Thor Hushovd becomes the first standing World Champion to win a stage of the Tour de France since 2002. A large breakaway of 10 riders stayed away for the day, but in the ending kilometers, the
breakaway was totally split apart.
He was not meant to trouble the scorers on Stage 13 of the Tour de France, contested in the high Pyrenees and featuring a climb up the towering Col d'Aubisque. What the hell was he doing, going
on the offensive at the base of the hors categorie Col d'Aubisque.5 kilometers through the Pyrennees from Saint-Gaudens to Plateau de Beille.
Legs pumping like pistons, the 33-year-old made up two minutes before passing the Frenchman a mile and a half from the finish in Lourdes. "We will succeed not by out-horse-powering" their foes,
vowed general manager Jonathan Vaughters, "not by crushing the competition with 6.7 watts per/kilogram at threshold.
Before taking the green jersey two years ago, when Cavendish was controversially deprived of a stage win in Besançon, Hushovd had won it for the first time in 2005.) Rather, he promised
"panache.
Pipped for 11th place in the intermediate sprint behind the 10 riders who comprised the early break, Cavendish gestured in exasperation at the two Movistar riders who had outmanoeuvred him. On
the descent, once again there were a flurry of attacks in an attempt to form the day's break. A group of 15 split off into a group of 8, but no group was able to gain over 20 seconds."
Further back Cavendish gave up some of his lead in the Green Jersey classification but still goes into today's stage 13 points clear of nearest rival Jose Joaquin Rojas.
He later accused the Spaniard of "taking him into the barriers" at the Intermediate Sprint, but decided it was "not worth arguing about".
Since the Aubisque came in the middle of the stage, followed by a flat run-in, the 13th stage was never going to interest the men fighting over the general classification.
It is the stuff of nightmares and the Schleck brothers, Andy and Frank, will hope to ride defending champion Alberto Contador out of contention. Today, my tactics worked out.”
Defending champion Alberto Contador of Spain finished in the peloton and sits seventh overall, 4 minutes behind Voeckler of Team Europcar and 2:11 in back of second-place rider Frank Schleck of
Team Leopard-Trek... Contador won the '07 Tour after Chicken got the boot. He won it again in '09 and '10. The Frenchman put his hand on his chest to show pain and then put his hand up just by
his shoulder.
Several groups were behind Roy, most of them came from the breakaway that formed in the early part of the day. Moncoutie and Boasson Hagen also broke free from the rest of their break companions
in an attempt to bridge to the duo out front. Next was the peloton, the group came across approximately 8 minutes back behind Thor Hushovd.
When the peloton hit the slopes, other small attacks broke free from the front of the main group, including Maxime Bouet (Ag2R), Mickael Delage (FdJ), and Bauke Mollema (Rabobank). It could be
that he's still cooked from winning the three-week Giro d'Italia in May.. The rest of the 10-men break and attackers were spread behind Hushovd and the peloton that was 7.10 behind Roy. Men like
Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank Sungard), Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek), Cadel Evans (BMC Racing), Ivan Basso (Liquigas Cannondale) and maybe even Frank Schleck (Leopard Trek).
Spain's Samuel Sanchez won the Tour's twelfth stage after an enthralling finish, in the first mountain climb of this year's edition.
Defending champion Contador went into the 210. But it was not all bad news for the Australian after he gained 13 seconds on defending champion and pre-race favourite Alberto Contador. It was
always going to have a massive impact on the impact, but it was expected that it might expose any weaknesses in the general classification contenders.
He was 10 seconds behind the Belgian while his brother Andy - last year's runner up - is now up to fourth, 11 seconds behind Evans, after finishing sixth on Thursday.
The bunch was thinned out significantly over the Col du Tourmalet and was almost thinned out even more on the descent of the Col. But the real battle occurred behind Sanchez, as Luxembourg's
Frank Schleck and his younger brother, Andy battled with other Tour favourites, including Ivan Basso and Cadel Evans, as the riders entered the final kilometres of the gruelling trek.
The oldest of the Schleck brothers eventually established a gap with 2km to go and finished third, with Evans and Andy Schleck close behind, as Thomas Voeckler's lead was cut in the overall
standings. They had a high advantage of around 7 minutes. I did not want to return home empty-handed," said Sanchez, who finished fourth in Paris a year ago. I lost my head a bit but we changed
bikes and it was fine.
Can Contador come back from here.
Contador ended up gaining 10 seconds on his rival and now trails Schleck by only 31 seconds. When the peloton started the climb, Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) and Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step)
attacked and opened a gap.
Rodriguez stretched out his arms, looked back and smiled as he nosed Contador at the line in 4 hours, 58 minutes, 26 seconds.
Thanks to Frank Schleck's effort he brought himself into second place overall.
Surprisingly, Liquigas riders Ivan Basso and Sylvester Szmyd came forward and really turned up the pace thinning out the remaining bunch until only the cream of the crop remained.
As is customary on these stages, the real battle didn't begin until the final five kilometers. Other big news on the GC contenders is that, three time Tour de France champ, Alberto Contador
started to loose contact with other GC contenders such as Evans and Schleck. Gutierrez was a minute behind the rest of the break, Chavanel and Kreuziger were 2.
