Are you sure you're not thinking of recovery instead of stamina? From my experience, stamina has got a lot more to say in 250km classics than in a stage race.
Bosskardo wrote:
Dissapointing that Contador got a win
Hopefully you can keep the lead, how is Lance's form for the last week?
I hope so too
Lance's form is not at the top level, as I used a pre-programmed training schedule. But I don't think Contador has top form either (for the same reason), so it will be exciting to see if we can hold on to the lead.
Stage 17 Bourg-Saint-Maurice - Le Grand-Bornard: 169.6km
Tactics meeting
The last Alp stage is another short one, but when counting meters of elevation, it's probably the worst in the Tour. The stage consists of five high mountains, and the last two, Col de Romme and Col de la Colombière, are two monsters directly after each other. If no teams ride at a high pace from the start, there are possibilities for a strong Egoi Martinez to increase his KoM lead. If he really is strong today, is left to be decided though. While we're talking about strong; it will be interesting to see what Alberto Contador tries today. He seemed in good shape when he won yesterday, and today he has even more mountains to work his magic on.
Already on the first mountain, Egoi Martinez went solo, and picked up 30 points at the top.
And 30 more on the next one.
While descending from the second mountain, Bradley Wiggins crashed!
The Brit soon got up again, but despite Garmin dropping back almost the entire team to help the 8th in the GC, he never managed to catch up with the best climbers again. Wiggins saw a top 10 placing get wings and fly away.
On the third mountain, Egoi Martinez had gotten company from John Gadret, but our mountain goat still took 20 points. He had now secured the jersey! Fantastic performance from Martinez, both today and on earlier stages.
Halfway on Col de Rommes, the penultimate mountain, it was over for Martinez and Gadret. The GC favourites took over from here.
Not much noteworthy happened on the last two climbs, so 2km from the top of the last mountain, a group of almost 20 riders were together in the front. We had Armstrong, Klöden and Leipheimer there. After four hard climbs, all the favourites were obviously exhausted, as nobody had enough left for an attack.
Just like last stage, Klöden had to let go over the top, and lost contact during the difficult descent.
7th placed Michael Rogers were in even deeper trouble. After the last mountain, he was three minutes behind the leaders, and he was about to lose out on a top ten placing overall.
Obviously, no one was able to get away during the descent, so the favourites approached the finish all together. Lance Armstrong had a good position behind Alejandro Valverde. Could this be Lance's second mountain stage win in the Tour this year?
Somebody who definitely wasn't going to get the stage win was Carlos Sastre. He crashed inside Le Grand-Bornard, and must have hurt himself a bit, as it took him a long time to get to the finish. The Spaniard lost quite a lot of time, and was completely out of the running for a podium finish overall.
The usually strong sprinter Valverde didn't manage any great speed today, so Armstrong got a poor lead-out. He was passed on the outside by Linus Gerdemann and Vladimir Efimkin. Who would get the stage win?
German Linus Gerdemann was just ahead of Efimkin at the line, and took a big win for the usually hopeless Milram team. Today's impressive performance brought Gerdemann in among the top 20 in the GC.
Today's winner
Results
1 Linus Gerdemann Team Milram 5h19'43
2 Vladimir Efimkin AG2R La Mondiale + 0
3 Alberto Contador Astana Cycling Team + 0
4 Alejandro Valverde Caisse d'Epargne + 0
5 Vladimir Karpets Team Katusha + 0 6 Lance Armstrong Discovery Channel + 0
7 Cadel Evans Silence - Lotto + 0
8 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 0 9 Levi Leipheimer Discovery Channel + 0
10 Óscar Pereiro Caisse d'Epargne + 0
Today's broadest smile belongs to Linus Gerdemann. The German who surprisingly was 4th on yesterday's stage, improved to take a fantastic stage win today. The Milram rider sat with the best stage racers in the world on the hardest stage of the Tour, and stole the entire show.
Perhaps not the entire show, though. Another rider producing a great show was our own Egoi Martinez. With his 50 fresh KoM points, he has secured his polkadot jersey, just like we had hoped before the Tour. A goal who got a little knock today, was the team classification. Because of Klöden's bad day, combined with good rides from Valverde and Pereiro of Caisse d'Epargne, the Spaniards increases their lead over us. Our hope of overall victory is still alive though, as Armstrong finished with the leaders. Levi Leipheimer sneaked into the top 10 again, as Wiggins and Rogers lost large amounts of time.
