Today's team time trial will shake things up. While we are very good at TTT's, we face two outstanding time trial teams in Caisse d'Epargne and Saunier Duval.
Liquigas, +4'04
T-Mobile, +3'00
Astana, +2'04
Ceramica Panaria, +3'12
Predictor Lotto, +3'52
QuickStep, +3'16
Lampre, +1'48
Discovery Channel crosses the line on 1h20'54", best time of the day so far. Now we wait for Caisse d'Epargne and Saunier Duval.
CSC, +2'58
Rabobank, +2'04
Caisse d'Epargne crosses the line 18 seconds behind Discovery Channel. This looks promising for us.
Until Saunier Duval crosses the line, that is. They destroy our time by 40 seconds.
As a result, Saunier Duval now hold the top 5 spots with a large lead. This doesn't bode well for the rest of the field. It would now look like a bit of an upset for anyone other than Saunier Duval to win the tour given the strength of their team.
Today's stage is categorized as a flat stage, but has a number of short climbs including a steep hill 8km from the finish which could see some attacks. Haussler and Cavendish are both feeling very strong today, so we might try something.
Things are uneventful until we hit the final climb. We decide to attack with Rovny.
Since they are feeling strong, we send Haussler and Cavendish as well in the hopes they can get a large enough lead to then win the sprint.
Turns out it was a stupid move and you can't get away with stuff like this on extreme. Both Haussler and Cavendish are caught. It was a bad risk, it failed and now both are a bit worn out for the sprint.
Rovny begins the sprint, hoping to hold everyone off but that seems unlikely.
Somehow, Haussler and Cav have gotten decent position for the sprint right on Bauge's wheel. What remains to be seen is whether they have the legs for the sprint following their attack.
A quick check of Ciolek shows him well back.
Rovny is caught, Haussler stays on Bauge's wheel.
Bauge starts to pull away as Weylandt passes Haussler. Ciolek is coming hard on the outside.
Haussler trying to catch Weylandt and hold off Ciolek.
In what must surely be one of the seven signs of the end of the world, Bauge manages to win a Tour de France stage, and one that was not perfectly flat no less. Wonders never cease. Weylandt takes 2nd, Haussler holds off Ciolek for 3rd.
A hilly stage and now the tour starts to get interesting. Could be a rough day for us, however, as it seems all the Discovery Channel riders got up on the wrong side of the bed. Most of the team is in the negatives today, including a -5 for Rovny on a stage that is custom built for him.
The large lead by Saunier Duval in the standings as forced riders to become aggressive. Case in point, Nibali and Redondo try to go in the early break.
There is, of course, no chance the peloton could let such dangerous riders go and they are caught.
A break eventually does get away and gains a 12 minute lead with 120km to go. Curiously, Saunier Duval shows no interest in protecting yellow, and it is Rabobank and Astana who leap into action.
The attacks start early on the Col d'Aulac. Garcia Gonzalez is the first to attack.
Mollema, Redondo and Intxausti follow.
So do Nibali, Schleck, Rovny and Belkov.
Finally, Tatulyan and Menchov join the fun.
Kreuziger, in yellow, does not attack. Neither do Dekker or Gesink. Perhaps they expect the peloton will catch the attackers.
As we hit the final climb, Mollema is in front by himself wtih a nice 35 second lead over E2.
E2 is comprised of Nibali and Intxausti.
1'08 behind E2, the pack has caught the remaining members of the break at the foot of the climb.
With only this climb remaining, Dekker decides to attack.
Dekker's move triggers a chain reaction. Froome, Menchov and Gesink attack.
Costa, Rovny, Schleck and Pliuschin go.
On a minus 5 day, however, two attacks prove too much for Rovny and he cracks.
At almost the same time, Mollema takes the stage win and puts himself back in a position where he can challenge for yellow.
Intxausti takes 2nd which results in him taking yellow from his teammate, Kreuziger.
A rough day for Discovery Channel is made complete when Schleck cracks, 0.6km from the finish. As a result, he'll lose another 1'20 on Intxausti making his task that much more difficult.
Despite Intxausti being the only member of Saunier Duval in the break, their lead was so large coming in that they continue to hold the top 5 spots.
Some early climbs today then all flat. It is Bastille Day and the French would love to see another stage win by a Frenchman.
There is an early crash of 5 today including 3rd placed Luca Zanasca. Clearly Zanasca is not critical to Saunier Duval at this stage as they send nobody back to help him. Despite the peloton moving at a slow pace, he struggles to get back (but finally does) suggesting that he has picked up an injury.
Nothing much happens the rest of the way until the final 20km when our suspicions that Zanasca is struggling are confirmed. He is dropped and will lose almost 4 minutes today.
Only 1 very long sprint train today with Haussler and Cav both in poor position.
