Tour de France 2009

[mhku]

TdF Stage 16: MARTIGNY to BOURG-SAINT-MAURICE, 159 km

After an exciting race in the Alps Euskaltel-Euskadi rider Mikel Astarloza claimed the stage win, followed by Sandy Casar. The Basque rider was part of a 4 man breakaway for most of the race and attacked with 2km remaining and crossed the line six seconds ahead of Cassar. Nicolas Roche, son of former champion rider Stephen Roche, finished 4th.

The following group contained many of the Tour big names and when the Schleck brothers upped the pace after several km of a punishing pace set by Team Astana, Lance Armstrong dropped out the back of the group although Contador remained in this 2nd group as did Bradley Wiggins.

About 10 minutes later Lance broke away from the 3rd group and managed to get back to the Contador group. Impressive riding for a rider who had retired for 3 years. Pellizotti also put in an impressive performance today to keep the polka dot jersey. Jens Voigt had a nasty crash on the last descent when his rear wheel caught a white line on the road

The top 3 remain unchanged and the time trial on Thursday could see Bradley Wiggins move up to second. Cadel Evans had a bad day and finished nearly 4 minutes behind Astarloza and is in 17th place well over 7 minutes behind Contador.

Tomorrow's stage 17 is a hard ride from BOURG-SAINT-MAURICE to LE GRAND-BORNAND and is 169.5 km of mountain riding with no flats and a downhill finish.

Stage 16 results:

Mikel ASTARLOZA ESP EUS 04:14:20
Sandy CASAR FRA FDJ +00:00:06
Pierrick FEDRIGO FRA BBO +00:00:06
Nicolas ROCHE IRL ALM +00:00:06
Jurgen VAN DEN BROECK BEL SIL +00:00:06
Amaël MOINARD FRA COF +00:00:06
Franco PELLIZOTTI ITA LIQ +00:00:11
Stephane GOUBERT FRA ALM +00:00:11
Christophe MOREAU FRA AGR +00:00:59
Alberto CONTADOR ESP AST +00:00:59

Overall Standings:

Alberto CONTADOR ESP AST 67:33:15
Lance ARMSTRONG USA AST +00:01:37
Bradley WIGGINS GBR GRM +00:01:46
Andréas KLÖDEN GER AST +00:02:17
Andy SCHLECK LUX SAX +00:02:26
Vincenzo NIBALI ITA LIQ +00:02:51
Christophe LE MEVEL FRA FDJ +00:03:09
Frank SCHLECK LUX SAX +00:03:25
Carlos SASTRE ESP CTT +00:03:52
Christian VANDE VELDE USA GRM +00:03:59

Jersey Holders:

Yellow- Contador
Polka Dot - Pellizotti
Green - Hushovd
White - A. Schleck

 

[mhku]

Stage 17 TdF: BOURG-SAINT-MAURICE to LE GRAND-BORNAND 169.5km

The early part of today's stage was lead by Thor Hushovd out on his own to ensure that he got the few sprinting points for today and puts him safely ahead of Cavendish in the green jersey competition.

The main action of the day didn't start until the last climb of the day up the category one La Colimbiere when an early attack by last year's TdF winner Carlos Sastre was easily caught by the Schleck brothers who then dominated the lead group and after a few skirmishes broke away with yellow jersey holder Alberto Contador.

The following group inlcuding Armstrong, Wiggins, Vandeveldre, Kloeden and Nibali were hot on there tails but never able to catch them up despite some aggressive riding by Armstrong although Wiggins appeared to suffer but kept up well.

The top 10 has been re-written with the Shleck brothers now in 2nd and 3rd places, Armstrong down to 4th, Wiggins down to 6th and yesterday's stage winner Astarloza up to 10th place.

Tomorrow's time trial stage should see Wiggings claw back some time provided he didn't expend too much today although Contador and Armstrong are also strong time triallists.


Stage 17 results:

Frank SCHLECK LUX SAX 04:53:54
Alberto CONTADOR ESP AST +00:00:00
Andy SCHLECK LUX SAX +00:00:00
Vincenzo NIBALI ITA LIQ +00:02:18
Lance ARMSTRONG USA AST +00:02:18
Andréas KLÖDEN GER AST +00:02:27
Bradley WIGGINS GBR GRM +00:03:07
Christophe MOREAU FRA AGR +00:04:09
Christian VANDE VELDE USA GRM +00:04:09
Rémi PAURIOL FRA COF +00:06:10


Overall Standings (GC):

Alberto CONTADOR ESP AST 72:27:09
Andy SCHLECK LUX SAX +00:02:26
Frank SCHLECK LUX SAX +00:03:25
Lance ARMSTRONG USA AST +00:03:55
Andréas KLÖDEN GER AST +00:04:44
Bradley WIGGINS GBR GRM +00:04:53
Vincenzo NIBALI ITA LIQ +00:05:09
Christian VANDE VELDE USA GRM +00:08:08
Christophe LE MEVEL FRA FDJ +00:09:19
Mikel ASTARLOZA ESP EUS +00:10:50


Jersey Holders:

Yellow - Contador
Green - Hushovd
Polka Dot - Pellizotti
White - A. Schleck

Tomorrow is a time trial, with Stage 18 in ANNECY (40.5 km), with a 734m climb at 28km that may shake things up a bit.