Tomorrow will be decisive. The 40km individual time trial in Annecy will be terribly exciting, and Armstrong have to avoid losing too much time. The most decisive stage is still left on the program though: stage 20 to Mont Ventoux. If Armstrong wants to parade in Paris with the yellow jersey, he should have a comfortable GC lead over Contador before he climbs the moon landscape of Mont Ventoux.
Tactics meeting
The only long individual TT in the Tour de France comes towards the end, when many riders are tired after having overcome Pyrenees and Alps during the last couple of weeks. We will probably only see GC riders compete for the stage win today, if not Cancellara has found his form after an anonymous Tour so far. We have a strong wish for Armstrong to keep his yellow jersey today, and preferably with a nice advantage in front of Mont Ventoux. Contador can't possibly take over a minute on Armstrong today, but it's probable that he will cut away some of the deficit.
Tom Boonen made a good figure, and the man in the green jersey sat an early best time.
Boonen's teammate Stijn Devolder was a few levels above, and beat Boonen by 1'55. Impressive by the Belgian TT champion.
Superman himself, Fabian Cancellara, is far from his best form, but still beat Devolder by 7 seconds.
Yesterday's big surprise, Linus Gerdemann, continues the surprising. The German was 28 seconds faster than Cancellara and 5 seconds ahead of Vinokourov, who held the lead for a short while. The provisional lead for Gerdemann.
While we're talking impressive performances: The Tour disappointmeng Cadel Evans didn't disappoint today. He crushed Gerdemann's time by 34 seconds!
Andreas Klöden rode a decent time trial, and finished 41 seconds behind Cadel Evans. Levi Leipheimer, who had started a bit earlier, did disappoint a bit by being almost a minute behind Evans.
Vladimir Karpets is usually a strong time triallist, and today was no exception. The Russian crossed the line for a provisional 3rd place, 30 sec behind Evans and 19 behind Michael Rogers who just had taken 2nd place.
In contrast to Karpets, Andy Schleck is not a great time triallist. Which meant he had to leave his 4th place in the GC to the Russian. Andy came in to a provisional 16th, 1'45 behind Cadel Evans, who was still in the lead.
Then it was time for the top three overall. The first to take the course was Denis Menchov, who didn't do one of his better time trials. The Russian TT champion finished almost a minute behind Evans.
Alberto Contador was also behind Evans today, but only by 20 seconds. He really put the pressure on Armstrong with that ride!
I was nervous about Lance today. Would he even keep the jersey? He was not among the top ten on any of the intermediate times, and not at the finish either. When he crossed the line, the clock showed 1'31 behind Cadel Evans, who had won the stage. After some quick mathematics, it was clear that Armstrong had kept his jersey by ONE SECOND!
Today's winner
Results
1 Cadel Evans Silence - Lotto 56'19
2 Michael Rogers Team Columbia - High Road + 11
3 Alberto Contador Astana Cycling Team + 20
4 Vladimir Karpets Team Katusha + 30
5 Linus Gerdemann Team Milram + 35 6 Andreas Klöden Discovery Channel + 41
7 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 47
8 Denis Menchov Rabobank + 56
9 Alexandre Vinokourov Astana Cycling Team + 56
10 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 57
GC 1 Lance Armstrong Discovery Channel 73h54'11
2 Alberto Contador Astana Cycling Team + 1
3 Denis Menchov Rabobank + 47
4 Vladimir Karpets Team Katusha + 2'31
5 Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank + 2'35
6 Óscar Pereiro Caisse d'Epargne + 3'32 7 Andreas Klöden Discovery Channel + 3'37
8 Levi Leipheimer Discovery Channel + 4'08
9 Michael Rogers Team Columbia - High Road + 4'08
10 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 4'30
One tiny second is all that separates Lance Armstrong from Alberto Contador. Cadel Evans won the time trial quite clearly, but that is overshadowed by the duel between the two best GC riders. It's not looking good in front of Mont Ventoux, and I have almost accepted the 2nd place overall already. Something which is a brillant result by Armstrong anyway, in his comeback season. But the stage must be done first, and Armstrong is afterall still riding in yellow.
