The second stage in the Pyrenees is not as hard as the first. There is only one big climb, but it is a colossus: the Col d'Aubisque. Its top is 40 kilometers from the finish in Lourdes, so movements by the favorites to the GC are not expected today. Probably a break will have an edge today.
It took quite some effort to form a break today. The peloton reeled back a couple of groups before they let a group of 12 get away with it. There were some good riders in it, like Jose Joaquin Rojas (Lotto), Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel), Geraint Thomas (Garmin), Andreas Kloden (HTC), Peter Stetina (BMC) and Carlso Barredo (Katusha). They were enjoying a good lead in the intermediate sprint: 7' 30''.
Saxo Bank, Vacansoleil and Discovery take turns at the front of the peloton to chase halfway through the Aubisque. They have cut the lead to 4' 45'' when there are still 54 kilometers remaining.
Peter Stetina attacked in the last kilometers of the Aubisque and had dragged Carlos Barredo with him. However, the Spaniard went through the top losing 15 seconds. The group of 10 chasers was 1' 40'' behind. Meanwhile, the bunch took it easy and refused to fight for the stage win as they were losing 5' 30'' at the top.
Carlos Barredo managed to catch Peter Stetina shortly after they reached the flat 12 kilometers towards Lourdes. They have plenty of time over the chasing group, so one of them will have for the victory.
The couple reaches the last kilometer and they start the sprint fairly matched. Barredo is a slightly better sprinter, but it could all be down to who has the best legs. The chasers have reduced the gap to 1 minute. Meanwhile, some favorites for the GC have attacked on the main group
Carlos Barredo wins in Lourdes! The Spaniard wins with a small margin over Peter Stetina. Barredo had already won in the Dauphine this year, so he is completing a rather good season. In the chasing group Fran Ventoso took the third place ahead of Stefan van Dijk. The group arrived 42 seconds behind the winner.
In what can be qualified as a surprising outcome, two groups arrived ahead of the peloton due to attacks in the closing flat kilometers. The first one lost 2' 48'' to the winner and had riders like Bart de Clerq, Andy Schleck and the World Champion Jelle Vanendert. Another group with Dupont, Nieve and Mollema arrived 3' 26'' behind and the main group lost 4 minutes to the winner.
Even though the changes in the GC are not too big it is surprising to see the favorites attacking in the flat (and gaining time!). However, the time gaps will probably be much bigger tomorrow, as the final climb to Plateau de Beille is one of the hardest climb of the Tour de France.
Tour de France Stage 14: Saint-Gaudens - Plateau de Beille
The block of stages on the Pyrenees comes to an end with a very tough route from Saint-Gaudens to Plateau de Beille. The riders will have to go through some tough cols, like Portet d'Aspet, la Core and Agnes apart from the final 17 kilometers towards Plateau de Beille. However, the favorites should probably wait for Plateau de Beille to attack, as the flat between Lers and Plateau de Beille is too long for solo efforts. A stage that should definitely open some more gaps in the GC.
The break of the day had a very surprising member: Bart de Clerq (Lampre). The eleventh in the GC is a great climber and it is surprising that Saxo Bank let him go. He jumped after the established break at the start of the Col de la Core along with 3 other riders including Jakob Fuglsang, but he let them all behind to join the front group of eight. Some of his fellows in the break were Maxim Iglinskiy (Astana), Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel) and Juanjo Cobo (Sky). Jakob Fuglsang was 50 seconds behind at the top of the Col, while the bunch was 6' 50'' back.
The Col d'Agnes was tough on the riders and the break reduced to four riders: De Clerq, Capecchi, Kiserlovski and Fuglsang, who had connected in the descent of la Core. 45 seconds behind is Juanjo Cobo. In the peloton there were breaks as well, as a group of only 6 riders remained in front: Dupont, Frank Schleck, Ruijgh, Weening, Leipheimer and Mollema. This group had almost one minute on the chasers. The bad news were the abandon of Vincenzo Nibali, who crashed out of the race in the descent of the Col de Latrape.
