Tour de France -- Stage 9

Tour de France Website ^ | 7/10/2005

[Aeronaut]

Stage nine!

[gopwinsin04]

How far is Rasmussen behind in the overall classification?

[gopwinsin04]

Looks like Jan Voight will take the yellow jersey, barring a 2 minute coemback by the Discovery team!

[gopwinsin04]

Christophe Moreau finishes second and Voight 3rd, about 3:05 behind the leader.

[gopwinsin04]

Voight takes the yellow! Lance will not tie Bernaud Hinault's record.

Can the Texan even hang on Tuesday or Wednesday in the mountains with his team faltering>?

[gopwinsin04]

Lance slips to third in the overall classification, behind Moreau.

[TomB]

The Look:

Methinks predictions of Lance's demise are greatly overstated.

[winodog]

I remember that one. I thought they were talking about something that happened yesterday. Thanks.

[ScaniaBoy]

What's the overall standing?

Could it have been tactics by the Discovery Team to let go of the yellow jersey? Taking a rest day before the mountain stages?

[gopwinsin04]

Overall Classification after Stage 9: Completion of week 1

1. Jan Voight (Germany) Team CSC 32.18.23

2. Christophe Moreau (France) Credit Agricole -1.50

3. Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel -2.18

4. Michael Rassmussen (Denmark) Rabobank -2.43

5.Alexander Vinokourov (Russia-Kaz) T-Mobile -3.20

6. Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC -3.44

7.Ivan Basso (Italy) Team CSC -3.44

8.Jan Ullrich (Germany) T Mobile -3.54

9. Carols Sastre (Spain) Team CSC -3.54

10. George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel -4.04

[gopwinsin04]

[ScaniaBoy]

Thanks for the results.

If I understand it correctly the great winers today were Rasmussen, Moreau and Voight. But Lance didn't lose any time to Basso, Vinokurov or Ulrich. Correct?

[ScaniaBoy]

Sorry: "winers" = "winners"

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Could it have been tactics by the Discovery Team to let go of the yellow jersey? Taking a rest day before the mountain stages?

Voigt is not even going to be close in Paris. But CSC will hammer their brains out to keep the jersey for their sponsor as long as possible, which relieves Discovery of setting the pace in the Alps. Basso is CSC's team leader. But he is somewhat neutralized going into the Alps by not being able to attack a teammate in Yellow. (The Euro teams still practice this courtesy where if Lance were second to a weaker teammate, it would be understood the jersey is only on loan.) If Basso had been in the breakaway, he would have been chased down by Discovery, T-Mobile and others.

Because of the long flat after the last climb, none of the favorites were going to gain time on the others without being swept up later by the peloton, so the effort would have been wasted. T-Mobile left it up to Discovery to chase and they controlled the gaps nicely without overworking. The evidence that Discovery gave the jersey to Voigt is that the peloton consisted of 60 riders over the last climb which means they were not pushing the pace at all. Also, on the final run-in, the whole Discovery team (8 at the head of the bunch) did not bring the time down at all behind a tired two-man break. They would have been happy to concede enough time to Voigt for CSC to do all the work through to the Pyrrenes. (Cofidis took charge and brought the time down by a minute in the last 6 or 8km setting up the sprint for 4th for O'Grady in the points competition.)

[stylin_geek]

Wow, thanks for the breakdown on Tour tactics. I remember when Greg LeMonde won is third Tour and was being castigated for not winning a stage. His response was something along the lines that winning the Tour was about tactics, not winning stages.

[nutmeg]

Aeronaut, thank you so much for taking over the TDF ping list for me for the past couple of days. I can take over the list again if you'd like. ;-)

[nutmeg]

I'm getting caught up with the two stages I missed (still have to watch Friday's stage - will do so tomorrow, on the rest day).

I've now seen Phil Liggett's and Paul Sherwen's live broadcast in the mornings, and the "expanded" coverage at 8-11pm ET with Al Trautwig and Bob Roll... I *very much* perfer Liggett's and Sherwen's live coverage in the AM, although Bob Roll contributes many interesting comments. As in 2004, not sure why Al Trautwig is there. Thank goodness OLN demoted Kirsten Gum to "fluff" pieces on TDF feed bags, etc. ;-D

[nutmeg]

Geesh, where are my manners? THANK YOU for taking over the TDF ping list for me while I was away! :o)

Sorry... I'm really tired!

[PGalt]

Thanks for the post. Thanks for the results.

[junaid]

I agree that tactics were a part of Lance giving up the yellow jersey today. He even slipped in his post-race interview. He said he thought that today would be the day that he "would give up the yellow jersey--I mean lose the yellow jersey." my thought is that disco was getting fatigued by defending the jersey this early. this was evident yesterday by the team unable to help Lance fend off the attacks. I thought he did a good job of preventing any big breakaways from Vino or Ullrich or Basso. He did play defense as he did not try to put time between himself and the others--not without support. But today, he knew that Voigts will not be a GC contender and let him go and take the jersey. now Lance will let CSC keep pace for awhile until he can definitively take the yellow back--probably late Alpine/early Pyrennes. This will take him into the time trial with good wiggle room.

Another unrelated question. Who was the rider that US Postal and Lance would not let get into any breakaways last year? Is he in this year's race?