One of the big losers in the time trial was Carlos Sastre. He lost almost three minutes to Evans, and the man holding the 4th spot in the GC two days ago, is now down to 12th. In the team classification, we are now breathing down Caisse d'Epargne's neck, and it will be interesting to see if we pass them on the Mont Ventoux. The stage is set for a thrilling finale of the Tour de France!
Tactics meeting
The expression "silent before the storm" has never been more appropriate. Fans of cycling will be kept waiting for one more day before the most exciting finish in Tour de France history. Today's stage to Aubenas is flat, but the somewhat hard climb just before the end could encourage some interesting moves. We are just saving ourselves for tomorrow's Mont Ventoux finale.
The break of the day contained some strong names. Ivanov (Katusha), our own Floyd Landis, Maaskant (Garmin), Vaugrenard (FdJ), and Arvesen (Saxobank) were among the riders there.
With 20km remaining, the break was caught. But the escapee Ivanov had not given up just yet, as he launched an attack together with Maaskant when the breakaway was being brought back.
On the descent towards the finish, Ivanov had made a solid gap back to the bunch. Maaskant was in the middle of the gap.
At the flamme rouge, it was clead that Ivanov had made it! But the pack closed in on Maaskant. Could the young Dutchman hold on for 2nd?
Sergei Ivanov took his second stage win of the Tour after a long day in the breakaway.
Martijn Maaskant was caught on the line, but managed to keep the peloton behind him and finished second on the stage.
Sergei Ivanov won his second stage of the Tour de France 2009. As expected, the climb before the finish affected the outcome. Not only did it provide Ivanov with a launch pad for his successful attack, it also made sure both climbers and sprinters finished inside the top ten. Mark Cavendish was dropped on the hill, and is therefore passed by Matti Breschel in the points classification. Boonen contested the sprint, and it still looks like he'll be in green when the race is over.
Discovery got through this stage without wasting any energy, and we should be ready for Mont Ventoux tomorrow. With only one second between Armstrong and Contador, this will be unbelievably exciting!
Tactics meeting
The day has come. The giant of Provence, Mont Ventoux, will decide the Tour de France 2009. The climb is 21km long, and has an average percentage of 7.6. With Contador only one second behind Lance Armstrong, I fear that we have to wave goodbye to the yellow jersey on the penultimate day of the Tour. But we will not give up without a fight! The plan is to utilize our strength as a team, the only advantage Armstrong has over Contador, and ride at a breathtaking pace up the mountainside. The hope is to tire the other rivals so they can't attack. It's of course easier said than done, and I'm really nervous in front of this stage.
Today's brave escapees were Boasson Hagen (Columbia), Millar (Garmin), Gasparotto (Lampre), Fernandez (Cofidis) and the always eager Mikhail Ignatiev of Katusha.
Early on, it was clear that the peloton didn't care about the breakaway, as they got a large lead. With 90km remaining, Capecchi (Fuji Servetto), Gomez Marchante (Cervelo), and Moreau (Agritubel) attacked from the peloton. Strange tactics by Cervelo, as Gomez Marchante is Sastre's only reliable mountain helper.
Enrico Gasparotto dropped the others in the first breakaway as soon as they began climbing Mont Ventoux. With 11km left, he had a good chance for the stage win, as the peloton was 15 minutes behind. The three riders of the second breakaway were coming closer, though.
Five minutes behind the leading Gasparotto, Moreau and Gomez Marchante plowed through the enormous crowd on Mont Ventoux. They had passed all others from the first breakaway, and dropped Capecchi, who had followed them for a long time. Moreau and Gomez Marchante had 9km left to the top.
As a result of the pace at the front of the peloton, only five riders were left in the yellow jersey group after a while. Contador, Schleck, Menchov, Armstrong, and Leipheimer were the only ones left, but Levi struggled with the pace and would probably crack very soon. The yellow jersey group were 9 minutes behind Gasparotto with 8km left.
Out on the moon landscape, Gomez Marchante, Moreau, and Capecchi, who had rejoined them, went fast. They were eating up Gasparotto's lead. With 3km remaining, they were only two minutes behind him, and the Lampre rider up the road went very slowly. Was the stage winner one of these three?
A completely shattered Gasparotto was caught 1km before the line. Contador, Armstrong & co were still two minutes behind. Either Moreau, Gomez Marchante or Capecchi would be the first to reach the top!