 

[mhku]

Stage 18 in ANNECY (40.5 km) - time trial

40km riding around a lake as quick as you can- sounds easy. Cancellara gave another great time trial performance to set the time beat and held 1st place until the last rider crossed the line. That rider was Alberto Contador and he beat Cancellara's time by 3 seconds, showing he can perform in the mountains and in time trials- perhaps the yellow jersey gave him some added impetus to do well.

As predicted there has been a change to the GC standings although Bradley Wiggins did not do as well as predicted, finishing in 6th and Armstrong finished in 16th place 1'30" behind Contador. It's looking very likely that Contador will keep the yellow jersey all the way to Paris although Mont Ventoux on Saturday will have to be completed first.


Stage 18 results:

1. CONTADOR Alberto 21 ASTANA 00:48:31
2. CANCELLARA Fabian 33 TEAM SAXO BANK 00:48:34 00:00:03
3. IGNATIEV Mikhail 164 TEAM KATUSHA 00:48:46 00:00:15
4. LARSSON Gustav 34 TEAM SAXO BANK 00:49:03 00:00:33
5. MILLAR David 56 GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 00:49:11 00:00:41
6. WIGGINS Bradley 58 GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 00:49:13 00:00:43
7. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon 118 CAISSE D’EPARGNE 00:49:14 00:00:44
8. MOREAU Christophe 171 AGRITUBEL 00:49:16 00:00:45
9. KLÖDEN Andréas 23 ASTANA 00:49:24 00:00:54
10. ZABRISKIE David 59 GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM 00:49:32 00:01:02

All of today's results can be viewed at letour.fr/2009/TDF/LIVE/us/1800/classement/index.html


Overall Standings:

# 1.CONTADOR A. AST 73h 15' 39"
# 2.SCHLECK A. SAX 04' 11"
# 3.ARMSTRONG L. AST 05' 25"
# 4.WIGGINS B. GRM 05' 36"
# 5.KLÖDEN A. AST 05' 38"
# 6.SCHLECK F. SAX 05' 59"
# 7.NIBALI V. LIQ 07' 15"
# 8.VANDE VELDE C. GRM 10' 08"
# 9.ASTARLOZA M. EUS 12' 38"
# 10.LE MEVEL C. FDJ 12' 41

Tomorrow is stage 19 - Bourgoin-Jallieu Aubenas 178 km and has a category climb towards the end of the stage followed by a downhill finish into Aubenas. The big guns will probably be saving their energy for Saturday's stage so breakaways from riders lower down the classement are very likely.

 

[mhku]

stage 19 - Bourgoin-Jallieu Aubenas 178 km

An early breakaway containing David Millar is caught by the peloton. With 16km to go to the finish World champion Ballan in the rainbow jersey and Lefevre were first down the final hill in a 2-man breakaway with the peloton not far behind but when the team Columbia HTC lead the peloton down the hill there time in the lead was limited.

With 10km to go 3 Columbia riders were leading out the peloton with Mark Cavendish in 4th. An unexpected sprint finish was on the cards as Hushovd and the other sprinters were all just behind Cavendish, and to add to the fun it started to rain.

At 5km to go George Hincapie is at the front doing an amazing job with a suspected broken collarbone and with 2km to go Ballan is caught.

The final road to the finish is uphill and Mark Renshaw is fading fast while trying to keep Cavendish in contention and with 500m to go Cavendish goes for the line but with 500m still go is Hushovd going to cross the line first? Cavendish gives his best performance of the tour and wins the stage by a bike length from Hushovd and Gerald Ciolek taking third.

Cav's 5th stage win keeps his hopes alive for the green jersey and he'll be hoping for a 6th stage win on the Champs Elysee on Sunday although it's likely that Hushovd will win the green jersey although he is now only 25pts ahead of Cavendish. The polka dot jersey is likely to won by Pellizotti as the "only" mountain left now is Mont Ventoux tomorrow and he has a large points advantage over the 2nd and 2rd riders in contention for the King of The Mountains jersey.

This 9th stage win by Mark Cavendish in his 3rd year in the Tour (he had 4 stage wins in last year's Tour before leaving before the end to start Olympic preparations) makes him the most successful British Tour rider after breaking Barry Hoban's record of 8 Tour stage wins, set between 1967 and 1975. Cavendish is the first person to win 5 stages in a single Tour since Armstrong in 2004.

