Contador climbs into Yellow.

In the end it all mattered for nothing, the specualtion, the drama, the questions and the alternate endings were seemingly blown away in stage 15 on the climb to the summit at Verbier. Alberto Contador just simply rode away from eveyone else to prove what we all really already knew - he has no peer when it comes to climbing.

The first four climbs of the day were all category 3 and the peleton allowed a small group a minutes grace to go ahead and play around for KOM points - end result Pellizotti extends his lead in the polka dot jersey to 9 points. They got back together before another group of attacks came for the penultimate climb and that break got out to a four minute advantage - but then it was time to get serious. Astana and Liquigas took over at the front of the peleton and by the time the 8.8km climb to the top of Verbier loomed the peleton were a minute and a half behind the lone ranger - Spilak of Lampre - he capitualted though and ended up crossing the line some 7 minutes behind the winner. Ouch! Imagine how much he was hurting post race!

So the pace ramped up, non climbers got dropped, Saxo Bank jumped on the front and dropped even more form the front group, when Fabian Cancellara finished his turn at the front there were only 6 riders left. With 6km to go Frank Schleck attacked, Armstong and Wiggins pulled the group up to his wheel, Andy Schleck looked like he was ready to go, the old one-two but then the inevitable happened, Contador just went. His acceleration was so powerful and yet so gracefull, he danced away from his rivals at a very rapid rate, it was brutal. Andy Schleck gave chase and he quickly put a gap on the rest of the big names who all seemed to be floundering, but he could not catch Contador

Even if he had it in him, Armstrong was not going to chase his team mate, Cadel Evans had nothing, Sastre took some time to get going, Nibaldi saved his best for the last 200m and jumped up for 3rd, Frank Schleck was consistent to the line for fourth. Bradley Wiggins continued to show his amazing transformation from Olympic track star to mountain climber and GC contender with an brillaint effort to finish 5th, riding in with renowned climbers Frank Schleck and Carlos Sastre. Lance seemed to struggle and was on team mate Klodens wheel for the final 2km.

Contador was breathtaking to watch - i love seeing this man climb. He danced on the pedals, every time he sensed he was slowing he was out of the saddle and accelerating. The young Spaniard put 43 seconds on Andy Schleck in the space of 2 or 3 km and held that to the line - easily.

The guy is the king of stage race cycling

As Lance said afterwards "When Alberto went he showed he’s the best rider in the race, certainly the best climber. You know, when everyone’s on the limit and you can accelerate again and I’ve been there, that’s how you win the Tour. Hats off to him."

But as Andy Schleck said "he had the yellow jersey in Paris-Nice and he lost it there. The race will not be over until the Champs Élysées, He's a bit stronger than me, but he will have some pressure on him in the next days. It will not be a piece of cake for him"

Awesome - another climbing battle!

Andy Schleck is only going to win this race by outclimbing Contador and i cant see it happening. But he will give it a red hot crack and you might see the peleton falling to pieces. The time trial will be interesting as Contador, Armstrong Kloden and Wiggins have the ability to take a lot of time out of the other riders - Cadel might even get some back but he went awful up the Verbier.

Whatever happens i hope they go all out on the Ventoux - that climb makes the Verbier look like nothing. Ventoux is 21km at an average of 7.6% with much of it over 10% gradient. Can't wait.

Either way - Contador has it all but sewn up - but things happen in cycling.

Full results
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 5:03:58
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:43
3 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:01:03
4 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:06
5 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream
6 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo TestTeam
7 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0:01:26
8 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:01:29
9 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:01:35
10 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia - HTC 0:01:55


General classification after stage 15
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 63:17:56
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:01:37
3 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin - Slipstream 0:01:46
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:02:17
5 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:02:26
6 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 0:02:30
7 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0:02:51
8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - HTC 0:03:07
9 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 0:03:09
10 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:03:25
11 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo TestTeam 0:03:52
12 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 0:03:59
13 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia - HTC 0:04:05
14 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0:04:27
15 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Team Columbia - HTC 0:04:38

Mountains classification
1 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 109 pts
2 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 101
3 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom 65
4 Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 64
5 Christophe Kern (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 63
6 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 56
7 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 56
8 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 52
9 Christophe Riblon (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 46
10 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervelo TestTeam 45

2009 Tour de France - Stage 15

Stage 15 - Pontarlier Verbier 207.5 km

The race for the General Classification this year has really seen only 3 major plays - all by Astana.

