Results:
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Frank Schleck
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4th at 6”
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winner
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3rd at 3"
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29ème à 53”
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They are rock-stars : Frank Schleck, Andy Schleck and Kim Kirchen have been celebrated during the traditionnal criterium organized by the ACC Contern in Luxemburg-capital by an awesome crowd. There have even be more spectators than twelve months before and an estimated 40.000 fans were on the course to cheer on the three heroes of the latest Tour de France. And they have seen a spectacular race with very offensive riders, animated from the beginning to the end by Andy Schleck and Kim Kirchen. But it was Frank Schleck who emerged in the lead from the very last lap and who took the win with 3 seconds advantage on the reigning world champion Alessandro Ballan and Kim Kirchen. Andy Schleck was also up at the front in the final and finished the race in fourth position, whereas Jempy Drucker crossed the line in 29th position in the middle of the pack, after having been in a break for a while with around 10 other riders towards the middle of the race. more ... .
26.07.2009 21. Montereau - Paris Champs Elysées (164 km)
King of the sprint
Results:
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Mark Cavendish
Alberto Contador
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63rd at 0”
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2nd at 4’11"
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Winner
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4th at 99p
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56th at 0"
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5th at 6'04"
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7th at 122p
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143rd at 34"
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57th at 1.26'52"
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Whereas for the Schleck brothers, the last stage of the Tour de France 2009 was a rather relaxed one, it was filled with hard labour for Kim Kirchen. The best sprinter of this Tour de France, Mark Cavendish, actually had the ambition to take a sixth stage win with the most beautiful of the victories for a sprinter, the one on the Champs Elysées. And, in order to improve the record of the most stage wins in one and the same Tour of Freddy Maertens, he counted of course on his team. The Columbia train did again a very impressive work, taking all the responsabilities on its own and swallowing up all the breaks without support from any other teams. Attackers are often very motivated on the Champs Elysées and, like usual, it all started after the first passage on the line, with Sylvain Calzati and Fumiyuku Beppu opening the festival of attacks. Together with Veikkanen, Coyot, Dumoulin, Pichot, Barredo and Wegmann, the Japanese rider from Skil Shimano was in a bigger break of 15 riders for a while, but Kim Kirchen, Montfort and company brought them back with just five kilometers to go: timing all right. Garmin tried to take the control of the peloton, but they had no chance against Columbia who prepared the sprint perfectly. Renshaw led out through the last corner with Cavendish in his wheel and the two Marks accelerated in a manner that they were able to take positions one and two at the finish, Cavendish ahead of Renshaw with all the others several meters behind. Fantastic work !!! Fantastic was also the performance of the Schleck brothers at this Tour de France. Never in the history of the Tour, two brothers had been that good overall and, even if Alberto Contador clearly was the strongest, they were the one that made the race. The Tour 2009 would in fact have been rather uninteresting without the two brothers and the fans showed their affection for the two, not only in Luxembourg. After posing for the photographs at the beginning of the stage, Frank and Andy took their place in the peloton, trying to arrive safely onto the finish line, where they took positions 56 and 63 in the middle of the pack, being at last able to celebrate their achievements: second best young rider jersey and second place overall for Andy as well as stage win and 5th place overall for Frank. This hasn't been seen in Luxemburg since the time of Charly Gaul, 50 years ago. For Kim Kirchen, the last stage was just like the whole of his Tour: he hasn't known any notable personnal success, since he finished 143th of the stage, well off the back of the peloton, and 57th overall, but he did a lot of work for his team during the whole three weeks and can be happy with the team's huge success: six stage wins for the king of sprint, Mark Cavendish.
25.07.2009 20. Montélimar - Le Mont-Ventoux (167 km)
Status-quo despite Andy's attacks
Results:
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Juan-Manual Garate
Alberto Contador
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3rd at 38”
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2nd at 4’11"
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first
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4th at 99p
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5th at 43"
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5th at 6'04"
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7th at 122p
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135th at 25’49"
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57th at 1.26'18"
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The Mont Ventoux hasn't kept all of his promises. Of course, the repetitive accelerations of Andy Schleck were spectacular, but the race was very tactical and the expected big man against man duell between Schleck and Contador for the stage win didn't take place, both of them rather wanting to help their team-mates getting a place on the podium than to take a prestigious stage victory. Andy was again fantastic on this climb and it was eventually him who crossed the finish line as first of the favourites, but he came a little bit short for the stage victory. A few seconds before him, Juan-Manuel Garate had already raised his arms to the sky, taking the win after a tough battle with German Tony Martin. Both of them had tackled the foot of the Giant of Provence in a big break containing also Roulston, Delage, Posthuma, Perez Moreno, Riblon, Kuschynski, Geslin, Gutierrez, Dumoulin, Righi, Bonnet, Bouet, Lemoine and Timmer, four minutes ahead of the group of the favourites. As of the first slopes, Garate, Martin and Riblon took the lead of the race and the two first of them didn't give it up until the finish. In the group of the GC contencders, the pace wasn't very steady, after each acceleration, there was a regroupement and they didn't win much time on the two leaders on the climb. Frank Schleck was the first to attack, but Lance Armstrong wasn't eager to let him go. Brother Andy immediately brought up another acceleration, followed by Contador, but he wasn't able to get away either. The white jersey attacked once, twice, three, ... eight times on the Ventoux climb, but he wasn't able to shake off his yellow shadow. Each time, Andy didn't insist too much, being afraid of causing trouble to his brother. Because Frank, just like Armstrong, Nibali and the others, was at his limit and, if none of them was able to follow the two strongest riders of the Tour, none of them was able to shake off his rivals either. The only loser of the day, speaking of the overall classification, finally was Andreas Klöden. If Andy, Contador, Armstrong, Frank, Kreuziger, Pellizotti, Nibali and Wiggins arrived at the top of the climb within a few seconds, taking places 3 to 10 in this order in the stage classification, the German Astana rider lost over a minute in the last kilometers and, at the same time, his fifth place overall to Frank Schleck. Kim Kirchen wasn't among the best on the Ventoux, he still felt yesterday's effort in the legs and wasn't too motivated any more, since he had nothing to gain any more in the overall classification. He finished the stage as 135th in the grupetto, more than 25 minutes late on Garate.
