Tour de France

Stage 15: Pamiers to Bagnères-de-Luchon, 187.5km/116mi

By Cathy Mehl

One hundred years ago the Tour de France added the tough climbs of the Pyrenees to spice up the action and create tension and excitement in the race.  Mission accomplished. At the top of the final climb today,  race leader Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) attacked only to immediately suffer a slipped chain as his closest competitors rode away from him.  Alberto Contador (Astana), Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel Euskadi) and Denis Menchov (Rabobank) were already on the move when  Schleck dismounted and fixed his chain, then chased back to try to save his yellow jersey.  But the others were already away and gaining time.  Contador moved himself into the race lead with two more hard days to go in the Pyrenees but received mixed reactions when he stepped on the podium to receive the jersey.  Fair play or taking advantage of a bad situation?  Mechanical or mistake?  The debate will continue for quite awhile as the battle for the 2010 Tour de France enters the home stretch.

After the stage, an angry Schleck vowed to fight back, seeming to understand that the race had to go on without him while claiming he would not have raced that way.  After being the recipient of a neutralized stage 2 after he crashed, perhaps the idea of ‘gifts’ has gone clean out of the GC contender’s heads.   Contador leads by eight seconds to Schleck, followed by Sanchez at an even two-minutes behind.  Team RadioShack’s Levi Leipheimer remained in seventh place at over five minutes back. 

Today’s stage was won by Thomas Voeckler (Bbox) in the fifth stage won by a Frenchman this year, a strong showing from the native riders.  Part of a successful breakaway, the French national champion rode solo to the line, celebrating and enjoying the adoration of the crowd as he claimed his second career Tour stage win.  Second place went to former world champion Alessandro Ballan of BMC and third to Aitor Perez Arrieta (Footon-Servetto).  The Shack regained the lead in the Teams classification and now hold over four minutes to their closest rival Caisse d’Epargne with five stages to go. 

“Levi is still right up there so he just has to make sure he stays with those guys,” said Team Director Johan Bruyneel after the stage.  “I think today he did a good job and maintained his position.  It’s clear that the podium is going to be very difficult.  Menchov and Sanchez become the two biggest candidates and both are two strong time trialists.  It’s not over of course and they can have a bad day but if they don’t, then there is nothing we can do.  We can’t take that time back in the time trial.  But everything can change.  Look at today.  I only heard what I heard on Tour radio and I understand Andy had a mechanical problem.  He had attacked, so the question becomes was Contador counter-attacking or he just took advantage of the mechanical?  But you know, in the heat of the race and in the final you can’t tell Contador to wait for Andy.  Andy didn’t wait for Contador in the cobblestones either.  It’s the proof that everything in cycling can change from one moment to the next.  At one moment the work from the whole team (Saxo Bank) is basically erased because of a mechanical.  There are no gifts in this race,” he concluded. 

Lance Armstrong also checked in after the race, saying, “ It was a hard day for the team but we got the GC back.   My condition was better, but we’re running out of days.  The Tour is three weeks, not four!  But I was better than yesterday.”  Asked about the Schleck-Contador situation, Lance said, “ I didn’t see exactly what happened with Andy as I was a bit behind.  If Contador attacked when he saw that Schleck had a problem, then it was probably not correct, but I have to see the images.   In 2003 they waited for me and in 2001 I waited for (Jan) Ullrich.  It is better to wait but this is different now because it was the last climb of the race and the race is on.  I don’t want to make a hard judgment without having seen the images,” he concluded.

It was a beautiful day in the high mountains of southern France near the border with Spain.  Four climbs were on route for the 175 riders, including the very difficult HC category climb of the Port de Balès, a 20km climb at 6.1%.   It took more than an hour of racing and many attacks before the break went away.  Ten riders made the group and included Voeckler, Brian Vandborg (Liquigas-Doimo), Johan Van Summeren (Garmin - Transitions) and Alessandro Ballan of BMC.   At the start of the Port de Balès, the break had a gap of 10:49 to the main bunch with Saxo Bank’s Stuart O’Grady and Jens Voigt leading the charge from the front.  The advantage of the break began to plummet once the slopes got really steep and the top contenders came out to play.    Rider after rider slipped off the back as Saxo Bank continued to work at the head of the main field.  When the last of his teammates slipped away, Schleck put in several  attacks with response from the favorites before the attack when he slipped his chain and had to pull to the side of the road to fix the problem. 

Once on the bike again Scheck was relentless in his effort to gain back valuable lost seconds, but up ahead Contador was following one of the best descenders in the business down the steep slopes and Sanchez led the way to the yellow jersey for his fellow countryman.   It might have been a controversial move on Contador’s part, but the fans of cycling are the beneficiaries in the stages to come as Schleck and Team Saxo Bank wage war to gain back what so easily slipped away.

Tuesday brings Stage 16 at 199.5km/124mi from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Pau with a rest day coming on Wednesday. 

Team Note:  Yaroslav Popovych crashed on Sunday as he descended the Port de Pailheres and suffered a fair amount of road rash on his body….but was seen at dinner laughing and smiling.  It’s hard to keep Popo down!

Beyond the Finish Line:  The peloton descended the Col de Portet-d’Aspet and rode by the beautiful memorial dedicated to Motorola rider and 1992 Olympic gold medalist Fabio Casartelli who crashed and died there in 1995.    Teammates with Lance Armstrong and George Hincapie, as well as BMC’s Jim Ochowicz, the stage was neutralized the following day to honor the fallen rider, allowing Team Motorola to ride over the finish line together with Fabio’s bike secured to the team car. Two days later Lance won a dramatic stage and pointed his fingers to the sky to dedicate the victory to his friend Fabio.

Top Ten Results

1              Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Bbox Bouygues Telecom                4:44:52                   

2              Alessandro Ballan (Ita) BMC Racing Team              0:01:20  

3              Aitor Perez Arrieta (Spa) Footon-Servetto                             

4              Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale                 0:02:50  

5              Luke Roberts (Aus) Team Milram                               

6              Francesco Reda (Ita) Quick Step                                 

7              Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana                                  

8              Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi                           

9              Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank                                

10            Brian Vandborg (Den) Liquigas-Doimo

Team RadioShack Results

17           Levi Leipheimer (USA) 0:03:55

22           Andreas Klöden (Ger) 0:04:08                     

23           Lance Armstrong (USA)

31           Christopher Horner (USA) 0:05:44

50           Sergio Paulinho (Por) 0:09:35

79           Jani Brajkovic (Slo) 0:17:09

121         Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) 0:28:49

123         Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)                                 

124         Gregory Rast (Swi)

General Classification after Stage 15

1              Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana                 72:50:42                

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

3              Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi          0:02:00  

4              Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank               0:02:13  

5              Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto          0:03:39  

6              Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank                 0:05:01  

7              Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack               0:05:25  

8              Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:05:45  

9              Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana        0:07:12  

10            Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions            0:07:51

Team RadioShack on General Classification

15           Andreas Klöden (Ger)   0:11:14                 

21           Christopher Horner (USA)  0:15:37 

31           Lance Armstrong (USA)   0:40:31 

39           Jani  Brajkovic (Slo)  0:53:02

50           Sergio Paulinho (Por)   1:14:38   

88           Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)   1:57:24

126         Gregory Rast (Swi)   2:30:53

172         Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)   3:16:17