Tactics meeting
On this stage, the Tour will cross its highest point, the Col du Galibier. As if that wasn't enough, two more HC climbs follow: the Croix de Fer and the Col de la Madeleine. A brutal day, and maybe an opportunity to win time on Contador? We'll do the same as yesterday, set a high pace up all the climbs and see if his armor shows some cracks.
We did as we set out to do. The 43km climb up the Galibier was covered in no time, and the peloton thinned a lot.
Evans and Joly (13th and 12th in the GC respectively) broke away on the Galibier, but were caught on the second mountain. None of them got the climber's jersey, as Sastre collected enough points to take it from Cobo. Egoi Martinez was restricted to teamwork today.
On the way down from the Col de la Croix de Fer (second mountain), Robert Gesink (8th in GC) crashed! His bike-handling never gets better...
A few kilometers after, another top ten placed rider crashed. This time it was Samuel Sanchez. Both him and Gesink had some serious catching-up to do.
On the last climb, the Madeleine, Schleck and Contador took over the pacemaking themselves. Most domestiques had been dropped at this point.
Another one about to drop off was Lance Armstrong! Our yellow jersey struggled with Schleck's pace. Not looking good! Had we been digging our own grave with the fast tempo on the other climbs?
Ivan Basso (11th in GC) was the first one to attack on the final climb! The Italian was looking strong today.
Schleck and Contador quickly followed, and together with Menchov, Basso and Sastre, they formed a leading group. Armstrong and Leipheimer was quite a bit behind, while Klöden was blown away completely. It was turning out to be a disastrous day for us!
We are lucky to have Levi Leipheimer on our team! The American pulled back the leaders on his own, bringing Armstrong and several others back to the front! All the favourites bar Klöden and the crashers (Gesink, Sanchez) were descending together.
Sanchez and Gesink had not suffered any injuries in their crashes, and chased the leaders furiously down from the last mountain!
Sanchez came back to the leaders with 8km remaining! Great descending by the Euskaltel rider. Gesink followed shortly afterwards, and saved his 8th place.
4km from the line, an eager Ivan Basso attacked the favourites group! He really wanted this stage win.
And he got it! Our representatives in the leading group, Armstrong and Leipheimer, were too tired to chase him down, and so were all of the others.
Jurgen Van den Broeck was the only one who tried to follow Basso, and the Belgian got 2nd. Contador and Leipheimer led the other favourites home to get the same time as stage winner Basso. In total, 26 riders got the same time as the winner.
Among the top climbers, there was only one big loser today. Andreas Klöden had one of his really bad days (which he had last year as well) and finished 27th, 3'28 behind the other GC riders. Our German drops from 6th to 13th in the GC.
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 199h58'23
2 Team Saxo Bank + 3'05
3 Française des Jeux + 24'07
Only a fantastic Leipheimer saved us from losing the Tour today. Our plan worked better to tire Armstrong than to tire Contador. Considering the promising profile, today's stage was a slight disappointment, in that 26 riders finished in the first group. Even more disappointing was the fact that Klöden was not among those 26. Saxobank came closer in the team classement.
Basso deserves some credit for his stage win. He had most energy left for the finish, and powered away from the others. This saves his season a little bit, as he was invisible in the Giro and has failed to perform in the Tour. Our Basque climber Egoi Martinez fell further behind in the mountain competition today. He was needed for teamwork, so Sastre is now almost 100 pts in front. Our GC struggles have damaged Martinez' KoM defence, and he doesn't look likely to win it this year.
Tomorrow is a rest day. Thank God. We can recover and get a little fresher before the mountain top finish on the next stage. Although to hold off Contador, we probably need to park our team bus on a remote mountain road tomorrow...
Edited by Squire on 08-10-2010 16:12
I had lots of fun reading through the whole story today. It's excellent and I hope you'll continue it for a long time, as following the Discovery team in all the big races is really great!
I've been very busy moving to a new city lately, and has also been without internet for a while.
Will finally post the next stage today, but I won't be able to update the story too often in the near future.
Once again, thanks for the comments!
FreitasPCM wrote:
How many points has Egoi in the KoM classification?
