Today brings us another day in the Pyrenees, this time with a stage finish atop the Puerto de Larrau. But it isn’t just that climb which will sap the legs today – there are 8 categorised climbs before that with 76 points offered out on course and another 20 at the finish line. Two of those climbs are category 1. First up we have the Col d’Elhursaro which is a gruelling 10.3kms long with a remarkable average of 7.8%. After that is the Col d’Arthe which is on paper only 5.2kmm at 11.3% but in fact actually is a few kilometres longer than that, though at a more gentle slope.
Finally we finish atop the Puerto de Larrau. It is a 14.3km long climb with an average of 7.6%. What that average hides, however, is the 1.5km of false flat just past the half way mark, so in actual fact the gradients are much steeper.
There is a lot of climbing to do today and as said there are a lot of mountain points on offer. The first attack comes from Jakub Danacik who has been trying to get in the break for several stages now but hasn’t yet managed it.
There are a lot of riders looking to get into the break today and the others are: Thomas Peterson Sergio Henao Mikael Delage Amael Moinard (20 mountain points) Matea Kvasina Mikhail Ignatiev (24 mountain points) Francisco Terciado Koldo Gil (21 mountain points) Thomas Frei Oscar Fraile Stef Clement (15 mountain points) Christophe Riblon Kristjan Koren (20 mountain points) Dmitri Medvedev Jakob Fiedler Mohammed Mat Senan Tim Kennaugh Johan Tschopp Anold Jeannesson (6 mountain points) Daniel Oss Branislav Samoilev Thibaut Pinot (43 mountain points) (+13’58”) Thomas Kedel Kvist Tom Stubbe Jaorslav Kulhavy (2 mountain points) Woet Poels Marcel Wyss
On the first climb the break is still forming and here Gil leads the attackers over, with Samoilev and Kulhavy in his wheel. It is also worth noting that Pinot picks up two more points here to bring him to an impressive 45.
This attack is brought back but another one goes on the second climb. Pinot is once again here and this time he can take the maximum 6 points. Medvedev and Peterson roll over behind him.
And in fact these three get a good gap and three more riders bridge up to them to form our six man break of the day. The other three are Moinard (20 points), Kennaugh and Wyss.
We hit the third climb and Pinot takes the 6 points on offer there. He is the only one fighting for it, at least so far, and that is good news for him. He is now on 57 points compared to Morizot’s 83. Peterson and Moinard roll over for the remaining points. The gap to the bunch is at 5’18”.
As if to underscore just how unlucky VolksWagen have been in this race, one of their three remaining riders Brenes falls. He gets back but you can’t envy their position.
The race reaches the very tough Col d’Elhursaro, but you wouldn’t know it from the lack of interesting events. Pinot takes the 16 points at the top for a new total of 73. Medvedev and Kennaugh are right behind him. This time the gap is out to a huge 12’20”, meaning that Pinot is almost the provisional race leader as well! It is clear that B&O are really struggling once again – only Vandborg and Steensen are working hard with Guldhammer waiting in the wings, but that’s it.
Speaking of Guldhammer, on the descent of this major climb he takes a tumble! If he is even slightly injured that will be a massive blow for his team’s chances. Not only that but a couple of hundred metres later Christensen falls too! Both of them get back to the bunch but only time will tell whether they are okay or not.
As we hit the second long climb, the Col d’Arthe which leads on to the Col d’Asqueta, the gap is still at 12’35”. Perhaps realising that Pinot is now posing a very real threat to their GC positions the other teams start to work on this climb, starting around the time when the ace hits the 15% section in the middle. Bacardi, 1t4i and Pearl all send at least one rider up.
The gap extends beyond 14 minutes so Pinot is now the provisional leader. He attacks for the 16 points at the top of this climb and thus moves into the provisional mountain jersey too! Peterson and Medvedev are the next two riders over. Both of them will have a decent haul of points today without even trying.
From here the race faces a few small rises at this high altitude. They come very soon after the summit and so the break get on to these climbs while the peloton is still a long way behind. Pinot takes the next 6 points ahead of Medvedev and Wyss.
And at the seventh climb of the day Pinot once again takes the six points and once again it is Medvedev who is happy to mop up the remainder ahead of Peterson.
The peloton are now only a few kilometres from the top of the Col d’Asqueta. Lopez Garcia and Tenorio have taken over the pacing and it is finally having an effect. The gap had got to a maximum of 16’20”. The peloton drops to just 80 riders and seeing this success Moschella and Lloret start to help pacing too.
Up front the break reach the final peak before the end of the race, with Pinot of course taking the maximum. Medvedev and Peterson are the next two to roll over with Kennaugh behind them but it looks like Wyss and Moinard have been dropped!
The bunch has clearly accelerated and so while the break go down the descent towards the final climb the pack hit this penultimate climb. And now the race receives some crucial news – with 1km to go to the summit Aleksandr Pluchkin, the race leader, has punctured!
Pluchkin has no teammates around him - Guldhammer is struggling to hang onto the bunch and could well be injured while his only other climbing domestique Grivko appears equally blown.
Sensing some weakness and a chance at the podium Schleck attacks over the summit. He now faces the descent to the Puerto de Larrau and of course the climb itself.
