As usual, Vacansoleil worked tirelessly to bring them back, probably only for Traksel to be beaten in the sprint. The Dutchman can't buy a stage win, it seems.
Popovych had a puncture, and needed Millar & Martinez to get back in the pack. The two helpers used so much energy that they couldn't hang on, which means Martinez also drops out of the top ten. Popovych is safe for now though.
It ended in another sprint. Once again, Hushovd and Traksel fought it out for the win.
And once again Traksel was beaten. This is Hushovd's third stage win in this Tour, and his tenth in total.
Today's winner
Results
1 Thor Hushovd Lampre - N.G.C 5h11'28
2 Bobbie Traksel Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team + 0
3 Enrico Gasparotto Lampre - N.G.C + 0
4 Stuart O'Grady Team Saxo Bank + 0
5 Damiano Cunego Team Katusha + 0
6 Giovanni Visconti Liquigas + 0
7 Steven De Jongh Quick-Step + 0
8 Samuel Sánchez Euskaltel - Euskadi + 0
9 Fränk Schleck Team Saxo Bank + 0
10 Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank + 0
GC 1 Lance Armstrong Discovery Channel 35h07'34
2 Andreas Klöden Discovery Channel + 14
3 Levi Leipheimer Discovery Channel + 15
4 Gustav Larsson Discovery Channel + 22
5 Linus Gerdemann Discovery Channel + 26
6 George Hincapie Discovery Channel + 52
7 Yaroslav Popovych Discovery Channel + 1'00
8 Steve Morabito Astana Cycling Team + 1'25
9 Alberto Contador Astana Cycling Team + 1'28
10 Michael Schär Astana Cycling Team + 1'32
Points ranking
1 Thor Hushovd Lampre - N.G.C 183
2 Bobbie Traksel Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team 151
3 Damiano Cunego Team Katusha 150
Youth ranking
1 Michael Schär Astana Cycling Team 35h09'06
2 Steven Cozza Garmin - Slipstream + 51
3 Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank + 56
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 102h38'13
2 Team Katusha + 1'38
3 Astana Cycling Team + 1'50
Another lead-out from Lampre brings Thor his third stage win, and the fourth for his team. The green jersey seems more and more secure. Bobbie Traksel, the next most consistent sprinter in the Tour, has no chance against the power of Hushovd.
That's it for the sprinters for now. Tomorrow we enter the Pyrenees! The first stage in these mountains is not among the toughest, but it'll be good to get the climbing started.
Tactics meeting
The Pyrenees have arrived! The first of the two days in the mountains is not really brutal. The 1st cat. Col de Marie-Blanque towards the end could see some serious bike riding though. All the KoM points makes this a good stage for Martinez to extend his lead in the battle for the climber's jersey.
As planned, Martinez got away. Some other useful climbers were also in the break: Fröhlinger, Ardila, Lastras.
Martinez had a great day, and took 40 points before the main field caught up. Our Basque climber looks poised to take another KoM jersey this year!
He had been caught on the penultimate mountain. We did tempo riding on the ascent to set up Martinez for more KoM points.
Unfortunately, he was somewhat tired after the breakaway effort, and could only manage 4th over the top. That gave him quite a few points anyway!
The Col de Marie-Blanque killed off a lot of riders. With 2 km to the top, only the main favourites were left in the front group.
Cunego blew up on the Marie-Blanque. On the descent towards the finish, he and Anton trailed the favourites by 1 minute. It was a disastrous day for Katusha, as their other leader Karpets was even further back.
15 riders were in front. For us, all of Armstrong, Klöden and Leipheimer had made the selection. With no Cunego, the stage was very much in the hands of Sammy Sanchez.
In the home stretch, Sanchez was way back. Cadel Evans had the lead not far from the line.
But Carlos Sastre showed that he's got a hidden sprinter inside of him. The Cervelo captain surged past Evans in the final meters!
Victory for King Carlos! That's probably the first time in history where Sastre has won a sprint. Evans must be embarrassed. Armstrong sprinted quite well to take 5th.
Cunego finished 1'18 behind the first group, which puts him 13th in the GC. Karpets crossed the line 2'17 down on the winner. It's not looking good for Katusha, who enjoyed such a bright start to this Tour.
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 119h07'07
2 Astana Cycling Team + 6'24
3 Team Saxo Bank + 7'10
Who would've thought that Sastre could do such a thing? From now on he is Carlos, King of the sprinters! We now keep only the top three places in the GC, but no time lost for our leaders today. The Discovery domestiques slid down the lists, but that's probably good for breakaway purposes and such.