A group of favorites with around 35 riders had formed in the flat before the last climb of the day where only George Hincapie and David Lopez were missing. However, 5 kilometers before the start of Plateau de Beille Dries Devenyns crashed out of the favorites group. Meanwhile, the adventure of the 5 men that remained in front was about to end, as they only had 1' 35'' on the favorites group and 3' 50'' on the bigger bunch. De Clerq will probably pay for the extra efforts he has done.
Hubert Dupont leads the group of favorites through the 10 kilometers to the finish banner. There have been no attacks, but the group has been reduced to 14 riders. 1 minute behind is David Lopez, who has set a high pace since the last climb started. 1' 15'' behind is another group of 14 with riders like Vanendert and Van Garderen losing time. Meanwhile, George Hincapie is still losing 2' 10''.
Dries Devenyns is suffering from his earlier crash and he loses 2 minutes as the riders face the last 7 kilometers of the stage. In the favorites group only Mikel Nieve seems to be keen to put a higher pace, while the other seem satisfied to not lose time.
Mikel Nieve finally broke the front group in the last 4 kilometers. Only Hubert Dupont and Frank Schleck are strong enough to follow. The chasers, where Hincapie has miraculously arrived, are 30 seconds back. Meanwhile, David Lopez run out of gas and is sitting 1' 45'' behind in a group with Rebellin and Devenyns.
Mikel Nieve left everyone behind and reaches the last kilometer 25 seconds ahead of the favorites group, where Dupont and Schleck are back. The Spaniard will probably cut the small lead that Dupont has on him.
Mikel Nieve wins in Plateau de Beille! The Spaniard takes his second stage win in the Tour after having won in Mur de Bretagne. His gap to the next group was only 20 seconds, so he will not be able to grab the leader's jersey from Dupont. Rob Ruijgh took the second place in the stage ahead of George Hincapie. The recovery of the American was fantastic and who knows what he could have done had he reached the final climb in the first group.
Bart de Clerq and Andy Schleck lost some more time, as they crossed the line 46 seconds behind. Van Garderen and Pinot lost 1' 21''. The GC has now tightened a lot in the first 2 places. Mikel Nieve is only 13 seconds behind Hubert Dupont after the Pyrenees. However, today's stage was a bit disappointing as the leading riders were more worried about not losing a lot of time than about gaining anything from the stage.
The last stage of the second week in the Tour is one of the last chances for the sprinters. The route is fairly long, at almost 200 kilometers, but also fairly easy. If the teams with strong sprinters decide to chase the break down its chances of succeeding will be very small.
A group of 6 riders tried to win the stage through a break. There were some decent riders, like Kenny van Hummel (Rabobank), Greg van Avermaet (Movistar), Simone Ponzi (Katusha) and Denis Galimzyanov (BMC). With 90 kilometers remaining they had a big gap on the bunch of 9' 20''.
No matter how big the gap was to the break, Astana and Sky wouldn't let any of them reach the finish in a flat stage. Greg van Avermaet was the last rider to be reeled back in while the bunch still had 20 kilometers remaining.
Several sprint trains formed today as all of the sprinters will not be able to do anything in the following stage. BMC was the leading one as Alessandro Ballan dragged Sacha Modolo and Liquigas' Lloyd Mondory. In Vacasoleil, Sebastian Langeveld was ahead of Peter Sagan with Peter Kennaugh on his wheel. Lastly, Lotto had Jose Joaquin Rojas leading Andre Greipel.
Peter Sagan led the way in the sprint followed by Peter Kennaugh, Sacha Modolo and Andre Greipel. Hubert Dupont is surprisingly trying to get something out of today's stage, but he doesn't have the sprinting capabilities of the men surrounding him. The sprinters with the most points, Vinokourov and Gallopin, are nowhere to be seen.
Peter Sagan wins in Montpellier! That's the second stage win in the Tour for the Slovak, who had already won in Chateauroux. Peter Kennaugh was a nice surprise in today's sprint, but he was not strong enough to beat Sagan. The third place goes to Lloyd Mondory, a small joy for Liquigas as the Italian team has been lackluster the whole year.
Not much changed in the overall picture of the race. Peter Sagan climbed to the third place in the points competition, but other than that everything remained the same before the second rest day.
