Yesterday, Mikel Astarloza had never won a race. While he had won the overall classification at the Tour Down Under, he did not win a single stage in doing so. Never had he had the chance to put his hands up over the line in a victory salute....he has now. Astarloza was the first home from a successful escape group on Stage 16, a short but grand 159km race from Martingy to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. After the epic climbs of the Grand and Petit Saint Bernard, Astarloza had enough sprint in his legs in the closing kilometres to grab his first ever professional race victory by 6 seconds. Ever the bridesmaid, Frenchman Sandy Casar finished second on the stage, his 6th second place finish at the Tour. Stage 9 winner Pierrick Fedrigo filled the podium finishing third.
As has been the case with every non-summit finish at this years tour, all the GC riders finished in a bunch together to leave the overall classification unchanged, with Alberto Contador on top. However, there was a highlight from Lance Armstrong who turned back the clock with a stunning burst of acceleration to re-join the Contador group just before the summit of the Petit after being left behind earlier on the climb. The Boss looks to be in great form, and has just been unlucky to have run into the sports next superstar in Contador. Had he ridden the event last year, I think he would have added an eighth maillot jaune to his wardrobe.
The big loser on the day was everybody's favourite under-achiever Cadel Evans. Evans could not even make it into the final selection of 30 or so riders and finished in the second peleton on the rode, almost 4 minutes behind the winner and 3 minutes behind the elite brigade. In true Evans style he then spat the dummy post race saying that he was physically ok but could not say what the problem was for professional reasons. Presumably that means he is going to go off and blame his team. What a joke! A team does not make up 3 minutes for you on the road Cadel. Your teammate Jurgen Van Den Broeck managed to survive in the break ok. And in case you don't remember (we do!) you coughed up the last two tours in the final individual time trials! Don't think your team cost you too much their mate! Evans has dropped to 17th on the overall classification and and now trails Contador by over 7 minutes. Hopefully that is the last we here of him at this years tour. Rinaldo Noncentini and Tony Martin's bubbles also finally burst at they slipped outside the top 10 to be replaced by Christian Van de Velde and defending champ Carlos Sastre. There was also more pain for the Saxo team as a whole with peleton favourite Jens Voight crashing heavily on the descent of the Petit. He was knocked unconscious for over 4 minutes before being taken to hospital by ambulance. Although he is out of the race he avoided any serious injury.
Outside Astarloza, the big winner on the day was Franco Pellizotti who again managed to get himself into the days break. He led over both mountain passes and virtually wrapped up his first King of the Mountains jersey, increasing his lead over Egoi Martinez to 58 points.
Yellow Jersey - Alberto Contador
Green Jersey - Thor Husvhod
Polka Dot Jersey - Franco Pellizotti
White Jersey - Andy Schleck
Photos courtesy of Yahoo Sports.
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