Tactics meeting
Following the second rest day, the Tour embarks upon its queen stage. The profile contains four mountain passes, of which the Cormet de Roselend is the highest at 1967m. The stage finishes at the ski resort of Flaine after a 21km climb. Judging by the previous stage, Armstrong's yellow jersey is in serious danger. We will fight though, and aim to put a man in the breakaway to give Lance some extra help on the final climb.
On the first mountain, Evans (11th in GC), Sastre (6th), Klöden (13th) and Joly (12th) tried to break away. They never got a bigger gap than 2 minutes though.
Klöden had another bad day, so he eased up and went back to the pack. By the time the three remaining escapees reached the final climb, their lead was cut back to only one minute.
Contador's lieutenant Vinokourov did a superb job to bring back Sastre & co.
13km from the top, the field was thinning out. Klöden had disappeared, so Lance & Levi were our only representatives in the front group. Not good.
Things were going well until there was 7km left. Andy Schleck attacked, and all hell broke loose!
Armstrong was put in big trouble! Would he finally relinquish the yellow jersey? He was not looking fresh on this climb.
Contador counterattacked when Schleck slowed down. The Spaniard opened up a significant gap! Andy Schleck was not looking as strong today as he did on the previous mountain top finish.
1.5km before the line, Contador had a lead of 30 seconds over this group containing Menchov, Schleck, Sastre and our Levi Leipheimer (all the riders from 3rd to 6th in the GC). Gesink (7th in GC) was struggling a few meters behind.
Lance had finally cracked today. By the 2km mark, he was 1'20 behind Contador with no sign of coming closer.
Schleck took off from the first chasegroup on the run-in, but Contador was too far ahead.
Alberto Contador fired his pistols to celebrate his second MTF win and also the yellow jersey! Armstrong had no chance to contain the Astana rider today.
Levi Leipheimer was our best rider today, and did a great job to take 4th on the stage, 35sec behind Contador.
A tired Armstrong came 7th and is passed by both Contador and Schleck in the GC. This was his last moments in yellow for this year, I'd guess.
Andreas Klöden completely hit the wall today. He finished 8 minutes behind Contador with teammates Popovych and Larsson. Klöden falls all the way down to 17th in the GC.
Team classification
1 Team Saxo Bank 214h17'22 2 Discovery Channel + 51
3 Astana Cycling Team + 26'26
Bye, bye yellow jersey. Alberto Contador erased all memories of his bad day on the previous mountain top finish and got his second stage win plus the overall lead today. Only a few small mountains tomorrow and the final time trial stands between Contador and his second Tour win. Lance Armstrong wasn't even Discovery's best rider today, with Levi climbing better than his leader. As for Armstrong's fight for 2nd, he should be close enough to Schleck to overtake him in the stage 20 TT.
Andreas Klöden plummeted down the lists today, and this also affects the team classification. Saxobank passed us, but I think we can get the lead back during the TT.
I'm really desperate for a road stage win to ease the disappointment of Armstrong losing the Tour. We'll try our best tomorrow, when the Tour enters Switzerland and crosses some medium sized mountains.
Edited by Squire on 11-10-2010 23:18
FreitasPCM wrote:
You got to keep that podium now!
Don't think that will be much of a problem, with only the next stage plus the time trial likely to create gaps. I don't see where Menchov can gain 3 minutes.
A 2nd place would have been nice, so lets hope Schleck has a bad day on the stage 20 TT
Tactics meeting
With Armstrong losing out on his 9th Tour win, a stage win would be a good consolation. Today offers opportunities. Three quite gentle mountains await en route to the uphill finish in Lausanne. We will be active in breakaways today, as we don't have anyone punchy enough to take out the final climb.
Christian Vandevelde and our Yaroslav Popovych were today's breakaway. With both riders over an hour behind in the GC, we hoped they would be given some room to play in. Especially as Popo is a far better sprinter than Vandevelde.
On the last mountain pass, Popo was barely hanging on to Vandevelde's back wheel, and their lead was only around 2 minutes. We had to try something else, so we sent Klöden on the attack!
