Stage 16 Bagneres de Bigorre - Luz Ardiden: 157.0km
Tactics meeting
The climb to Luz Ardiden is the last chance to make a real difference before the final time trial. On current form, Contador is favourite to end Leipheimer's stint in the yellow jersey. The Spaniard probably wants a nice cushion to Levi before the TT, so he's certain to attack today. The stage is very short, but that doesn't hide the fact that it's the queen stage of the Tour. Col d'Aspin and the famous Tourmalet preceeds the final climb.
To better be able to help Levi later on, we sent Haimar Zubeldia in today's breakaway. Across the Col d'Aspin, he led the race together with Nieve (Euskaltel) & Seeldraeyers (Quick-Step).
Zubeldia proved to be the strongest of the escapees. Close to the top of the Tourmalet, he had left his former companions, but gotten three new ones. Van den Broeck (10th overall), Wiggins (12th overall) and Vorarlberg's Gerhard Trampusch (21st overall) attacked on the Tourmalet and came up to Haimar. Interesting move.
Trampusch is in the running for the polkadot jersey, and took full points atop the Col du Tourmalet and with them the lead in the KoM competition. Our own Remy Di Gregorio was unable to defend it today.
Our tactics didn't quite work out, as Zubeldia couldn't hang in there until Luz Ardiden. At the start of the final climb, only Trampusch & Van den Broeck were ahead of the whittled down favourites group.
Once again on a mountain top finish, Levi was in trouble when Schleck & Contador cranked up the tempo! This was a sad but not very unexpected sight.
But in a strong show of resistance, Levi clawed his way back to the wheels of Schleck & Contador, who had now caught the last remaining escapees, Trampusch (Vorarlberg) and Van den Broeck (Silence - Lotto).
As I had predicted, Contador was on a mission today! 2km from the top, the Astana rider set off! This was an accelration neither Levi nor Schleck could match.
But, who's this?! Breakaway man Gerhard Trampusch wasn't dead yet! The Austrian found some new life and went in pursuit of Alberto Contador!
Sensationally, Trampusch caught and passed Contador close to the finishing line! I bet the Spaniard had not expected this when he attacked!
And the winner on Luz Ardiden is Gerhard Trampusch of Vorarlberg and Austria! A baffled Contador could only get 2nd, nine seconds back. The clock had started ticking for Leipheimer's yellow jersey...
Levi finished in 5th place just behind Schleck, while a resurgent Kai Reus got 3rd. The time was the most important thing though, and the clock stated that 1'10 had passed since Contador crossed the line. Leipheimer was 47 seconds too slow. Bye, bye yellow jersey.
Our pre-race hope for the white jersey, Roman Kreuziger, had another bad day in the mountains. The Giro 2010 winner finished 15th on the day to make the horrible day for Discovery complete. Yellow and polkadot lost, and Kreuziger losing two places on the GC by falling down to 8th.
Gerhard Trampusch? He's been around for ages, never doing anything outside the Tour of Austria. Today he gets his moment with a brilliant win atop Luz Ardiden. He also pretty much wraps up the polkadot jersey by being first to the top of the Tourmalet as well.
The other big story of the day is Alberto Contador's reward for being 2nd on the stage: the Maillot Jaune! He's now well set to win his third Tour, as Levi Leipheimer is almost a minute back in the standings. Levi did fairly well today, but Contador is just on a different level.
Tomorrow the riders get a well-deserved rest day. The next stage is the last one containing mountains, but they are too far from the finish to make it really interesting. Will the rest of the Tour be a parade march for Contador?
This has been the epic-est (or something like that ) story since alex's Columbia one, but, of course, others have been excellent too, but this one is here for nearly (?) 2 years and it still goes on and on. It would be hard to keep the lead with Contador in that shape, but the podium is still possible, and looks even more certain as the stages pass.
Yeah, an update! Great
Well Contador is just in another level, however a 2nd place and the teams classification are very good results, and there shouldn't be much trouble keeping that.
Oh, and what a ride by Trampusch!