Armstrong finished in the Cavendish group but Wiggins, A. Schleck and Contador finished in a group 4 seconds back from the first group.

Stage 17 results:

* 1.CAVENDISH M. THR 3h 50' 35"
* 2.HUSHOVD T. CTT 00' 00"
* 3.CIOLEK G. MRM 00' 00"
* 4.VAN AVERMAET G. SIL 00' 00"
* 5.FREIRE O. RAB 00' 00"
* 6.PINEAU J. QST 00' 00"
* 7.BEPPU F. SKS 00' 00"
* 8.ROCHE N. ALM 00' 00"
* 9.LE MEVEL C. FDJ 00' 00"
* 10.MAASKANT M. GRM 00' 00"

Overall GC standings:

* 1.CONTADOR A. AST 77h 06' 18"
* 2.SCHLECK A. SAX 04' 11"
* 3.ARMSTRONG L. AST 05' 21"
* 4.WIGGINS B. GRM 05' 36"
* 5.KLÖDEN A. AST 05' 38"
* 6.SCHLECK F. SAX 05' 59"
* 7.NIBALI V. LIQ 07' 15"
* 8.VANDE VELDE C. GRM 10' 08"
* 9.LE MEVEL C. FDJ 12' 37"
* 10.ASTARLOZA M. EUS 12' 38"

Tomorrow's stage 20 from MONTÉLIMAR > MONT VENTOUX, 167 km finishes on the top of the ferocious Mont Ventoux, and is likely to see some battles to decide the top 10 places before the final stage on Sunday.

Lance Armstrong's new team for 2010 is being sponsored by Radioshack and latest news is that Evans, Ricco, Rasmussen, Landis, Hincapie, Sevilla and Muravyev are confirmed for RadioShack 2010 World Tour. Virenque will soigneur and Bruyneel will be team manager.

teamradioshack.com/

 

[mhku]

Stage 20 from MONTÉLIMAR > MONT VENTOUX, 167 km

After battling up Mont Ventoux, Alberto Contader is almost the Tour winner with only the stage in Paris tomorrow left to complete, which will be a sprinter's day.

Not only did the riders have to race each other there were also estimted to be over half a million spectators lining the route to the top of Ventoux.

An early breakaway group was eventually caught by the peloton although Tony Martins of team Columbia and uan Manuel Garate of Rabobank managed to stay away and the stage was won by Garate. The chasing group contained the big names of the GC and was lead up Ventoux by Andy Schleck closely followed by Contador and Armstrong with Bradley Wiggins giving all he had to stay with the group to try to keep his 4th place in the GC, finishing 10th today.

Pellizotti also gave a great performance today and tried his best to catch the two lead riders towards the end of the Ventoux climb when there was a lull in the pace but he was unable to catch them as Garate responde by pulling away and Pellizotti was eventually caught by Schleck's group.

Traditionally tomorrow's stage in Paris is not contested until they reach the Champs Elysee when the speed of the peloton increases and the sprinter's teams try to give their rider the best chance of winning the stage. Mark Cavendish must be favourite to win tomorrow as Team Columbia have shown consistently they know how to get their man to the line first, although Thor Hushovd and his Cervelo team will do their best to stop him.

Stage 20 results:

Juan Manuel GARATE ESP RAB 04:39:21
Tony MARTIN GER THR +00:00:03
Andy SCHLECK LUX SAX +00:00:38
Alberto CONTADOR ESP AST +00:00:38
Lance ARMSTRONG USA AST +00:00:41
Frank SCHLECK LUX SAX +00:00:43
Roman KREUZIGER CZE LIQ +00:00:46
Franco PELLIZOTTI ITA LIQ +00:00:56
Vincenzo NIBALI ITA LIQ +00:00:58
Bradley WIGGINS GBR GRM +00:01:03

Overall GC standings:

Alberto CONTADOR ESP AST 81:46:17
Andy SCHLECK LUX SAX +00:04:11
Lance ARMSTRONG USA AST +00:05:24
Bradley WIGGINS GBR GRM +00:06:01
Frank SCHLECK LUX SAX +00:06:04
Andréas KLÖDEN GER AST +00:06:42
Vincenzo NIBALI ITA LIQ +00:07:35
Christian VANDE VELDE USA GRM +00:12:04
Roman KREUZIGER CZE LIQ +00:14:16
Christophe LE MEVEL FRA FDJ +00:14:25

Green Jersey

Thor HUSHOVD NOR CTT 260
Mark CAVENDISH GBR THR 235
Gerald CIOLEK GER MRM 148

Polka dot jersey

Franco PELLIZOTTI ITA LIQ 210
Egoi MARTINEZ ESP EUS 135
Alberto CONTADOR ESP AST 126

White Jersey

1.SCHLECK A. SAX 81h 50' 28"
2.NIBALI V. LIQ 03' 24"
3.KREUZIGER R. LIQ 10' 05"


Tomorrow is the final stage from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Paris Champs-Élysées and is 164 km.