24.07.2009 19. Bourgoin-Jallieu - Aubenas (178 km)
Cavendish stronger than ever
Results:
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Mark Cavendish
Alberto Contador
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15th at 4”
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2nd at 4’11"
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first
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27th at 4"
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6th at 5'59"
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140th at 18’37"
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50th at 1.01'07"
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The stage to Aubenas, in the Vaucluse region, presented a last opportunity for a break to go to the stage victory, but despite some brave attempts like the one of Kim Kirchen, it finished in a massive sprint. With a surprising winner: Mark Cavendish. He has never finished a three week stage race in his career before but proves on this Tour that he is stronger than ever. Because it was a really difficult stage, a crazy stage ridden at 46 km/h average speed in boiling heat on small roads with melting asphalt. And there also was this climb, the col de l'Escrinet with 10 kilometers to go, the climb that was fatal to Kim Kirchen, to Tyler Farrar and Renshaw. But Cavendish battled hard to hold on to the best group and, with the help of his team-mates and despite the attacks of Laurent Lefèvre and Alessandro Ballan. After that, winning was easy for the man from the Isle of Man and he took the victory one bike length ahead of Hushovd, Ciolek and Van Avermaet. While the Schleck brothers crossed the finish line well at the front in positions 15 and 27, Kim Kirchen didn't get the deserved result on this stage. He went on the attack at kilometer 15 already, in a big break containing Evans, Popovych, Millar, Perez Moreno, Arrieta, Riblon, Roche, Bennati, Arroyo, Gutierrez, Sanchez, Duque, Spilak, Chavanel, Barredo, Trussov, Vandenbergh, Lequatre and Hivert. But Rabobank wasn't represented in this group and they immediately organized a chase in the peloton, so that the break of Kirchen and co never got more than 2 minutes advantage and their attempt was over at kilometer 130. Like most of the other riders in this break, Kim was exhausted and got dropped on the Escinet climb. He arrived in Aubenas in 140th position, more than 18 minutes late on the winner. There haven't been much changes overall, except that Kim Kirchen moved down several more places, now in 50th position and more than an hour behind Contador, who is still comfortably in yellow ahead of the Mont Ventoux.
23.07.2009 18. Annecy - Annecy (41,5 km ITT)
Contador dominates time-trial
Results:
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Alberto Contador
Alberto Contador
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21st at 1'45”
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2nd at 4’11"
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First
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35th at 2'34"
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6th at 5'59"
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20th at 1’42"
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34th at 42'34"
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The 18th stage consisted of an individual time-trial of 40 kilometers in the picturesque region of the Annecy lake, with a first flat part, then a short but tough climb with unregular slopes and a long downhill back into annecy. When Kim Kirchen lined up towards 15 o'clock, the best time was held without surprise by Fabian Cancellara. The actual olympic champion has completed his loop in 48'34" at an average speed of 50 km/h leaving the other time trial specialists Ignatiev, Millar, Larsson and Zabriskie behind him. The Luxemburg National champion was very motivated, he wanted to show that yesterday's bad performance was only an accident and started very fast, passing polka-dot jersey Franco Pellizotti, who started two minutes before him, after only a few kilometers. After one third of the race, Kirchen was noted in 8th position at the intermediate point, already 39 seconds late on Cancellara. But Kim was on his way and in the second part of the course, the one with the climb, Kim was equally fast than the Olympic champion. On top of the climb, Kirchen was in excellent 7th position with 46 seconds deficit, but he lost time on the last, downhill false flat to the finish, those 10 kilometers, where Cancellara was really unbeatable. At the finish, Kirchen clocked in 50'12" (average speed 48,4 km/h), 1'34" late on the best time, which meant a good 12th place in the provisionnal classification at the finish, just behind three times time-trial world champion Michael Rogers and the actual title holder Bert Grabsch. But on a course that wasn't entirely to his advantage, Kim finished ahead of some other reknowned specialists of the race against the clock like Italian champion Bruseghin, former German champion Lang or Belgian champion Devolder. But the riders everyone waited for were of course Bradley Wiggins and Lance Armstrong. The pursuit world and olympic champion didn't leave any doubt about the fact that he hasn't lost any of his time-trial skills despite his new climbing abilities and he was noted with a new intermediate best time on top of the climb of Bluffy, whereas the seven times Tour-winner wasn't as good today. But the dominating rider of the time-trial was without doubt Alberto Contador, who was 30 seconds faster than Wiggins after 28 kilometers, gaining 1'12" on Armstrong and 1'47" on Frank Schleck who showed a very good first part. Brother Andy was also strong today and he was equally fast than Armstrong at that moment and 4 seconds better than Kim Kirchen on top of the climb in 38'07". But towards the end of the race, in the slightly downhill part, all the GC contenders lost time to the time-trial experts and Wiggins was not able to beat Cancellara's time on the line. The man in yellow did, however, and saved a minimum advantage of his 47" on the Swiss riding machine at the finish. Alberto Contador eventually won the 18th stage of the Tour de France, 3" ahead of Cancellara, 15 ahead of Ignatiev, 33 on Larsson, 41 on Millar and 43" on Bradley Wiggins. Kim Kirchen is the best Luxembourger at the end in 20th position, 1'42" behind Contador and 3 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck, 21st in 50'15" (average speed 48,3 km/h). Frank Schleck, as for him, he ended up in 35th place, at 47,6 km/h average speed and in the same time than George Hincapie (51'04"). He lost 2'34" on Contador and for the moment also a podium spot since, if Andy maintained his second place overall with now 4'11" deficit on the yellow jersey, his brother was passed by Armstrong, Wiggins and Klöden and is now located in 6th place, 5'59" back on Contador. Kim Kirchen is placed as 34th overall, but all this could change again on the Mont-Ventoux stage, where the battle will be very hard, but most likely for second and third place, since the yellow jersey suits better than ever to Alberto Contador.
