tour de France 2010- Stage 15

This is a guest post by Mr.Q, a professional quizmaster and an ardent Tour de France fan who is reporting his 2nd full tour

Voeckler does France proud on Stage 15 The 15^th Stage of the TdF was from Pamiers to Bagnères-de-Luchon, a distance of 187.5km.  A day, which began with all teams trying to get their mountain strategies in place, was marked by some brilliant riding by an irrepressible French rider and a mechanical incident which put the Yellow jersey of Andy Schleck in trouble. The second day in the Pyrenees did see the battle between the two best climbers in the world Contador and Schleck, heat up. After a performance, which Contador was not very happy with in Stage 14, where he tried a few times to drop Schleck, and was unsuccessful, Contador today adopted the Muhammad Ali style of taking as many punches as he could and still remain standing, so that he could afterwards try & finish off Schleck. He kept his team behind him & followed all the moves made by Schleck. In the front, it was Thomas Voeckler of Bbox Telecom, who escaped in a breakaway at the halfway stage of the race & then dropped all the other riders on the ascent of the Port de Balès & successfully descended the final kms to win today’s stage. For the start town of today, Pamiers, with a population of around 15,000, it’s the first time association with the TdF. Just 60km south of Toulouse, this is a small town with lots of small canals and is the home town of musician Gabriel Fauré. The finishing stage town of Bagnères-de-Luchon joins the race for on the TdF route for the 51^st time! Known as the “Queen of the Pyrenees”,  inspired in 1834 by Vincent de Chausenque, Bagnères-de-Luchon also conducts several international events like the International TV Film Festival and the Flower Show…etc. The stage began at Pamiers with all 175 riders in the peleton who finished the race yesterday. The race route for this stage was again one with 2 intermediate sprints in it for the sprinters to bag Green jersey points and the second day in the Pyrenees had 1 Cat IV climb & 2 Cat II climbs before the final climb to the Hors Categorized Port de Bales followed by a long descent into the finish line.

Attacks to breakaway were made by several riders right from the very beginning, but none were allowed to leave the peleton. Astana made the move once when they found Saxo Bank team behind and even split the peleton but all for just 10secs as the Saxo Bank team closed the gap straightaway. At the first sprint point Ale Jet & Hushovd both tried to win points but neither could, incidentally, Jerome Pineau who is fighting the King of the Mountains classification rode away with the third place!! It was around the 35km mark that the first proper breakaway was formed with 7 riders – Brian Vandborg of Liquigas-Doimo, Johan Vansummeren of Garmin-Transitions, Serguei Ivanov of Katusha, Alessandro Ballan of BMC Racing, Francesco Reda of Quick Step, Luke Roberts of Milram and Aitor Perez Arrieta of Euskaltel-Euskadi. This group was soon joined by another three strong riders – Thomas Voeckler of Bbox Bouyges Telecom, Sébastien Turgot and Lloyd Mondory, both of AG2R-La Mondiale. They went about their job systematically and by the start of the climb to Port de Balès their lead was hovering around the 9-10 min mark. The Saxo Bank team was taking the responsibilities to drive the peleton, but at no time were they chasing the leaders down. With rider after rider pushing the limits of their stamina and dropping down after their stint in the front, Stuart O’Grady, Voigts, Jakob Fuglsang & Chris Anker Sorensen, were all at the back after their service to Schleck. In the front, with 8km still to go, couple of riders got dropped and that was when Voeckler made his move and went solo. Ballan did try to narrow the gap, but was unable to match the rhythm of Voeckler. Having broken away from the leaders, it was Voeckler of the old, the same rider who in 2004 kept the Yellow for 10 days, who just flew the coop and after crossing the summit continued on till the finish line, despite taking a few risks when coming down the hill winning this stage handsomely.

Meanwhile drama was unfolding at the back as, Schleck now found himself all alone in the lead and he went about the role of the Yellow jersey with no fuss at all. At this stage the top 5 rides of the tour were all together & engaged in a terrific battle. But with 3km to go when Schleck finally attacked and even caught Contador offguard, his chain went out & this mechanical allowed Contador, Sanchez & Menchov to escape. By the time Schleck put his chain back on, (due to the narrowness of the road, no team car was allowed to follow right behind), he had lost almost 23secs. He then tore after the others but the damage was done. He did blow away other riders who had crossed him, but the trio who escaped him summited 29secs before him & with Sanchez in the group they descended much faster than anyone else could and at the finish line Contador was ahead of Schleck by 8secs. Thus the Yellow changed over to Contador due to a mechanical rather than a mistake by Andy. Samuel Sanchez & Dennis Menchov maintain their overall GC standings of 3^rd & 4^th. After the race Voeckler, who was given the prize for the most attacking rider also, in the interview backstage said, “I knew I was better than the fourth place in the stage to Station des Rousses. On this Tour I’ve really had difficult times. But I’m getting experience and after 12 Grand Tours, I know very well that we can have terrible days, and then find ourselves in great shape. That’s what I say to all young guys on the team when they are in doubt. I am very proud of what I have done today. At an emotional level, what happened at the championships of France, when I came home first, was already enormous. But then win with the tricolor on the shoulders a stage of the Tour de France is extra-ordinary. It is true that I have a special way to ride, but I do not attack for the sake of attacking. It’s an attack for the victory. And when you’re not the strongest in the world, you must try many times for it to work.” Andy Schleck on being questioned about his state of mind said, “Now I’m really angry. I will ride on the Tourmalet until I fall from my bike and give everything to this race. I felt really good but what counted at the end of the day is the time that you have when you arrive at the finish and I was so far back even with what I did on the descent. Things happen, and everything happens for a reason. People can say what they want but they also have realize that Alberto was one of the guys who waited for me in Spa and that was really a great sign of fair play. Chapeau! Today was a different story, a different scenario but the Tour is not finished. What happened, happens. I cannot change the situation even if I’m mad. If yell at people, it won’t change the situation. It is how it is. I’m not crying behind my jersey. In the end it comes down to the fact that this is a bike race and we will make the final count. I’m not done with.”

Contador in the yellow jersey had this to say, “At this moment it’s a really good situation, but actually 30 seconds more or 30 seconds less could change things a bit. It’s always good to be ahead in the general classification. I didn’t know anything about the problems with Andy Schleck, but when I realized it I was already ahead of him. The only things that I saw was that he was beginning to attack and then he slowed down. I didn’t realize that he had a problem with the bike. We’ve got a really good relationship and, in the sporting sense we also get along well, especially if you see what we did on the road to Spa [in stage two when Schleck crashed the peloton acted in solidarity and waited for him and the other fallen riders]. In Spa, he had big crash but today when I attacked it wasn’t because I knew he had problems. I’m sure he will attack me and I always have fear of what he might be able to do…”

At the end of Stage 14 the over all race results are as follows. Alberto Contador of Team Astana take over in the Yellow. Ale Jet of Lampre keeps the Green jersey. Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank leads in the White jersey category & Anthony Charteau of Bbox Telecom continues the King of the Mountain jersey. Team RadioShack opens up the best team classification seizes the position as the best team in the race. The Tour de France Stage 16, is from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Pau a distance of 199.5km. Me thinks that Andy & team will try and burn a big hole in the peleton by driving it very hard & on the climb to Tourmalet, it will be Schleck’s show time & seeing the form that he is and the adrenaline from yesterday Contador better have domestiques right upfront all through the climb. For all we know, Armstrong might do a tango with Andy & help out in this just to push Contador over the brink. So till tomorrow…:) Au revoir… Email : mrquizmaster@gmail.com