Klöden made it up to Popo and Vandevelde, but at the same time as he made the junction, Saxobank brought the peloton back. They would obviously not let us go clear as we are only 51 sec behind them in the team GC.
Sastre took the last mountain sprint to matematically secure his King of the Mountain's jersey. Egoi Martinez was probably making grumpy faces back in the peloton.
At the start of the final incline, Sastre was on the move again, this time with the stage win in mind. He was following Van den Broeck's initial attack.
Sastre & VDB didn't get away, so then other riders tried their luck. Gesink and Armstrong instigated the next move, with Menchov in their slipstream!
Unfortunately, Armstrong didn't have the juice today. Chavanel was the next one to go. Menchov followed this attack as well.
In the final turn, Chavanel still had the advantage! But Menchov was still in his slipstream and Contador was closing in fast!
Chavanel held on! A great effort by this year's Paris-Nice winner, especially considering all the strong names making up the top ten. Both Levi and Lance placed well for us.
A gap of 31 seconds was recorded between the 10th and the 11th rider at the finish. This meant that Evans pipped F.Schleck for the 9th place overall. No other changes took place among the top ten.
Today's winner
Results
1 Sylvain Chavanel Quick-Step 5h09'09
2 Alberto Contador Astana Cycling Team + 0
3 Denis Menchov Rabobank + 0
4 Cadel Evans Rabobank + 0 5 Levi Leipheimer Discovery Channel + 0
6 Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank + 0 7 Lance Armstrong Discovery Channel + 0
8 Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream + 0
9 Robert Gesink Quick-Step + 0
10 Samuel Sánchez Euskaltel - Euskadi + 0
Team classification
1 Team Saxo Bank 229h45'51 2 Discovery Channel + 1'25
3 Astana Cycling Team + 30'16
Despite team leader Gesink riding a good Tour, this is Quick-Step's biggest achievement in this Tour so far. Chavanel took their first stage win, and a great one that was! Our quest for a road race win was yet again unsuccessful, but there are still some possibilities left. Now we have to rely on the peloton letting the breakaways go.
Saxobank saw a slight increase in their team classification lead today, but nothing catastrophical. The next two stages are flatish, before the final time trial settles the overall rankings.
Tactics meeting
The journey towards Paris brings the race back into France after a short visit to Switzerland. With the green jersey competition pretty much wrapped up, we hope that a breakaway can go clear today. We will definitely be there with a Discovery rider. The top GC riders must be careful today, as the wind could play a factor.
Today, George Hincapie was our man in the five-man breakaway. His companions included Intxausti, Spilak, Tschopp (Cervelo) and Lhotellerie.
A determined pack brought them back with 11km left to race. Let's hope for better luck tomorrow.
O'Grady and Cancellara's Saxo train got a good lead ahead of the sprint. Lampre's Gasparotto was moving up on the other side of the road.
With 1.5km remaining, Gasparotto was in the lead! Could the Italian strongman hold on? And where were the sprinters?
The sprinters were about to swallow Gasparotto inside the last kilometer. Cancellara was still ahead of Hushovd & co!
Ever the opportunist, Samuel Sanchez made a late dash for the line! Cancellara, Sanchez or Gasparotto?
The Swiss machine took it ahead of Sanchez! Green jersey wearer Hushovd finished strongly to take the 4th place, and thereby all but ending Traksel's hopes of overtaking him in that competition.
Today's winner
Results
1 Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank 4h22'02
2 Samuel Sánchez Euskaltel - Euskadi + 0
3 Enrico Gasparotto Lampre - N.G.C + 0
4 Thor Hushovd Lampre - N.G.C + 0
5 Damiano Cunego Team Katusha + 0
6 Bobbie Traksel Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team + 0
7 Assan Bazayev Garmin - Slipstream + 0
8 Stuart O'Grady Team Saxo Bank + 0
9 Mirko Lorenzetto Lampre - N.G.C + 0
10 Fabian Wegmann Team Milram + 0
Team classification
1 Team Saxo Bank 242h51'57 2 Discovery Channel + 1'25
3 Astana Cycling Team + 30'16
Today was a day for the strongmen, and can you really think of any stronger than Cancellara? The usual sprinter-suspects filled out the rest of the top ten. Big George did a good breakaway effort as usual, but his struggles didn't pay off today.