22.07.2009 17. Bourg Saint Maurice – Le Grand-Bornand (170 km)
Schleck show on the queen stage
Results:
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Frank Schleck
Alberto Contador
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3rd at 59”
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2nd at 2’26"
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First
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winner
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3rd at 3'25"
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153rd at 35’47"
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37th at 40'52"
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The Schleck brothers had promised to put on a show in the Alps and they kept their word today in fantastic manner, since only yellow jersey Alberto Contador managed to follow the two of them .Even before the start of the Tour de France 2009, Andy Schleck had pointed out the 17th stage between Bourg-Saint-Maurice and Le Grand-Bornand as the most difficult of all, with no less than 5 climbs, among them Cormet de Roselend at the beginning, col des Saisies and, most of all, the tough col de la Colombière with just 15 kilometres to go. Of course, this couldn’t hold of some riders from attacking and on top of the first climb, Hushovd, Van den Broeck, Menchov, Zabriskie, Martinez, Perez Moreno, Txurruka, Verdugo, Montfort, Hincapie Arrieta, Pellizotti, Casar, Uran, Kern, Pauriol, Bruseghin, Rolland, Chavanel, Voeckler, Barredo and Gerdemann had one minute advantage on the rest of the peloton, led today by Saxo-Bank. Thor Hushovd, who wanted to take a maximum of points in the intermediate sprints, took of in the descent of the Cormet de Roselend for a long solo rider in the lead of the race, whereas the main group allowed the gap to grow to up to five minutes, even though there were some serious contenders in the chasing group. But the reaction didn’t wail long before coming and in the côte d’Arâches, only climb of second category of the day, a lot of riders were not able to follow the high rhythm set by Astana and Saxo Bank, among them Cadel Evans, Tony Martin and unfortunately also Kim Kirchen. The Luxembourger had to bury his dreams of a podium in Paris and he lost a lot of time until the finish line, being noted as last of the gruppetto in 153rd position, nearly 36 minutes late on the winner. The col de Romme also took some victims after the accelerations of Frank and Andy Schleck. Especially the younger Schleck was very impressive and after his multiple attacks, he found himself only with Contador and Klöden, while brother Frank bridged up a little bit later after having dropped Armstrong and Wiggins. Both of the Schlecks continued to work hard and, after having swallowed up all the riders of the early break, the group of four crossed the summit of the climb in the lead of the race, a little bit more than a minute ahead of Armstrong, Wiggins, Vandevelde and Nibali. The col de la Colombière was left and, while Andy Schleck did most of the work on the climb, Alberto Contador attacked with two kilometres left. But this move didn’t benefit at all to the man in the yellow jersey, since Frank and Andy were able to bridge up to him again, while his team-mate Klöden was dropped. The Schleck-show continued though on the Colombière and, led most of the time by the man in the white jersey, the leading trio crossed the top 1’15” ahead of the German and more than two minutes ahead of the next chasers. They didn’t take too many risks on the downhill to the finish and decided to sprint for the win. On the last, slightly uphill finish line, Frank finally showed out to be the strongest and took his second stage win at the Tour de France, ahead of Contador and his brother Andy. Vincenzo Nibali crossed the finish line in fourth position ahead of Armstrong and Klöden, but they were 2’18" late already, whereas Wiggins arrived at more than 3 minutes, Moreau and Vandevelde at 4 and all the others lost more than 6 minutes today. After this glorious ride, the two Schlecks are also on the provisional overall podium: Andy is now second at 2’26" and Frank in 3rd position, 3’25" late. Kim Kirchen of course falls down in the overall classification, where he is now noted in 37th place, 40’52” down on Alberto Contador.
21.07.2009 16. Martigny – Bourg Saint Maurice (159 km)
A Basque winner in the Alps
Results:
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Mikel Astarloza
Alberto Contador
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19th at 59”
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5th at 2’26"
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First
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20th at 59"
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8th at 3'25"
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21st at 59"
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13th at 5'05"
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The stage with the two Saint-Bernard climbs had only two difficulties on its menu, but two frightening ones : the big Saint-Bernard, right after the start, presented 24 kilometres of climbing with 1925 meters of change in altitude, culminating at 2473 meters above sea-level. The small one, which followed, is also a monster with 23 kilometres of uphill and 1350 meter of change in altitude. This wasn’t of course to everybody’s taste, but Franco Pellizotti said to himself that he could fill up his basket of King of the mountains points and he attacked early into the first climb. Later, the Liquigas rider was joined by Vladimir Karpets, whereas 16 riders were chasing behind, namely Gomez Marchante, Van den Broeck, Cancellara, Voigt, Ten Dam, Martinez, Verdugo, Kuschynski, Casar, Gutierrez, Moncoutié, Fedrigo, Rolland, Bouet and Velits. With such dangerous riders as the Katusha captain or the two team-mates of the Schleck brothers being offensive, Astana had to work hard in the peloton and they were only 1 minute late on the chasers and two minutes late on the two leaders at the top of the first climb. In the flat part of the stage, where Andy Schleck once again had to stop due to a mechanical and where the two leaders were caught by the chasing group, the peloton eased up a little bit, so that the gap was of 4 minutes at the foot of the second climb. The speed was very high, at the front and at the back with several attacks. On this Belgian National day, Jurgen Van den Broek managed to take the lead with Pellizotti, again him, Astarloza and Moinard, whereas Saxo-Bank once again splitted the pack. Only very few riders were able to follow the attacks of Frank and Andy Schleck, Contador of course, Klöden, Nibali and the surprising Wiggins, whereas Kim Kirchen had to chase hard not far behind. At two kilometres from the summit, Armstrong managed to bridge up to the Schleck group with VandeVelde and Ten Dam, just like Kim Kirchen did a little bit later. They arrived at the top of the cold du petit Saint-Bernard 2 minutes after the head of the race, a gap that continued to decrease on the downhill to the finish. In a very tight final, Mikel Astarloza was able to break away in the last kilometres and finally won the stage 6 seconds ahead of Casar and Fedrigo, who had bridged up from behind. At 37 kilometer per hour average speed for a mountain stage, Kim Kirchen, who failed to miss the last turn, as well as Frank and Andy Schleck crossed the line side by side in positions 19 to 21 within the first chasing group, 59 seconds late on the Basque winner. Despite the very difficult stage, there are only few changes overall with Frank Schleck in 8th position and Kim Kirchen as 13th moving up a few spots, whereas Cadel Evans, most prominent victim of the day, went down in the classification.
19.07.2009 15. Pontarlier - Verbier (208 km)
Top 10 for the 3 Luxembourgers
Results:
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Alberto Contador
Alberto Contador
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2nd at 43”
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5th at 2’26"
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First
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4th at 1’06"
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10th at 3'25"
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10th at 1’55"
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17th at 5'05"
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Verbier !!! The small and picturesque Swiss ski station seems to be a successful ground for Luxemburgish cyclists since it was precisely here that Kim Kirchen took the stage win and the overall lead at last year’s Tour de Suisse. And today, during stage 15 of the Tour de France, the representatives of the Grand-Duchy did again a tremendous job, finishing all three of them inside the Top 10. Of course, Alberto Contador was a class of his own, but behind the untouchable Spaniard, Frank and Andy Schleck were the strongest of the field, whereas Kim Kirchen seems to be getting stronger day by day. Everybody was waiting for this first day in the Alps, which turned into a climbing race on the slopes of Verbier, despite an brave and early attempt from Van den Broek, Cancellara, Hesjedal, Astarloza, Gutierrez, Fedrigo, Moinard, Moncoutié, Spilak and Flecha, who broke away after kilometer 30, only to be caught again at the foot of the last climb. The battle on this last attempt was very intense and made up for a less interesting beginning. It was the Schleck brothers who started the action by moving their team-mates Voigt and Sörensen to the front of the peloton. While they set a terrific speed, bringing some of the main contenders like Menchov, Nocentini and also Kim Kirchen in trouble, Frank Schleck accelerated even more with 7 kilometers to go. They were only 8 to be able to follow the Luxembourger: brother Andy, of course, plus Evans, Contador, Armstrong, Klöden, Vande Velde, Wiggins, Kreuziger and Nibali. But several hundred meters further up, Alberto Contador made an end to the dreams of the Saxo-Bank bros, by launching a big attack which nobody could follow. Andy Schleck tried and left the other riders behind him, but he lost more and more seconds to the skinny man from Madrid and finished at a fantastic second place in the stage, 43 seconds late on the new yellow jersey. Behind them, Frank Schleck has continued to animate the race and his acceleration left the duo Armstong and Klöden behind, only Vincenzo Nibali was faster than him and finished between the younger and the older brother on the line, leaving Frank in fourth place with a little more than a minute deficit. Kim Kirchen had serious problems in finding a good rhythm at the beginning of the climb and he was immediately dropped when the Saxo-Bank fireworks started. But then, little by little, he felt better and passed the riders ahead of him one by one, losing only very little time on the main contenders in the second half of the climb. At the end, Kirchen finished the stage in 10th position, just behind Lance Armstrong and 1’55” late on the big winner Alberto Contador. Of course, Luxemburg’s riders also moved up overall, where the biggest jump is done by Andy Schleck, who is now in 5th position at 2’26”, and less than a minute late on the second place held by Armstrong. For Frank Schleck (10th at 3’25”) and Kim Kirchen (17th at 5’05”), the progression is less spectacular, but with what they have shown today and the tough stages to come in the next days, all three of them could be able to move up even more overall.