1. The Team Time Trial - Astana smashes everyone and leaves many GC contenders minutes behind.
2. Armstrong slips away in the crosswind of stage 3 to gain crucial time.
3. Contador attacks in stage 7 getting time back off Armstrong.


That aside it has been fairly boring. Stage 1 winner Fabian Cancellara held yellow through the first week, Nocentini takes yellow by a few seconds after a breakaway on stage 7 and Astana are happy to see him keep it. George Hincapie comes within 5 seconds of the Yellow Jersey on stage 14 but he is not a GC contender.

So now we have 7 stages to go.
2 flat stages
1 time trial
4 mountain stages - 2 with summit finishes.


Stage 15 sees a summit finish at Verbier coming after just over 200km with four category 3 climbs and a cat 2 prior, this is set up as a great start to the Alps, whoever is going to win this race will have to stand up.

Astana are missing Levi Leimpheimer who is a serious bike rider - after Lance and Contador he is their next best rider and is the next best climber in the Astana team, certainly the number 1 support rider and a big Lance ally. Kloden climbs well and will provide adequate support but wont be able to mark attacks from the big guns for too long, Zubeldia and Popyvich will probably ramp the pace up before the final climb and seek to drop as many riders as they can and may struggle to stay with their more esteemed team mates, leaving just the big guns and elite climbers. Guys like Andy and Frank Schleck, Cadel Evans, liquigas team mates Kreuziger, Nibali & Pelizotti, Denis Menchov, Christian Vande Velde and his well placed Garmin team mate Bradley Wiggins (with his new found climbing legs) and of course last years winner Carlos Sastre. These guys have 2 real opportunities to get big chunks of time and one comes on this stage, the other on the Ventoux in stage 20. Many of them know they will lose time to Armstrong and Contador in the Time trial. If they want to win the race, they have to attack on the slopes of the Verbier. If the non Astana riders can co-operate and throw down a number of attacks up the hill, they will wear down Contador and Armstrong - this is the way to beat them. You can only put in so many hard efforts when climbing and i am sure you will hear Paul Scherwen talk about 'red lining' in this stage - he loves it! Some guys can go 2 or 3 times, others 3 or 4. in the last 2 years only Contador and Andy Schleck have been able to chase wheels up hills 5 or 6 times in succession. Lance used to be able to - so this stage will certainly test him out and we (and contador) will find out where he is at.

A lot of questions are going to be answered on the ride up the Verbier -its is only 8.8km but it should be spectacular. Expect Saxo bank to go hard, Astana to mark them, Liquigas to be the snipers nad Sastre to just lie in wait, tapping away for as long as possible. The explosive climbers in Contador and A.Schleck will get to the top first, possibly with Lance Armstrong.

A breakaway might win, but there will be two excellent races on then, the race for yellow and the race for the stage win.

And Nocentini will not be wearing Yellow tomorrow.

Climbs
Km 8.0 - Côte du Rafour - 3.7 km climb to 5.1 % - Category 3
Km 18.5 - Col des Etroits - 1.5 km climb to 5 % - Category 3
Km 54.0 - Côte de La Carrière - 6.3 km climb to 4.4 % - Category 3
Km 74.0 - Côte de Prévonloup - 4.5 km climb to 4.7 % - Category 3
Km 135.0 - Col des Mosses - 13.8 km climb to 4 % - Category 2
Km 207.5 - VERBIER - 8.8 km climb to 7.5 % - Category 1

Expect fireworks, this is going to be big........

George should have been in Yellow!

