STAGE 8 - Final Stage of the Dauphine
An early break went away but it was nothing serious. The only real action before the first climb was the puncture of 2nd overall, Cadel Evans. He received no help from his Aussies teammate but forged with Norwegian Jurgen Schanke to get back into the peleton.
5 riders attacked in pursuit of the breakaway on the first climb, Geraint Thomas, Alexsandr Kolobnev, David Moncoutie, Chris Horner and Antonio Colom. Horner punctured though and fell back. At the top of the 2nd climb, these 4 were now group E1 on the road, and were temporarily joined by an early escapee, Pedro M. Andrade Oliveira.
With 22km to go, they led over the top of the final hill. They had 1'23 over Andrey Grivko, Jason McCartney and Andrade Oliveira. With the 47 riders in Group Moreau 2 minutes behind.
Following the descent, and with 10km to go, things were looking good for the 4 riders, their lead to Grivko, McCartney and Andrade Oliveria had increased to 1'48, with the now 46 rider Group Moreau 2'11 behind.
Thomas was forced to lead the sprint and with 1km to go, Colom had edged in front.
But Geraint Thomas dug deep and defeated Colom for the win!
1 Geraint Thomas WALES 3h26'16
2 Antonio Colom SPAIN s.t.
3 Alexandr Kolobnev RUSSIA s.t.
4 David Moncoutié FRANCE s.t.
5 Assan Bazayev KAZAKHSTAN + 1'48
6 Maxim Iglinskiy KAZAKHSTAN s.t.
7 John Gadret FRANCE s.t.
8 Simon Gerrans AUSTRALIA s.t.
9 Saul Raisin UNITED STATES OF AMERICA s.t.
10 Mikhail Ignatiev RUSSIA s.t.
11 Kurt-Asle Arvesen NORWAY s.t.
12 Samuel Sánchez SPAIN s.t.
13 Dimitri Fofonov KAZAKHSTAN s.t.
14 Kurt Elkjær DENMARK s.t.
15 Yaroslav Popovych UKRAINE s.t.
1 Christophe Moreau FRANCE 30h04'25
2 Cadel Evans AUSTRALIA + 2'42
3 Alexandre Vinokourov KAZAKHSTAN + 2'50
4 Yaroslav Popovych UKRAINE + 3'36
5 Oscar Pereiro SPAIN + 3'38
6 Denis Menchov RUSSIA + 5'36
7 Thomas Lövkvist SWEDEN + 6'14
8 Vladimir Karpets RUSSIA + 7'22
9 Michael Rogers AUSTRALIA + 7'56
10 David Zabriskie UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + 8'56
11 Samuel Sánchez SPAIN + 9'43
12 Michael Rasmussen DENMARK + 9'57
13 Tom Danielson UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + 10'03
14 David Moncoutié FRANCE + 10'53
15 Rémy Di Gregorio FRANCE + 14'54
16 Igor Antón SPAIN + 15'54
17 Saul Raisin UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + 17'15
18 Andrei Mizourov KAZAKHSTAN + 17'33
19 John Gadret FRANCE + 17'54
20 Maxim Iglinskiy KAZAKHSTAN + 19'38
21 Chris Horner UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + 21'07
22 Jason McCartney UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + 22'14
23 Blaise Sonnery FRANCE + 22'45
24 José Antonio Redondo SPAIN + 23'21
25 José Serpa COLOMBIA + 24'25
26 Geraint Thomas WALES + 24'44
27 Julián Rodas COLOMBIA + 24'46
28 James McCallum SCOTLAND + 26'07
29 Kurt Elkjær DENMARK + 30'00
30 Antonio Colom SPAIN + 30'56
32 David Millar SCOTLAND + 31'40
35 Charles Wegelius ENGLAND + 34'55
78 Adam Richardson ENGLAND + 1h22'24
123 Marc John WALES + 2h23'06
Many of the stage finishes gave no points whatsoever, hence the low points totals: 1 Vladimir Karpets RUSSIA 44
2 Cadel Evans AUSTRALIA 42
3 David Millar SCOTLAND 42
4 Alexandre Vinokourov KAZAKHSTAN 39
5 Oscar Pereiro SPAIN 38
6 Christophe Moreau FRANCE 34
7 Thomas Lövkvist SWEDEN 33
8 David Zabriskie UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 32
9 Michael Rogers AUSTRALIA 32
10 Yaroslav Popovych UKRAINE 32
11 Sérgio Ribeiro PORTUGAL 32
12 Denis Menchov RUSSIA 31
13 Russell Downing ENGLAND 31
14 Tom Boonen BELGIUM 29
15 Igor Antón SPAIN 25
1 Igor Antón SPAIN 167
2 Michael Rasmussen DENMARK 160
3 Cadel Evans AUSTRALIA 124
4 Christophe Moreau FRANCE 118
5 Alexandre Vinokourov KAZAKHSTAN 101
6 Oscar Pereiro SPAIN 100
7 Yaroslav Popovych UKRAINE 85
8 Thomas Lövkvist SWEDEN 80
9 Denis Menchov RUSSIA 68
10 John Gadret FRANCE 51
11 Andrei Mizourov KAZAKHSTAN 48
12 Samuel Sánchez SPAIN 45
13 David Moncoutié FRANCE 40
14 Sylvain Calzati FRANCE 40
15 Michael Rogers AUSTRALIA 36
SportingNonsense wrote:
STAGE 8 - Final Stage of the Dauphine
An early break went away but it was nothing serious. The only real action before the first climb was the puncture of 2nd overall, Cadel Evans. He received no help from his Aussies teammate but forged with Norwegian Jurgen Schanke to get back into the peleton.
5 riders attacked in pursuit of the breakaway on the first climb, Geraint Thomas, Alexsandr Kolobnev, David Moncoutie, Chris Horner and Antonio Colom. Horner punctured though and fell back. At the top of the 2nd climb, these 4 were now group E1 on the road, and were temporarily joined by an early escapee, Pedro M. Andrade Oliveira.
(...)
The above post was actually post number 10.000 here at PCM.daily (not counting deleted posts)