18.07.2009 14. Colmar - Besancon (199 km)
Russian day ahead of the Alps
Results:
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Serguey Ivanov
Rinaldo Nocentini
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30th at 5’36”
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10th at 1’49"
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31st at 5’36"
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14th at 2'25"
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102nd at 5’36"
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20th at 3'16"
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14th stage of the Tour de France between Colmar and Besancon and it was the last chance for the sprinters to win a stage before the mountains. But with 11 teams represented in the early break, among them AG2R and Columbia, Hushovd, Farrar and Cavendish had only few chances to sprint for the victory, whereas Bennati and Ciolek were in the good move. Together with Roulston, Voigt, Maaskant, Hincapie, Roche, Willems, LeMevel, Minard, Righi, Ivanov and Timmer, they broke away after 20 kilometers of raceing and, even if Voigt had to quit the break due to a mechanical problem, they were able to build up a lead of more than 8 minutes, with George Hincapie riding virtually in yellow. Behind them, there was only Astana pacing at the front of the peloton, since they were not represented in the break and the team of Rinaldo Nocentini only worked towards the end of the stage. With 20 kilometers to go, the gap was still nearly 7 minutes and of course, the attacks began in the break. At ten kilometers from the finish, just at the end of a long uphill portion into the town of Besancon, Serguey Ivanov accelerated at the best possible moment and he took off for the stage victory, 8 years after his success in a similar stage, leading from Pontarlier to Aix-les-Bains, not far from here. Totally exhausted, the Russian national champion has taken his fourth win of the season, 16 seconds ahead of Nicolas Roche and 5'36" ahead of the main bunch with all the favourites. This means that Rinaldo Nocentini keeps his yellow jersey with only 5 seconds margin over George Hincapie, who is now 2nd overall. The three Luxemburgish riders crossed the finish line inside the peloton, but all three of them loose two positions, since Christophe LeMevel also moves up into the Top 10 overall due to his presence in the winning break. But ahead of the big battle that is expected in tomorrow's first Alpin stage, the gaps are still the same: Andy at 1'49", Frank at 2'25" and Kim at 3'16"
17.07.2009 13. Vittel - Colmar (200 km)
Superb win for Haussler in Colmar
Results:
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Heinrich Haussler
Rinaldo Nocentini
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10th at 6’43”
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8th at 1’49"
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15th at 6’43"
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12th at 2'25"
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33rd at 6’43"
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18th at 3'16"
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The Tour de France enters its deciding moments and, as a starter before the Alps, a medium-rated mountain stage in the Vosges region waited for the riders, with col de la Schlucht, col du Platzerwasel, col du Bannstein and col du Firstplan ahead of the finish in Colmar. Whereas Levi Leipheimer didn’t show up at the start because of a broken wrist after a crash in the final of yesterday’s stage, Moreau, Haussler, Voigt, Garate, Perez Moreno, Uran and Chavanel animated the race as of the first kilometers. But after 50 kilometers of hard chasing, they still didn’t have more than 30 seconds advantage on the peloton and so. Voigt, Garate, Moreau and Uran decided to call it quit, while Haussler, Perez Moreno and Chavanel were finally allowed to get away : they had a gap of 8 minutes at the foot of the mountains. The col de Platzerwasel is reknowned as one of the most difficult in the region and Perez Moreno was dropped at the head of the race, wheras Astana led the peloton under pouring rain, with the two Schlecks just behind them. On top of the climb, Chavanel and Haussler still had 4 minutes advantage on the yellow jersey group, in which Kim Kirchen wasn’t present any more. Just like Denis Menchov earlier in the stage, the man from Colubmia has not been able to follow the rhythm of the group with the GC favourites and was dropped together with riders like Voigt and Martinez, but was able to bridge up again on the descent. On the col du Firstplan, only Heinrich Haussler remained in the lead and he crossed the summit of this second category climb 4 minutes ahead of Txurruka, who had attacked out of the peloton and 6 minutes ahead of the first bigger group, where there had been only few attacks on the climb and where Andy Schleck had to change his bike at a very bad moment. But with the help of his team-mates, the Luxemburgish champ was quickly back into the group and so the GC favourites, among them also Kim Kirchen, were still together in the downhill to the finish line. Heinrich Haussler, the sprinter who is also a good climber, took a fantastic stage win in Colmar, after having been for nearly 200 kilometers at the front of the race and no less than 4 minutes ahead of Amets Txurruka in second place. The first group of 30 riders crossed the finish line two and a half more minutes behind, with the Luxemburgish riders in the positions 10 (Andy), 15 (Frank) and 33 (Kim). Unlike expected, the general classification shows only minor changes, with Nocentini still leading 6 seconds ahead of Contador, Andy Schleck moving up to 8th, Frank Schleck to 12th and Kim Kirchen to 18th.
16.07.2009 12. Tonnerre – Vittel (212 km)
Sörensen takes Saxo-Bank win
Results:
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Nikki Sörensen
Rinaldo Nocentini
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36th at 5’58”
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9th at 1’49"
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47th at 5’58"
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13th at 2'25"
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40th at 5’58"
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19th at 3'16"
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The 12th stage was one of the longest of this Tour with 212 kilometers between Tonnerre and Vittel, but this didn’t prevent the riders to begin the stage at light speed. Nearly 100 kilometers with lots of attacks covered in the first two race hours, but the different breaks were all very big with 12 to 15 riders, and the peloton was decided to not to let them slip away. A counter attack with Andy Schleck, Evans and Leipheimer at a certain moment was of course also without chance for success and so it lasted until kilometre 80 before a group of 7 was allowed to get away. They were very good riders with Franco Pellizotti, the runner-up of the Tourmalet stage, Egoi Martinez, the man in the polka-dot jersey who wasn’t willing to leave all the points on the small climbs of the day to Pellizotti, Nicki Sörensen, devoted helper of the Schleck brothers, Markus Fothen, former time-trial world champion who once finished 15th overall at the Grande Boucle, the ever offensive Laurent Lefèvre, former Franch champion Remi Pauriol and Sylvain Calzati, winner of the stage to Lorient at the Tour 2006. AG2R didn’t get any support at the head of the peloton and the gap remained constant at around 4 minutes. Due to the uphill finish in Vittel that would not favour Cavendish in case of sprint, Columbia would in fact not participate in the chase today and no other team was willing to do the work. With 20 kilometres to go, when the success of the break was almost sure, Nikki Sörensen surprised with a strong attack, taking Sylvain Calzati with him only to leave him behind a little bit later. In the hilly final, Sörensen simply was the strongest and he won the stage 48 seconds ahead of Lefèvre and Pellizotti.The main peloton finished 6 minutes later with Andy, Kim and Frank in the positions 36, 40 and 47. Before tomorrow’s middle-ranged mountain stage in the Vosges, the overall positions still remain unchanged.
