Tour de France

Stage 18: Salies-De-Béarn to Bordeaux, 198km/123mi

By Cathy Mehl

While all eyes have been focused on the battle in the mountains for the yellow jersey, the sprinters have hauled their bodies over the cols to resume the fight for the green sprinter’s jersey.  With only four points separating Thor Hushovd (Cervelo) and Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese) at the start of today’s stage, the battle for green is far from decided.  Today’s victory by the fastest man on the planet, Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia,) moved him up to within striking distance of the jersey, but Petacchi’s third place put him back in green.  Only 16 points separate Petacchi, Hushovd and Cavendish, setting the stage for an exciting finish in Paris on Sunday.

It was a chaotic run to the line in Bordeaux.  At the 250m sign Petacchi opened up his sprint and Cavendish came off the wheel of Hushovd, chasing Petacchi on the left side of the course and  horizoned the others for his 14th career stage win and 4th in this Tour.  Second went to Garmin’s Julian Dean with Petacchi rounding out the top three.  There was no change in the overall classification.  After more than 88 hours of riding, defending champion Alberto Contador (Astana) leads by 8-seconds over Andy Schleck of Saxo Bank.  Third place is still held by Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) at a distant 3:32 off the winning time.  Team RadioShack’s best-placed rider is Chris Horner in tenth, with teammates Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden sitting just behind in slots 13 and 14.  The Shack still holds the Teams classification with a time advantage of 8:30 and look good to be standing on the podium on the Champs Élysées come Sunday.

Team RadioShack had a special guest today with Lance Armstrong’s son Luke playing the part of second director in the car of Johan Bruyneel.  “Luke got 80 pictures and we’re going to put them on a website.  He has a good eye for photographer.  Maybe he can work for Eurosport when he grows up.  He can take somebody’s job.”  Speaking of the stage, Lance said, “It was 50k too long to be enjoyable but it’s a traditional stage, the straight line from the Pyrenees to Bordeaux.  For tomorrow’s time trial don’t expect too much.  I’m tired but I will go as fast as I can.  The Paris and the team celebration on Sunday night and then Monday onward.”

It was the 80-th visit to Bordeaux for the Tour and a pancake flat course to reward the sprinters for their big efforts in the mountains.  After only 4kms of racing a break of four riders went away and included Jerome Pineau (Quick Step), Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ),  Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank) and Daniel Oss (Liquigas).  The foursome built a maximum advantage of 3:40 while the peloton rolled on easily with a careful eye on the time gap.

Driving hard with 15km/10mi to go, HTC-Columbia charged along the course with the four riders only 30-seconds ahead.  The escapees didn’t give up, however, with Pineau trying for a final dig  before Oss made a clean break.  Oss held off the charge with a gap of 17-seconds as he raced solo for the line, hoping to survive and ruin the chances for the fast men of the sport.  Confusion in the sprint trains helped Oss stay away and at 5km he still held 11-seconds, but a turn into the headwind put an end to his brave effort.  Team Sky, Milram, Lampre and HTC-Columbia kept the speeds high, hoping to ward off any other attacks with the British team doing most of the pace making for Edvald Boasson-Hagen.   But once Cavendish got a sniff of the finish line, the Manx man did what he does best – crossed the line with a great turn of speed and plenty of time to celebrate the victory.

The Tour turns to the final time trial on Saturday.  At 52km it’s a long one traveling from Bordeaux to Pauillac.  With only eight seconds separating Contador and Schleck, the overall race win is still up for grabs.  Conventional wisdom says Contador will put a lot of time into Schleck and the final gap will be much, much broader than 8-seconds, but a confident Schleck sees it differently:  “ I’m ready.  I know I’m going to have to hurt myself tomorrow, really bad, you know, but I’m pretty sure I can do a good time trial.  I see a chance that I can take that jersey.  I feel confident and I’ll see what I can do tomorrow.”  He believes it, do you?

Team Note:  While the focus of most of cycling is on the Tour de France, other races are happening all over the world and Team RadioShack is lining up Saturday for their next race, the Tour of Wallonie in Belgium, June 24 – 28-th.  Viatcheslav Ekimov will guide Sam Bewley, Geoffroy Lequatre, Jason McCartney, Sebastien Rosseler, Bjorn Selander, Gert Steegmans and Tomas Vaitkus. 

Beyond the Finish Line:  The most expensive bottle of wine ever sold was a Bordeaux, a 1787 Chateau Lafite that sold for $160,000 at auction in 1985. Its great age alone would have ensured a good price but what gave it its special cachet and ensured the record price tag were the initials Th.J. etched in the glass. The bottle had belonged to Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States.  A philosopher, scientist and statesmen, the aristocratic Jefferson was also an avid oenophile. When he was ambassador to France he spent much of his time visiting the vineyards of Bordeaux and Burgundy, buying wine for his own collection and on behalf of his friends back home. Of course this wine is not drinkable now;  it is unusual for even the best Bordeaux to last more than 50 years, and 200 years is beyond any wine's limit. The allure of these high-priced bottles of vinegar is purely in the joy of collecting, not consuming.

Top Ten Results

1              Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team HTC - Columbia       4:37:09                   

2              Julian Dean (NZl) Garmin - Transitions                     

3              Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini                    

4              Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha                      

5              Oscar Freire Gomez (Spa) Rabobank                        

6              Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky Professional Cycling Team                          

7              Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto                       

8              Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne                      

9              Grega Bole (Slo) Lampre-Farnese Vini                     

10           Ruben Perez Moreno (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi

Team RadioShack Results

23           Christopher Horner (USA)

61           Jani Brajkovic (Slo)

93           Sergio Paulinho (Por)                      

94           Andreas Klöden (Ger)

96           Gregory Rast (Swi)                           

97           Levi Leipheimer (USA)

104         Lance Armstrong (USA)

109         Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)

147         Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) 0:00:31

General Classification after Stage 18

1              Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana                 88:09:48                

2              Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank        0:00:08  

3              Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi          0:03:32  

4              Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank               0:03:53  

5              Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto          0:05:27  

6              Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank                 0:06:41  

7              Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:07:03  

8              Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions            0:09:18  

9              Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo 0:10:12  

10            Christopher Horner (USA) Team Radioshack        0:10:37

Team RadioShack on General Classification

13           Levi Leipheimer (USA)   0:14:24                   

14           Andreas Klöden (Ger)    0:14:44

23           Lance Armstrong (USA)  0:37:58 

45           Jani Brajkovic (Slo)  1:22:00           

46           Sergio Paulinho (Por)  1:23:37

86           Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)   2:38:11

115         Gregory Rast (Swi)  3:11:09 

148         Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) 3:42:52