Stage 17: Alpine Tease

A Spanish duet could not shake the rest of the best, but Alberto Contador proved he aims to win this Tour de France. His final descent on the first Alpine stage appeared to shake up the race for the yellow jersey, but it was just a tease. The leading contenders caught up to the defending champion, keeping the overall standings stable at the end of Stage 17, while a Norwegian seized his second stage win at the finish in Pinerolo.

After 163 kilometers, four categorized climbs, and crossing the border into Italy, the peloton started the final incline. Edvald Boasson Hagen of Team Sky had launched off the front of a 14-man break, staying away to win the day. The victory marked the second at this year’s Tour de France for the Norwegian and his British squad, Team Sky. The 24-year-old is already the five-time national time trial champion, winner of the 2009 Tour de Britain, and stage winner at the Giro d’Italia, Criterium du Dauphine, and others.

The peloton followed up the Cote de Pra Martino, featuring narrow roads heavily shaded by thick, green trees. Among the shadows, Contador attacked and attacked again but was marked by Andy Schleck and the other main rivals. Contador, the defending champion, still needed to gain back nearly 2 minutes, so he aggressively descended off the mountain taking high risks at turn after run. He was joined by fellow Spaniard Samuel Sanchez, and they worked together to create a gap on the others. Contador rides for Saxo Bank, and Sanchez for Euskaltel-Euskadi, but the two are friendly. They worked together yesterday to catch up to Cadel Evans, the Australian in second place overall, and they worked together again today on the high-speed descent.

With the cooperation of Sanchez, Contador was fighting for time and proving he has the fire in the belly to win this Tour de France. However, in the final meters, the Spanish boys were caught. Schleck, Evans, and nearly all of the leaders caught up just before the finish, and per the rules, each rider in the group received the same time. Contador had gained no time on Schleck and Evans, yet he showed them he will fight at every turn. The only loser today was Thomas Voeckler, the current race leader who lost 27 seconds to the overall contenders due to uncharacteristic falters on the final descent. He is not expected to win the Tour but has retained the leader’s mantle for a surprising run.

Tomorrow, the cyclists face three brutal climbs. All are rated as Hors Categorie, as difficult as it gets at the Tour de France. The mountains each offer opportunities for attack. Col Agnel has an incline of 23.7 kilometers with a stretch of 5K at over 10% gradient, and Galibier Serre-Chevalier is an epic climb into the white-capped landscape, where snow is just being removed from the road. These are long, tough climbs at high altitudes, and Evans, Contador, and Schleck will all attack. As Schleck’s teammate Jens Voigt wrote on his blog, “Starting tomorrow, it will be up to the main actors to step up to the stage… 50 domestiques can’t help you on climbs like Galibier.”

Evans sits in front of the favorites, but with an insufficient cushion for the big win. Schleck and Contador must make up time, as do the wild cards including Ivan Basso, Damiano Cunego, and Sammy Sanchez. Once Stage 18 is finished, there is one more day in the mountains, only one more day to get big time on rivals. The time trial that follows will be a matter of seconds, and then we reach Paris.

No more teasing. The Alps will shake out the field tomorrow and Friday.

Jens Voigt’s blog: Bicycling.com

Overall standings after Stage 17:

1. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar)

2. Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) + 01’ 18”

3. Frank Schleck (Leopard-Trek) + 01’ 22”

4. Andy Schleck (Leopard-Trek) + 02’ 36”

5. Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) + 02’ 59”

6. Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Sungard) + 03’ 15”

7. Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale) + 03’ 34”

8. Damiano Cunego (Lampre-ISD) + 03’ 49”

9. Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervelo) + 06’ 04”

10. Rigoberto Huran (Team Sky) + 07’ 36”

Complete overall standings: http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/LIVE/us/1700/classement/index.html

Stage 17 map & profile: http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/LIVE/us/1800/etape_par_etape.html

Stage 6: Sky Shines

On rainy day in Normandy, Team Sky shined. Edvald Boasson Hagen took his first stage win at the Tour de France in a hotly contested bunch sprint. At 220 kilometers, the course was the longest of this year’s Tour, and bad luck continued to plague a number of overall favorites.

Defending champion Alberto Contador of Saxo Bank suffered problems with his bike, borrowing teammate Daniel Navarro’s bike for a time. The two Spaniards are of similar size with Contador at 5’9 ½” and 140 lbs. and Navarro at 5’9” and 130 lbs. It is Navarro’s responsibility to assist Contador as team leader in any way possible, including giving him his bicycle.

At the intermediate sprint, the Movistar team of Jose Joaquin Rojas was giving it full gas at the front, but HTC pulled Mark Cavendish through. The Manx Missile coasted in first among the sprinters and secured the most points. Rojas was next, followed by Tyler Farrar of Garmin-Cervelo. Only Rojas remained in the mix at the finish line.

With around 20K to go, teams including HTC-Highroad and Omega Pharma-Lotto were leading the peloton, working for the stage win. Among the general classification contenders, BMC was keeping Cadel Evans at front and out of trouble, as was Liquigas for Ivan Basso. Contador popped up in the final 3 kilometers to avoid another crash. Geraint Thomas, leader of the best young rider competition, was leading out teammate Boasson Hagen for the victory, while David Millar worked for fellow Garmin rider Thor Hushovd. At 2.3K to go, Jurgen Van den Broeck shot ahead but was overtaken by Thomas Voeckler, and attacks by teams Astana and Rabobank were also not enough. Boasson Hagen crossed the line first, followed by Matt Goss of HTC, Romain Feillu of Vacansoleil, and Rojas.

Today’s victory was the sweetest of Boasson Hagen’s career to date. The 24-year-old Norwegian is the five-time national time trial champion of Norway and has won the Tour of Britain and Gent-Wevelgem. Formerly riding for HTC, Boasson Hagen joined Team Sky at its launch last year and has delivered today what may be the squad’s most prestigious win thus far. In more good news for Norway, Thor Hushovd retained the yellow jersey as race leader.

The inclines of Stage 6 may have been too much for Farrar and Cavendish, but Stage 7 is the flat course they dream of. The finish in Chateauroux is the site of Cav’s first-ever victory at the Tour de France, and he will be eager to repeat. Farrar will give him a run for his money, as will Rojas and other teams looking for results, such as Quick Step with Tom Boonen and Lampre with Alessandro Petacchi. Be sure to watch the final 5 kilometers.

Speaking of Rojas and Boonen, the two were stripped of the points won at the intermediate sprint on Tuesday’s Stage 5. Race rules require cyclists to drive straight ahead once they accelerate for the sprint finish, to stay in an invisible lane ahead of them. Rojas veered hard to the left, and Boonen followed. The maneuvers blocked Cavendish from pulling forward and shut him out, and they could have caused a dangerous collision. The judges rightly took back the points from Rojas and Boonen, particularly after they had penalized Cavendish and Hushovd for leaving their lines on Stage 3. Nice to see the rules being fairly applied.

Interview with Stage 6 winner Edvald Boasson Hagen: http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=tour+de+france+stage+6+edvald+boasson+hagen

View Stage 6 results: http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/LIVE/us/600/classement/index.html

View Stage 7 map and profile: http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/LIVE/us/700/etape_par_etape.html