Tactics meeting
So, after the last mountain top finish of the Tour, Levi Leipheimer is 47 seconds down on Alberto Contador. Judging by the stage 13 time trial, there is no way of beating the Spaniard against the clock. Therefore, today is D-day if we want to give ourselves a fighting chance. Here's the plan: We will station a few men in the early breakaway to aid Levi when he tries to emulate teammate Floyd Landis' attack five years ago. There is an awful long way from the last mountain to the finishing line today, but you don't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket, right?
But look! The King of Luz Ardiden, Gerhard Trampusch (Vorarlberg), also wanted to play Landis! He bridged the gap to the breakaway on the first climb. That was good, because the more strong riders in the break, the better for us.
Just before the second serious climb came the big moment! Levi Leipheimer's attack! I wonder what Contador thought about this.
As the loyal domestiques they are, Paulinho and Di Gregorio sat up to wait for Levi. Our masterplan was rolling along nicely.
When Levi reached them, their lead over the pack was almost 3 minutes. An FDJ rider was picked up along the way. So far so good, but what a ride they had to produce if they were to hold on for the last 85km!.
The first cracks started to appear at the last KoM sprint of the day, with 74km remaining. The main breakaway was still two minutes ahead, the pack had eaten up half of our trio's advantage, and Di Gregorio & Paulinho were cooked.
Unfortunately, after a brave attempt, it was all over with 55km remaining. The Landis attack came to a disappointing end. Levi had spent 80km out front, and was really feeling it in his legs. The breakaway with Trampusch & co was caught not long after.
With no breakaway out front, other riders had an incentive to try their luck, and who did? Andy Schleck! The rider sitting 3rd overall, 3 minutes behind Contador, broke away with a select group containing Valverde, Reus (4th), Gesink (5th), the Katusha duo Karpets (7th) & Cunego and World champion Cancellara. Alarm bells ringing!
Now something peculiar happened. Having lost Vinokourov to a crash on stage 11, Contador's Astana team had no one to do the chasing. The remaining Discovery domestiques Kreuziger & Klöden couldn't apply much pressure either, because that would crack the tired Levi. The Schleck group's advantage grew!
Having soon broken all his breakaway companions, Andy Schleck was landising along! He now led the Contador & Levi group by 3 minutes! He was riding into yellow!
This couldn't go on for much longer. Disregarding his team leader Leipheimer, Roman Kreuziger (8th) broke away from the peloton. Tour leader Contador seized the opportunity, and joined the chase along with Wiggins (11th) and Cobo (6th).
After a sensational ride, Andy Schleck raised his arm to celebrate a marvellous victory in Bayonne! Additionally, a Maillot Jaune was awaiting him on the podium. Had the Luxembourger won the Tour? We had to wait for the Contador group to come in.
But first it was the rest of Schleck's breakaway group. Valverde had his best day so far in this Tour, taking 2nd.
Time went by, and we had to wait 4 and a half minute before V.Efimkin led home the Contador & Kreuziger group, containing a lot of broken men. Levi Leipheimer was even further back, finishing 5 minutes behind the new race leader Andy Schleck. Levi's 2nd place overall now seems lost.
What a day. Looking at the profile, one wouldn't expect this stage to be the most exciting of the entire Tour, but what a day of racing we've had. Where Levi failed his Landis attack, Andy Schleck succeeded bigtime! The new Maillot Jaune did something that will be remembered for a long time. But has he won the Tour?
Contador hasn't really been his usual self this Tour de France, and today is further proof. Now it all hangs on the final time trial. Can he take back 1'33 on Andy Schleck?
Levi Leipheimer didn't win the lottery today, but at least he tried. Schleck's spectacular performance relegates our leader to 3rd, and as long as something totally unforeseen doesn't happen, Levi will be 3rd in Paris. A podium place is still a podium place, and I don't regret telling him to try for the win. I'm just thinking about what could have been if Levi had done like Andy Schleck did, and attacked later. Ah well, we can't change anything that has happened.
The peloton now has two flat stages in which to recover from this leg-breaking day, before the final time trial decides everything.
maybe you can make a surprise on the TT? But really nice with a update
I won't promise regular updates again, but it's not dead until the season is over.
