TdF: Sanchez wins on the Luz-Ardiden as Contador loses yet more time

Samuel Sanchez beat all of the other GC contenders, in the first big mountain stage, as Frank Schleck moved closer to the yellow jersey.

Sanchez began to pull away from some of the big names, with Jelle Vanendert, with around 13km to go. It was a Spaniard who had the legs, in the final couple of hundred metres and managed to pull seven seconds out on the Omega-Pharma Lotto rider. Hot on their heels was Frank Schleck, who moved himself in to second and 1 minute 49 second behind the yellow jersey of Thomas Voeckler.

Twenty seconds down, on the elder Schleck, was his younger brother Andy, Cadel Evans and Ivan Basso. Still to be seen was Alberto Contador, who was still struggling up the final climb of Luz-Ardiden. Damiano Cunego also found himself wall up the placings and moved up to 6^th in the GC. Contador has had a tough tour, with several crashes, and today was no different, as he lost another 13 seconds on his closest rivals.

Surprise of the day was, yellow jersey wearer, Thomas Voeckler put in a huge effort to maintain his position and only finish 50 seconds down on Sanchez. Many predicted Voeckler would find the stage too tough and lose it to one of the main contenders.

Stage 12, from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden, is the toughest of the 2011 tour so far, with one 1^st category climb and two haut category climbs. The first 100km of the stage was relatively flat, before really ramping it up at the first climb of the day. Only 3km had passed when the first attack of the day was launched, which was successful. As it was Bastille day, there was no surprise that three French riders were in the break; these included Laurent Mangel, Jeremy Roy and Biel Kadri. They were followed by, white jersey hopeful, Geraint Thomas and Ruben Perez. No one was particularly eager to catch the breakaway riders, leaving them to pull out a lead of almost 10 minutes.

Europcar worked hard to protect their man, Voeckler, for most of the day, but left it to HTC to lead their man Mark Cavendish to take the intermediate sprint. The sprint spelled trouble for the sprinters, who had to suffer hard over the climbs, which followed only a couple of miles later.

Johnny Hoogerland has been suffering, since his run in with a car and a barbed wire fence, but decided to go on the attack, as the peloton reached La Hourquette d’Ancizan. The climb being used for the first time in the Tour de France. Hoogerland was followed by two riders, but was pulled back when his fellow attackers refused to. However, he didn’t leave it long for another go and was followed swiftly by Sylvain Chavanel. Roman Kreuziger decided he wanted a place at the party and soon joined them.

As the tour reached the decent, of the first climb, it reverted back to its default, as riders began crashing. One of the leaders, Thomas, found himself off the road twice, while Andreas Kloden got caught up in yet another multiple rider pile up. Kreuziger managed to reach the back of the lead riders, while Hoogerland and Chavanel fell back in to the peloton.

Philippe Gilbert used his superb descending skills to pull a gap on the peloton, while Sanchez followed suit. Slowly this group began to pull in the breakaway riders, who were now exhausted from their efforts. Back in the main group Jens Voigt was putting down the power and left some of the more tired riders. Gilbert didn’t have the energy to stay with his new compatriots and was dropped, with 10km to go.

In the final few kilometres it was the Schlecks who put the pressure on, but it was the elder brother who showed the others how to attack. He nearly caught the lead pair of Sanchez and Vanendert, but started to suffer near the end.

Voeckler’s efforts mean he can spend another day in the yellow jersey, with Frank Schleck not far behind. Evans had moved himself up to third, while Contador is now 4 minutes behind and looking less like he will take the yellow in to Paris. Sanchez has now taken control of the polka-dot jersey, with Hoogerland sliding down to 5^th.

Stage 13, from Pau to Lourdes only features one haut category climb, but the Col D’Aubisque will provide enough of a challenge. The long descent will give some of the less skilled climbers a change to reduce their losses and could leave Voeckler in the yellow for another day.