15.07.2009 11. Vatan – Saint-Fargeau (192 km)
Another win for Cavendish
Results:
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Mark Cavendish
Rinaldo Nocentini
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69th at 0”
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9th at 1’49"
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85th at 0"
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13th at 2'25"
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98th at 0"
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19th at 3'16"
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Stage 11 of the Tour de France knew a very animated begin, when several crashes split up the peloton and led even to a temporary neutralization of the race. Johan Van Summeren and Marcin Sapa took advantage of the situation and broke away from the peloton, increasing their advantage with the help of the tail wind and at 50 km/h average speed to up to 5 minutes. Behind them, the usual teams like AG2R, Columbia, Garmin or Rabobank opened the chase after mid-race and on the small climb of côte de Perreuse, the two leaders only had 2 minutes advantage left. Kim Kirchen was also present at the head of the peloton in the last 20 kilometres, and
shortly before arriving at Saint Fargeau, the break of Van Summeren and Marcin was terminated after 160 kilometres of efforts. Thor Hushovd wanted to surprise the Columbia train by launching the final rush early, but at the same moment, Mark Cavendish jumped out of the wheel of Renshaw and was able to grab his fourth stage win on this Tour de France, with a tight margin over Farrar, Hutarovich and Freire. After this new victory, Kim Kirchen ‘s team-mate took back the green jersey from Hushovd. This is the only major change in any of the overall classifications now, and Luxemburg’s riders keep their positions inside the Top 20 after finishing in the positions 69, 85 and 98 in the middle of the big pack today.
14.07.2009 10. Limoges – Issoudun (195 km)
Cavendish back in his domain
Results:
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Mark Cavendish
Rinaldo Nocentini
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27th at 0”
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9th at 1’49"
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23rd at 0"
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13th at 2'25"
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63rd at 0"
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19th at 3'16"
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After three days in the mountains, the riders for the flat stages were at their advantage again today but on this French National day, the representatives of the home country were of course very motivated to spoil the party of the sprinters. Three of them Thierry Hupond, Benoît Vaugrenard and Samuel Dumoulin managed to break away very early together with Russian rider Ignatiev, and took three minutes of advantage on a peloton led by two men from team Columbia. Soon, Kim Kirchen's team-mates received some help by other sprinter teams and the gap decreased down to a little bit under two minutes again. Despite the absence of earphones for
radio-contact between the riders and the team-manager, prohibited by the organizers during two stages, the timing of the sprinter teams was perfect and the break was caught again with 2 kilometres to go. The Columbia lead-out train worked perfectly with Hincapie and Renshaw and 200 meters from the line, Mark Cavendish took the lead and never gave it up again. The Manxman wins his seventh Tour de France stage today, the first one being in Chateauroux last year, only a few kilometers from here, and crosses the line ahead of Thor Hushovd, Tyler Farrar and Leonardo Duque, the man who also tried his luck in the mountains. For the three Luxemburgish riders, the stage finished in the peloton where Frank and Andy Schleck arrived at the places 23 and 27, they stay in position in the overall classification, where there haven't been many changes. Kim Kirchen gave a helping hand to his team today by taking some turns and protecting Cavendish from the wind, and he was well present at the front of the peloton in the final, just like the Schleck brothers, but he lost a few seconds when he finished 63rd in the end, due to a crash in one of the last turns that splitted the peloton in two pieces. However, in the final stage result, the officials decided not to consider these 15 seconds, as the incident took place inside the last three kilometers. Saxo-Bank also had some bad news today, since team-mate Kurt-Asle Arvesen, one of the most valuable helpers, was involved in a bad crash and suffered a lot to arrive at the finish line, where he was found to have a broken collarbone.
12.07.2009 9. Saint-Gaudens - Tarbes (161 km)
Status-quo at the Tourmalet
Results:
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Pierrick Fedrigo
Rinaldo Nocentini
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34th at 34”
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9th at 1’49"
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36th at 34"
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13th at 2'25"
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47th at 34"
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19th at 3'16"
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A stage with a similar profile to yesterday, including two monster climbs with col d’Aspin and Tourmalet, but the summit of the latter was situated at 70 kilometres from the finish line. Of course, tactics played again a very important role and as of the beginning of the race, three teams sent one of their most important elements to the front: Saxo Bank with Jens Voigt, Liquigas with Franco Pellizotti and BBox with Pierrick Fedrigo. They were accompanied for a while by Leonardo Duque, who is maybe the only Columbian who sprints better than he climbs. In the col d’Aspin, there were lots of attacks in the peloton and more teams wanted to have some major players up at the front: at the summit of the climb, Voigt, Pellizotti and Fedrigo had three minutes advantage on Van de Broeck, Paulinho, Garate, Ten Dam, Martinez, Txurruka, Efimkin, Moncoutié and Voeckler, whereas the first peloton with the three Luxemburgish riders followed 30 more seconds behind. The col du Tourmalet didn’t change anything to the situation, except for Voigt being dropped and at the summit of the legendary climb, the two leaders were still three minutes ahead of the next chasers and 5 minutes ahead of the group with the main contenders, led by the team-mates of Nocentini. Columbia took over in the chase for a few minutes, hoping for a sprint of a little group that would be a good opportunity for Kim Kirchen, but stopped when the two fast sprinters Freire and Rojas bridged up on the descent, together with other riders. Their teams Rabobank and Caisse d’Epargne led the chase on the flat roads towards the finish line and they quickly swallowed up the second group. But the two leaders still were very strong, they had two and a half minutes advantage with thirty kilometres to go and under the red flag, the gap was still near to a minute. Fedrigo and Pellizotti fought out the stage win in a two man sprint and it was the Frenchman who had chosen the best gear, beating the Italian by a bike length for the second stage win for Bbox at this Tour de France. Oscar Freire won the sprint of the first peloton ahead of Ivanov, Velits and Rojas, a peloton of 75 units in which Luxemburg’s representatives arrived at the positions 34, 36 and 47. Andy Schleck had a moment of panic in the final when he was victim of a flat tyre with 4 kilometres to go, but with the help of the never tiring Jens Voigt, he came back into the pack very soon. Fortunately, Andy didn’t loose any time and, just like most of the riders, he remains on the same place overall than at the start of this mountain stage.
