An interesting little scenario has developed here in my TDF 2009 game.
Evans was the man for the Maillot Jaune - we made that clear before the tour began.
Van Den Broeck and Dekker were to fight it out amongst themselves for the White Jersey, with the one of those eventually out of contention to help Cadel in his quest for the Maillot Jaune.
Aerts was brought into the team to help Cadel on all stages as a domestique.
Delage was trying to win a few stages on home soil, and with some luck, get a bolter's shot at the Green Jersey.
This is PCM 09 on the PSP by the way.
Here are the current standings of TDF 09 heading into the penultimate stage up Mt Ventoux (Baldy).
Aerts has decided to switch allegiance and try to assist to get the Maillot Jaune on young country-man Van Den Broecks back heading into Paris.
Evans and Dekker appear to be fitter though.
Dekker tried to TT his way to a stage win on yesterday's flat stage but was caught by the Peloton with 6km remaining, so he'll start on level time with VDB.
Evans, with better stamina and mountain climbing abilities than Dekker and VDB will most likely attack early on, try to get a sizeable time gap, and try holding them out.
Dekker will probably try and stay close to Aerts and VDB up Ventoux and make sure VDB does not overtake him in the standings.
Secretly, with the team being a Belgian one, Team Silence Lotto would like the young Belgian to bring home the Maillot Jaune, and would like other team members to treat that like team orders.
But with Dekker and Evans both having a first ever shot at the GC in the TDF, there will be no love lost between team members, and it looks like every man here will fight it for themselves. They all want the shot at the Maillot Jaune for the first time.
BTW, Contador is in 4th over 6 minutes down to the top 3 riders from Silence Lotto - so essentially he's out of contention here.
With Aerts to help out his Belgian compatriot win it for Belgium, and for Silence Lotto (over 21 minutes ahead in Team standings), it'll be every man for himself as far as Dekker and Evans are concerned.
Delage is 2nd to Dekker in the points classification by 11 points, so if Dekker doesn't pick up much today, Delage will have his chance to wear the Green Jersey in his home tour if he can win or place high on the Champs Elysees on the final stage which comes after this one.
KoM = VDB as well.
This has been a total Silence Lotto domination.
What a team conundrum and in-fight has developed. And may the best rider win!
So, here were the overall GC standings before the climb up Mont Ventoux on stage 20: (double click on all images to enlarge if un-readable)
The stage profile is 123km and consists of the 2 category 2 cols (D'Ey and des Abeilles), 1 category 3 col (Fontaube) and the final climb to the mountain-top finish on Mont Ventoux:
The riders leave Montelimar and the Peloton look to be taking it easy for the first 10 or so km, before the attacks start coming. No solid breakaway group formed, however, but a few riders did go for the points on the first and only intermediate sprint of the day.
As soon as the road started heading skywards, as predicted, Cadel Evans attacked when the gradient hit around the 4.5% mark on the Col D'Ey, the first categorised climb for the day. He was trying to make up the lost time to his teammates early on this stage, and wanted to blow the whole race wide open again on the penultimate stage of the 2009 TDF. VDB and Dekker, however, happily sat back in the Peloton, not too concerned by this Evans attack. Dekker closely marking VDB, and Aerts closely marking Dekker for his younger Belgian team-mate.all 3 riders were riding close to each other in the peloton over those first few categorised climbs.
Meanwhile, before all the riders had known what was happening, Evans had opened up a 5 minute gap to the rest of the field, soloing his way over all the 3 categorised climbs of the day, picking up a swag of KOM points in the process. At least if he were not able to hold out by the 3'15" he needed to in order to get into the Maillot Jaune, then he would have chance (mathematically) of securing the polka-dot jersey in this TdF. Small consolation, especially since his aim before the start of the Tour was to wear the Maillot Jaune into Paris.
