Tour de France

Stage 12:  Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden, 211km/131mi

By Cathy Mehl

The site of another ripped jersey for Team RadioShack’s Andreas Klöden was most unwelcome on Thursday's stage 12.  On the descent of the category 1 La Hourquette d’Ancizan, a slippery road surface on a corner took several riders down, including Klodi.  Already nursing a sore back, the German rider visited the medical car to receive a few new bandages and was back in the pack as the group started the ascent of the HC Col du Tourmalet with the uphill finish at Luz-Ardiden still to come.  But Andreas lost a huge chunk of time and dropped out of contention for the overall, putting Team RadioShack in the hunt for stage wins for the remainder of the Tour.

“It’s just too much bad luck at this year’s Tour,” said a frustrated Johan Bruyneel after the stage.  “The first days we were lucky and then all the bad luck came to us.  Klodi was feeling ok today, coming back from the crash the other day, but then today he went down again on the first climb.  We’ll see how he is tonight but we’re already down to six riders so there isn’t so much else we can do in this Tour de France.   Levi looked ok but he’s still recovering from crashes too so he isn’t at his full potential.  This is not what we came for.  We are very disappointed so we need to come up with some other goals.  We’ll keep trying.  The GC is gone, the Teams classification is gone, so all that’s left is to try for a stage win.  Klöden was in a good position when guys in front of him crashed and he went over them.  Now he has hurt his shoulder and his leg.  From then on it was a nightmare for him.  He tried to defend as well as he could on the Tourmalet, but on the last climb, that was it and gone are his hopes for the general classification.  We’ll see if he can stay in the race so maybe later in the Alps he can try something.” Klöden suffers from a lot of road rash, as well as a sore shoulder and hip.  The accumulation of crashes now weigh heavily on Andreas, both mentally and physically.  Hopefully he can find the motivation to continue in this year’s Tour de France.

A battered Klodi is down but not out, we hope

There was plenty of drama in the Pyrenees in the first day of climbing for this year’s Tour de France.  All of the favorites came to the front to battle for supremacy, but in the end it was Olympic Champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) who emerged the victor, claiming his first Tour stage win.  Sanchez crossed the finish line seven seconds ahead of breakaway companion Jelle Vanendert of Omerga Pharma-Lotto.  Coming in three seconds later was Frank Schleck of Leopard Trek.  But another 20-seconds went by before the rest of the best arrived, including Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), Cadel Evans (BMC) and Andy Schleck.  Defending champion Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) looked strong on the climb but lost forces just at the end, arriving 43-seconds behind Sanchez.  The best-placed rider for Team RadioShack was Levi Leipheimer in 14th at 1:25. 

“The first climb was very tricky,” explained team rider Levi Leipheimer.  “It was very narrow and the road was brand new.  You see there was another crash because it was a new road and there was cow manure in the first corner.  Andreas went down so this was bad luck for us again.  He didn’t need that; he was already hurting from the other day.  Leopard went hard on the Tourmalet, and then again on Luz-Ardiden but I suffered through that and started to feel a little better.   In the last 4k I began to run out of energy and couldn’t follow with the best 8 or 10 guys.  Typically the first day in the mountains isn’t good for me.  I get better as we go along.  I’m not a rider with explosive attributes but once I get going I don’t slow down, I don’t get so tired.  I hope to fare better as the Tour goes on.  I’ll keep doing my best and try to stay close to the leaders.  Maybe I can move into the top ten or some opportunity where we come to the end in a small group, the big favorites look at each other and no one looks at me.  I’ll hope for a situation like this.” 

Levi still fights on

The biggest winner of the day was Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) who kept teammate Pierre Rolland with him throughout the climb and kept the yellow jersey.  He now leads by 1:49 to Frank Schleck and 2:06 to Evans while Contador is four minutes behind.  The best-placed riders for The Shack are Haimar Zubeldia and Leipheimer in 15th and 17th respectively.

Not waiting for the final climb, Leopard Trek went to the front to up the pace on the lower slopes of the Tourmalet with a breakaway of six riders in the front two minutes ahead if small groups of chasers.  First over the climb to claim the prize money was Jeremy Roy (FdJ) and Gerraint Thomas (Sky) with the first chase group at 3 minutes as the group rode into the fog at the top of the climb. 

The final test was the ride up to Luz-Ardiden, most famous for being the site of Lance Armstrong’ run-in with a mussette that caught on his handlebars and put him on the deck before remounting his bike to fly to the top for the win.  Celebrating Bastille Day, huge crowds cheered from the roadside as the peloton of 176 riders made their way up the slopes.  At 15 km to go Thomas and Roy were holding more than one minute to the first chasers while three minutes back the pace was set with Leopard Trek once again on front, 39-year old Jen Voigt leading the charge.  Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez (Euskeltel Euskadi)  and Jelle Vandendert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) made their decisive move on the lower slopes, bridging across to pass the others and leaving the rest to fight amongst themselves as the duo focussed on victory. 

Haimar rolls into the finish area

What’s up next?  Stage 13 is 152.5km/95mi from Pau to Lourdes as the race stays near the border with Spain.  A climb with 40k to go lets the peloton descend all the way into Lourdes.  Known as a place of healing, perhaps luck will change for Team RadioShack once they arrive in the destination  of countless pilgrimages. 

Team note:  It didn’t happen this year, but the teams of Johan Bruyneel have had success in stage wins on Bastille Day in the past.  In 2006 Yaroslav Popovych won the stage while wearing the colors of Discovery Channel and last year Sergio Paulinho won for Team RadioShack.
 

Top Ten Results

1              Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi   6:01:15            

2              Jelle Vanendert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto   0:00:07        

3              Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek   0:00:10             

4              Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale   0:00:30      

5              Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team                        

6              Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek                               

7              Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD   0:00:35         

8              Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard   0:00:43         

9              Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar   0:00:50  

10            Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar

Team RadioShack Results

14           Levi Leipheimer (USA)  0:01:25

20           Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) 0:02:53      

44           Andreas Klöden (Ger)  0:08:26  

75           Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por)  0:17:28

82           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)  0:17:44

138         Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)  0:33:05

General Classification after Stage 12

1              Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Team Europcar   51:54:44                

2              Fränk Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek              0:01:49  

3              Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team       0:02:06  

4              Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek              0:02:17  

5              Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale      0:03:16  

6              Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre - ISD         0:03:22  

7              Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard   0:04:00         

8              Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi   0:04:11            

9              Thomas Danielson (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo    0:04:35  

10            Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale      0:04:57

Team RadioShack on General Classification

15           Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa)  0:07:17     

17           Levi Leipheimer (USA)   0:07:51

24           Andreas Klöden (Ger)  0:10:19  

80           Sergio Miguel Moreira Paulinho (Por)  0:53:26

86           Markel Irizar Aranburu (Spa)  0:55:18

170         Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz) 1:50:30                                

Photos courtesy of Graham Watson and Philippe Maertens