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Tour de France: Stage 10 Live Thread (Wednesday, July 12, 2006)
VeloNews.com ^
| July 12, 2006
| VeloNews.com
Posted on 07/10/2006 8:59:43 PM PDT by nutmeg
Stage 10: Cambo-les-Bains to Pau - 190.5km
Course: This is a much easier introduction to the mountains than in recent years. Instead of a mountaintop finish, the last of three climbs on this 190.5km stage across the Basque part of the Pyrénées is 42.5km from the finish in Pau. That means that riders dropped on the Col de Marie-Blanque will have a chance to chase back to the peloton. Breakaways will inevitably go clear on the rolling roads that precede the day's major obstacle, the Col de Soudet, that climbs for almost 15km at over 7 percent, with some much steeper pitches on the upper reaches of the bumpy, narrow road that leads to the 5052-foot summit. The organizers have given the Soudet an hors-catégorie rating, which means that it's one of the toughest climbs of this Tour. The Marie-Blanque, another 40km along the way, is shorter but even steeper, and could easily spring a breakaway group.
History: There have been more than 50 stage finishes at Pau, but the only similar stages coming from the Atlantic coast were in the mid-1980s. The closest to this one was from Bayonne to Pau in 1987, when the very tough Burdincurutcheta climb preceded the Soudet and Marie-Blanque. That stage saw a four-man break go clear of a 34-strong lead group on the last climb, with Dutchman Erik Breukink winning the stage ahead of Frenchman Jean-François Bernard and Colombians Pablo Wilches and Lucho Herrera, 3:45 ahead of the next group. Bernard and Herrera went on to finish that Tour in the top five. Last year. Oscar Pereiro won the stage into Pau from a small breakaway group started by Cadel Evans on the Col d'Aubisque.
Favorites: The two main climbs will definitely break up the race, but a large group is likely to arrive in Pau to contest the stage win. The most likely stage winner is a climber not yet in contention, perhaps Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Fondital), who is a great sprinter in a small group.


Graphics by CyclingNews.com
TOPICS: Sports
KEYWORDS: cycling; tdf; tdfstagethread; tourdefrance
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To: commish
Besides the killer profile, tomorrow is a long up hill finish. We will see who the real contenders are for sure!
121
posted on
07/12/2006 10:58:24 AM PDT
by
luv2ski
To: nutmeg; Baynative; Eurotwit; Steve_Seattle; Ready4Freddy; leilani
In response to the questions about the 2001 tour, I found the following about stage 10. I am pretty sure that this is the day that Lance feigned illness before rocketing away and also the day of "the look".I realize this is a monster post but the story can't be told without the stats.
Stage 10 - Aix-les-Bains to L'Alpe d'Huez - 209 km:
It seems that now we know who is the best cyclist in the world. It's Lance Armstrong! He hung in the back of the group that contained his main rivals through one small climb and then two Hors Categorie climbs. He didn't look comfortable on the bike, while Jan Ullrich did. The German Telekom team lead the race and controlled its pace, keeping it fast and furious as they hoped to shake off Armstrong and the other US Postal Service riders, while they set their leader, Jan Ullrich, up for the win. But, when they finally made it to L'Alpe d'Huez, Armstrong and his teammate José Luis Rubiera moved up front and took charge of the race. Ullrich, Joseba Beloki, Christophe Moreau, and Oscar Sevilla were right behind Armstrong as Rubiera pulled them along. And when Rubiera had finished his job, he pulled off, Armstrong looked back to him and to Ullrich and he simply flew off the front and never looked back.
There was one man still ahead of Armstrong, Jean Delatour rider Laurent Roux, who had led the race since the 6km mark and had taken each of the first three climbs today. Roux was all alone, more than six minutes ahead when he started the 13.8km ascent up L'Alpe d'Huez at a steep 7.9% grade. But, Armstrong was so strong that he passed Roux after only three kilometers of climbing. Ullrich and company were still losing time all the way up, as Ullrich, who finished second, lost almost two minutes to Armstrong at the finish.
François Simon finished the day with the yellow jersey, 18 years after his brother, Pascal Simon, wore the leader's jersey in the Tour. Andrei Kivilev lost some time, too, but did better than expected. However, realistically, Simon and Kivilev will not be able to hold on to their lead for too many more days, and certainly not after the Pyrenees stages, which begin on Friday.
