Ok, I admit it: I didn't watch yesterday's stage of the Tour because I preferred watching Harry Potter 7 in 3D. And, apparently, I made the right choice.
However, dear readers, the important stage was today's one: in fact this afternoon the Tour officially started also for the serious GC contenders - or, at least, it started for the GC contenders who are still up and running (and they aren't a lot).
So: 12th stage of the Tour de France 2011, from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden, on the 14th of July. A big day for Thomas Voeckler, a French rider who rides for a French team and who could wear the yellow jersey on one of the most important days for the French people. And, to my surprise, Thomas managed to keep the leader jersey without problems, so that he'll be able to wear it also tomorrow.
Actually, Logic thought that Voeckler could have been able to keep the leadership in the race, but she would have never imagined that he could have made it in such a brilliant way. In fact, the Frenchman managed to remain with the best climbers of the world for the whole day, showing his determination and his love for the French race to the whole world. Therefore, miss Fede takes the chance to send a big chapeau to monsieur Thomas Voeckler, also known as 'Give me a yellow t-shirt and I'll smash the world'.
Anyway, let's go back to the start of the stage. This morning the riders had three difficult climbs on their menu: Hourquette d'Ancizan, Tourmalet (aaah, sweet memories!) and Luz Ardiden, where Ullrich once waited for Armstrong, who had crashed because of a young supporter who had accidentally hit him with his rucksack. Since Lance was wearing the yellow jersey, the German rider decided to wait for him, thus becoming the protagonist of a good action that is still remembered nowadays.
Apparently, the stages to Luz Ardiden never bring good luck to the riders who wear the yellow jersey during them. This afternoon in fact also Voeckler crashed at the beginning of the descent towards Tourmalet. However, the Frenchman could immediately hop back on his bike and get back in the peloton, which waited for him. 'When the yellow jersey crashes, the peloton must wait for it', the Italian chronist said. Apparently, last year no one had informed Contador about that (or, perhaps, that rule doesn't apply if the yellow jersey has a mechanical).
Unfortunately, Voeckler wasn't the only one who crashed. In fact the athletes who were involved in his crash were a few and amongst them there were also important guys like Peter Velits and Andreas Kloeden. Luckily for Radioshack, tomorrow's stage ends in Lourdes, so that they'll be able to make a pilgrimage there in order to ask Virgin Mary for some good luck.
Also Geraint Thomas, who was one of the breakawayers du jour, had previously crashed in the very same point as Voeckler. The Welsh rider this afternoon showed us that his biking skills aren't actually that good, since in the descent towards Tourmalet he lost 40" from his companions of adventure (Kadri, Roy, Gutierrez, Mangel and Ruben Perez). However, the Sky rider could use his good uphill skills to catch his companions on Tourmalet and he was one of the last riders to get caught by the best climbers.
Talking about breakaways, this afternoon there were many guys who tried their luck. Amongst them there were also Chavanel and Kreuziger, who escaped from the peloton at the beginning of the first climb. I think that Chavanel attacked especially because he wanted to show off his jersey of National French Champion on the Bastille Day, whereas Roman probably hoped to win the stage. Kreuziger gave it all, but he never managed to reach the other breakawayers (the ones who had abandoned the company of the group after a few kms of race), so that his attack was in vain.
Johnny Hoogerland tried to break free from the peloton too this afternoon, probably because in that way he thought he had more chances to finish the stage within the time cut . Considering that our boy ended the stage 21 minutes after the winner and 12 minutes before the gruppetto, I think he can say 'Mission accomplished!' as he goes to bed tonight.
Talking about time cut and gruppetto: poor Denis Galimzyanov won't start tomorrow's stage because he didn't make it to the finish-line within the time cut. The gruppetto itself ended the stage 33' after the winner, which means that today's stage was really hard. Still talking about the gruppetto, this afternoon it was formed by a great amount of riders: 79 riders out of 175 ended the race all together, a few minutes before Galimzyanov. The other riders instead crossed the finish-line slowly, one after the other.
The toughness of the race was also a consequence of Leopard Trek's great efforts at the front. In fact, at the beginning of Tourmalet the whole Luxembourgian team got ready to set the pace at the head of the peloton. Unfortunately, I think that things didn't actually go as planned. Let me explain you why.
The first one to set a high pace at the front was Cancellara, whose efforts were followed by those of O'Grady and Voigt. The German engine made an amazing job and he managed to pull until the end of Tourmalet (and he even remained with the brothers until the beginning of the last climb). 'What's the problem then?', I hear some of you ask. Well, the problem is that, if Jens hadn't felt as good as he actually felt this afternoon, the brothers would have remained without helpers even before the end of the Tourmalet. In fact halfway through the climb guys like Gerdemann, Monfort and Fuglsang had already got dropped. So, what if one of the brothers had had a serious mechanical? Would have they remained all alone because they had run out of teammates? I can understand that some riders can have a day off, but apparently this afternoon half of the Luxembourgian team didn't feel well. And, considering that this should be the strongest team of the world, I don't think they can be satisfied with that - or, at least, I think they can't be satisfied.
Anyway. End of the first bitchy moment du jour. Let's go on.
On the Tourmalet some important riders (Toni Martin, Robert Gesink, Ryder Hesjedal, Peter Velits, Andreas Kloeden and Christian Vandevelde) were dropped, whereas an amazing Gilbert kept the wheels of the best riders until the end of the climb. Then the wonderful Belgian champion attacked. His move was a bit suicidal, since it didn't bring him any benefit - but still, it was nice to see a Classic rider giving it all in one of the hardest mountain stages of the Tour.