Egoi Martinez is on home ground in the Pyrenees, and produced a great effort today, galvanizing his KoM lead. Andy Schleck moves into the white jersey, a jersey he'll probably stay in for the rest of the race.
Tomorrow is a rest day, before the first big test of strength for Armstrong and his yellow jersey. The last day in the Pyrenees takes the Tour up to Cauterets for a mountain top finish. The Discovery team is not exactly oozing of confidence in front of the first showdown with Contador...
Edited by Squire on 17-09-2010 16:04
Tactics meeting
The first rest day is over, and the Tour continues with its first mountain top finish. The ski resort of Cauterets is today's finish, and it's not the toughest of climbs, but before the riders get so far, they must cross the Peyresourde, Aspin and Tourmalet. We will try our best to limit our losses against Alberto Contador.
Having dropped his breakaway companion Cobo, Jurgen Van den Broeck was first over all the big cols en route to Cauterets. Our climber Egoi Martinez had a bad day and couldn't get in the break, but he keeps his KoM jersey.
On the penultimate climb, the Col du Tourmalet, both Katusha captains (Cunego & Karpets) were dropped from the main group. They are really suffering in the Pyrenees, having lost lots of time yesterday too. Both are now well out of the GC.
On his way down from the Tourmalet, Van den Broeck was 5 minutes in front of the GC contenders group. He was no threat though, being 12 minutes down in the GC.
A select group of around 25 riders began the climb to Cauterets 4 minutes behind V.d. Broeck. Popovych and our three big guns were in this group.
Sastre started the attacks, followed by Contador and Basso. All our three top climbers were ordered to follow. Contador must not get an inch!
But the Astana leader crushed the other GC riders. He made it up the Van den Broeck on his own, leading Armstrong by 50 seconds!
Inside the last km, Armstrong had gained back a few seconds. A.Schleck was closest to Contador, followed by Sastre.
Gesink and Basso almost got back to the first chase-trio. Schleck had opened up a few meters on Sastre and Armstrong.
Albert Contador wins it! Luckily, he didn't open up an astronomous gap, but Armstrong who finished 4th, 50 sec behind, can't have more of these results if he wants to win the Tour. That's probably just wishful thinking though.
Leipheimer was the next best Discovery rider, finishing 13th with Sanchez and Anton, 2'12 behind Contador. Contador leapfrogs Levi in the GC, but Armstrong's luxury teammate remains 3rd overall. Klöden lost some more time, and drops down to 5th.
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 137h15'33
2 Team Saxo Bank + 6'08
3 Euskaltel - Euskadi + 12'39
Alberto Contador cuts our advantage in half on the first mountain top finish, and there are still two of them left plus the time trial. He's going to win the Tour, end of discussion. Andy Schleck came close to Contador in the closing meters today, and will be one to watch in the fight for 2nd place for Armstrong.
I said our advantage from the TTT was too small, and it's very disappointing to be proven right. We will of course not lay down and die, but Contador will be very tough to defend against.
The Cauterets marks the end of the Pyrenees. The race leaves the mountains for a couple of days, heading eastwards through flat terrain. On stage 14 however, the mighty Alps await.
Tactics meeting
As the Pyrenees disappear in the background, the Tour moves east. Today's stage is flat as a pancake, and will suit the sprinters if their teams choose to hunt down the usual breakaway. With Armstrong looking less likely to keep his jersey until Paris, we'll put more emphasis on stage wins. George Hincapie will be our candidate today, as we intend to put him in the break.
George didn't let us down, and succeeded in joining the break of the day. Gerrans, Lastras and Boom were riders to watch if it didn't come to a bunch sprint.
But Vacansoleil is on a mission, and wouldn't let Hincapie & co fight it out. The pack made the junction with 29km left to race.
Quick-Step is back to the train-making, despite Gavazzi being nowhere near the front in the last few sprints. Thor Hushovd in green found the Italian's wheel, with Perez and Traksel just behind.
A very even sprint! Any of the train passengers could win the stage, as well as O'Grady who came around on the outside.
Bobbie Traksel! Finally Hushovd is beaten in a head-to-head sprint. This must feel fantastic for Vacansoleil who have worked so hard on almost every flat stage.