Stage 10 - Aix-les-Bains to L'Alpe d'Huez - 209 km:
Lance Armstrong (USA), US Postal Service, 6:23:47
Jan Ullrich (Germany), Deutsche Telekom, 1:59 behind
Joseba Beloki (Spain), ONCE, 2:09
Christophe Moreau (France), Festina, 2:30
Oscar Sevilla (Spain), Kelme-Costa Blanca, 2:54
Francesco Mancebo (Spain), Banesto, 4:01
Laurent Roux, (France), Jean Delatour, 4:03
Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spain), ONCE, same time
Roberto Laiseka (Spain), Euskaltel-Euskadi, same time
Leonardo Piepoli (Italy), Banesto, 4:07
Overall. Total distance - 1892.2 km:
François Simon (France), Bonjour, 45:34:09
Andrei Kivilev (Kazhakstan), Cofidis, 11:54 behind
Stuart O'Grady (Australia), Crédit Agricole, 18:10
Lance Armstrong (USA), US Postal Service, 20:07
Joseba Beloki (Spain), ONCE, 21:42
Christophe Moreau (France), Festina, 22:21
Jan Ullrich (Germany), Deutsche Telekom, 22:41
Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spain), ONCE, 23:34
Oscar Sevilla (Spain), Kelme-Costa Blanca, 24:07
Santiago Botero (Columbia), Kelme-Costa Blanca, 25:52
Bobby Julich (USA), Crédit Agricole, 42:07
This is from stage 11:
Stage 11 - Grenoble to Chamrousse - Individual Time Trial - 32 km:
Lance Armstrong has now won two consecutive stages of the 2001 Tour - no small feat. And while Lance is an excellent climber and an excellent time trialer, it's an amazing effort for him to have won this uphill time time after blowing away everybody else ascending L'Alpe d'Huez yesterday. Luckily, tomorrow (Thursday) is a rest day and the defending champ will get a chance to recover.
In today's stage, Lance not only put even more distance between himself and his chief rivals, he once again cut deeply into the lead of François Simon and Andrei Kivilev, two of the fourteen riders who beat the peloton by almost 36 minutes in Sunday's stage 8.
Lance dominated throughout, setting the best times at the three time checks as well the finish - Ullrich was second at each point. At the end of the day, Lance Armstrong had put a full minute on his main rival in the Tour.
There were a couple of surprises in the top five. Roberto Laiseka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) finished fourth, and Oscar Sevilla (Kelme-Costa Blanca) finished fifth and stays in the white jersey that goes to the top rider under 26 years old. The 25-year old Spaniard looked very impressive today and will be somebody to keep an eye on in the future.
Stage 11 - Grenoble to Chamrousse - Individual Time Trial - 32 km:
Lance Armstrong (USA), US Postal Service, 1:07:27
Jan Ullrich (Germany), Deutsche Telekom, +1:00
Joseba Beloki (Spain), ONCE, +1:35
Roberto Laiseka (Spain), Euskaltel-Euskadi, +2:03
Oscar Sevilla (Spain), Kelme-Costa Blanca, +2:24
Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spain), ONCE, +2:31
Santiago Botero (Columbia), Kelme-Costa Blanca, +2:43
Christophe Moreau (France), Festina, +3:00
Sven Montgomery (Switz.), La Française des Jeux, +3:07
Stefano Garzelli (Italy), Mapei-Quick Step, +3:08
Overall. Total distance - 1924.2 km:
François Simon (France), Bonjour, 46:48:36
Andrei Kivilev (Kazhakstan), Cofidis, 11:01 behind
Lance Armstrong (USA), US Postal Service, 13:07
Joseba Beloki (Spain), ONCE, 16:17
Jan Ullrich (Germany), Deutsche Telekom, 16:41
Christophe Moreau (France), Festina, 18:21
Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spain), ONCE, 19:05
Oscar Sevilla (Spain), Kelme-Costa Blanca, 19:31
Santiago Botero (Columbia), Kelme-Costa Blanca, 21:35
Stuart O'Grady (Australia), Crédit Agricole, 21:48
notice that Lance was still behind heading into the rest day.
From Stage 13 Lance finally in yellow:
Stage 13 - Foix to Saint-Lary-Soulan - 194 km:
After almost a week of being behind the opportunistic riders who gained a 36 minute advantage over the peloton in stage 8, Lance Armstrong finally gets the yellow jersey. We knew it was inevitable, it was only a matter of time. But, we also had the added bonus of seeing Armstrong take his third stage victory of this year's Tour. And he won with grace, style, and class.
As has been the case throughout the Tour, Armstrong rode near Ullrich, keeping an eye on his chief rival. And when Ullrich ran off the road, going over his handlebars in a nasty looking crash, Armstrong waited for the German champion to get up and make sure he was okay. Then the two great riders road off together, again.