Shortly after the beginning of the ascent towards Luz Ardiden, Kreuziger was caught by the group of the yellow jersey, whereas Roy and Thomas still had a little gap on the best climbers.
With 8 kms to go, Jelle Vanendert and Samuel Sanchez attacked. They found a good pace and they kept on riding together until the finish-line, when Samu managed to get the victory ahead of the 26 year old Belgian. Samu was really happy to win in front of his people (Pyrenées = Basque Country) and to be back in the top spots of the GC, whereas Jelle confirmed his great talent once again. Finally, after getting over some injuries of the past, this young man is ready to give his best - not only in the Classics but, as he showed us this afternoon, also in the GTs.
While Sanchez and Vanendert were riding happily to the finish-line, thus overtaking all the guys who had gone on a breakaway earlier, the battle between the giants of the Tour began. Andy and Frank Schleck, Contador and Evans were all there, but the one who started the duel was Basso, who ordered to his teammate Szmyd to start riding full gas. Sylwester is an excellent and loyal helper, who couldn't do well in the Giro because of a bad bronchitis. But now he's recovered and everyone could see that this afternoon.
While Szmyd was pulling, some talks were going on in the group of the best climbers. Frank and Andy talked to each other, whereas Contador talked to his teammates. Unfortunately, the magic trio of Saxo Bankers formed by Jesus Hernandez, Richie Porte and Chris Sorensen (it was strange to see him riding against my favourite brothers!) soon got dropped together with Nicolas 'Finding Nemo' Roche. The Irish rider soon started to suffer because of Szmyd's hellish pace (the poor thing has a sore knee right now) and it was touching to see him being helped by some teammates who, if only had they been allowed to, would have immediately hopped off their bikes in order to push Nicolas.
When Szmyd ended his turn at the front, just a few riders remained in the group of the yellow jersey, so that the Schleck brothers thought it was time to do something. The first one to attack was Frank, followed by Andy. Then the older brother attacked again until he finally managed to disappear from the sight of the other riders. Frank's attack was really impressive and, in about 3 kms, he almost managed to get back on Sanchez and Vanendert, who crossed the finish-line a few seconds ahead of the Luxembourgian.
In the meanwhile, Ivan Basso tried to attack twice, whereas Andy kept on paying attention to Contador. 'Attack!', I screamed. 'Attack!', I screamed again. 'ATTACK!!!', I shouted. And instead no, the one who attacked was Evans. Our Glorious Leader followed him together with Basso and the magic trio managed to cross the finish-line 13" ahead of Contador (and 20" after Frank Schleck). Cunego lost 5" to these three riders, whereas Voeckler arrived 7" after the Giro winner and thanked his teammate Rolland as they crossed the finish-line. Andy Schleck looked extremely tired as he crossed the finish-line, whereas Basso used some of his energy to turn his head and watch where Contador was.
So, this was today's stage. What can we say about the big GC contenders?
First of all I think that, although this afternoon Contador got dropped, no one should underestimate him. As Basso keeps on saying, 'one can win a Tour with just one attack'. And Alberto, if he's on a good day, can gain lots of seconds with just one attack made at the right moment.
Talking about the other riders, I must say that I loved Frank's attitude during today's race. But still, I think Andy should have tried to attack Evans. Cadel in fact is a very strong rider and, if bad luck doesn't hit him, he can make it to the top spot of Paris podium without many problems. He has the final TT on his side and, considering that he seems very solid also in the mountains, I think that Andy (and all those who want to win this Tour) should try to attack him as much as they can. In about 10 days the race will be over and, until there, the tough stages aren't that many. We're not in the Giro, where everyday there's at least one tough climb. We're at the Tour, a race in which a historical climb like Aubisque will be faced more than 40 kms far from the finish-line. Perhaps Andy had a bad day this afternoon or he was afraid to be worse than Contador, but I hope that in the next days he'll try to get some seconds of advantage on the Aussie. Because, unless he has some serious problems, it seems that this year it'll be hard to take the victory away from Evans.
Anyway, here's the GC after today's stage:
| 1 | Thomas Voeckler (Fra) | 51:54:44 | |
| 2 | Fränk Schleck (Lux) | 0:01:49 | |
| 3 | Cadel Evans (Aus) | 0:02:06 | |
| 4 | Andy Schleck (Lux) | 0:02:17 | |
| 5 | Ivan Basso (Ita) | 0:03:16 | |
| 6 | Damiano Cunego (Ita) | 0:03:22 | |
| 7 | Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) | 0:04:00 | |
| 8 | Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) | 0:04:11 | |
| 9 | Thomas Danielson (USA) | 0:04:35 | |
| 10 | Nicolas Roche (Irl) | 0:04:57 |
I'm very happy about Cunego and Roche's placements and I hope that they'll keep the good stuff coming also in the next days. In the meanwhile, let's enjoy Frank and Andy's placements and let's hope they'll improve again in the next days.
As far as tomorrow is concerned, I'm going to bet 5 euros on Hushovd and 5 on Gilbert. Although, to say the truth, I think we shouldn't rule Cavendish and Farrar out of the 'possible winners list' either.
(Pic 1 by Sirotti, pic 2 by Bettini)