The pace in the bunch was raised even higher and Pluchkin goes over the top a whole 4’30” down!
Meanwhile up front, even with this crisis going on, there is still the fight for a possible stage win. Medvedev and Peterson go clear early in the climb – they didn’t waste much energy earlier and were clearly the two best climbers here.
Schleck hits the base of the climb 11’20” down on the break but 40” ahead of the peloton. There is still another 4’20” or so back to Pluchkin.
Intxausti now pus the pressure on in the bunch and reduces it to 40 riders. The gap to Schleck is now at 33” but he is holding on admirably.
Up front Medvedev dropped Peterson, who is now with the remnants of the break. Pinot is trying to shut Medvedev down. Moinard was dropped again and Wyss is hurting quite badly.
Pedraza now hits the front and reduces the bunch to only 18 riders. Even with this heightened pace the gap to Schleck is still at 48 seconds. Cunego, who is now the provisional yellow jersey, is only 1’15” ahead of Schleck on GC so Schleck could conceivably take over the leader’s jersey today. Not only that but Pluchkin now appears to be almost 6 minutes back, which could be enough time to drop him out of the top 10 overall!
The 18 riders are: Madrazo, Tenorio, Valls Cunego, Lloret, Cobo Intxausti, Van der velde Kohl, Faiers Sicard Pedraza Amador Brajkovic Velits Abal Augustyn Duarte
Up front with 6km to go and the clouds hanging ominously overhead Pinot and Peterson are just 26” down on Medvedev but haven’t been able to pull that last little bit in.
Another group of riders is shelled out not long after this: Faiers Augustyn Lloret Van der Velde Cobo Duarte
Valls also follows very soon after this.
This group of riders sits up as they haven’t got much to gain from fighting into the red zone the rest of the way up. They lose time quite rapidly and soon Pluchkin is attacking past them. He is really digging in but it isn’t making much of a difference – the speed is just too high for him!
Cunego has shown a remarkable willingness to work on the front of the peloton throughout this whole race and it today proves no exception. He surely realises that if he can keep everything together then he is in line to take over the yellow jersey. With this in mind he gives it a strong push and manages to catch Schleck. The false flat starts pretty much as this happens.
But perhaps Schleck has achieved what he wants to – several more riders are shelled out: Tenorio Brajkovic Abal Velits
Tenorio started the day in fourth with Schleck right behind him. If he had finished with the group of favourites today he would have moved into third but now Schleck could well find himself taking that final podium position.
The break hit the final 1.5km – this is the hardest part of the Puerto de Larrau with gradients over 15%. Medvedev has 39” on the other two and another 3’37” on the peloton, who have swallowed up all the remnants of the break.
Madrazo knows that this is perhaps his best chance to take yellow two days before the time trial. He launches an attack but Cunego and Schleck are both able to follow him. They gap the handful of others who have stayed with them.
Up front Dmitri Medvedev holds on to his advantage all up way up the final ramp and crosses the line for his first ever Tour de France stage win.
Pinot comes through in second place with Peterson in a strong third. Pinot has had a great day – second on the stage, taking over the mountain classification and no doubt moving a fair way up in GC even if not to the provisional lead as was once forecast.
Cunego leads into the final kilometre with Madrazo right on his wheel and then Schleck. Even though the bonus seconds are taken they can still fight for time gaps.
Cunego looks like the strongest here and he drops Schleck almost immediately. And a gap seems to be opening up to Madrazo!
But Madrazo looks like he might have this covered.
Indeed he does – Cunego beats him to the line for fourth but the Italian will feel okay – he has managed to take the yellow jersey one way or another. Madrazo will sit 5 seconds behind him on GC.
Schleck clearly paid for his efforts earlier in the climb but he still manages to hold off the others to take sixth place. He comes in 46 seconds behind Cunego but more importantly he is 26 seconds ahead of Amador, who takes seventh.
8 seconds behind Amador are four more key riders – Pedraza, Intxausti, Kohl and Sicard.
But now for the time everyone has been waiting for – Pluchkin comes through in 20th place on the day, still a remarkable effort given the circumstances. He is 8’19” down on the stage winner and 5’28” behind Cunego. This will have to go down as one of the most depressing moments of the year – the race leader in the biggest race of the season suffering bad luck and losing his jersey. We may never know if he is capable of winning this race but everyone hopes that he will be back next year to try it.
We have a number of riders outside the time cut yet again today, reducing the bunch to only 158 riders out of 198 starters. That is surely close to a record in the modern period – and some of the toughest stages are yet to come.
So after that emotional rollercoaster let’s see how things line up – Cunego takes over on GC by just 5 seconds over Madrazo. Schleck moves onto the final podium place with Tenorio slipping down to fifth. Pluchkin drops down to eleventh but will no doubt keep this race interesting as he tries to reclaim a higher point. Pinot takes over the mountain jersey with a comfortable 42 point buffer. Meanwhile, Guerao keeps the points jersey with a not-so-comfortable 2 point buffer over Cunego.
Sorry for the lack of exporting. The game just didn’t want to.
Stage Results:
General Classification:
Points Classification:
Mountain Classification:
Team Classification:
Youth Classification: Edited by CountArach on 13-08-2013 02:31