Tour de France Stage 16: Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux - Gap
The sixteenth stage takes the rider to the doors of the Alps. A rather flat stage between Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux and Gap has the final trap of the Col de Manse, a climb of 10.5 kilometers averaging 5.2%. Having such a tough climb makes a sprint almost impossible and we could even see some GC movements.
A break of 10 riders had 8 minutes on the bunch as they crossed the halfway stage of the race. Among the most important riders in it were Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel), John Degenkolb (Lampre), Geraint Thomas (Garmin), Laurens Ten Dam (Liquigas) and Stefan van Dijk (Rabobank)
Neither Saxo Bank nor any other team was willing to chase and the break reached the Col de Manse 11 minutes ahead of the peloton. 3 kilometers from the top Laurens Ten Dam attacked and only Maxime Monfort seemed able to follow.
The favorites in the GC were also keen to attack in the climb after a rather relaxed day. Peter Weening, Frank Schleck, Bauke Mollema and Mikel Nieve all tried to get away 5 kilometers from the top. However, they were all reeled back in.
Ten Dam and Monfort were joined by Ventoso and Kiserlovski at the top of the Col de Manse. However, the other members of the break were not far behind. In the peloton, Pieter Weening had a few meters over the bunch.
The 10 riders from the break eventually rejoined in the descent towards Gap. They where going to fight for the stage win in a small sprint. John Degenkolb was leading the sprint with 1 km remaining ahead of Stefan van Dijk, Maxim Iglinskiy and Fran Ventoso.
Stefan van Dijk wins in Gap! The Dutch beat Fran Ventoso after a great sprint by the two of them. Van Dijk had been fighting in a lot of breaks in this Tour and finally gets his reward. Degenkolb, who was one of the favorites and was leading the sprint, run out of energy and ended up finishing 7th. The final place of the stage podium went to Geraint Thomas.
In the main bunch a group of 10 riders gained slightly more than 1 minute on the bunch. The most important fact is that Mikel Nieve was in this group but Hubert Dupont was not. This means that the Spaniard gets the leader's jersey ahead of the Alps.
Among the other main riders that gained time today were Bauke Mollema, Pieter Weening, Andy Schleck and David Lopez. No major changes are expected tomorrow, when the Tour enters Italian soil to end in Pinerolo unless someone is willing to attack more than 50 kilometers from the finish. However, the following three stages will be decisive for the outcome of the Tour.
The Tour reaches the Alps with a stage where the most important climbs are far away from the finish. The climbs to Montgenevre and Sestriere are not too hard for what the Alps offer and the top of Sestriere is 65 kilometers from the finish in Pinerolo. Any attacks are therefore expected in the Col de Pramartino, only 9 kilometers from the finish.
A break of 8 riders was comfortably on the lead at the top of Montgenevre. The main riders in the group were Stefano Garzelli (Liquigas), Michael Matthews (Garmin), Marco Marcato (Lampre) and David Millar (Sky). With a gap of 8 minutes on the bunch, the teams willing to win the stage would better start working to chase.
The race enters the Italian territory at the Sestriere sky resort. Frank Schleck and George Hincapie jumped to get the remaining KoM points, but the pace wasn't too hard on the climb. The break still has 6' 10'' on the peloton and it will be difficult that their lead decreases a lot in the long descent.
The stage win was clearly in the break when they reached the climb of Pramartino. However, Andy Schleck was aiming at recovering a bit of time in the GC and attacked 3 kilometers from the top. Thibaut Pinot and Jelle Vanendert tried to follow, but they couldn't join the HTC rider.
Julien Simon, Marco Marcato and Romain Feillu left behind the other riders in the break and go through the KoM sprint with a gap big enough to win the stage. Meanwhile, the bunch still has a couple of kilometers to climb. Andy Schleck has 40 seconds on Mollema and Vanendert and 1' 15'' on the rest of the favorites.
Bart de Clerq joined Mollema and Vanendert as they reached the top of Pramartino. Frank Schleck tries to react but he is far behind. In the group of favorites Mikel Nieve and Hubert Dupont don't seem to be having a great day. They could lose a bit of time in the finish line.
