Vanendert launched his attack, 7km left to go, while the big GC favourites were too busy watching each other. The Belgian tried so hard on the Luz-Ardiden, but couldn’t quite manage it and was beaten by Samuel Sanchez. The Plateau de Beille gave him the chance to get his own back and win his first major victory.
Vanendert’s best performance previously was 6th at La Fleche Wallonne this year. Sanchez did try to spoil the party for the Belgian again, but he left it too late and could only half the gap and finished 21 seconds down. The little attack has put the Euskaltel rider ahead of Alberto Contador in the standings and taken a further 27 seconds out of the guys ahead of him. Vanendert has taken the polka-dot jersey from Jeremy Roy, who really suffered today, one point ahead of Sanchez.
Check mate
The favourites spent most of the Plateau de Beille playing mind games and keeping tabs on each other. Both of the Schleck brothers tried to test the legs of the others, with Andy giving several big digs. Every attack was matched by all the riders, but Contador did look like he was suffering, and Voeckler made sure he was on the end of each attack. Andy Schleck finally did make a big attack, but at 2km it was too late, and he could only pull out two seconds on the others. The top five, in the GC, have remained the same, with Andy Schleck moving two seconds closer to his brother.
There were some gaps early on, with many of the sprinters struggling on the first climb of the day. Thor Hushovd paid for his heroic efforts, in Stage 13, and the Norwegian fell out of the peloton almost immediately. A huge 20 man breakaway formed, after around 13km of riding, including Jens Voigt and, French champion, Sylvain Chavanel. Many were expecting Philippe Gilbert and Jose Joaquin Rojas to go for the intermediate sprint. However, the large breakaway put paid to that and took up all the points. This was good news for Cavendish, who was well of the back of the peloton by this stage.
Damage limitation
For most of the day, it was a case of staying in touch with the main group and getting over the mountains. This allowed the breakaway group, which kept increasing and decreasing throughout the day, to build up a lead of almost ten minutes. Once Leopard Trek took the front, on the Col de Latrape, the gap began to fall very quickly. Knowing they would be caught soon the leaders began to attack each other, which played in to the hands of the peloton. They still had two men out in front, in the shape of Voigt and Linus Gerdemann. This didn’t last much longer, as Jens Voigt hit the deck twice and had to change a bike and wheels. Ever the tactician, the German took some bidons and slowly worked his way back to the group.
As they hit the bottom of the Plateau de Beille, there was only two minutes left in it and very few riders left up the front. Francaise de Jeux rider, Sandy Casar saw his chance to take the tour’s first French victory and left is breakaway companions. He was still leading with 6km to go, but Vanendert rode passed him like he was standing still and ended the Frenchman’s hopes.
Stage 15
Stage 15 is the last one before the second and last rest day and will give the sprinters a chance to shine again. With only one classified climb, it will give the riders a chance to recover from today’s efforts. Cavendish will, surely be, favourite to take his 19th tour victory, but there may be some fresher legs in the peloton who will be willing to challenge him.
No comments:
Post a Comment