Thomas Dekker Robbie McEwen José Antonio Redondo Thomas Dekker
Kreuziger, Kilun, Soler, Velo, Van der Velde, Vasseur and Gilbert, were later caught by Tiralongo (Lampre) and an Auber rider.
Pena and Gil punctured but got back in. Discovery's Siutsou crashed and is obviously injured and is riding in a group containing the lantern rouge, Russel Downing. Astana's frenchman: Mazet, also fell, but he had been dropped anyway.
We also had our 2nd abandonment of the tour (After Fofonov yesterday), Ag2r's Hubert Dupont withdrew for unknown circumstances.
The Col de la Colombiere soon begins and having dropped the Auber rider, the break of 8 have a 4 minute advantage. Van der Velde and Kreuziger soon dropped off, and the break were down to 5 when HealthNet's Kilun fell backwards.
Mauricio Soler sets a fast tempo in the break, which immediately drops Vasseur, Gilbert and Tiralongo. Velo is only just hanging on. Soler's lead over the 59-man peleton is already down to 3 minutes though.
T-Mobile and a couple of Credit Agricole and Bouygues riders are setting a tough pace in the peleton, now down to 46 and have caught Van der Velde and Kreuziger.
A number of attacks came on the climb, but Thomas Dekker's was the first to stick, he caught and passed Soler, but then another rider attacked and took the lead on the road.
Further back, it would seem that if you crash, you will struggle. Some struggle badly, like Contador. Some just cant climb how they should, like Valverde and Evans:
Vinokourov led over the top.
Behind him were a trio chasing: Dekker, Leipheimer and Moreau. Schleck, Gil, Perez Sanchez, Julich and Kashechkin were the next group on the road and had a marginal 20 second gap over the chasing pack. Parra and Cardenas should have been in Group Schleck but could not hang on in the descent and well back to the pack behund.
Vinokourov extended his gap and looked a dead cert for stage win and Yellow jersey.
Until...
Vinokourov is also passed by Schlecks group and falls into the pack behind, which as you can see, should easily catch Schleck's group in the sprint:
Up front, 3 men would now fight for 1st place instead of 2nd, and one man was extra-motivated. Maybe the fact that he would be staying in yellow spurred him on? I expect it did.
In the end Vinokourov only lost the time he should have gained, but most of the riders who have crashed so far, such as Valverde, Evans and Contador have gone on to lose more time, so we will have to wait until tomorrows test to find out if Vino is still a tour contender.
Marco Velo was our 3rd withdrawal. He was sprinting his way to 49th and suddenly stopped.