The trio in front arrives in Pinerolo and Julien Simon is the first to start the sprint. The Ag2r rider is followed by Marco Marcato and Romain Feillu. The Italian is trying to win the stage in front of his home crowd.
Marco Marcato wins in Pinerolo! Marcato narrowly got past Julien Simon as the crowd cheered for him. This is the second win in the Tour for Lampre after the win by Yauheni Hutarovich in the third stage. Simon took the second place ahead of his fellow French Romain Feillu. On the second group coming from the break Niki Terpstra took the fourth place 50 seconds behind the winner.
Andy Schleck maintained a small gap on his chasers as he crossed the finish line almost 3 minutes behind the winner. Mollema, De Clerq and Vanendert almost caught the HTC rider, as the difference was only 14 seconds between them.
The bunch did lose quite a bit of time at the end and, most surprisingly, Mikel Nieve lost the leader's jersey to Bauke Mollema by only 8 seconds. Frank Schleck stopped the clock for the bunch almost 2 minutes behind Andy Schleck, a huge amount of time for an attack in a climb like Pramartino. Many riders in the main group either thought that there wasn't much to win in today's stage or weren't feeling too good. However, it turned out to be completely the opposite.
Tony Gallopin started his career in the World Tour last year in the Omega Pharma - Quickstep team. As a rookie, the main task was helping the leaders of the team, Dries Devenyns and Sylvain Chavanel. The main targets of the team were the hilly classics, with a top 10 aim in the Giro for Devenyns. Gallopin did a good job as a domestique but also showed some results that suggested that a free role in some races would be good for the French.
Gallopin got his first win in his maiden year. He completed a break in the last stage of the Dauphine beating Mikel Nieve and Chris Froome in the final sprint. Tony added a podium finish in the Eneco Tour later in the year. Those results made the director of the team give him a better role in this year's team.
Gallopin developed into a good sprinter this year, but his aim is more than a pure sprinter, the French can also perform in slightly hilly stages. Quickstep made a big investment to bring Pieter Weening into the team this year and laid off Sylvain Chavanel. The results cannot be better, as they clearly lead the World Tour and the win count is up to 11 so far.
Gallopin has already won three sprints so far including the sixth stage of the Tour de France, which had a final with some small hills that the purest sprinters had trouble going through. His three wins also mean that he is the sprinter with the most wins, along with Sacha Modolo, Peter Sagan and Alexandre Vinokourov.
The target for the Frenchman is now the final stage of the Tour in Paris, the dream of every French sprinter. He will also have chances to shine in the following Tour de Pologne. However, considering the big picture, Gallopin could become a world class sprinter if his development follows the way that it has taken this year.
Wins:
2011
- 1st Stage 8 Criterium du Dauphine
2012
- 1st Stage 1 Tour Down Under
- 1st Young jersey Tour Down Under
- 1st Stage 3 Tirreno - Adriatico
- 1st Points jersey Tirreno - Adriatico
- 1st Stage 6 Tour de France
Other notable results:
- 3rd 2011 Eneco Tour
- 2nd 2012 Tour Down Under
- 7th 2012 Milano - Sanremo
Tour de France Stage 18: Pinerolo - Galibier Serre Chevalier
Probably the most important stage in the Tour arrives in the 18th stage. The riders will have to go through the Agnel, the Izoard and the Galibier in a stage slightly over 200 kilometers. If the race breaks before the Galibier we could see big time differences, but it will depend on the attitude of the riders as the Galibier is climbed from the South, the easier of the sides.
The break of the day reached the Agnel after endless kilometers of climbing (officially 30 kilometers). The group of 8 riders included Juanjo Cobo (Sky), Oscar Freire (Rabobank), Tom Danielson (Garmin) and Rui Costa (Ag2r). Their gap had reached 10 minutes, but when Peter Stetina and Jakob Fuglsang jumped from the bunch it started to go down. Stetina was 6' 15'' behind at the top, while Fuglsang lost 6' 50''. Meanwhile, Vacansoleil didn't have climbers to control the race, so Tiago Machado (Saxo) took the responsibility to chase. They were losing 8' 35'' at that point.