Tomorrow is perhaps our last chance for a road stage win, and we hope to make the best out of that possibility. In any case, the Tour is just one more stage away from the final time trial.
Tactics meeting
The longest stage of the Tour. It's definitely not the toughest, as it is mostly flat, but it becomes a little lumpy towards the end. That could offer opportunities for a breakaway, which we look to be part of, as we're still looking for an individual stage win in this race.
George Hincapie was once again our man out front, this time as part of a big 20-man breakaway. Lots of strong names were present, like Visconti, Boom, Casar, Knees and Txurruka. Importantly, no Saxobank riders were in the break, which could mean that the escapees were doomed because of Hincapie being a threat in the team classification.
Quickstep had also missed out on the early selection, and they were chasing!
But 20 riders are a considerable force, and the break managed to earn some freedom. On the last mountain sprint (21km to go), Txurruka launched a serious attack! Hincapie was looking a little tired, and couldn't follow the initial move.
Nevertheless, Big George joined the chasers Casar and Spilak. The last hill had completely split the group. Txurruka led George's trio by 40 sec, while the rest of the break had disintegrated and were soon far behind.
10km from the line, Casar had soloed across the gap to Txurruka. Spilak and our Hincapie were still 40 sec in arrears.
On the last incline before the run-in, Hincapie decided that he couldn't rely on Spilak, so he left the Slovenian champion in his wake.
5km from the line, Hincapie had almost made it! He was clearly the best sprinter among the leaders, so maybe he could snatch the win?
Unfortunately, George never reached Txurruka and Casar's backwheels. Ahead of Hincapie, Casar looked good for the stage win. Afterall, the Frenchman's father was a sprinter back in the days.
Sandy Casar stretched his arms in celebration as the peloton was breathing down Hincapie's neck. Our breakaway rider held on to finish 3rd though.
Today's winner
Results
1 Sandy Casar Française des Jeux 5h37'24
2 Amets Txurruka Euskaltel - Euskadi + 0 3 George Hincapie Discovery Channel + 0
4 Stuart O'Grady Team Saxo Bank + 0
5 Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank + 0
6 Simon Spilak Lampre - N.G.C + 0
7 Enrico Gasparotto Lampre - N.G.C + 0
8 Thor Hushovd Lampre - N.G.C + 0
9 Andy Schleck Team Saxo Bank + 0
10 Cadel Evans Rabobank + 0
Team classification
1 Team Saxo Bank 259h44'09 2 Discovery Channel + 1'25
3 Astana Cycling Team + 30'16
Kudos to Casar, of course, who was probably the strongest among the escapees, but with some better tactics Hincapie could have won this. He rode a little too selfishly, not wanting to close the gaps in the finale by himself. Hoping for Spilak to do the hard work probably cost us the victory in the end.
Anyway, no use in thinking about this stage now. There are two stages left of the Tour, and tomorrow Armstrong hopes to jump one step higher on the podium. Maybe Leipheimer can get a stage win as well? It's time trial time!
Tactics meeting
It's finally here. The final time trial of the Tour de France 2010. A flat 47km test await the riders in Châlons. Contador will probably cruise in to his second Tour victory, so the real battle is between Andy Schleck and Lance Armstrong for 2nd overall. I've also been playing with the thought of getting Levi on the podium, but then he will have to do the time trial of his life. Anyway, Levi should have a decent chance of getting the stage win, something which will improve our Tour results greatly.
Columbia's Tony Martin enjoyed the first part of the day in pole position, with the German setting the early time to beat.
Cancellara made Martin look like an amateur. The Swiss monster overtook the former leader by as much as 1'40!
Our Swedish time trial machine Gustav Larsson could do nothing about Cancellara's time, clocking in 30 seconds slower.
The first yellow jersey wearer of this Tour, Vladimir Karpets, was the first to beat Cancellara. The Russian champion came in 16 seconds faster.
Another national TT champion took the next provisional lead. Bradley Wiggins rode 14 seconds faster than Karpets.