Today's victory was as much about the rivalry between Armstrong and Ullrich as it was about the rivalry between their respective teams, US Postal Service and Deutsche Telekom. Kevin Livingston, one of Armstrong's best teammates at the past two Tours switched to Telekom in 2001 to help out Ullrich instead. US Postal picked up Roberto Heras from Kelme, and José Luis Rubiera. Once again, we saw who had the better squad in the mountains - US Postal. It's really no surprise, as Heras, winner of the 2000 Vuelta de España and fifth in the 2000 Tour, is one of the best cyclists in the world and an outstanding climber.
When the Tour reached the final climb, the Hors Categorie ascent up to Pla d'Adet, Armstrong was being led by Rubiera and Heras. Ullrich was tagging along without another Telekom rider and Joeba Beloki was there, too, with two other ONCE riders. It just didn't look good for the German. Rubiera pulled off, and Heras took over, and the remaining group dropped the ONCE riders. It was now down to three. Heras kept up the pace, and Armstrong stayed on his wheel. Ullrich pushed hard to keep up. Lance spun along behind his top lieutenant, Heras. When Heras was finished, the two cycling giants were all that were left, and they went after Stefano Garzelli and Laurent Jalabert, who were leading the race. Garzelli was dropped, and as Ullrich and Armstrong were in pursuit of Jalabert, Lance had his typical surge and completely blew Ullrich away. Armstrong caught Jalabert and never slowed down, decisively winning the stage, in pursuit of the yellow jersey he wanted so badly from François Simon. Jalabert got dropped by Ullrich, and the German champ finished second.
Jalabert finished seventh today, but he broke off the peloton around the 27km mark, taking first place points for all four of the 1st category climbs. This put him well ahead in the King of the Mountains race, earning "JaJa" the polka dot jersey. It was another great ride by the Frenchman.
Simon struggled, as expected, finishing 13:20 behind Armstrong. Andrei Kivilev fared a little better, finishing 4:02 behind the American. Ullrich lost another minute to Armstrong, but he gained 46 seconds over Beloki, putting him in second place amongst the main G.C. contenders. It looks as if Jan Ullrich will once again be in second place when the Tour finishes in Paris.
Stage 13 - Foix to Saint-Lary-Soulan - 194 km:
Lance Armstrong (USA), US Postal Service, 5:44:22
Jan Ullrich (Germany), Deutsche Telekom, +1:00
Joseba Beloki (Spain), ONCE, 1:46
Roberto Heras (Spain), US Postal Service, same time
Stefano Garzelli (Italy), Mapei-Quick Step, 2:29
Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spain), ONCE, 2:52
Laurent Jalabert (France), CSC-Tiscali, 3:12
Marcos Serrano (Spain), ONCE, 3:15
Iñigo Chaurreau (Spain), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 3:25
Andrei Kivilev (Kazhakstan), Cofidis, 4:02
Overall. Total distance - 2284.7 km:
Lance Armstrong (USA), US Postal Service, 57:49:26
Andrei Kivilev (Kazhakstan), Cofidis, 3:54 behind
François Simon (France), Bonjour, 4:31
Jan Ullrich (Germany), Deutsche Telekom, 5:13
Joseba Beloki (Spain), ONCE, 6:02
Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (Spain), ONCE, 10:42
Oscar Sevilla (Spain), Kelme-Costa Blanca, 13:24
Santiago Botero (Columbia), Kelme-Costa Blanca, 15:00
Marcos Serrano (Spain), ONCE, 17:23
Stefano Garzelli (Italy), Mapei-Quick Step, 17:26
122
posted on
07/12/2006 1:59:46 PM PDT
by
luv2ski
To: luv2ski
Couple of additional comments: Andre Kivilev died in 2003. He fell in Paris-Nice and was not wearing a helmet. Also, Lance was 36 minutes behind yet made it all up and then some! Unbelievable! So far in this Tour I miss that kind of leadership and dominance.
123
posted on
07/12/2006 2:06:02 PM PDT
by
luv2ski
To: luv2ski
I predict Kloden and Landis will assert their dominance tomorrow, and will blow the field away. I suspect that by the end of Pla-de-Beret the race will be effectively over for everyone except those two men.
To: NittanyLion
You may well be correct. If so, it would be Lance and Jan all over again!