Peter Stetina (BMC) was trying to replicate his tremendous win in the Dauphine. As he went through the top of the Izoard the American was about to catch the main group of the break. Ahead of the break, Elia Viviani had gone solo and his gap was 1' 30''. The bunch had lost a lot of riders in the climb to the Izoard and was now a group of favorites of around 40 riders. They were 5 minutes behind Viviani.
Frank Schleck did a tremendous attack in the flat before the Galibier taking advantage of the other riders' doubts on whether to chase Stetina. After 4 kilometers of climbing and 20 kilometers from the finish the Radioshack rider was already leading the stage. 1 minute behind was a group of 4: Hincapie, Van Garderen, De Clerq and Stetina. Losing 1' 40'' were Pinot and Fuglsang and the group with the leader was 2' 20'' behind.
Andy Schleck is the first rider to attack from the group of favorites in the climb, trying to defend his place in the GC against his brother. Frank's gap continues to increase, as he has 2 minutes on Hincapie, Van Garderen and De Clerq. Andy is 2' 40'' behind and the group of favorites is losing 2' 55'' already. Frank is almost 4 minutes down in the GC, so he is already threatening Dupont's place.
Tejay van Garderen is riding an amazing stage today as he tries to go alone after Frank Schleck. He is still losing 2 minutes. Behind him, a group of 9 riders took shape including all of the riders from the top 10 in the GC. They are gaining time on Schleck, as they are now 2' 25'' behind.
Hincapie and Ruijgh seem to lose track with the group of favorites with 4 kilometers remaining. The group is now down to 6 riders even after they caught Van Garderen. The time loss with Frank Schleck is now 2' 10''. If it stabilizes around that point, Frank will not move into a podium place today.
Frank Schleck is going to win the Galibier stage. He even has increased his gap on the favorites, as none of the riders in the group wants to set the pace. Bauke Mollema's lead is in no danger and he can play with the time he is expected to win in Saturday's time trial.
Frank Schleck wins in the Galibier! The Radioshack rider is completing his best season so far as he makes it 5 wins. Frank is now leading the victory count of the year. With the amount of time he had over the favorites group, he could well challenge for the podium spot that Dupont is holding right now.
His brother Andy charged in the last kilometer to grab 9 seconds over the group of favorites, where Dupont got the third place in the stage and Nieve was 4th. The loss of this group was slightly more than 2 minutes, so Frank Schleck will move to the 4th place in the GC, only 1' 34'' behind Mollema.
The GC is very tight but it is difficult to see beyond Mollema. Tomorrow's stage is very short, so the differences among the favorites should be small and the time trial clearly favors the Dutch. Mollema's should get a gap of more than 1 minute over the other favorites in that stage.
There have been changes in the other classifications as well. Mikel Nieve now leads the mountain jersey and Frank Schleck regained the lead in the point's competition. This will be a very tight competition but Vinokourov will find it almost impossible now with only Paris to get some points. In the youngster classification Pinot put 1' 30'' on Rebellin today and the French looks good to take the white jersey home.
The last mountain stage of the Tour is really short, but very interesting nonetheless. In only 110 kilometers the riders will have to face the climbs to the Telegraphe, the Galibier and the Alpe d'Huez. Even though there is terrain to attack, the important riders will probably wait until the climb to Alpe d'Huez to make their moves. The riders chasing Bauke Mollema will need to attack if they want to win the Tour, as the time trial greatly benefits the Dutch.
The only attack in the slopes of the Telegraphe was quickly reeled back in by the bunch. That allowed Bart de Clerq to jump and take the points of the KoM. He moves into the first place of this classification by taking all the points available at this climb.
A break did take shape in the Galibier as Vacansoleil wasn't interested in a high pace from the peloton. They barely have any riders that can stay with Mollema, so they cannot do any exhibition. The group of 8 that was ahead included riders like Johan van Summeren (Quickstep), Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel), Carlos Barredo (Katusha) and Michael Matthews (Garmin). They were 3' 15'' ahead in the KoM sprint.
