Oh. My gosh. The Col du Galibier. FINALLY. Mountains high enough to get some excitement going. I will confess, though, that one thing does annoy me about the mountain stages - either you have a breakaway that breaks up and leaves scattered riders all over the course until you have no idea who is where anymore, or else everyone goes quietly off the back of the peloton, never to be seen or heard from again.
But moping aside, mountains! There was, of course, the usual intermediate sprint with all the associated green jersey action, but all the work of HTC-Highroad to get Mark Cavendish up there in front of JJ Rojas was somewhat wasted, given the breakaway made their break only one kilometre from the sprint point, sweeping through with the top 13 places. Such big names as AG2R-La Mondiale's Nicolas Roche and everyone's favourite battler, Johnny Hoogerland of Vacansoleil.
But what baffled everyone was the inclusion of Leopard Trek riders Joost Posthuma and Maxime Monfort and BMC's Brent Bookwalter in the breakaway. As the two teams with GC riders most likely to win the Tour, road race tactics dictate they avoid joining breakaways and try to reel in any that do form. As we were to discover, Leopard Trek was simply enacting their grand plan. Maybe BMC had conceived the same plan and missed their opportunity too enact it, or maybe they were simply marking Leopard's move. It's hard to say.
The number of riders in the breakaway went out to 15 just before the Col Agnel, when Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Mickael Delage (FDJ) and Egor Silin (Katusha) caught up to them. At the beginning of the first hors-categorie climb the now-16 strong breakaway had almost a nine-minute lead over the main peloton.
And then began the fun of the mountain stages. As the hills kick in, the climbers check in and the not-so-climbers check out, which left the lead group at 11. Katusha's Maxim Iglinsky was taking the lead, cresting the Col Agnel first with Johnny Hoogerland right behind. The group moved straight onto the Col d'Izoard, only six making it to the top in the lead, Leopard Trek's pace-making making it difficult to keep away.
The reason soon became apparent, in one of the most gutsy and unorthodox moves in modern cycling. 60 kilometres from the finish of a mountain stage, Andy Schleck went off the front off the group of favourite riders and began to make his way up the Col d'Izoard alone. No one was sure what the hell he was doing. No one was sure he could actually do whatever he was doing. But he is Andy Schleck, one of the most capable riders in the peloton. He blazed right past the remnants of the breakaway group as he blazoned on up the Col.
And this was where Leopard Trek's unusual tactics began to show. As the group of the top contenders behind him finally began to up the ante, maybe not believing he could really stay off the front until the end, the two Leopard riders up from front, Joost and Maxime, waited for Andy to catch up with each of them in turn, and then paced him as far as they could go. But there was still Iglinsky way out in front.
With the help of teammate Maxime and the three other riders around them, Andy caught Iglinsky with 30 kilomeres left to go, by which point he was far enough ahead of Thomas Voeckler to be wearing the 'virtual' yellow jersey. With 15 kilometres to go, Max Monfort had finally run out of steam and left Andy to go it almost alone, keeping Iglinsky and Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) for company.
Meanwhile, Contador had decided that enough was enough and started chasing down Andy Schleck. The three-time Tour de France champion clearly felt he had already lost too much time on his two-time runner-up and was doing something about it, but pretty soon the pace-making all fell to Cadel Evans. After a couple of abortive breakaway attempts, the also-two-time runner-up clearly decided to ride his own race and simply paced himself up the hill, coincidentally with the yellow jersey group in tow. As they hauled themselves up the final climb of the Col du Galibier, almost four minutes separated Andy from the groupe maillot jaune.
Finally within the 10-kilometre mark, Andy clearly saw fit to shed his baggage and raced away up the mountain. Behind him the gap was slowly closing, as Cadel literally dragged the world's top riders up the world's most famous biking mountain. Though clearly not finding it easy, Andy stuck to his guns long enough to get them over the finishing line in first place, while Contador couldn't stick to his further downhill and fell off the back of Cadel's group, kissing another yellow goodbye. Andy's brother Frank found his legs and was able to sprint off the front of Cadel's group in the last few kilometres to take second behind his younger sibling.