11.07.2009 8. Andorre - Saint-Girons (177 km)
Andy Schleck attacked
Results:
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Luis-Leon Sanchez
Rinaldo Nocentini
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20th at 1'54”
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9th at 1’49"
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25th at 1'54"
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13th at 2'25"
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56th at 1'54"
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19th at 3'16"
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On two occasions, Andy Schleck has tried to break the Astana bloc by attacking today, but unfortunately, on this very tactical stage, he had only little support and his attempt has failed to bring spectacular results. Already in the first climb of the day, the port d’Envalira, the stage started with a bang since a bigger group of riders broke away and among them were Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and Bradley Wiggins. But Evans was maybe a little too motivated to gain back the lost time, since he attacked again and the group splitted up: only a few climbers were able to follow the wheel of the Australian. Andy Schleck didn’t’ want to take the risk to be in a small group with still more than 100 kilometres to go and he didn’t follow Evans, sitting back in the Astana-group again. A little bit later, Evans had to find out by himself that he had only very little support in his group with riders focusing only on the stage win, and he decided to wait for the peloton, being passed by riders trying to bridge up to the break.
At 100 kilometres from the finish, a group of 10 riders was at the front with Luis León Sánchez, Mikhail Ignatiev, Thor Hushovd, George Hincapie, Vladimir Efimkin, Sandy Casar, Fabian Cancellara, Juan Antonio Flecha, Sébastien Rosseler and Mikel Astarloza, but they had only a small advantage on the main group. Andy Schleck wanted to try something again and he attacked once more halfway up the last climb, the col d’Angel. Contador immediately jumped into his wheel, but only around a dozen other riders were able to follow the speed of Luxemburg’s National champ, including brother Frank and Kim Kirchen. The Columbia-man had better legs than yesterday and, even if he lost several meters and had to bridge up to the Schleck-group together with Sastre and Menchov, he was able to follow the best today. Andy Schleck led the group for a while at high speed, but he lacked seriously of support, since yellow jersey Nocentini was in difficulties and Astana didn’t want to take the jersey today, hoping on the help of AG2R during the next days when it comes to control the peloton. There wasn’t anybody else who wanted to continue the move, so the speed went down again and around 40 riders, among them the man in yellow, came back into the group from behind. Those who took advantage from these tactical games were of course the riders in the break, who were able to increase their advantage again. Four of them, namely Sanchez, Astarloza, Efimkin and Casar, stayed away until the end and sprinted for the stage win. Luis-Leon Sanchez took the stage win with a narrow margin ahead of Casar, whereas the first bigger group with the three Luxemburgish riders and the other main contenders arrived two minutes later on the line. Despite a big battle during the first 100 kilometres of the race, the stage didn’t bring any overall changes.
10.07.2009 7.Barcelona - Andorre Arcalis (224 km)
Feillu surprises, Contador confirms
Results:
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Brice Feillu
Rinaldo Nocentini
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11th at 3'47”
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9th à 1’49"
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13th at 3'49"
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13ème à 2'25"
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34th at 4'39"
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20ème à 3'16"
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The first mountain stage to Andorra had already some very impressive figures to show: with 224 kilometers, it was also the longest of this year's Tour de France and the arrival on 2240 meter above sea-level was one of the highest mountain-top finishes ever in the history of the Grande Boucle. 5 climbs, among them the final ascent of about 10 kilometers at 7 % average slope and the Alte de Serra-Seca of the first category, granted for a festival of the climbers, with some of them starting the battle very early. Egoi Martinez, Rinaldo Nocentini, Johannes Fröhlinger, José Gutierrez and Christophe Riblon broke away shortly after the start and, together with Aleksandr Kuschynski, Christophe Kern, Jérôme Pineau and Brice Feillu, they still had more than 7 minutes of advantage on the first part of the field at the foot of the final climb up to Andorra, despite the tremendous work that Astana had shown at the head of the peloton during the whole day. They were sure though to battle out the stage win between them and it was surprisingly Brice Feillu who showed out to be the strongest by attacking with 5 kilometers to go and
leaving the others behind. Despite an impressive come-back from Christophe Kern in the last few hundred meters, the tall Frenchman of Agritubel was able to grab the stage win with a few meters advantage on his fellow countryman, with Fröhlinger finishing third at 25 seconds. In the peloton, the pace was still set by Astana on the last climb and it was steady and fast, causing some trouble to riders like yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara. It was only with two kilometers to go that the real attacks came, the first one occuring from Cadel Evans. Kim Kirchen had to feel the consequences of this acceleration, obviously, he wasn't in his best day today and has been at the back of the peloton for most of the day. He was able to hold on to the wheels of the main contenders until the acceleration of Evans, then he continued the climb at his own rythm and finally, he finished 34th of the day, 4'39" behind the winner and barely lost a minute to the GC favourites on a day that could have caused much more damage to him. Alberto Contador himself was the one who followed the acceleration of Evans and then launched a counter attack which no-one could follow, even not Andy Schleck. The Saxo-Bank rider tried to bridge up to the Spaniard, but the he had to slow down a little bit and fell back into a group with his brother Frank and most of the other favourites, where he lost 21 seconds to Contador, who confirmed his status of big overall favourite with today's attack. Frank and Andy Schleck crossed the finish line in positions 11 and 13 in a group of 12 riders containing the likes of Sastre, Menchov, Armstrong, or Menchov, 3'47" late on the winner of the day Feillu. Of course, both of them move further up overall, where Andy is now 9th at 1'49" and Frank is in 13th position, 2'25" behind the new yellow jersey Rinaldo Nocentini. The Italian was part of the early break today and he managed to rescapé de une échappée matinale qui a décidément raflé toute la mise. L'Italien de chez AG2R a gardé une avance mininale de 6 secondes sur Alberto Contador, désormais deuxième devant Armstrong à 8". Quant à Kim Kirchen, il peut garder ses ambitions intactes puisqu'il se situe toujours dans le Top 10 classement général, avec un peu plus de 3 minutes de retard sur le duo Astana, en attendant de retrouver des jours meilleurs.