 

[mhku]

TdF Final Stage: Montereau-Fault-Yonne Paris Champs-Élysées

The short review:

just when it looked like team Columbia had run out of steam chasing down the small breakaway on the Champs Elysee Mark Renshaw gets back to the front closely followed by Mark Cavendish. Garmin try to spoil the party but take the wrong line on the final corner and the two Columbia riders attack hard and pull away.

Cavendish crosses the line a good 30m ahead of the peloton and Mark Renshaw finishes second. This is Cav's 6th stage win on this Tour, taking his total to 10. When Cav broke Barry Hoban's record he sent Cav a bottle of champagne, presented by one of the ITV4 interviewers.

It's all over for another year:

Alberto Contador wins the 2009 Tour de France and was very strong throughout the tour, despite the internal team politics in team Astana.

Andy Schleck finished in second place and also wins the white jersey for the highest place young rider and on this form it won't be long until he wins the Tour.

Lance Armstrong managed a podium place finishing in third. Most observers doubted he had would be able to deliver after 3 years out of the sport and with only 6 months professional riding this year but he got better as the Tour progressed and looked relaxed on Ventoux (or as much as you can cycling up a mountain). Despite this he didn't look too happy during the presentations at the end of the race - he'll be looking for his usual Tour podium spot next year.

Thor Hushovd wins the sprinters green jersey, just ahead of Mark Cavendish.

Franco Pellizotti wins the polka jersey as King of the Mountains nearly 100 points ahead of Egoi Martinez. Pellizotti was also crowned as the most aggressive rider of the Tour.

Astana were the strongest team on the Tour and although team Columbia weren't even in the top 10 based on team times they were very strong throughout the Tour and lead Mark Cavendish to 6 stage wins. Will Astana survive after this given their financial problems and Armstrong is leaving to start team Radioshack?

Bradley Wiggins will be disappointed not to have finished on the podium but prior to the start of the Tour most pundits would only have placed him somewhere in the top 20 so an amazing result to finish 4th. With a stronger team he can only get better (Contador?).

Cadel Evans also had a poor Tour and was expected to do better after finishing second in the 2008 and 2007 tours. Will he stay at Silence-Lotto or will he join Armstrong?

Stage 21 results:

* 1.CAVENDISH M. THR 4h 02' 18"
* 2.RENSHAW M. THR 00' 00"
* 3.FARRAR T. GRM 00' 00"
* 4.CIOLEK G. MRM 00' 00"
* 5.HUTAROVICH Y. FDJ 00' 00"
* 6.HUSHOVD T. CTT 00' 00"
* 7.ROJAS J. GCE 00' 00"
* 8.BANDIERA M. LAM 00' 00"
* 9.BENNATI D. LIQ 00' 00"
* 10.BONNET W. BBO 00' 00"


Final GC standings:

* 1.CONTADOR A. AST 85h 48' 35"
* 2.SCHLECK A. SAX 04' 11"
* 3.ARMSTRONG L. AST 05' 24"
* 4.WIGGINS B. GRM 06' 01"
* 5.SCHLECK F. SAX 06' 04"
* 6.KLÖDEN A. AST 06' 42"
* 7.NIBALI V. LIQ 07' 35"
* 8.VANDE VELDE C. GRM 12' 04"
* 9.KREUZIGER R. LIQ 14' 16"
* 10.LE MEVEL C. FDJ 14' 25"


White Jersey standings:

# 1.SCHLECK A. SAX 85h 52' 46"
# 2.NIBALI V. LIQ 03' 24"
# 3.KREUZIGER R. LIQ 10' 05"
# 4.ROLLAND P. BBO 33' 33"
# 5.ROCHE N. ALM 34' 09"

Polka Dot Jersey:

# 1.PELLIZOTTI F.LIQ 210 Pts
# 2.MARTINEZ E. EUS 135 Pts
# 3.CONTADOR A. AST 126 Pts
# 4.SCHLECK A. SAX 111 Pts
# 5.FEDRIGO P. BBO 99 Pts

Green Jersey:

# 1.HUSHOVD T. CTT 280 Pts
# 2.CAVENDISH M. THR 270 Pts
# 3.CIOLEK G. MRM 172 Pts
# 4.ROJAS J. GCE 145 Pts
# 5.FARRAR T. GRM 136 Pts

Team Standings:

# .ASTANA AST 256h 02' 58"
# 2.GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM GRM 22' 35"
# 3.TEAM SAXO BANK SAX 28' 34"
# 4.AG2R LA MONDIALE ALM 31' 47"
# 5.LIQUIGAS LIQ 43' 31"
# 6.EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI EUS 58' 05"

Full details on letour.fr