Andreas Klöden, who's had a horrible third week of the Tour, did not enjoy much success today either. A provisional 5th place for our German TT champion, 1'06 slower than Wiggins. This time would eventually place Andreas in 11th on the stage.
Michael Rogers, who has had an anonymous Tour, smashed Wiggins' lead by 1'16! This amazing performance would propel the Aussie into the top ten overall.
World TT champion Cadel Evans went one better, taking the lead from Rogers by 19 seconds. Evans was more than two minutes faster than a guy like Cancellara!
Then it was down to the real GC business. Denis Menchov caught Sastre who started in front of him, and cemented his 5th place overall. Sastre's weak showing eventually saw him drop down two places in the GC to 8th.
Levi Leipheimer put up a strong performance, but our TT miracle man could do nothing about World champ Evans' time. Levi clocked in to a provisional 2nd, 13 seconds behind Cadel. That was our hopes of a stage win gone.
For Armstrong to grab 2nd overall, he needed to perform up to his absolute best today. A provisional 11th, 2'43 behind Evans did not bode well for his chances.
Andy Schleck was doing one of his best time trials ever, and the Luxembourger lost only 14 seconds to Armstrong. Andy put up a confident defence of his GC placing, and I must say his 2nd overall is fully deserved.
One man was left who could beat Evans for the stage win. Alberto Contador had no problems retaining his yellow jersey, but the stage win evaded him by 9 seconds. Anyway, he shoved Levi down to 3rd on the stage.
Today's winner
Results
1 Cadel Evans Rabobank 1h01'27
2 Alberto Contador Astana Cycling Team + 9 3 Levi Leipheimer Discovery Channel + 13
4 Michael Rogers Team Columbia - High Road + 20
5 Denis Menchov Rabobank + 1'33
6 Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream + 1'36
7 Vladimir Karpets Team Katusha + 1'51
8 Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank + 2'07
9 Ivan Basso Liquigas + 2'37 10 Gustav Larsson Discovery Channel + 2'38
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 262h55'28
2 Team Saxo Bank + 4'02
3 Astana Cycling Team + 31'14
Cadel Evans is unbeatable. For the second year in a row, he wins the final TT in the Tour. He also won the final TT in the Vuelta last year as well as the worlds. Definitely the best time trialist around at the moment. This performance catapults Evans from 9th to 6th in the GC.
Alberto Contador had no problems in securing his Tour win. Armstrong had no chance of overtaking Schleck for 2nd, and actually Leipheimer went quite close to leapfroging his leader to take the last podium spot. Only 10 seconds separates Lance and Levi in the GC after the stage. One positive to take away from this stage is our regained lead in the team competition. At least there was one position we managed to defend from last year's Tour.
Tactics meeting
True to the tradition, the Tour ends with the parade stage on Champs Elysees. Three weeks of suffering and a lot of ups and downs are finally over for the riders, who'll milk the applause from the public today. For the sprinters though, this is serious business. Of course there are very few sprinters in this Tour, so the final stage is very much up for grabs. Especially considering Thor Hushovd has just been cruising around for the past few stages, and doesn't seem to care a lot now that his green jersey is mathematically secure.
Astana led the peloton onto the Champs Elysees. Contador was sitting there comfortably in his yellow jersey.
The sprinter's finale was spearheaded by Saxobank, who were in front through the last turn with O'Grady and Cancellara. Quickstep duo Pineau & Gavazzi were close to the front as well, were they finally going to make it work?
Crash! Cunego went down in the home straight! Luckily, Armstrong managed to avoid the crashing Italian, who didn't bring anyone important down with him. Cunego got the same time as the pack in the end.
Now back to the sprint! Italians Carrara and Gasparotto were fighting for the lead, with Cancellara and S.Sanchez surging through on the inside.
Just before the line, Carrara was hanging on! But Sanchez held a much higher speed, could he end the Tour on a high?
Oh yes, he could! The Spanish stage win miracle man from last year's Vuelta finally gets a Tour stage win to go with his nice top ten placing overall. Good stuff from Sanchez!