Hincapie now in 2nd, he missed yellow by 5 seconds.

Sergei Ivanov took stage 14 by attacking his 12 breakaway companions with 11km remaining in the stage. A stage winner in 2001 Ivanov watched as 3 or 4 other attacks off the front of the breakaway failed before he tried and succeeded. He rode solo to the line finishing 16 seconds ahead of Roche and Roulston.

George Hincapie was the virtual wearer of the Yellow Jersey for most of the day, he crossed the line in that group 16 seconds behind the winner - and he then had a nervous wait with the peleton at almost 6 minutes behind. Starting the day 5 minutes and 25 seconds out of Yellow, he needed the peleton to cross the line 5 minutes 41 behind the winner - they crossed in 5.36 meaning he missed yellow by 5 seconds.

The interesting thing was what unfolded over those final kilometers, AG2R were on the front of the bunch working hard to keep their man Nocentini in the lead, rival american squad Garmin-Slipstream came to the front though and worked hard to help them - this created some tension post race! Columbia thought that the tactics were a deliberate attempt to keep Hincapie out of Yellow - they had no other motivation.

Then as Columbia HTC came to the front looking for maximum sprint points for Cavendish (and unfortunately helping the pace along) they spread across the road in the sprint and in the wash up Mark Cavendish was disqualified from the sprint (which he won easily) for irregular riding, it did look pretty irregular he cut hushovd off and was veering all over the road looking over his shoulder. So hushovd got 13th spot and the green jersey points that go with it, Cav got relegated to the back of the pack and got none. Hushovd leads the Green by 18 points and it is going to take everything in Cavendish's power to win back the Green. He would probably have to win the last 2 remaining sprint stages and even then, if hushovd finished second in each he would be 8 points behind. He is going to have to win intermediates as well as hope for some luck.

So a bad day all around for Columbia.

And a great day for Katusha who came to the tour without their main man, Robbie McEwen.

Tour de France - Stage 14

Stage 14 - Colmar to Besançon 199 km


This looks like the last stage for the sprinters until stage 19 next Friday, they have mountains and a time trial between now and then no it is going to be slim pickings. With only 2 sprint stages to come (stages 19 & 21) the points are very very important for Cavendish and Hushovd.
Im pretty sure that Columbia will ensure that this is a bunch finish. Can Cav become the first person since Lance in 2004 to win more than 4 stages? I cant remember the last sprinter to win 5, not sure if it has happened? Super Mario won 4...... I reckon Cav can win 6.


Betting
$2.50 Cavendish to win.
$3.25 Hushovd to place top 3.

back both - $5.50 for the Cavendish / Hushovd exacta if you like.

Aussie Haussler takes stage 13.

One of Mattopias favourite cyclists Heinrich Haussler wins stage 13 - a little emotional for my liking though.

He had ridden so well in the classics year, he was so close in Milan San - Remo (bloody Cavendish) & the tour of flanders, top 10 finishes everywhere, but in a stage just 30km from where he lives Heinrich Haussler finally delivered on the talent that is so apparent.

He is an exciting rider, a good sprinter, decent climber and as he showed today has the skills to go it alone as well. He won in the manner befitting a man who will be winning spring classics in the coming years, he was super strong up the final climb and then left his last remaining breakaway companion Sylvain Chavanel in his dust as he descended like a mad man and gave it all on the way to the line. And for fans of Aussie cycling, he will be riding in the green and gold next year. Born in NSW, he moved to europe to chase his cycling dream when he was 14, riding under a german licence. But he is an aussie, he speaks aussie, sounds aussie and is tough as nails, so we will be happy to have him. Another TdF stage winner for the Green and Gold!

The peleton chased but they were not going to catch him once he turned on the power.

The Polka Dot jersey crossed to Pellizotti like we thought, Hushovd showed his brilliance with a great climbing display that allowed him to finish with the main bunch and he grabbed 6th spot - enough to put him back in green!
No change, or even a sniff of a change in the yellow.

So another flat one before the Alps really hit.