In a miraculous twist, Voeckler was able to stick to Cadel's wheel, who brought him in 15 seconds ahead of Andy and thus kept his yellow jersey for yet another astonishing day. So with Contador is clearly out of the question, the question itself reads thus: Andy or Cadel? Cadel, or Andy? And here at Maillot Jaune, I've already picked my side. It's Cadel, all the way.
But what baffled everyone was the inclusion of Leopard Trek riders Joost Posthuma and Maxime Monfort and BMC's Brent Bookwalter in the breakaway. As the two teams with GC riders most likely to win the Tour, road race tactics dictate they avoid joining breakaways and try to reel in any that do form. As we were to discover, Leopard Trek was simply enacting their grand plan. Maybe BMC had conceived the same plan and missed their opportunity too enact it, or maybe they were simply marking Leopard's move. It's hard to say.
The number of riders in the breakaway went out to 15 just before the Col Agnel, when Marcus Burghardt (BMC), Mickael Delage (FDJ) and Egor Silin (Katusha) caught up to them. At the beginning of the first hors-categorie climb the now-16 strong breakaway had almost a nine-minute lead over the main peloton.
And then began the fun of the mountain stages. As the hills kick in, the climbers check in and the not-so-climbers check out, which left the lead group at 11. Katusha's Maxim Iglinsky was taking the lead, cresting the Col Agnel first with Johnny Hoogerland right behind. The group moved straight onto the Col d'Izoard, only six making it to the top in the lead, Leopard Trek's pace-making making it difficult to keep away.
The reason soon became apparent, in one of the most gutsy and unorthodox moves in modern cycling. 60 kilometres from the finish of a mountain stage, Andy Schleck went off the front off the group of favourite riders and began to make his way up the Col d'Izoard alone. No one was sure what the hell he was doing. No one was sure he could actually do whatever he was doing. But he is Andy Schleck, one of the most capable riders in the peloton. He blazed right past the remnants of the breakaway group as he blazoned on up the Col.
And this was where Leopard Trek's unusual tactics began to show. As the group of the top contenders behind him finally began to up the ante, maybe not believing he could really stay off the front until the end, the two Leopard riders up from front, Joost and Maxime, waited for Andy to catch up with each of them in turn, and then paced him as far as they could go. But there was still Iglinsky way out in front.
With the help of teammate Maxime and the three other riders around them, Andy caught Iglinsky with 30 kilomeres left to go, by which point he was far enough ahead of Thomas Voeckler to be wearing the 'virtual' yellow jersey. With 15 kilometres to go, Max Monfort had finally run out of steam and left Andy to go it almost alone, keeping Iglinsky and Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) for company.
Meanwhile, Contador had decided that enough was enough and started chasing down Andy Schleck. The three-time Tour de France champion clearly felt he had already lost too much time on his two-time runner-up and was doing something about it, but pretty soon the pace-making all fell to Cadel Evans. After a couple of abortive breakaway attempts, the also-two-time runner-up clearly decided to ride his own race and simply paced himself up the hill, coincidentally with the yellow jersey group in tow. As they hauled themselves up the final climb of the Col du Galibier, almost four minutes separated Andy from the groupe maillot jaune.
Finally within the 10-kilometre mark, Andy clearly saw fit to shed his baggage and raced away up the mountain. Behind him the gap was slowly closing, as Cadel literally dragged the world's top riders up the world's most famous biking mountain. Though clearly not finding it easy, Andy stuck to his guns long enough to get them over the finishing line in first place, while Contador couldn't stick to his further downhill and fell off the back of Cadel's group, kissing another yellow goodbye. Andy's brother Frank found his legs and was able to sprint off the front of Cadel's group in the last few kilometres to take second behind his younger sibling.
In a miraculous twist, Voeckler was able to stick to Cadel's wheel, who brought him in 15 seconds ahead of Andy and thus kept his yellow jersey for yet another astonishing day. So with Contador is clearly out of the question, the question itself reads thus: Andy or Cadel? Cadel, or Andy? And here at Maillot Jaune, I've already picked my side. It's Cadel, all the way.
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