Evans then hit the start of the Ventoux climb, but he appeared to be waning in energy. Would he be able to hold off the other riders and keep enough of a time gap to get into the Maillot Jaune on this penultimate stage of the TdF? Whilst he was climbing the other riders were conserving energy and gaining time on him on the flatter section of today’s route between the earlier climbs and Ventoux. The gap had now been reduced to less than 3 minutes and was falling rapidly. It looked like Cadel's efforts to wear the Maillot Jaune into Paris in 2009 were all but over.
Suddenly Sammy Sanchez attacked from the Peloton and in no time at all blew straight past Evans around about halfway up Ventoux. Not content with sitting in equal first with team-mate Dekker, VDB had a chat to Aerts who was climbing the mountain side-by-side with his countryman, and Aerts decided to attack. But Aerts ran out of puff early on into his attack, and as he faded, VDB attacked and took off. It looked like a string attack from the young Belgian.
Dekker was not letting him out of his sights however, and wasn't ready to relinquish his equal first place either, and went on the counterattack against his team-mate. Though it looked as though VDB had gotten away from Dekker only slightly this time. Perreiro, Juan Cobo, Tadej Valjavec and Vandevelde also attacked at this moment, but Contador was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly Sammy Sanchez had a 2 minute lead over a second group containing Perreiro, Juan Cobo, Tadej Valjavec, Evans, VDB and Vandevlede, and he was increasing his lead with less than 10km to go in the stage. Evans, though completely out of energy from attacking on the earlier climbs today, was however able to stick with this group of riders somehow, but with 5km left they were no chance of catching a raging-hot Sammy Sanchez who kept on increasing his lead slightly over every km climbed.
Where was Dekker, he didn't have much left, but had the 2nd chase group in sight with 3km left to climb. Suddenly Perreiro jumped out from the chasing group with 2km left on the climb and Juan Cobo followed him. Juan Cobo went past Perreiro but was probably already riding for 2nd on the stage. The other riders were hanging on with each other trying to hold off a faster finishing Thomas Dekker behind them.
Dekker had that group of Valjavec, Evans, VDB and Vandevelde in his sights with 1km remaining, and he tried to sprint up the remaining km of the steep Ventoux climb, and it looked like he made onto the back of that group to cross the line with the same time as that group. Meanwhile, Sammy Sanchez had won emphatically on Ventoux, by just over 3 minutes to Juan Cobo and a little bit more time to Oscar Perreiro.
Dekker anxiously awaited the response from the tour organisers, to see if he was to be awarded the same time as VDB and Evans. However, to his disappointment, he was awarded a finishing time 10 seconds behind that main group of chasers.
As the results flashed across the TV screens around the world, it was clear to see the emphatic victory by Sammy Sanchez on this penultimate TdF 09 stage, and also the fact that Dekker had lost the Maillot Jaune today to his team-mate Jurgen Van Den Broeck. Cadel Evans would have to settle for yet another minor placing on the podium AGAIN! however he was later to learn that the consolation of the polka-dot KoM jersey would be his for this TdF 09. Small consolation, but this fell below his expected goals at the start of the tour.
Overall standings after stage 20:
It looks like Dekker may have to console himself with the Green Jersey from this year's TdF instead, but he'll have to hold off a fast-sprinting Delage on the Champs Elysees tomorrow if he wants to retain it.
Cadel Evans's consolation prize in this TdF was the KoM jersey to wear into Paris, not the colour or design he was looking to wear into Paris this year...
Word from the Silence-Lotto camp is that Cadel has conceded defeat to his team-mate, but apparently Thomas Dekker has not. This is his first shot at the Maillot Jaune and he wants to grab it early into his career. He is still only 10 seconds down in the overall GC heading into Paris tomorrow. Word is that he doesn't want to stick to the gentlemanly agreement of not attacking the Maillot Jaune on the final stage, and believes he can still win this tour for his first time. He wants to see if he can wrestle back those 10 seconds he lost to VDB today on Ventoux. Who can blame him when it's his first shot at the Maillot Jaune. The Silence Lotto Team are not happy with him apparently, as they want their own Belgian boy on the top step of the podium tomorrow, and have advised him not to attack. But he is sticking to his guns and says he will defy team orders. They told him if he does, he'll be riding totally on his own tomorrow, something which he apparently has said he is more than happy to do.