This acceleration was also caught as were the next few, until Frank made what ended up being the decisive move on the bunch.
It was almost as if Frank had snuck away without being seen. Thomas was fine and quickly got back on his bike and continued the descent. However, just a little bit down the road, when Thomas was
descending and attempting to regain contact with the breakaway, again his back wheel locked up and again he went into the grassy areas.
Firstly, the form of Thomas Voeckler and his absolute determination to retain the yellow jersey and ensure that it was a Frenchman wearing it on Bastille Day. Europcar and Thomas Voeckler were at
the front of the peloton attempting to keep the yellow jersey secure. Well it seemed that the yellow jersey was not totally safe. Chavanel and Kreuziger were 3.
Contador is a significant amount of time behind his main opposition and he was widely expected to make a move to recover some of that time today.
CAVENDISH WINS AT LE TOUR
2011 - Three (after stage 11)
2010 - Five
2009 - Six
2008 - Four. A 49-point gain on Belgium's Philippe Gilbert, who had started the day in green, Greipel slapped down from whence he came and a staggering 18th stage win to move him to seventh on
the all-time list of Tour stage winners. Tuesday's stage winner Andre Greipel was second and American Tyler Farrar was third.
Frenchman Thomas Voeckler retained his overall race leader's yellow jersey.
Cavendish's stage win put him in the green jersey as the points leader. Uncharacteristically for the southern stages of the tour, today was yet another rainy day. This time, he made clear; no
blame could be attached to Feillu.5kms. Tuesday's defeat by Greipel - a case of the former understudy upstaging the star turn - hurt badly.
It was 726 days earlier, during the 13th stage of the 2009 race, that Cavendish last headed the points standings, losing the green jersey at the end of that day in the Vosges and never managing
to wrest it back from his Norwegian rival Thor Hushovd, despite winning six stages.
Dutchmam Lars Boom made a valiant attempt for glory before the other leaders were caught but eventually surrendered his advantage two kilometres from the line.
7.
"Finally got my grubby little Manx mitts on the Green Jersey," the 26-year-old quipped on Twitter. Lars Boom is pulling a great bitchface. Two more sprints.
“It's not easy fighting for the green jersey but I've worked hard to earn it and I'm going to keep going and try to keep hold of it right through to the end."
Having taken the lead in the standings from Belgian Gilbert, Cavendish said: "It's incredible to have the green jersey, it's the most beautiful jersey in the world.
"There are only two stages with bunch sprints left, in Montpellier and Paris," Cavendish pointed out on Wednesday night.
At this point, Garmin-Cervelo moved to the head of the peloton as HTC peeled away. Team Sky and Omega Pharma-Lotto were both vying for their sprinters, as well.0km: HTC has Eisel on the front.
Cavendish kicked hard, and while yesterday's stage winner Andre Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) grabbed Cavendish's wheel, today was a reversal where Greipel just could not get past.
On Wednesday, with the six-man break up the road, Cavendish unleashed a short withering burst to lead the bunch over the line at the intermediate sprint in Gaillac, a carbon copy of Tuesday's
stage where he swooped in identical fashion after a six-man breakaway had hoovered up the big points on offer. Every little bit helps. Lots of people want a sprinty sprint today. He is the third
most-raced rider in the peloton this season and has deliberately sacrificed a small percentage of his top end speed to log up the mileage and lose even more weight in preparation for just this
challenge. HTC, Sky and Garmin knuckled down to haul the group back.
As the pack closed to within 15 seconds with 5k to go, Boom launched a powerful attack and held off the pack for another 3k.
Andre Greipel denied Britain's Mark Cavendish in a thrilling sprint finish to win stage 10 of the Tour de France, a 158km run from Aurillac to Carmaux.
Greipel took advtantage of Cavendish's early sprint to win in three hours 31 minutes 21 seconds.
It was the first time Cavendish has been beaten by his former HTC teammate in a head-to-head sprint. Victory meant Greipel joined the select club of riders who have won stages in all three grand
tours. Gilbert himself took the opportunity to launch an attack off the front of the bunch. “When I knew that I could be part of the race this year, winning a stage became my goal and the team
supported me in that.
The HTC team took control of the race and dragged the peloton back to catch Gilbert with just under 5km to go, keeping the tempo high enough to catch any of the mini-breaks that tried their luck
after that. I've been working for this all season long. Gilbert attacked in last climb and then Marcel Sieberg got me in a good position so that I do my sprint.5kms mark, Vichot was first across
the line.
Greipel claimed the victory by half a wheel, and it heightened the well-established personal animosity between him and Cavendish, whose presence at HTC kept Greipel out of the Tour for years.
Went with 250m to go, but didn't 'kick' until 200m. Gilbert was the final survivor in the group, but he was eventually caught with seven kilometers to go. At this point, they had a 3.40 advantage
over the peloton. Rojas and Hushovd were there as well, finishing in third and fourth places. After this climb, however, the gap increased back to 3.
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