The Pyrenees have always billed as the main battleground of this year's Tour de France and although the first of four stages in this mountain range decided nothing, it did confirm what we all suspected - that the battle for the yellow jersey is between two men and two men only. Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador.
It seemed today that the two of them were riding their own race, almost oblivious to everyone else and this was underlined on the final climb to the finish in Ax-3 Domaines, at the end of a day that had seen Contador's Astana team ride as though it was their man, rather than Schelck, in the yellow jersey.
The fantastic sideshow took place as Christophe Riblon of AG2R was the last man to remain of a 160km nine rider breakaway that had earlier looked set to be caught. Riblon stayed away though and the Frenchman claimed the host country's fourth stage win of this Tour. His incredible solo effort was made more incredible by his confession afterward that he had almost abandoned the Tour the previous day!
Astana set a punishing speed up the days first climb, the Pailheres. The peloton was quickly shredded and the days 9 man breakaway was under pressure and started falling away, by the summit it was Christophe Riblon attacking his last remaining breakaway companion Moinard. Behind him the GC group was quickly started claiming riders from the seemingly doomed breakaway and spitting them out the other end. Towards the summit attacks came out of the main group from Carlos Sastre, Cunego, Valls Ferri and the man with one of the sweetest sounding names to ever roll of Phil Liggets lips, Vasil Kiryienk. Contador and Schleck rode at the back of the bunch - Schleck always on Contadors wheel. No attacks from these two on the first climb.
After a lightning descent, Vinokourov took up the pace making role to further shed contenders, by the time he was finished the GC group was down to nine - but still trailing the lone Frenchman Riblon by almost 2 minutes. After two punchy attacks from Contador that Schleck countered, the games started.
Schleck sat on Contador at the rear of the group, at times coming close to a standstill watching each other, Contador wanted Schleck to take the lead, Schleck was never going to the front. And so like two match sprinters performing a tactical track stand, using the 10% gradient rather than the banking of a velodrome the watched each other. I have never seen this in a road race.
Denis Menchov saw what was going on, deciding that he had no use for the gamesmanship he duly attacked, putting time on Sanchez, who eventually clawed his way back. Up front Riblon looked strong all the way to the line at the ski area.
In the final kilometer Schleck and Contador, perhaps realizing that Menchov and Sanchez (4th and 3rd overall respectively) were taking time away from them, got down to business.
The post race interviews were revealing. Schleck said that he had decided earlier in the stage not to attack Contador, for fear of the Spaniard counter-attacking. "On a climb like that I cannot pass him," said Schleck. "I have to stay on his wheel."There was a little bit of mind games between us," he continued. "I made a mistake (on Friday's stage to Mende) to pass him, and he dropped me. But I learned from that."
This stage ended in a truce or maybe even a draw. They finished together in the same time, 1.08 behind Riblon, and only 14 seconds behind Menchov and Sanchez. But Schleck claimed to have won the mind games. "The situation Alberto's in now, it's not bad, but it's not great either," said Schleck. "He could not drop me today, and that gives me a lot of confidence.
"This is just a guess, but I guess he's not happy with how the stage went, because he did not gain time on me. His aim was to take yellow today..... It didn't work. He didn't gain a single second. I even think I was a little better than him today."
But Contador saw it differently of course - “We toyed with each other, but I think I finished the day on top,” said Contador. “But I don’t think the final climb was hard enough for either of us to take time off each other. In the end we decided to collaborate to chase down Menchov and Sanchez.”
Let the games continue.
Stage 14 Results
| 1 | Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | 4:52:42 | |
| 2 | Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank | 0:00:54 | |
| 3 | Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi | ||
| 4 | Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank | 0:01:08 | |
| 5 | Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha | ||
| 6 | Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank | ||
| 7 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana | ||
| 8 | Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto | ||
| 9 | Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini | 0:01:49 | |
| 10 | Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervelo Test Team |
General Classification after Stage 14
| 1 | Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank | 68:02:30 | |
| 2 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana | 0:00:31 | |
| 3 | Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi | 0:02:31 | |
| 4 | Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank | 0:02:44 | |
| 5 | Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto | 0:03:31 | |
| 6 | Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank | 0:04:27 | |
| 7 | Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack | 0:04:51 | |
| 8 | Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha | 0:04:58 | |
| 9 | Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne | 0:05:56 | |
| 10 | Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo | 0:06:52 |
Schleck and Contador come to a near standstill.
Your observations and analysis are right on. I watched the stage with my own eyes on Versus tv. A very complex and nuanced battle unfolded. Most of the professional media dedicated to the TdF pretty much missed much of what really happened in Stage 14. Contador and Schleck are competing against each other with almost no regard for the rest of the GC at this point. Your blog got it right. This was one of the most interesting days of racing I've ever seen. Thank you. Those writing for the major media organizations should be ashamed of their performance on this Stage!
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