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 150h10'09
2 Team Saxo Bank + 6'08
3 Euskaltel - Euskadi + 12'39
At last, all the hard work of the Vacansoleil team has paid off. Bobbie Traksel takes his first Grand Tour stage win, and must feel elated. The Dutch sprinter does not get much closer to Hushovd's green jersey though.
Big George got a good workout in the breakaway (as if he needed that after yesterday's mountains). He'll probably try again tomorrow, as it's another horizontal stage.
Tactics meeting
Boring flat stage with a couple of small hills thrown in at the end. It'll probably be another sprint, but we're aiming to put a man in the break just in case the sprint teams decide to go on vacation.
It was another day out for Big George. All of 16 riders got away today. Fuji and Columbia were there with two men. Strong engines like Posthuma, Cozza and Rabon made sure the break got some room to play in.
The usual antagonists, Lampre and Vacansoleil, slowly whittled away the lead. Would they catch the break or not? This would be quite close!
5km from the line, the break was about to be caught. Hincapie broke away from his compatriots in a last ditch effort to stay clear!
Near the flamme rouge, he was still in the lead! Come on George!
After giving it all he got, George was finally overhauled by the sprinters in the closing meters.
Euskaltel's Ruben Perez held off the more seasoned sprinters to claim a good stage win! George came in to a 6th place. That was a nice try by our Tour veteran.
During the afternoon the Tour transfers to Valence by the foot of the Alps. Tomorrow is the second mountain top finish, and arguably the toughest one: the Chamrousse climb!
Tactics meeting
The 14th stage marks the beginning of the Alps. Four days in the mountains begin with a long stage that culminates in the climb to Chamrousse. The finish is rated Hours Categorie with a 16.7km climb at an average of 8.3%. We can't have a repeat of the Cauterets, so the plan is to ride hard from the first kilometer. We'll try to expose Contador's only slight weakness: his stamina.
Martinez was not allowed to destroy himself going after KoM points, so Cobo took most mountain sprints and thereby the climber's jersey. We'll get it back another day.
We set a blistering pace on most climbs today! Popovych, Martinez, Gerdemann and Larsson did one hell of a job, blowing away large parts of the peloton.
Our riding was too much for Bradley Wiggins (9th in GC). After two mountains, he was in a gruppetto 6 minutes behind the main field. Even a sprinter like Hushovd was ahead of him. Garmin's GC hopes definitely vanished today.
On the steep penultimate climb, the Côte de Laffrey, Klöden's nemesis from the Tour de Suisse, Brice Feillu, took off. Andreas felt good today, so he went with the Frenchman.
Down towards the beginning of the Chamrousse, Klöden and Feillu led the favourites by one minute.
They were not allowed to go clear though, so when they were caught, we once again came to the front of the small peloton.
6km before the top, Andy Schleck launched a powerful attack! The Luxembourg climber sits in 4th, 2'05 behind Armstrong in the GC.
Schleck's attack completely splintered the field. Armstrong, Contador and Sastre were the only ones who could keep Andy in their sights. Everybody else had been blown away! The Saxobank rider quickly opened up a gap of 40 seconds to this trio.
Denis Menchov had been blown out of the water. Last year's 3rd placed rider was struggling more than a minute behind Contador, Lance & Sastre.
With Schleck still 40 sec ahead, Contador attacked Armstrong and Sastre! They couldn't answer at first...
...but the two old foxes rode steadily up to Contador again. With 2km remaining, Armstrong was still with Contador. This was great climbing by our yellow jersey! Andy Schleck was almost a minute ahead though.
Just before the red kite, Contador kicked again! This time he got his gap, but being so close to the finish, Armstrong's losses would be minimal.
The losses to Schleck were huge though, and the Luxembourger also took well over a minute out of Contador! He must have had a super day!
Sastre and Armstrong limited their losses against Contador to just 17 seconds. Is Contador's form declining, or did our plan just work very well?
Our second best rider today was Andreas Klöden in 13th, with Leipheimer not far behind in 14th. The two super-domestiques are still highly placed in the GC.
Regarding our chances, we're more optimistic. Armstrong can take some time on Schleck in the TT, so he's not too dangerous at the moment. If Contador has more days like this, Armstrong could be in the lead before the time trial. And then anything can happen!
Tomorrow we get another chance to harass Contador. Three HC mountains are on the profile, with a downhill finish. Maybe our strong team can take some vital time on the Astana captain?
I'd like a few opinions from a couple of readers now.
In the last post, I used 16 screenshots (a new record, I think). Is this too much? Or is it okay with comprehensive coverage of big mountain stages in the Tour?
