Tour de France: Stage 15 Live Thread (Tuesday, July 18, 2006) L'Alpe d'Huez!

VeloNews.com ^ | July 18, 2006 | VeloNews.com

[Eurotwit]

Phonak loosing some riders?

[kevkrom]

A lot of big mountain points available today -- including double for the finish, right?

[cyclotic]

yea, I'm not much into bike racing and since it has France in the title that makes me even more uninterested... :)


I just call it the "Tour de Nation of Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys"

[Eurotwit]

14:07 - Garzelli At Summit...

Garzelli has earned the 20 points for first place at the top of the Col d’Izoard.

[BaBaStooey]

14:11 - Result Of Col d’Izoard
The points at the top of the first climb in stage 15 were won by:
1. Garzelli 20pts
2. De la Fuente 18pts
3. Cunego 16pts
4. Vila 14pts
5. Martinez 12pts
6. Schleck 10pts
7. Charteau 8pts
8. Arrieta 7pts
9. Voigt 6pts
10. Arroyo 5pts

Looks like De la Fuente is planning to keep the pois rouge. In addition, it looks like Rasmussen is foregoing his dream of retaining the jersey in order to help his team leader Menchov reach the podium.

[BaBaStooey]

Discovery rider Egoi Martinez crashed on the descent.

[BaBaStooey]

Yes, the same Discovery rider who crashed on one of the flat stages in the first week.

[BaBaStooey]

Martinez With Race Doctor...
Martinez is not back on his bike and is currently being treated by race doctors after crashing early on the descent of the Col d’Izoard.

[Vision]

I went to oln to get the stage graphic I like and look what I found about todays race already in progress:


lol

14:05:33 - Landis Confident Of His Form...
With 4km to climb to the top of the highest pass in stage 15, Floyd Landis (PHO) has pulled over to the side of the road to answer the call of nature. He was part of the yellow jersey's group that was 5'00" behind Garzelli at the last check.

[Ready4Freddy]

6-7 hrs, per letour.fr, they have a race 'schedule' w/ estimated times to certain waypoints on the course, based on 3 different avg speeds (36/34/32 for a stage like this).

Euro - the stage is ~180km, '3+' hrs would be 50-60kph! LOL

[Ready4Freddy]

We posted an article to that effect on the rest day thread, I think. Great article, and Rass was adamant that hos goal was to assist Menchov, with the polka-dot 2nd if possible.

In addition, it looks like Rasmussen is foregoing his dream of retaining the jersey in order to help his team leader Menchov reach the podium.

[BaBaStooey]

Currently, the riders on the course are:

Leader:
#166 Garzelli (Liquigas)

Chase Group (0:55 back):
#003 Hincapie (Discovery)
#015 Schleck (CSC)
#017 Voight (CSC)
#018 Zabriskie (CSC)
#025 Mazzoleni (T-Mobile)
#032 Arrieta (AG2R)
#076 Merckx (Phonak)
#081 Cunego (Lampre)
#089 Errandonea (Lampre)
#092 Arroyo (Caisse D'Epargne)
#113 Charteau (Credit Agricole)
#126 Landaluze (Euskatel)
#134 Chavanel (Cofidis)
#143 De la Fuente (Saunier Duval)
#145 Lobato (Saunier Duval)

Chase Group (unknown time gap)
#047 Wegmann (Gerolsteiner)
#055 Flecha (Rabobank)
#186 Knees (Milram)

Chase Group (unknown time gap)
#106 Rujano (Quick Step)
#159 Vaugrenard (Francaise de Jeux)
#177 Pineau (Bouygues Telecom)

Chase Group (4:13 behind leader)
#034 Calzati (AG2R)
#084 Bruseghin (Lampre)
#144 Marchante (Saunier Duval)
#162 Albasini (Liquigas)
#191 Mercado (Agruitbel)

Peloton (5:51 behind)
Yellow Jersey
White Jersey
Landis
Leipheimer
Menchov
Evans
etc.

Interesting that both Landis and the Yellow jersey both have riders in the break.

[Ready4Freddy]

Who's your daddy? Landis not having a problem w/ leadership now...

14:31 - Landis Swaps Bikes...

Landis has recently pulled to the side of the road. A team-mate also stopped and it appears as though the two changed bikes; we cannot confirm the reason... but it could be a flat tire for the Phonak team leader.

[Vision]

Thanks

I don't see any threats to landis there so far.

Of course, Landis needs to stay on his bike:D

[BaBaStooey]

The best man on GC in the break is Schleck, who is in 20th place and is 10:06 behind.

[green iguana]

4:33 CEST 108km/79km to go
Garzelli rides past some scantily clad spectators, and even takes the time for a look.

I hope they were girls. And if they were... I want pictures!

[Vision]

GC means?

[Ready4Freddy]

General Classification, the cycling world's term for the Overall.

[Vision]

They were girls in bikinis

[Vision]

Thanks