After 17 days of power racing the cream finally rose to the top on the Queen stage of the Tour de France, an epic 169.5km trek from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornard. Over four category one climbs men were pitted against mountain with nowhere to hide. There were only three survivors - the Schleck brothers, and the yellow-jersey of Alberto Contador. As is so often the case in cycling their is powers in numbers, and it was the Schlecks who won the battle. The less dangerous of the pair, Frank, was handed the stage by Contador with his brother Andy punching the air in delight as he crossed the line in third. But while the Schlecks may have won the battle, the Spaniard has won the war. Contador finished second on the stage, losing no time, and virtually sealing his second Tour de France title barring catastrophe before Paris.
Behind the trio the time gaps where huge, and as a result Contador, Andy and Frank now occupy the three podium positions at the top of the GC. The Boss showed he still had it over 99% of the field finishing in the next group on the road with Vincenzo Nibali, 2:18 behind the winner. He is still in a strong position, 4th overall, and is just 30 seconds outside a podium place. His lieutenant, Andreas Kloden, was 10 seconds further back in 6th on the stage. Brit Bradley Wiggins showed his first signs of weakness at this years event being dropped on the tough double-pronged finish, arriving just over 3 minutes behind Schleck. He is down to 6th overall. Carlos Sastre had a shocker, finishing 7 minutes back and slipped out of the top 10 just as soon as he had entered it. Yesterdays stage winner Mikel Astarloza takes his place in the top 10.
Just to tie the day off nicely all the prize jersey's were arguably finalised on the day. Thor Hushovd made the gutsy decision to make a solo move away from an initial escape to collect both bonus primes on the day's stage and increase his lead in the points competition to a seemingly unassailable 30 points. Franco Pellizotti also managed to get into the days break (again!) picking up a swag of mountains points to move 78 points clear at the top of the King of the Mountains classification. He surely has the polka dot jersey locked up now. Andy Schleck's effort also saw him increase his lead in the White Jersey competition for best young rider to over 2:43 from Nibali.
Cadel Evans was last seen heading for the nearest mountain summit with a half empty bottle of whiskey and a bible.
Yellow Jersey - Alberto Contador
Green Jersey - Thor Hushovd
Polka Dot Jersey - Franco Pellizotti
White Jersey - Andy Schleck
Photo courtsey of Yahoo Sports.
No comments:
Post a Comment