Juan Manuel Garate claims victory at Mt VentouxIt was a fantastic idea to have the penultimate stage of the Tour de France finish on one of the greatest-ever climbs. For race director Christian Prudhomme, the dream was for Mont Ventoux to be the deciding moment of the 2009 Tour.
Alberto Contador conspired against him though, his performances over the past 3 weeks, have been sublime. With 3 stage wins that all took significant time out of his rivals - a team time trial, an individual time trial and a summit finish at Verbier, meant that when the riders got to the Ventoux the race was all but decided. They could try and crack the Spaniard but all he had to do was ride defensively. The battle for 3rd was on with less than 2 minutes between 3rd and 7th, but in the end only one position changed.
I lost count of how many times Andy Schleck attacked Contador, again and again he went but every time he did, Contador stuck to his wheel like glue. Make no mistakes, Andy Schlecks performance last night to lead the yellow jersey group for the majority of the 21km climb of Mount ventoux was extraordinary. He and Contador showed that they are that far ahead of the bunch when it comes to climbing, they could have ridden off and contested the stage win. Instead, when it became apparent to Andy that he was not going to crack Contador he dropped back and tried to help his brother crack Armstrong and leapfrog him in the classification so they could stand together on the podium. Lance rode so well though, he had 3rd place and like contador, all he had to do was ride defensively. All he had to do was follow Franks wheel and that is what he did. No need to respond to the other attacks, he rode brilliantly to nullify Frank. Contador and Armstrong were perfect defensively, just as Andy Schleck was so good at attacking. There was not much anyone else could do.
The winner on the day was Juan Manuel Garate, he had been away from the peleton in a 16-man break since the third kilometre, Garate bided his time until the lower slopes of the bald-headed mountain. Early on, he had just Tony Martin and Christophe Riblon for company with less than five minutes separating the trio from the big guns 20 kilometres from the finish. After a short dig by Garate, the three decided to work together in search of the impossible. Soon they dropped Riblon and Garate and Martin were two minutes ahead of the groupe maillot jaune 10 clicks from the finish. And despite their advantage shrinking to 38 seconds by the line, Garate's last surge gave him the edge, and the situation stayed largely the same, as GC favourites Andy Schleck, Contador, Armstrong, Fränk Schleck, Kreuziger, Pellizotti and Nibali all finished within 20 seconds of each other.
The race director almost got it right. If the Gap was 2 minutes between 1 & 2 then this would have been the ultimate. Instead it was a brilliant mountain stage on one of the most revered climbs in the sport. Over 500,000 people lined the Ventoux and they would have like what they saw. I am sure Prudhomme will continue to tweak this race and make it better as he has done each year. Removing time bonuses, returning team time trials (jury is out) less ITT, more summit finishes, he is going to make this race better every year and i think we will see a penultimate summit finish rather than an ITT again in the near future.
We have seen a changing of the guard in this race. Contador has assumed the position of worlds best rider, he won his first tour at 24, missed last year and showed us this year how mcuh he has improved. He should have had 3 in a row. Last years top 3 of Evans / Sastre / Menchov were destroyed in this race by some young guns who are going to go head to head for the next few years. Sure Lance will be throwing everything at it but consider along with Contador at 26 years of age you have Kreuziger 23, Tony Martin 24, Andy Schleck 24, Vincenzo Nibali 24. And they all can climb. The elder schleck is 29, Wiggins is 29. The only guys in the top 10 this year over 30 are Armstrong , Vande Velde and Kloden.
No positive drug results (yet) and a bunch of youngsters including 24 year old Mark Cavendish, 3 new teams next year - the future of cycling has never looked better.
Now on to the Champs - Elysees for the celebration and Mark Cavendishs 6th stage win!
Stage 20 - Mount Ventoux.
1 Juan Manuel Garate Cepa (Spa) Rabobank 4:39:21
2 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:00:03
3 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:38
4 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana
5 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:00:41
6 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:43
7 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 0:00:46
8 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 0:00:56
9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:00:58
10 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:03
General classification after stage 20
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 81:46:17
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:04:11
3 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:05:24
4 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:06:01
5 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:06:04
6 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:06:42
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:07:35
8 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:12:04
9 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 0:14:16
10 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 0:14:25
No comments:
Post a Comment