stage of the year, and the second of his carreer.
Andreas Klöden was joined by the chasing group, with Cadel Evans, Kreuziger and Efimkin, among others. This group finished 1'30 behind Contador, Armstrong & co. As a result, our german national champion lost two places in the general classification.
Contador won the stage after a sprint among the GC favourites. Luckily for us, there are no bonifications in the Tour. Andreas Klöden had a hard day, and unfortunately he fell down two places in the GC. Klöden's ranking is not a priority though, the most important thing is that Lance Armstrong is still in yellow.
As Armstrong, Popovych, and Leipheimer was in the first group, we drastically cut down Caisse d'Epargne's advantage in the team classification. We hope to gain even more, or pass them, tomorrow, which is the queen stage of the Tour de France, if that's not Mont Ventoux.
If you look at the stats, then Andy should beat Contador easily while contador has a stamina of only 74. Those of Andy are much better! I hope you win the tour Squire!
Tombola wrote:
If you look at the stats, then Andy should beat Contador easily while contador has a stamina of only 74. Those of Andy are much better! I hope you win the tour Squire!
Tombola wrote:
If you look at the stats, then Andy should beat Contador easily while contador has a stamina of only 74. Those of Andy are much better! I hope you win the tour Squire!
but remember tt stat
That's true Valverde321, but in a time-trial you might lose 2 minutes as maximum. But in the climbs having a not "as good as" stamina, you might lose more and most GT have more climbing km's then TT km's