09.07.2009 6.Girona - Barcelona (181 km)
Hushovd wins crash festival
Results:
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Thor Hushovd
Fabian Cancellara
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13th at 0”
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14th à 1’41"
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25th at 0"
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19ème à 2'17"
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40th at 0"
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18ème à 2'16"
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The first of two stages on Spanish ground had a hilly profile towards the end that wasn't to be disliked by the Luxemburgish riders and the classics hunters in general. Sylvain Chavanel is one of them and he broke away together with David Millar and Stéphane Augé after a very fast and animated first race hour. Some good rouleurs though and on wet and rainy roads, they built up an advantage of three minutes on the peloton led by Astana together with Cervélo, Rabobank and Milram. Some teams obviously had some ambitions today and did not want to leave too much room to the break. Despite getting some help from Amets Txurruka later in the stage, the break lost seriously time towards the end and David Millar crossed the summit of the climb of Conreria, at 20 kilometres from the finish, alone in the lead with only 30 seconds advantage on the main group. There was still another small uphill to come in the centre of Barcelona, climbing up to the finish line that was located in the same place than at the road-race of the Olympic Games, 17 years ago, and this was of course difficult for the leader, who was swallowed up again with two kilometres to go. Around 40 riders were still in contention in the last few hundred meters, among them Andy Schleck who was constantly in the first positions. Thor Hushovd was fastest on the line ahead of Freire, Rojas and Ciolek, whereas the Luxemburgish champion finished in 13th place. Frank Schleck and Kim Kirchen were also present in the first group and crossed the line in positions 25 and 40. On the last kilometres through the streets of Barcelona, there had been lots of crashes and the riders arrived at the Olympic stadium in little groups. Good luck though for the three Luxemburgish riders who were not involved in any incident and even made their appearance in the Top 20 overall, before the first mountain stage tomorrow.
08.07.2009 5.Le Cap D'Agde - Perpignan (197 km)
Successfull break for Thomas Voeckler
Results:
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Thomas Voeckler
Fabian Cancellara
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36th at 7”
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20ème à 1’41"
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28th at 7"
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25ème à 2'17"
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99th at 7"
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24ème à 2'16"
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On the Tour de France, something happens every day. Whereas today was meant as a simple transition stage with a long break that would be caught shortly before the finish line, the crosswinds have once again changed the screenplay in an unexpected way. With about 50 kilometres to go, Saxo Bank has imitated the Columbia-tactics of two days ago and created an echelon, splitting up the field into four groups. Kim Kirchen has found himself in a second group for a while, about 20 seconds late, but he managed to bridge up after some fearful minutes of chasing, whereas of a second group with riders like Boonen, Devolder, Moreau, Moncoutié and Robert Gesink, who had crashed, did use much more time to come to the front again. Other victim of this move: the early break that saw his advantage decrease dramatically, even if the usual suspects like Thomas Voeckler, Mikhail Ingatiev or Yauheni Hutarovich were ready to battle until the end. Together with Geslin, Sapa and Timmer, they broke away after only 10 kilometers and gained a maximum advantage of 8 minutes before the gap went down to only 50 seconds at 30 kilometres from the finish. But after a nearly general regroupment in the peloton, with only the unfortunate Gesink remaining at the back, the riders slowed down a bit and the chase wasn't organized well anymore: the leaders gained some ground again. After a long moment of hesitation, Columbia and Garmin finally sent their men to the front, but it was already too late: Thomas Voeckler had attacked with 4 kilometres to go and he managed to keep a small gap of 7 seconds until the finish line, where he won the stage after a 185 kilometre break ahead of Ignatiev, Cavendish, Farrar and Ciolek. The three Luxemburgish riders crossed the line in the main peloton with mixed feelings: for Kim, the day hasn’t been nearly as good as for the tow other. But all three of them remain in the same positions overall, where there haven't been many changes today despite a very eventful stage.
07.07.2009 4. Montpellier - Montpellier (39 km TTT)
Astana confirms top form
Results:
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Astana
Fabian Cancellara
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3ème à 40”
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20ème à 1’41"
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3ème à 40"
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25ème à 2'17"
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5ème à 59"
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24ème à 2'16"
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The fourth stage of the Tour de France consisted of a team-time-trial of about 40 kilometers around the town of Montpellier, on a flat, but not very typical course. In fact, there haven't been many large, straight boulevards for the big specialists in the peloton, but instead, the teams had to ride through narrow and twisty roads with lots of turns. Several riders had to experience how difficult it was to negociate the course and suffered of crashes which cost them some skin and some more time, like Giro winner Denis Menchov, road world champion Alessandro Ballan or 4 riders of BBox Bouygues Telecom, who went down all together. Team Katusha with the rouleurs Karpets, Ivanov or Ignatiev set a first reference time at the finish in 47'52" (average speed 48,9 km/h) before Silence-Lotto of overall favourite Cadel Evans clocked in a disappointing time of 49'05", disturbed by an early crash of Jürgen Van den Broek. Cervélo with defending champion Carlos Sastre
was only a few seconds late on the best time of Katusha, but Liquigas managed to finish faster than the Russian team in 47'27". The big favourites Garmin, Astana, Saxo Bank and Columbia were also on the road by that time and, at the first intermediate timing, the two first named were equally fast, whereas the teams of the Schleck brothers (6th at 19") and of Kim Kirchen (7th at 23") showed a rather carefull start. But at mid-race, Astana had seriously put the hammer down and in 25'27", they were 23 seconds faster than Garmin, who were only five riders remaining together, whereas yellow jersey Cancellara's Saxo-Bank passed in fourth position, 38 seconds late. Team Columbia apparently didn't have their best legs after yesterday's tremendous efforts in the wind and, despite the presence of world champion Bert Grabsch, they were outside the Top 5 and 50 seconds late at mid-race. The gaps didn't change very much until the finish line: Astana confirmed its top form by winning the team time trial in 46'29" (average speed 50,34 km/h) 18 seconds ahead of Garmin, where Wiggins, Zabriskie, Millar and Vandevelde showed a nice resistence in the final kilometers despite their numeric disadvantage. In third position in the classification is noted team Saxo Bank in 47'09" (average speed 49,6 km/h), and the two Schlecks lost 40 seconds today to Contador, Armstrong, Leipheimer and co. On the second half of the course, Columbia finally also found a good rythm and behind Liquigas in fourth position, Kim Kirchen and his team-mates finished in 5th place today in 47'28" (average speed 49,3 km/h), giving up less than a minute on Astana. As for the yellow jersey, the gap was very close and, after addition of all the times, Armstrong and Cancellara found themselves in exactly the same second overall. The golden jersey however was given to the Swiss rider on behalf of the fractions of seconds noted in the Monaco time-trial. The Luxemburgish riders are now very close one to another overall: Andy is noted in 20th place, 1'41" late, whereas Kim Kirchen is only 4 positions behind at 2'16" and Frank Schleck made a spectacular jump up to 25th position, only 1 second late on Kirchen.