Bart de Clerq has to get the prize for the braveness in this Tour. The 10th placed in the GC attacked at the beginning of the descent of the Galibier. He was losing only 35'' on the break at the intermediate sprint of Bourg-d'Oisans, while the peloton was almost 3 minutes behind. The Lampre rider did a kamikaze descent and almost caught the break as they are going to start climbing Alpe d'Huez.
Tejay van Garderen couldn't wait if he wanted to defend his place in the GC and attacked at the start of Alpe d'Huez. At 12 km to the finish De Clerq is already leading the race after easily going past the break. He leads the riders from the break by 1' 20''; Van Garderen is 2' 25'' behind and the bunch is losing 3' 10''.
Frank Schleck looks good today after his great win yesterday. The third place in the GC for Dupont is in danger as the French is suffering to follow the pace of the strongest. De Clerq is now 2 minutes ahead of Van Garderen; 2' 25'' ahead of F. Schleck and 2' 40'' ahead of the favorites. Weening and Andy Schleck aren't having a great day today and lost track with the favorites group.
Hubert Dupont joins the group of favorites after trailing slightly behind for much of the climb. Van Garderen was caught and the chasing group slowed a bit, what allowed De Clerq to increase his gap to 2' 45''. David Lopez was left behind and he loses 3' 50'', while Weening and Andy Schleck are now 4' 05'' behind.
Bart de Clerq wins in Alpe d'Huez! The Belgian deservedly takes his stage win in the Tour after an attack 60 kilometers away from the mountain top finish. Apart from the stage win, the Lampre rider also secures the Mountain jersey, as he took lots of points today.
Mollema and Van Garderen tried to get something out of the last kilometer, but the rest of the group follows closely. The difference to De Clerq is going to be close to the 3 minute mark.
Van Garderen takes the second place in the stage ahead of Mollema. The Dutch increases the gap to Mikel Nieve to 12 seconds ahead of the time trial. None of the riders of the chasers lost any time, but Weening and Lopez arrived together losing almost 1' 30'' to this group and Andy Schleck lost as much as 2 minutes.
This result leaves Bart de Clerq up in the 5th place in the GC from the 10th spot he had yesterday. Rob Ruijgh was able to maintain the 7th spot after Andy Schleck dropped to 8th. The point's competition has become very interesting, as Frank Schleck is leading 1 point ahead of Mikel Nieve but Vinokourov and Mollema are still in contention. In the young's classification, Thibaut Pinot put another handful of seconds on Rebellin and is set to take the jersey in Paris.
Tour de France Stage 20: Grenoble - Grenoble (ITT)
The penultimate stage of the Tour is the only individual time trial of this year's route. The stage is really hard with two small climbs in the first part of the 43 kilometers time trial. Bauke Mollema has a small advantage over Mikel Nieve, but his win in the GC should be safe barring any major incident today. The fight for the third place will also be interesting but Dupont seems to have an edge.
Denis Menchov (Katusha) was the first of today's featured riders. The Russian had a poor Tour after his crash in Mur de Bretagne but today he was feeling better. Samuel Sanchez had the best time so far and Menchov improved the Spaniard by 5 second in the finish line.
Cadel Evans (Discovery) was meant to do a good time trial today but all the helping to Mikel Nieve during the last days has weighed on the Australian. He still got in the provisional top ten, 26 seconds behind Menchov.
Levi Leipheimer (HTC) is finishing the Tour very strong and he showed it by beating the best time so far. Steven Kruijswijk had gone ahead of Menchov and Levi improves the Dutch's time by 15 seconds in the finish line.
The World Champion, Jelle Vanendert (Lotto), couldn't get into the top 10 in the Tour by a narrow margin. Today he was pretty good, setting a provisional 6th time 35 seconds behind Leipheimer.
Andy Schleck (HTC) was close to both Ruijgh and Hincapie in the GC. However, the three of them made a very similar time trial and didn't exchange positions. Andy was the best of the three, setting the 12th provisional best 42 seconds behind Leipheimer.
