Stage 14:

Yesterday's stage was ruined by the death of a lady.She was crossing the street when a motorbike ran over her.Condolences to the family.

Talking about the race,well,there was the usual breakaway.It included lots of good riders,in fact the men in the escape group were Bennati,Ciolek,Voigt,Willems,Ivanov,Roche,Righi,Le Mevel, Minard,Roulston,Maskaant,Hincapie and Timmer.Voigt unfortunately punctured after 60 kms of escape,the wheel-change wasn't very fast and so His Amazingness had to come back in the peloton

The riders of the breakaway gained about 8 minutes of advantadge on the peloton and so Ag2r (after having said "No,we won't pull even if the yellow jersey is in danger") began to pull during the last 30 kms of the stage.In fact Hincapie had just 5 minutes of delay from Nocentini,so the team of the Italian rider decided to go at the head of the main group and give it all to try and keep the yellow jersey.Nicolas Roche,an Ag2r rider that was in the breakaway,obviously didn't pull a meter during the whole day.

With about 20 kms to go,the attacks between the riders of the escape group began.Willems was the first rider that got dropped.With 10 kms to go (after a Roche's attack),Ivanov made the decisive attack.Nobody managed to follow him and the Russian won.Second was Nicolas Roche,while third was Maaskant.After the stage,Bennati complained about Roche's behaviour :"He never pulled and the he was the one that attacked and made everybody begin to feel tired during the last kms.Ivanov attacked after him and finally won.Even if his father was a champion,Nicolas will never become a champion".Btw,the two riders talked to each other this morning and now things seem to have returned normal between them.

Of course after the battle for the stage win,there was the battle for the yellow jersey.During the last kms of the race Ag2r La Mondiale and Garmin really pulled hard and the yellow jersey remained on Nocentini's shoulders for 5 seconds.Columbia (and mr.Armstrong) were really angry at Garmin,but actually it was Columbia team that pulled very fast during the last km because they wanted Cavendish to win some points for the green jersey classification.And Hincapie didn't get the yellow jersey for only 5 seconds.

And,unfortunately for Columbia's riders,bad luck wasn't over for them: in fact,not just Hincapie didn't take the yellow jersey,but Cavendish created problems to Hushovd during the sprint and lost the few points he had won.Unbelievable.

(Photo Afp)