Tour de France

Stage 11:  Sisteron to Bourg-lès Valence, 184.5km/115mi

By Cathy Mehl

With only three more chances for the fast men of cycling to win a stage, the teams of the sprinters wasted no time in setting up the group gallop in the first-time finishing town of Bourg-lès Valence. With the competition for the green jersey getting tighter and tighter, the sprinters were battling for every inch of road in the finale.  HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish came off the wheel of teammate Mark Renshaw to take his third stage win in this year’s Tour, but with his victory came a huge blow to the USA-based team.  Renshaw headbutted Garmin’s Julien Dean not once but twice in the final 400m and was immediately relegated and then disqualified from the Tour for unsafe conduct on the race course.  Cavendish’s win put him at 13 career stage wins in three Tours, but the loss of his lead out could be devastating to the British rider.  Second and third place went to Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) and American Tyler Farrar (Garmin), moving the Italian rider into the green jersey four points ahead of Thor Hushovd (Cervelo). 

There was no change in the overall with 25-year old Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) spending his second full day in yellow with relative ease.  With no real opportunities to gain time on the stage, there was no battle for the classification.  The Shack’s Levi Leipheimer remains the best-placed Team rider in sixth place.  Team RadioShack still hope to soon take the top spot in the Teams classification, currently trailing Caisse d’Epargne by 31-seconds. 

As soon as the flag dropped three riders were off and set up the escape of the day.  The trio of Anthony Geslin (FdJ), Stephane Auge ( Cofidis) and Jose-Alberto Benitez of Footon steadily built a gap to almost four minutes.  Saxo Bank rolled at the front to protect Scheck, but left most of the work to the teams of the sprinters.  The peloton was down to 179 riders with two more riders dropping out, most notably Tyler Farrar’s lead out man Robbie Hunter.   

At 23km to go the catch was made and the battle for the front began between HTC-Columbia, Lampre and Garmin.  At 5km to go Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) took a flyer off the front, countered by Team RadioShack’s Yaroslav Popovych.  After yesterday’s crash Popo looked a little beat up, but today’s effort showed he is feeling good and happy to give an effort in the stages that suit him.  Reabsorbed by the peloton, the full group spread wide across the road and rushed under the 1km red kite.  The men with the nerves then went about their dangerous jobs to set up the sprint with Cavendish emerging the victor once again.  

The Tour has passed the halfway point now with nine stages to go.  Friday’s stage 12 is a long one at 210.5km, traveling from Bourg-de-Péage to Mende on the approach to the Pyrenees on Sunday.

Team Note:  When Sérgio Paulinho arrived at the team hotel last night, he had a little job to do – answer the 50 text messages of congratulations he’d received!  At dinner Team RadioShack celebrated Paulinho’s big stage win with champagne and many congratulations to our Portuguese rider.   In attendance were three surprise guests too –anti-doping  chaperons waiting to do a blood draw from Levi. 

Beyond the Finish Line:  The Camargue Horses or white horses are found in the Parc Naturel Regional de Camargue in the Bouches du Rhone region of the Provence  in France. They are a very old breed of horse and have been roaming this area of the earth of hundreds of years.These horses are quite small in size, but that does not detract from their hardiness, agility and their tough nature.  They used to be used to herd the Camargue Bulls that were used for bullfighting in southern France and they were ridden by the Camargue cowboys.

Top Ten Results

1              Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team HTC - Columbia       4:42:29                   

2              Alessandro Petacchi (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini                    

3              Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin - Transitions                  

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

5              Robbie McEwen (Aus) Team Katusha                      

6              Yukiya Arashiro (Jpn) Bbox Bouygues Telecom                    

7              Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team                                  

8              Lloyd Mondory (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale                                  

9              Jurgen Roelandts (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto                       

10            Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram

Team RadioShack Results

44           Andreas Klöden (Ger)

77           Gregory Rast (Swi)

98           Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)

114         Lance Armstrong (USA)  0:00:29                                 

115         Christopher Horner (USA)

127         Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)  0:02:10 

152         Sergio Paulinho (Por) 0:07:41

General Classification after Stage 11

1              Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank        53:43:25                

2              Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana                 0:00:41  

3              Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi          0:02:45  

4              Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank               0:02:58  

5              Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto          0:03:31  

6              Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack               0:03:59  

7              Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank                 0:04:22  

8              Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne       0:04:41  

9              Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:05:08  

10            Ivan Basso (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo                 0:05:09

Team RadioShack on General Classification

20           Andreas Klöden (Ger)   0:09:05                 

25           Christopher Horner (USA)   0:11:35

32           Lance Armstrong (USA)   0:17:5

35           Jani Brajkovic (Slo)   0:21:43 

58           Sergio Paulinho (Por)   0:49:32 

68           Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)   0:53:14

126         Gregory Rast (Swi)   1:27:04

174         Dmitriy Muravyev (Kaz)   1:57:10