tour de France 2010- Stage 16

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

Fedrigo scores for France at Pau – Stage 16 The 16^th Stage of the TdF was from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Pau, a distance of 199.5km.  A stage, which can also be called as the “Queen Stage” of the race for the 4 massive climbs that are spread on the course, today the beauty of the Pyrenees was there for all to see. Almost all, as the cyclists am sure would have been grinding their teeth right from the first km itself!! With the most feared of all Col du Tourmalet being part of the climb, followed by the Col du Aubisque it was an ideal stage for the breakaway and in the end it was the breakaway which succeeded. Lance Armstrong having seen his title efforts go down in crashes, made out in the breakaway and kept it up till the final 100m, where the stronger legs of youngster Pierrick Fedrigo of Bbox Telecom outsprinted all.

The start town of today, with a population of around 3,000, Bagnères-de-Luchon joins the race for on the TdF route for the 51^st time! This town also called the “Queen of the Pyrenees”, is the most popular spa resort in Haute-Garonne and it boasts a Vaporarium that is unique in Europe. This natural hammam whose temperature ranges between 38 and 42 degrees, is a delight for any traveler who wants to test the treatment by the waters here, something even the Romans’ of old have accepted.

The finishing stage town of Pau has been on the TdF route 62 times!! The city of Henri IV has been a mainstay of the Tour and follows Paris & Bordeaux in the number of times that they have hosted the race. This year, the stay of the Tour de France in Pau will give rise to a grand popular festival with the show “Je me souviens du Tour” (I remember the Tour), by Christian Laborde, a native of Pau, and the “64ème du nom”, a crazy caravan bringing together the Générik Vapeur troupe and Pau’s associations. Come October, the city will be playing host to the Basque Pelota World Championships and, in November, the National Flower Show. The stage began at Bagnères-de-Luchon with 172 riders in the peleton as Iban Mayoz of Footon & Bram Tankink of Rabobank. The race route for this stage in the third day in the Pyrenees had 2 Cat I climbs & 2 Hors Categorized climbs of the Col du Tourmalet & the Col du Aubisque, definitely the “Queen Stage” of TdF 2010. There were 2 intermediate sprints after all the four climbs for the sprinters to bag Green jersey points.

The race began with a flurry of attacks and within the first 5km around 18 riders including Armstrong & Horner of RadioShack, Sastre of Cervalo, Vinokourov of Astana, Wiggins of Sky, Kreuziger and Szymd both of Liqigas, Hesjedal of Garmin Transitions, Roche of A2gr, Lloyd of OmegaPharma Lotto, Barredo of Quick Step, …etc escaped. Over the first climb of Col du Peyresourde the group got sorted and by the Col du Aspin only 11 riders were left. At the back it was OmegaPharma Lotto team that was setting the pace followed closely by Contador in Yellow & Schleck in White jerseys, having patched up their relationship after public apologies by Contador.

Repeated attacks by riders saw the lead of the leaders go up to 7min at one stage. On the ascent of the Col du Tourmalet, Armstrong attacked and was successful in opening a gap, but once again the lead group of 8 caught up with him. Christophe Moreau at 39, proved that he still is a rider to contend with by racing to the summit of the Col du Tourmalet finish & bag the Souvenir Jacques Goddet. He kept himself in the same vein for the climb of Col du Aubisque and thus gathered himself lots of King of the Mountains points. As the 4^th climb neared, it was Barredo who broke ranks and attacked. He was allowed to keep in the front by the other 8 riders who included Armstrong, Horner, Casar, Van de Walle, Fedrigo, Moreau, Plaza and Cunego.

In the final few kms, the chase group decided to play cat & mouse with the tiring Barredo upfront, as a catch much before the finish would have meant another attack & more energy spent. So they timed the catch just 1km away from the finish, and it was equal chance for all to win. With some 300m to go the sprints started and Armstrong started out from the 8^th position, but the former champion who has won 24 stages in the past, just did not have the legs to carry him through the sprint and gave up in the last 30m. It was Fedrigo of Bbox who timed his sprint & bagged his 3^rd TdF stage in his career. In the back, Contador & the rest kept the same pace and finally made the finish line, brought in by the mighty Thor, who raced all to the finish to grab 6 very vital points in the Green jersey classification, something which saw him get the Green jersey back from Ale Jet. After the race Fedrigo in the interview backstage said, “I would have been very disappointed to finish this Tour without finding myself in a position to play to win. I was really afraid of not succeeding. The Tour passes so quickly and so far I did not answer the call I’d issued myself. Last night I even cracked a little and my nerves were a bit frayed. But perhaps that’s what I needed in order to regain confidence. This morning I went into the break with the objective of taking maximum points to protect the polka-dot jersey of Anthony Charteau. He had to stay very focused to make the break and stay ahead. Then I remembered a lot of stage last year, the moments where I escaped with (Franco) Pellizotti on the Tourmalet and the Aspin. In the end, Armstrong told me that he would not cooperate with me because he knew I was the fastest group…” The Attacker of the day was Carlos Barredo of Quick Step team, the same who attacked Costa of Caisse D’Epargne a few stage s back, and he rued the missed chance after being in the front of the race for almost the whole of the last 45km. He said, “At the beginning I tried to go alone and I was just thinking about the ride ahead but there was a lot of wind and it was blowing right in the face. It was difficult and then, in the last kilometers, the roads were too big and they didn’t offer any advantage for a one-man escape – that’s better done on smaller roads. When we were establishing the escape on the climbs early in the stage, there was quite a lot of talk and we were speaking about how we needed to attack and maintain the momentum. Lance tried for the first time and then it was my turn – and I tried many times because there were originally too many people in the group – and eventually we got a good selection. There was a chance today but, ah… well, I missed out. That’s life, hey?”

At the end of Stage 16 the over all race results are as follows. Alberto Contador of Team Astana remains in the Yellow. Thor Hushovd of Cervalo Test Team grabs the Green jersey back. Andy Schleck of Team Saxo Bank continues in the White jersey & Anthony Charteau of Bbox Telecom continues the King of the Mountain jersey. Team RadioShack continues as the best team in the race.

The Tour de France Stage 17, is from Pau a distance of 174km. This will be the last chance for Schleck to put some time into Contador, for after this stage its all flat stages back to Paris. Also, this will be the last chance for an attacker to breakaway & try and grab some glory. So who is it going to be??…Andy Schleck ?? So till tomorrow…:) Au revoir… Email : mrquizmaster@gmail.com