After 5 dull stages, we enter the Alps in stage 15. The first half of the 197 kilometres between Vienne and Grenoble is easy, but the 2nd half features 3 climbs: the Col du Cucheron, the Col de Port and finally the Chamrousse, with the summit 30km before the finish.
89km to go
The peloton doesn't let 1 single breakaway ride away, as the goal is to start the first climb with all riders together, so all of them can finish inside the limit. Early in the ascend if the Col du Cucheron (8.1km at 6.0%), Brice Feillu from the Saur - Sojasun team attacks. He arrives solo at the summit with a gap of 2'44 to the peloton.
76km to go
The peloton is also taking it easy during the 2nd climb of the day, the Col de Port (7.6km at 6.5%). As a result, Feillu can increase his lead to 7 minutes. In between, at 5'10 ride Sylvain Chavanel, Fabian Cancellara and Rein Taaramäe.
46km to go
The ascend of the last, and most difficult, climb of the day has begun, the Chamrousse (18.8km at 6.9%, alt. 1730m). Feillu is leading Cancellara, Chavanel and Taaramäe by 4 minutes and the peloton by over 9. This is the moment for JoaquÃm RodrÃguez and Nicholas Roche to attack out of the peloton. They will be countered by Steven Kruijswijk.
30km to go
Feillu arrives at the summit with a margin of 5'12 to the 3 chasers, and can ride the descend safely to win the stage. Kruijswijk, Roche and RodrÃguez follow at 6'03, and anothe threesome, with Intxausti, LL Sánchez and Spilak at 7'18. The peloton follows at 7'55.
9km to go
With the stage win out of sight, we try to prevent attacks at the GC-lead to occur, by setting a high pace in the descend, with success.
Finish
After a safely ridden descend, Brice Feillu has enough time to celebrate his 2nd Tour de France stage win in his career. 4'28 behind him, Chavanel wins the sprint for the 2nd place, beating Taaramäe and Cancellara. Kruijswijk, Roche and RodrÃguez follow at 5'56, Sánchez, Kreuziger, Intxausti and Spilak at 6'57 and the AG2R-duo Gadret and Kadri at 7'11.
Robert Gesink did a great job setting a pace that high, none of the GC-contenders could attack. The peloton finishes 7'36 behind Feillu, with Andy Schleck taking the 15th place.
Word from the DS
And this was the 8 win by a breakaway in 13 stages (not counting the 2 TT's). I must say, we don't mind it happens, as long we don't loose time.
Although classified as a hilly stage, stage 16 from Grenoble to La Mure is one of the most difficult ones in this Tour de France. The road is going up and down for the entire 168 kilometres, with the finish 1km after the summit of the dreadful steep La Mure, with peak gradients to 14%.
146km to go
With the goal of Jelle Vanendert collecting the maximum amount of points at the summit of the first climb of the day, Les Michalons, we set a high pace to prevent breakaways to occur. And with succes, as the polka dot-wearer collects the full 10 points.
93km to go
After the summit, we drop the pace and the waiting starts before attacks to occur. The first to do so is Astana's Roman Kreuziger. The Czech, who has a bad Tour so far thanks to crashes, is the first one to arrive at the summit of the Col de Rousset. The peloton follows at 6 minutes here.
43km to go
With the Radio Shack-guys doing th epace of the peloton, the gap to Kreuziger slowly decreases to 4'22 at the summit of the Col de Grimone. This warns us that Vincenzo Nibali must have a great day.
21km to go
We got a feeling about it, but now the French tv-director has seen it to: Robert Gesink is struggling a lot today. He has been dropped, returned to the first peloton, but is about to get dropped again. We don't know what is wrong with him, he told us that his legs are empty....
12km to go
Being the best descender in this peloton, Vincenzo Nibali attacks in the descend towards the foot of La Mure. It surprises us a bit, and he quickly creates a gap together with Fabio Duarte. Ths happens 3'52 behind Kreuziger.
5km to go
Nibali and Duarte are joined by Fränk Schleck at the foot of the last climb to La Mure (4.7km at 6.9%, max 15%). The 3 have a '32 gap to the peloton, with Jelle Vanendert working his ass off for maillot jaune Andy Schleck.
4km to go
After 1 kilometre of climbing, Nibali attacks again! Only Fränk can follow the Sicilian. As a result, they have decreased the gap to Kreuziger to 2'14 so even the stage win is within reach. The 2 also have created a margin of '37 to their opponents.
3km to go Andy Schleck decides that is had been enough playtime for Nibbles, and counterattacks. But at this time, he's already '54 behind the Sicilian and his older brother. Contador is still in the first peloton, '25 behind Andy. And Gesink? He has been dropped, unfortunately...
1km to go
Entering the last kilometre, Nibali has caught poor Roman. It's amazing to see that Nibali is out of the saddle for 3 kilometres now, trying to blast away the opposition.
Fränk is '13 behind, while Andy is closing the gap to '33! The group Contador follows at 1'12.
Finish
But Vincenzo Nibali was unstoppable at La Mure and takes his first stage win this year. Kreuziger and Fränk finish at '12, Andy at '26 and a big group including Gilbert, Contador, Vanendert and Duarte at '59. For Robert Gesink, it has been a black day, as he finishes 3'32 behind Nibali and dropping from 4th to 7th in the GC.