06.07.2009 3. Marseille - La Grande Motte (197 km)
Total domination for Columbia
Résultats:
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Mark Cavendish
Fabian Cancellara
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54th at 41”
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24ème à 1’41"
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44ème à 41"
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70ème à 2'17"
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18ème à 0"
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37ème à 1'57"
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Another stage in postcard-like countryside through the Sourth of the Provence and the Camargue regions. There were not many topographic obstacles between Marseille and La Grande Motte, but the heat and the wind were adding to the difficulty of the stage. This couldn't prevent Dumoulin, Bouet, Perez Moreno and De Kort to attack right after the start, but the peloton didn't show any interest in chasing them down. The four riders in the break were able to gain more than 10 minutes advantage, before the behaviour of the peloton changed suddenly. Saxo-Bank took the lead, Arvesen and Sörensen among others raised the speed, Frank and Andy Schleck took their strategic positions behind the wheel of the yellow jersey Cancellara: the chase was open and the gap decreased significantly, it was only 6
minutes with about 60 kilometers to go. Time for Columbia to take over and they adopted such a high rythm that the peloton splitted up in the crosswinds, with 25 riders remaining at the front, among them Kim Kirchen, but also Armstrong, Gerdemann and Cancellara. Panik in the peloton of course where the Schleck brothers like Contador and most of the other riders had been surprised by the move and had to chase hard together with Liquigas, Garmin and Silence-Lotto for example. The four riders in the break of course couldn't resist to the Columbia-Express and were swallowed up after 170 kilometers in the lead. At the end of this team-time-trial, the Columbia group arrived in La Grande Motte with 40 seconds advantage on the rest of the field and Mark Cavendish completed the total triumph of his team by taking the stage victory ahead of Hushovd and Lemoine. After having worked a lot for the success of the break, Kim Kirchen crossed the finish line in 18th position, in the same time than the winner, and he moves of course up overall, where he sits now in 37th place, still 1'57" late on Fabian Cancellara. The Swiss champion is in yellow for at least one more day and he has now 33" advantage on the new runner-up Tony Martin and 40" on Armstrong in third place. The Schleck brothers finished the stage in the first chasing group on the positions 44 and 54, and they loose a little bit of ground overall: Andy is now noted in 24th place at 1'41" and Frank is in position 70, 2'17" late on his yellow team-mate.
05.07.2009 2. Monaco - Brignolles (187 km)
Cavendish wins bunch sprint
Results:
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Mark Cavendish
Fabian Cancellara
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82nd at 0'00”
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18th at 1’00"
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90th at 0"
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67th at 1'36"
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41st at 0"
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109th at 1'57"
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The riders of the Tour de France have left the yachts and luxurious hotels of Monaco for the camping place in the Var-region, in the backyard of the côte d'Azur. After 187 kilometers in the heat, the stage finished in a bunch sprint, won without surprise by wonderboy Mark Cavendish ahead of Farrar, Feillu and Hushovd. After the Saxo-Bank team of the Schlecks, Kim Kirchen's Columbia squad thus has also found already the way to success and both teams were rewarded today for their huge work at the head of the pack. The three Luxemburgish riders have crossed the finish line in the middle of the pack and so the stage finished all right for them, even if Frank Schleck had some fightening moments during the stage, at about kilometer 90. He was involved in a crash and found himself on the tarmac together with Spanish rider Igor Anton. It wasn't too serious however, and after having changed his bike and checked if his bones were still in place, Frank was able to resume the race and take his place in the peloton again, with a few superficial wounds as souvenir from the crash. The stage was marked for a long moment by four riders, namely Stef Clement, Jussi Veikkanen, Cyril Dessel and Stéphane Augé, who were able to break away from the peloton after a very tough stage beginning, with among others the col de la Turbie climbed at high speed in the heat. The peloton thus wanted to rest a little bit and granted the break a five minute advantage, before Saxo-Bank raised the speed again in order to decrease the gap. In the final kilometers, Columbia with a well-placed Kim Kirchen took control of the peloton and prepared the final rush to the line, a rush that was disturbed by a crash in the last turn, preventing some sprinters like Boonen, Ciolek, Bennati or Napolitano to defend their chances in a correct way. Despite a tough day that was already very tiring for the riders, the overall classification remains unchanged today.
04.07.2009 1. Monaco - Monaco (15,5 km ITT)
Cancellara impresses again
Results:
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Fabian Cancellara
Fabian Cancellara
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18th at 1'00”
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18th at 1’00"
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67th at 1'36"
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67th at 1'36"
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109th at 1'57"
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109th at 1'57"
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The Tour de France 2009 eventually started with a very particular stage: a long opening time-trial (more than 15 kilometers), on a spectacular and tough course, using parts of the well-known Formula One circuit and with more than 200 meters of change in altitude. Switching frequently between the use of his tremendous power and riding smothly at high pedaling rate, Fabian Cancellara impressed yet again by winning the stage on a course that didn't suit him at all. Three of the big favourites of the day chose to start very early: Levi Leipheimer in 20'03", Tony Martin in 20'05" and , of course, Lance Armstrong in 20'12" held the reference times for a long while and world champion Bert Grabsch, David Millar or Jens Voigt were not able to do better than them. People had to wait until the arrival of the third of the faboulous Astana-boys, Andreas Klöden, to see the first positions change. The German was the first rider to use less than 20 minutes, 19'54" exactly for the 15,5 kilometer and took over the lead, waiting for the last riders to start.
Just as expected, Alberto Contador was fastest in the uphill section of the course and he clocked first in the rankings at the top of the Beausoleil climb. But the others were not far behind, Evans at 7 seconds and, most of all, Wiggins and Cancellara only 6 seconds behind. The two time-trial specialists of course counted on the second, flatter section to realize their ambitions and it was mostly Cancellara who impressed a lot on that part. The winner of the Tour de Suisse even caught Dennis Menchov, who had started one minute in front of him, and he won the stage in 19'32", at a fantastic average speed of 47,61 km/h on this narrow and twisty course. In the end, Cancellara was 18 seconds faster than Contador, 19" ahead of Wiggins, 22 of Klöden and 23 of Evans. The Luxemburgish riders showed very unequal performances today. Andy Schleck was the Best out of them and he did very well on the uphill section, since in 11'48" he took 14th position in the intermediate rankings on top of the climb. He lost some time on the downhill but finishes in an outstanding 18th place at the end in 20'33" (average speed 45,2 km/h), exactly one minute late on his team-mate Cancellara and 40 seconds behind the best of the GC contenders. Frank wasn't as good as his brother today, but he showed a rather acceptable performance on the first part of the course and needed 12'08" to get to the top of the climb, being around 40 seconds slower than the best. However, Frank didn't take any risks in the downhill and lost lots of time in the second section, finishing 67th of the stage in 21'09" (average speed 43,9 km/h) and loosing way more than a minute on Contador and Co. Kim Kirchen had a really bad day today and, although he had the best chances of the Luxemburgish riders on paper, he never was able to battle for the first positions. After half of the race, Kim was already more than a minute late on the Best and, at the end, he finished only in 109th place at 43,2 km/h average speed, loosing nearly 2 minutes on the Swiss winner and one and a half on the other GC favourites. Together with Belgian champion Stijn Devolder, Kim certainly was the most disappointing rider on the course today in Monaco.
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