Tour de France

Stage 8: Station Des Rousses to Morzine-Avoriaz, 189km/117mi

By Cathy Mehl

It was a big day of re-shuffling on the general classification and a new leader has emerged for Team RadioShack with Levi Leipheimer moving into eighth place after nine days of racing.   Several crashes ended Lance Armstrong’s hopes for a win in this year’s Tour and Leipheimer stepped into the role of best-placed team rider.  Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck attacked from the group of favorites as he went under the red kite signaling 1000 meters to go, and was immediately followed by Samuel Sanchez of Euskaltel Euskadi.  Sanchez battled Schleck to the line, but in the closing meters Andy came around the Olympic champion to claim his first Tour stage win and moved into second place at 20-seconds behind new race leader and world champion Cadel Evans (BMC).   Third place is held by Alberto Contador of Astana at 1:01off Evans’ time.

After the stage a huge scrum of reporters chased after Lance to get his comments on the events of the day.  Asked what happed in the second accident, Armstrong said, “In the one roundabout there before Ramaz, I clipped a pedal and the front tire rolled off and the next thing I knew I was rolling on the ground at 60-65 an hour.  It’s just hard to come back; it’s hard on the body.  We didn’t make it back until the start of the Ramaz and I was pegged.”  Lance continued with his comments, saying, “Yeah bad luck at a bad time.  Just not much I could do.  I’ve had a couple of hours to think about it so it’s not like it’s unbelievable to me.  I tried to appreciate my time, appreciate the fans and know that it’s not going to be my year.   I didn’t have any flashbacks (to previous years of winning) but I just was disappointed with the day.  I felt good before that, just bad luck.”  Asked when he knew his chances to win were over, he replied, “When you’re rolling around on the ground at 60kph it’s obvious you’re not going to feel the same and it came at a really bad time, just before Ramaz.   As soon as we got back on the back, immediately they started going fast.  I found some rhythm and stayed in the group but I knew that even if I made it over Ramaz with the front guys, I was going to be suffering on Avoriaz.” 

Three crashes took down seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong on Sunday’s first stage into the high Alps.  An early spill after 6km of racing was followed by the more serious clip of pedals just before the climb of the Ramaz.  Teammates surrounded Armstrong to pace him back  with Chris Horner and Jani Brajkovic alongside the champion for the climb.  The final straw was the crash at the top of Les Gets when another rider fell off his bike right in front of the Texan, who had no choice but to stop, untangle himself and get going again, hopes of another Tour win evaporating into the thin mountain air.

Armstrong was also asked if today was his last day on the Tour, and he answered with an emphatic “No!  Like I said, I felt strong before and I’ve proved before today that my condition is good.  I just couldn’t recover from the fall.  This is a long race.  Obviously the Tour is finished for me but I can stay in the race, try to win stages, help the team and really try to appreciate my time here and appreciate that I’m not coming back here.   No tears from me, you know.  I’ve had a lot of years here where it’s been very different so I’m not going to dwell on today.”  Asked if it was the end of an era, Lance said, “No, I think that era ended a long time ago.” 

Team Manager Johan Bruyneel also spoke after the stage, saying today was “the end of Lance’s Tour aspirations.  Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.  On the Ramaz he told me he could not give his maximum because of the injury to his hip.  It’s sad.  There is a time to go for everybody.  But I am sad because it’s bad luck and not a physical problem that takes him out of contention.  Of course we knew it would be hard to win, but we were ambitious.  The bad luck started in Spa and on the cobbles (Stages 2 & 3).  It was too much for one week.  Now we look to the rest day to see how the injuries heal up and we will look at what we do with Levi.  We will change our ambitions,” he concluded. 

After 27km of racing a group of seven riders went away to establish the break of the day.  Included in the group were Koos Moernhout (Rabobank), Benoit Vagrenard (FdJ), Christophe Riblon (AG2R), and  Amael Moinard (Cofidis).  The riders built up a gap of more than 8 minutes but the overall contenders riding in the main field knew the pitch of the slopes soon-to-come would bring the escapees back into the fold. 

The breakaway held more than four-minutes at the top of the Ramaz with Team Sky leading the pace in the peloton.  Yellow jersey Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) lost contact with the group and  his second time in the maillot jaune was over once again.  On the next smaller climb of Les Gets, the leading group was down to three riders and Astana was chasing hard to close the gap.  Contador’s men set the pace but the group of favorites was still large at the base of the final climb to Avoriaz.

Big efforts all day finally resulted in tired legs on the final pitch with several favorites coming unhitched before the finish, most notable Bradley Wiggins of Team Sky.  With less than 2km to go Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) attacked the lead group with Robert Gesink (Rabobank) quick on his wheel.  As the group came back together it was Schleck who put in a strong effort with an initial response from Contador, but no sustained effort came from the defending champion.  Sanchez and Schleck held off the others by ten seconds at the finish line.

Monday is the first rest day and after nine days of racing the riders will look forward to spinning only a few hours on the bike, catching up with family and resting their tired legs.  Tuesday’s stage is the toughest in the Alps this year and includes the Col de la Madeleine before the finish in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. 

Top Ten Results

1              Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank        4:54:11                   

2              Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi                           

3              Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank                 0:00:10  

4              Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo                  

5              Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana                                  

6              Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team                        

7              Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto                           

8              Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack                                

9              Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo                                  

10            Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank

Team RadioShack Results

16           Andreas Klöden (Ger) 0:01:14

33           Christopher Horner (USA) 0:04:05

61           Lance Armstrong (USA)  0:11:45                 

62           Jani  Brajkovic (Slo)

73           Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)  0:16:48             

103         Sergio Paulinho (Por)  0:21:32

161         Grégory Rast (Swi)  0:032:34

163         Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)

General Classification after Stage 8

1              Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team       37:57:09                

2              Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank        0:00:20  

3              Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana                 0:01:01  

4              Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto          0:01:03  

5              Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank               0:01:10  

6              Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions            0:01:11  

7              Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo 0:01:45  

8              Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack               0:02:14  

9              Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi          0:02:15  

10            Michael Rogers (Aus) Team HTC - Columbia         0:02:31

Team RadioShack on General Classification

21           Andreas Klöden (Ger)   0:05:39

23           Christopher Horner (USA)   0:06:33

39           Lance Armstrong (USA)   0:13:26

40           Jani Brajkovic (Slo)  0:13:56 

59           Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)   0:27:40

84           Sergio Paulinho (Por)   0:41:15   

150         Gregory Rast (Swi)  1:01:30

186         Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)  1:27:58