Shortly after the stage, Contador collected his winner's trophy. We managed to get on the podium in Paris as winners of the team competition.
Today's winner
Results
1 Samuel Sánchez Euskaltel - Euskadi 2h55'51
2 Matteo Carrara Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team + 0
3 Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank + 0
4 Steven De Jongh Quick-Step + 0
5 Carlo Scognamiglio Liquigas + 0
6 Bobbie Traksel Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team + 0
7 Enrico Gasparotto Lampre - N.G.C + 0
8 Fabian Wegmann Team Milram + 0
9 Thor Hushovd Lampre - N.G.C + 0
10 Tom Leezer Rabobank + 0
So Contador wins his second Tour in pretty dominant fashion. Just like his Vuelta win last year, the time gaps are not huge, but nobody really came close to him. I had Andy Schleck as a candidate after his win on stage 14 to Chamrousse, but it seems he is still lacking some consistency.
Levi Leipheimer was our strongest rider during the last week, and the fact that he finished 10 seconds behind his leader Armstrong after riding as a helper for most of the race tells me that we may have backed the wrong horse. Anyway, two riders among the top 4 is a good result. Despite our win in the TTT, I'm unhappy we didn't win any individual stages.
Another team doing well in the GC is Rabobank. 5th and 6th for Menchov and Evans respectively, is a great achievement by the Dutchies. Add to that Leezer's stage win and Evans' TT win. Katusha faded completely after a successful first week, which saw Karpets wear the Maillot Jaune after his prologue win and Cunego winning two stages. Their two leaders finished way down in the GC in the end.
Other than Katusha's collapse, the Tour didn't see any major surprises. Maybe Basso was a bit disappointing in 12th, but he lost loads of time in the TTT, and did win a stage. Joly's performances were positively surprising, and the FdJ climber did well to become the best Frenchman.
I could have told you the outcome of the green jersey competition before the start in Cherbourg. Hushovd was the only sprinter of some quality in the Tour, and was never looking like losing the green jersey, picking up three stage wins along the way. His lead-out man Lorenzetto also won a stage, just like he did last year.
We had hopes of Egoi Martinez defending his polkadot jersey from last year, but he was sacrificed for the team instead. Carlos Sastre took the win here as a nice bonus to his 8th place in the GC. Sastre also won a medium mountain stage, showing off his secret sprint capabilities.
For the third year in succession, Andy Schleck takes home the white jersey for the best young rider. With the absence of Kreuziger, Gesink steps up one place higher in the youth rankings compared to last year. Tour de Suisse winner Brice Feillu didn't make good on the promise from that race, finishing a fair distance behind the two dominant youngsters. Tony Martin, 8th in this year's Giro, was nowhere in the Tour, and finished almost two hours down on Schleck.
Team classification 1 Discovery Channel 271h43'01
2 Team Saxo Bank + 4'02
3 Astana Cycling Team + 31'14
4 Euskaltel - Euskadi + 50'17
5 Française des Jeux + 50'46
Finally some success for us! Just like last year, we bring home the team prize. Saxobank gave us a good fight in the mountains, but had to give way in the final time trial.
When speaking of successful teams, Lampre is the first who springs to mind. Four stage wins and the green jersey is a good haul for the Italians. Katusha's three stage wins and a few days in the yellow jersey during the first week is also something to take home.
Some teams were completely invisible, like Milram and Fuji, or more surprisingly, Caisse d'Epargne. Their leader Joaquim Rodriguez finished way down the GC, and a couple of 5th places for Drujon were the best stage results the Spaniards achieved. Bbox Bouygues Telecom wasn't invited this year, but Vacansoleil did well in their place, winning a stage and being very visible on flat stages.
That's enough of La Grande Boucle for now! Congratulations to Contador, but beware, we will beat him next year! Now we'll be looking to the latter parts of the 2010 season, and we have quite a few interesting races coming up shortly, especially the Vuelta a España. Stay tuned!
Edited by Squire on 25-10-2010 02:21
Figured I could publish the jersey my team has been using during the Tour, just in case somebody wants it. I spent quite a bit of time making it, and it's a 100% accurate version of the jersey used in the 2007 Tour.