Let's see what the final stage of this TdF 09 has to offer us tomorrow. This has been the closest TdF in history, with a new winner to be crowned in Paris for the first time tomorrow. And with Dekker vowing to ride on his own to wrestle back the Maillot Jaune from team-mate VDB, it is sure to be one hell of an interesting battle on the streets of Paris tomorrow...
The 2009 TdF final stage sees the riders begin in Montereau and ride a completely flat stage to traditional finish on the Champs Elysees in Paris. Normally, there would be an agreement that the GC leader at the end of stage 20 is not attacked, however today it is apparent that Thomas Dekker, only 10’’ down to his team-mate Jurgen Van Den Broeck, has other plans. We shall see how the stage eventuates...
Dekker better on the flat and better in Time Trialling than his Belgian teammate, so he had the plan of getting into a breakaway group on this last stage, and holding out on the Champs Elysees in front of 1000s of screaming Parisians for an amazing Tour victory, the first of his only brief career until now. VDB, on the other hand was hoping to stay on his bike throughout the day and ensure a typically bunched sprint finish on that famous stretch of road in Paris.
Dekker decided to hold back and ride with the others in the Peloton until he made his move to the front of the Peloton as they entered onto the Champs Elysees for the first lap of a few more. Allesandro Ballan and Thomas Voeckler decided to go on a break on the first lap on the Champs Elysees, but Dekker was unable to go with them. For some reason he didn’t seem to have the energy in the legs. It was Ballan and Voeckler with about 1’30” lead on the Peloton as the kms ticked down, but the Peloton were slowly starting to reel them in over the last 15 kms on the run in to the finish line. Dekker again tried to attack from the Peloton, but once again his legs said no, and he had no energy to bridge the ever-closing gap to Ballan and Voeckler. Dekker knew that on time bonuses given out, he could finish first or possibly second in the sprint, and the Maillot Jaune would once again be his to snatch away from his team-mate, as his adventurous attempts to bridge the gap to Ballan and Voeckler were failing at each attempt.
As the Peloton neared Ballan and Voeckler with less than 2km left to ride, the gap was down to 20’’ and Dekker was sitting at the front of the peloton, VDB much further back, seemingly unfazed by his team-mates attack attempts and the fact he was riding at the head of the Peloton and was positioning himself for a time bonus to possibly overtake him on the overall GC.
Ballan and Voeckler were finally caught up to right on the finish line by the rest of the Peloton. Dekker remained at the head of the Peloton, and finished 3rd on the stage, as the two breakaway riders were caught right at the end, but not passed. All riders finished on the same time today, which meant Dekker and VDB got the same time, but where was VDB? He was back in the middle of the Peloton, so no time bonuses for him today. And Dekker? 3rd gave him a time bonus of 8 seconds, which ensured he fell 2” short of claiming his first ever TdF win. Instead, that honour went to his team-mate, young Belgian rider Jurgen Van Den Broeck! No doubt the Belgian team were happy and celebrating madly at the end of the tour, that their young countryman who represented their team so gallantly in this TdF was taking home the Maillot Jaune on his back after 3 gruelling weeks in France.
Dekker can certainly count himself unlucky here; a few more metres and he would have been top of the podium in Paris. Literally just a few more metres and 2 seconds was all it was! No White jersey either for Dekker, as this also went to Van Den Broeck.
However Thomas Dekker, like Cadel Evans with the polka-dot jersey, was able to get some type of consolation for an excellent 3 weeks riding in France – the Green Points jersey belonged to him on the final day in Paris.
Finally, as a team, Silence Lotto was well on top of all other teams from after week 1 of this TdF, and finished almost 30’ ahead of the nearest team on the team classification – Astana.
No doubt, with all jerseys in their bag, and a 1-2-3 on the podium in Paris, this had truly been an emphatic and dominant victory on all fronts for the Belgian team.
Edited by RobbieMcEwen_Jaune on 24-09-2011 10:48