Word from the DS
What an amazing strong effort by Nibali! Luckily, ANdy is still in yellow, but nothing has been decided yet. And we really don't know what is wrong with Gesink, as he suffered a lot today. Hopefully he will recover before tomorrow's mountain stage (with the Lautaret, the Izoard and finish at Risoul 1850), so he can help Andy maintaining the yellow.
And for me it is also surprise, that Kreuziger will ride for Europcar. Can you upload here image with his stats? Thanks and Good Luck to Andy!
Here you go:
Strange transfer indeed, don't know if I'm going to edit it or not....
@ IanButler: yes, Nibali, but both he and Contador are close behind. Andy has got 2 of the better climbers to serve as a luxury helper, hopefully it is enough to win the Tour (thanks to tha massive crash....)
Today we have the shortest stage (not counting the ITT's) in this Tour de France, with only 119 kilometres. But it features 4063 height metres! Immediately after the start the Col du Lautaret (29.7km at 4.4%), followed by the Col d'Izoard (19.6km at 5.4%, alt. 2367m) and the finish in/at Risoul 1850 (13.5km at 7.2%). Help......
113km to go
Having lost a big amount of time earlier in this Tour, despite being a podium-contender, Jurgen Van den Broeck knows that the only way to succes is to take a stage win. He decides not to wait for the last climb, but to make an early attack. Early in the descend of the Col du Lautaret, he attacks and gets joined by Beñat Intxausti (Euskaltel).
88km to go
Van den Broeck and Intxausti get accompanied by another Euskaltel-rider (Pierre Cazaux) and AG2R's Nicholas Hartmann. The peloton has taken it very, very eay, as it follows at 7'26!
55km to go
The second, and penultimate, climb of the day is the Col d'Izoard. The peloton has increased it's pace in the long descend of the Lautaret and is now 4'26 behind the 4 leaders. Ath this moment, only after a few kilometres of the Izoard, a group of 5 riders attacks out of the peloton: Richie Porte is the initiator, followed by Ryder Hesjedal, Luis Leon Sánchez, John Gadret and Roman Kreuziger.
41km to go
At the summit of the Col d'Izoard, at an altitude of 2367 metres, a nive overview can be given about the current situation:
Ryder Hesjedal has caught up with the leading group and is first to crest the summit, joined by Intxausti, Van den Broeck and Cazaux, while Hartmann gets dropped shortly before the summit. Gadret follows at 1'15, Kreuziger, Sánchez and Porte at 1'45 and the 55-man peloton at 3'55.
13km to go
The peloton, with Radio Shack and Monster Energy doing the pace, starts the last climb of the day 3'30 behind the leading group. The climb to Risoul 1850 is the shortest one (13.5km) of the day, but the steepest one (7.2%).
10km to go
IN a desperate attempt to shake off his fellow stage-leaders, Beñat Intxausti attacks with little over 10km to go. Is he the strongest, or is it a foolish attempt and he gets paid for a little later? The peloton follows at 3'19 here.
6km to go
In the first half of the climb, Jelle Vanendert serves as the main helper of Andy Schleck. Halfway up the climb, the Belgian gives over to Robert Gesink. Still, no attacks have occurred out of this first peloton. Nevertheless, the gap to the leaders stays big, 3'01. These leaders are..... Van den Broeck and Hesjedal. Yes, Intxausti has met the man with the hammer and pays for his wasted energy.
3km to go
And there goes Contador! With 3km to go (and 2'58 behind the 2 leaders), GC's number 3 Alberto Contador attacks with th egoal of regaining the time he lost at La Mure yesterday. Andy Schleck counters immediately, despite having a mediocre day (form 0). Gesink moves over to the left side of the road, with Duarte and especially Nibali trying to counter.
Finish
Jurgen Van den Broeck and Ryder Hesjedal make it a sprint-a-deux, with the Belgian being the strongest. This way, Van den Broeck makes up a bit for his disastrous Tour.
Teams
We have lost the lead to Omega Pharma - Quick Step.
1
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
189h08'55
2
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 2'00
3
Radio Shack - Nissan
+ 6'32
4
Pro Team Astana
+ 12'20
5
Sky ProCycling
+ 18'46
Today's winner
Word from the DS
One more mountain stage done, only one more to go. But that's the queen's stage with 5 climbs and a finish at the Col de Lombarde.... First a flat stage tomorrow.
Most of the riders will thank the ASP on their knees for putting this short and flat stage between the 2 big Alps-stages. 132 kilometres between Guillestre and Dignes-les-Bains, and a lot of the route is descending a bit. The last 10-15km are ascending with 1-3%.
11km to go
Apparantly, the riders didn't listen to the ASO and decided to make it a very fast stage. Every attack was reeled in, as the pace of the peloton was very high. Lars Ytting Bak is the last of the breakaways to get caught, 11km before the finish.
Finish
With the ascending last 10km, we hoped for Peter Sagan to get a good result (Top 3). But as both he and final lead out man Matti Breschel are suffering with bad legs (daily form -2 for both....) after the first Alps-stage, we can throw away that hope in the garbage can....
Well, all teams but 1 can throw away their hopes and plans. As Lotto - Belisol does a great job bringing Edvald Boasson Hagen in a perfect position. And without any problems, EBH takes his second stage win, almost securing the green jersey!
At a fairly distance, JJ Rojas takes the 2nd place in front of Heinrich Haussler. Sagan (15th) even got outsprinted by Andy Schleck, who finished 13th. A little disaster happened for Jelle Vanendert, as he punctured in the last 10km and lost 2'16, dropping from 9th to 17th in the GC...