Bart de Clerq (Lampre) was too far behind the fourth place to fight for anything. He secured the mountain jersey yesterday, so his Tour has been very good. He is a good time trialist anyway and he set a good time. He set the 6th provisional best 34 seconds behind.
Frank Schleck (Radioshack) was fourth ahead of the stage, but Hubert Dupont is expected to keep his position. The Radioshack rider did his best to record the 17th provisional time, 50 seconds behind Leipheimer.
Hubert Dupont comfortably maintained the third position in the GC. The French was clearly faster than F. Schleck in all the intermediate times and records a great 4th provisional best in the finish line. He was 26 seconds slower than Leipheimer.
Mikel Nieve (Discovery) was quite good and reached the provisional top 10 in the stage 37 seconds behind. The Spaniard has made a great leap forward in the Tour de France after having already being in the podium last year in the Giro.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) never gave a chance for surprises and won the time trial today by being 15 seconds faster than Levi Leipheimer. The Dutch is set to take his first Grand Tour win tomorrow in Paris and complete a wonderful season.
Mikel Nieve will finish second, a bit more than 1 minute behind while the third place in the podium will be for Hubert Dupont. Those two riders were in the podium last year in the Giro. The winner of last year's Giro, Pieter Weening will have to settle for the 6th spot.
Mollema is also in the lead of the points competition as well. However, tomorrow things could change in Paris.
The Tour comes to an end with the final party in Paris. A very short stage from Creteil to Paris will allow Bauke Mollema to enjoy his yellow jersey in a final quiet day. The circuit in the Champs-Elysees will probably give us the last mass sprint in this Tour.
Julien Simon (Ag2r) wanted to be on the cameras as the riders entered the circuit. He had a small gap of 25 seconds on a group of 7, including Michael Albasini (Radioshack), Carlos Barredo (Katusha) and Tom Boonen (Lotto). The main group was far away, almost 6 minutes behind. They would have to chase hard to reel the break back in the 45 kilometers remaining.
The bunch misjudged horribly the gap to the break and is trailing more than 2 minutes behind with 6 kilometers remaining. Simon is still 12 seconds ahead of the group, but they are rapidly closing in the French. However, three of the chasers crashed in one of the turns of the Avenue: McEwen, Barredo and Galimzyanov. They lost all their chances to fight for the stage win.
Julien Simon is caught by the chasers within the last 2 kilometers and they soon start sprinting. Tom Boonen is the first to go for the finish line and he is followed by Luca Paolini, Julien Simon and Michael Albasini.
Tom Boonen wins in Paris! The Belgian holds off Michael Albasini, who charged in the last part of the sprint to take his first win of the season. The win of the break is a massive surprise in the Champs-Elysees but it can be blamed on the bunch. It seems like they had too much champagne at the starting kilometers of the stage. Heinrich Haussler won the sprint in the main group ahead of Alexandre Vinokourov.
Bauke Mollema was the main favorite ahead of the Tour de France, after his previous wins in Tirreno - Adriatico and Dauphine, and he delivered a great win in a route that didn't particularly benefit him due to the lack of time trial kilometers. Mikel Nieve and Hubert Dupont join him in the podium, a place where they had been slightly more than one year ago in the Giro.
Mollema also came on top of the point's jersey. The Dutch never seemed to be fighting fo the jersey, but his good places in the Alps stages added to his win in the time trial ended up giving him the overall win in the competition. Mikel Nieve and Frank Schleck ended behind the Dutch.
The mountain's classification was won by Bart de Clerq two days ago. The brave Belgian got a lot of points in the stages of Plateau de Beille and Alpe d'Huez, putting him far ahead everyone else. Mikel Nieve was also second and George Hincapie got the third place.
The fight for the white jersey was hard between the two riders fighting for it. In the end, Thibaut Pinot came ahead of Davide Rebellin and signaled that we may expect big things from the French rider. Ag2r was very happy to be in the final podium in Paris. It is a big milestone for the new French team.
The last trophy, but not the least important, was the team's classification. HTC won this year ahead of Euskaltel and Quickstep in a very close competition. Quickstep was close to snatching the win after Daniele was in today's break. They only came short of winning by 32 seconds.
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