With less than a kilometer left to the top, Armstrong was still hanging on Contador, Menchov, and Schleck! Leipheimer had hit the wall a long time ago, and had also been passed by riders coming from behind. But that was not important. Could Armstrong keep in touch all the way up to the line? Could this really work?
Gomez Marchante was first over the line on Mont Ventoux. But that was less interesting than the drama going on one minute further back...
None of the four favourites in the Armstrong group managed to get rid of each other, and Armstrong has won Tour de France 2009! His 8th Tour win! The four GC riders caught poor Gasparotto on the line.
Oscar Pereiro and Vladimir Efimkin rounded off the top ten on the stage.
One minute later, our next best rider Andreas Klöden came up and took 6th place overall, as 4th placed Vladimir Karpets was nowhere to be seen. Klöden could also hear other great news when he crossed the line: Lance Armstrong and Discovery Channel has won the Tour de France 2009!
Cervelo's tactics, which I questioned during the stage, turned out to work perfectly. It was a great performance by Gomez Marchante, taking the stage win, and the risky tactic was merited, as Carlos Sastre didn't have the legs at all today. He finished with Karpets, over three minutes behind Armstrong & co. Our own Levi Leipheimer also cracked completely today, falling from 7th to 11th in the GC, but he has done his job together with the rest of the team. He also was one of the riders who made sure we passed Caisse d'Epargne in the team rankings. Mission accomplished on all fronts!
We must wait with the proper celebrations until after tomorrow's stage, but the seven laps on the parade street of Paris is a celebration in itself.
Tactics meeting
The Tour has finally reached Paris. This day means joy and success for some, and relief for most others. Lance Armstrong and our Discovery Channel team have won the Tour de France's general classification, and will be celebrated by the crowd of Paris' main street. But who will win the prestigous last stage?
Lance Armstrong in the yellow jersey was in front of the peloton as the riders entered the Place de la Concorde.
In the last turn before the finishing line, Katusha with Pozzato and Napolitano were well-positioned. So were Liquigas and Saxobank, who rode for Bennati and Breschel, respectively.
Both Breschel and Cancellara contested the sprint for Saxobank, and together with Bennati, they were in front with few meters left. But on the outside, Heinrich Haussler of Cervelo came charging at a great speed!
Lance Armstrong wins his 8th Tour de France with the smallest margin in history. In fact, it's impossible to get it smaller. After 3459km, one small second is the difference between the two best riders. I'll have to admit that among all of Lance's experience and skills, there's a large portion of luck involved.
Alejandro Valverde and Carlos Sastre are the two biggest disappointments of the Tour, together with Cadel Evans. The Australian was strong in the last stages, though. One positive for Valverde's team, Caisse d'Epargne, is Pereiro's impressive 5th overall, and the team has three riders among the top 25. Still, it's Discovery Channel who are the kings of the Tour de France. We have two among the top 10, and four among the top 25. Best Frenchman was Moncoutie in 17th.
Tom Boonen dominated this competition from the first pedalstroke, and his jersey never looked in danger. He was the only sprinter consistently doing well on the flat stages, and really deserves his green jersey. He just got one stage win though.
In front of the Tour, we said the KoM jersey was one of our goals. I'm delighted that we completed that as well. It didn't look good when Moncoutie collected lots of points in the Pyrenees, but Martinez hit back in the Alps, and was part of many successful breakaways.
Youth ranking
1 Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank 87h04'49
2 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 3'30
3 Robert Gesink Rabobank + 10'21
4 Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 10'59
5 Tony Martin Team Columbia - High Road + 27'13
There was never any doubt about how this would end. Andy Schleck, who also won two stages, was even involved in the fight for a podium finish overall, and neither Kreuziger nor Gesink had any chance of following the Luxembourger in the mountains.
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 259h40'44
2 Caisse d'Epargne + 50
3 Rabobank + 19'27
4 Astana Cycling Team + 22'01
5 Team Columbia - High Road + 22'45
After having been in the lead for the last week, Caisse d'Epargne finally collapsed on Mont Ventoux, and we could collect our third goal for this Tour, namely the team classification. We have reached all our pre-Tour goals, and with 1st, 6th, and 11th in the general classification, King of the Mountains jersey, team victory, and three stage wins, we are clearly the most successful team of Tour de France 2009.
After a big party to celebrate the victory, we'll put the Tour de France behind us, while taking with us the good experiences, and look forward to our next target: the Vuelta a España.