125
posted on
07/12/2006 2:46:46 PM PDT
by
luv2ski
To: Steve_Seattle
Looking at tomorrow's route might be the best explanation of why the peloton is letting the breakaways run away today Yep, today was the day for local boys with no chance at the podium in Paris to get their pictures in Le Monde, tomorrow's the real deal. Just caught the rerun this evening, I can't see why that's such a mystery to Bob R & Al T, who said in their wrap-up commentary that it was a strange stage. But teams with guys who actually have a shot at the GC would have had to have been crazy to shoot their wads chasing down those guys with Tourmalet looming ominously before them. My goodness, even the stage profile looks like a meatgrinder: the first giant blade to roughly eviscerate, and then progressively smaller ones to turn the meat/peloton into finely shredded mince.(Shudder)
Dessel & Mercado are gonna wake up tomorrow in Tarbes, take one look at that monster hors-cat 70km down the road and will wish that they had been thrown off the tour for blood doping! Unless their real names are Clark Kent & Bruce Banner respectively, I don't think we're going to be seeing much of 'em tomorrow.Heck, it wouldn't surprise me if they pedal over to the officials' car first thing and "confess" right then and there to smoking crack for breakfast!LOL.
126
posted on
07/12/2006 5:02:13 PM PDT
by
leilani
(or maybe they could pull a Zidane & head-butt that jerk Patrice Clerc)
To: BaBaStooey
In 2003, after Stage 6, US Postal Rider Victor Hugo Pena was in yellow, Lance was 0:01 behind. This was a little quirk due to the fact that Pena finished ahead of Lance in the prologue by that amount, and US Postal winning the Team Time Trial that year put Pena into the jersey instead of Lance. Virenque was 1:52 behind and 1:51 behind Armstrong.
On Stage 7, Virenque attacked solo. He was first over Mont des Princes, Cruseilles, La Ramaz, and Les Gêts, and put 4:06 into Armstrong and taking the yellow jersey and the polka dots. He found himself with a 2:37 lead over Armstrong.
Stage 8 went up l'Alpe D'Huez and while Iban Mayo was the one to win this day, Lance was in yellow by the end of the stage. Lance finished 3rd, 2:12 behind Mayo, but 7:17 ahead of Virenque. After his breakaway the previous day, the polka dot king was gassed going up France's most famous mountain.
So I guess what I'm saying is that while Dessel and Mercado had perfect days today, I'm guessing they will pay for their efforts over the climbs tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a battle between Landis, Hincapie, and the T-Mobile guys. Don't be shocked if the winner of that battle tomorrow ends up in yellow.
127
posted on
07/12/2006 5:34:26 PM PDT
by
BaBaStooey
(I heart Emma Caulfield.)
To: All
128
posted on
07/12/2006 9:16:23 PM PDT
by
nutmeg
("We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." - Hillary Clinton 6/28/04)
To: All
Some photos from Stage 10:

George Hincapie of the U.S. pedals in the ascent of the Soudet pass in the Pyrenees mountains, southwestern France, during the 10th stage of the 93rd Tour de France cycling race between Cambo-les-Bains and Pau, southwestern France, Wednesday, July 12, 2006. Juan Miguel Mercado of Spain won the stage, Cyril Dessel of France took the overall lead of the race. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

Overall leader Serhiy Honchar of Ukraine, foreground, closely followed by Floyd Landis of the US, pedal during the 10th stage of the 93rd Tour de France cycling race between Cambo-les-Bains and Pau, southwestern France, Wednesday, July 12, 2006. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

Mercado, left, and Dessel left the peloton behind Wednesday. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

New overall leader Cyril Dessel of France reacts on the podium of the 10th stage of the 93rd Tour de France cycling race between Cambo-les-Bains and Pau, southwestern France, Wednesday, July 12, 2006. Juan Miguel Mercado of Spain won the stage, Dessel takes both the yellow and best climber's dotted jersey. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
129
posted on
07/12/2006 9:30:07 PM PDT
by
nutmeg
("We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." - Hillary Clinton 6/28/04)
To: whattajoke; CyberCowboy777; Aeronaut; jern; concentric circles; Petronski; Voss; stylin_geek; ...
Tour de France ping!
Stage 10 results, stats, injury reports and photos posted in #128 and #129.

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my Tour de France 2006 list.
130
posted on
07/12/2006 9:31:57 PM PDT
by
nutmeg
("We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." - Hillary Clinton 6/28/04)
To: leilani; Eurotwit; green iguana; Baynative; luv2ski
Mommy, tell leilani to stop posting like that, she's scaring me!! LOL ;>)
...even the stage profile looks like a meatgrinder: the first giant blade to roughly eviscerate, and then progressively smaller ones to turn the meat/peloton into finely shredded mince.(Shudder)
131
posted on
07/13/2006 3:59:07 AM PDT
by
Ready4Freddy
("Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.")
To: Ready4Freddy
132
posted on
07/13/2006 4:09:17 AM PDT
by
Eurotwit
(WI)
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