Sprint gets off to a ragged start and Florent Bonnet seeks to take advanage.
Weylandt and Ciolek charge hard but nobody can stop Bonnet. The French get their Bastille Day win. Meanwhile, Ciolek takes over the green jersey.
40km from the finish, Gesink picks up a flat. With the peloton in full chase mode, it may be hard for him to get back.
Lucky for Gesink, it is a flat stage and his team does a great job relaying for him. He won't lose any time.
Haussler and Cavendish in ok positions for the sprint. Cav is in good sorts today, but generally he is unhappy with how the first 8 stages have gone. This could affect his performance.
Corioni launches an early sprint and takes a sizable lead. Can he keep it up though?
Wyss, Bonnet and Haussler all start to make a move.
Corioni is out of gas, Haussler trying to pass Wyss while Ciolek is coming up.
Haussler is faster than Wyss now, but there might not be enough time left to pass.
Bonnet gets his second straight stage win. Wyss holds off Haussler. Ciolek is 4th so Haussler will gain back some sprint points.
While we've been in France, we had another team in Austria for this race. I did not attend and this race is not very important to us so will post the final results only.
Alberto Contador announced today his return to the sport of cycling following a one year absence. Contador has signed with the Belgium based team, Predictor Lotto. His signing provides Predictor Lotto with an instant threat to win the Tour de France, which will surely be Contador's main goal in his return.
Other Transfer News
- T-Mobile's Alex Rasmussen has signed with Team Wiesenhof
- Hill specialist Giancarlo Balsamo has signed with Ceramica Panaria
- Yuri Trofimov is leaving Astana to take his cobblestone skills to QuickStep, a possible sign that Tom Boonen will not be retained.
- Slipstream scores a nice signing by bringing in Oliver Giesecke
- Frederik Nolf goes to T-Mobile
Discovery Channel News
Discovery Channel has kept up its modus operandi from past seasons of signing aging, but still good, veterans as well as finding top talent at the Continental Tour level. Following the big announcement of the Humberto signing, Discovery Channel has, this week, announced the following signings:
- Russia's Ilja Syrtsev joins from Perutnina Ptuj. He looks a promising stage racer
- Australian Mitchell Docker joins from Moscow Stars. He likewise looks a solid prospect for stage races.
- The American presence in the side has been increased with the addition of 18-year old neophyte Chaswe Hebert.
Saunier Duval has been tough so far, but Discovery Channel has done nothing to help itself. Apart from the fact that Haussler is well in the mix for the green jersey, everything other aspect of this race has been hugely disappointing thus far:
- No stage wins
- Cavendish has performed poorly and is currently "unhappy"
- Schleck has struggled in his one chance to climb and is also now listed as "unhappy" which does not bode well.
- Mariani has been hugely disapponting as a lieutenant, failing to even be able to keep the pace on flat stages.
- Gerdemann and Monfort have been a disaster as helpers and neither currently rank in the top 150.
All-in-all, 9 stages in this has not been a happy tour and is looking remarkably like last years edition where Contador only managed a 10th place finish.
We'll see a lot of action over the next two days as there is a fair bit of climbing to do. On today's stage, we'd expect the peak that is 18km from the finish, to see the most action.
Today's profile is perfect for Ivan Rovny to have a go. However, as was the case with the previous hilly stage, Rovny is on a -5 today.
The large lead held by Intxausti is forcing aggressiveness from the riders. To wit, Elias Morca launches an attack up the Col de la Pierre Saint Martin a full 84km from the finish.
Menchov and Belkov attacked for mountain points at the peak of the same climb but decide to keep going.
They link up with Morca and hold a 1 minute lead but there remains 45 km in this race.
Morca can't keep up the pace, is dropped and caught by the peloton.
The inevitable mass attacks come up the Col de Marie-Blanque. The first to attack is the yellow jersey wearer, Benat Intxausti.
Dekker follows.
Tatulyan and Froome.
Schleck, Mollema and a host of others go. Schleck's attack lacks explosiveness and he does not get very far.
As the attacks settle, Intxausti is strongest and off on his own looking unbeatable.
Unexpectedly, Rui Costa has come out in second but 48 seconds back of Intxausti.
14 seconds back, Belkov leads the chase of his own teammate, along with Mollema, Dekker, Garcia Gonzalez, Menchov, Tatulyan, Gesink and Froome.
Schleck looks pretty flat, anothe 51 seconds back with Redondo, Nibali, Pliuschin and Moreno.
Froome, Garcia Gonzalez and Menchov are dropped by the Dekker group and caught by the Schleck group.
Gesink, Mollema and Dekker are in full chase mode and have now dropped everybody else.
No matter, they won't get near Intxausti who widens his lead further.
They do very nearly catch Costa, who manages to hold on for second.
Schleck finishes almost 4 minutes back and has virtually no shot whatsoever at winning the Tour this year. He needs a big win tomorrow to get some momentum. Bright spot for Discovery Channel today was that Haussler managed to finish 16th and pick up enough sprint points to take back the green jersey.
Mountain stage today. Chance to see how Schleck is going to fare on the big cilmbs.
In a surprise to everyone, 4th placed Gesink goes with the break today. The pack chases at first, then decides to let him go.
Schleck's day starts off with a bad omen: a flat tire.
His teammates get him back to the pack without a problem.
Once the pack finally begins to chase the break, the frantic pace wreaks havoc on the field. The front chase group very quickly gets narrowed down to 19 with 100 km still to go. Schleck has no teammates with him so will be on his own the rest of the way.
We hit the Col du Tourmalet and Intxausti attacks.
Belkov goes as well.
Schleck has no blue bar left and can only try to hang on to the chase group, which now numbers 12.
They catch Belkov but Intxausti has gotten away.
Dekker can't let Intxausti extend his lead so he attacks.
Schleck's only option is to set a fast and steady pace in the hope he can overcome other's ability to attack.
Schleck's pace enables him to catch Intxausti.
Dekker, meanwhile, was able to pass Intxausti and link up with Gesink. They are 1'51 in front of the Schleck group.
Schleck's group is whittled down to four now: Schleck, Mitodorov and two SDV teammates: Intxausti and Kreuziger.
Dekker leaves Gesink behind.
Kreuziger has set a high pace on behalf of Intxausti in the chase group, and catches Gesink.
Gesink pays the price for going in the early break, he is dropped and will start sliding down the standings.
Mitodorov drops back to help Gesink.
Schleck's group hits the downhill, and not a moment too soon as Schleck is struggling with the pace and was almost on 4 red bars. Still 43km and one more climb to go, however.
Coming up behind the yellow jersey group are Mollema, being pulled by his teammate Tim Dees.
As the road flattens out, Schleck is dangerously close to cracking. He has to drop off the back of Intxausti and set his own pace.
He cracks anyway, as Mollema and Dees pass, along with Belkov.
Even worse, Schleck runs out of green as another group goes by.
The Mollema group catches Intxausti and Kreuziger.
5km to go, and Dekker has a 2 minute lead. If he keeps this up, he'll be right back in the mix for yellow.
Dekker crosses the line for the win.
Belkov sprints for 2nd place.
Schleck crosses the line almost 10 minutes behind Dekker. His tour has now become a total disaster.
Flat stage, windy day. Need to look out for splits.
Wiesenhof and Discovery Channel lead the chase for the break when, suddenly, we get a wind split. 20 riders, including all 9 Discovery Channel riders, are in the breakaway group now and pushing hard to stay away from the pack.
The Discovery Channel group is caught 30km from the line. Hopefully the push to stay away did not wear down Cav and Haussler.
As the sprint trains start to form, it is evident that Haussler and Cav are worn out. They can't get a wheel.
The sprint starts with Rasmussen charging out to a lead.
Rasmussen opens a very large lead, but Ciolek is coming now.
Menchov (not pictured) and Nibali go on attack on the first climb of the day.
Pace of the chase puts great strain on the peloton and ends up shrinking the front group to only 29 with 162km still to go.
Nibali and Menchov are finally caught up the Col de l'Echarasson, giving the peloton a chance for a breather. Had they kept up this pace the rest of the race, someone might have died.
The calm is short lived as Garcia-Gonzalez attacks. He is allowed to go.
With 102km to go, Morca and Brajkovic attack.
Gesink sees this as his signal and he goes.
Menchov on the attack again.
Pliuschin and Tatulyan along with Schleck and Mariani.
Dekker attacks, passing Morca.
Finally, Intxausti goes in the yellow.
As attacks settle, Garcia Gonzalez has the lead.
Brajkovic is 55 seconds back.
27 backs of Brajkovic, we find a group of 10 main competitors: Gesink, Menchov, Tatulyan, Froome, Dekker, Intxausti, Mollema, Schleck, Mariani and Pliuschin.
On the descent, Garcia Gonzalez and Brajkovic are caught and left behind.
Schleck and Mariani can't keep the pace and are forced to drop off and set their own pace.
Menchov is dropped.
Despite setting their own, relatively slow pace, Schleck still cracks. This is a really disappointing performance from Schleck. His heart doesn't seem to be in it anymore.
Gesink is dropped from the front group.
Tatulyan is dropped.
With 2km to go, the front group is now: Dekker, Intxausti, Froom and Mollema. Froome has done well to stay with these guys.
There is a sprint and Dekker takes it. Nice stage win for him.
This stage was a real kiler. 24 riders ended up having to abandon.
