It took a whole week of flat stages until the pack finally reaches the mountains. This first mountain stage finishes at the Station des Rousses. Not the hardest climb, but it might bring some gaps.
Km 3: Matthias Frank (BMC) launches the first attack. Samuel Dumoulin and Christiano Salerno follow.
Km 23: And the break of the day has established a three minute lead: It consists of Salerno, Dumoulin, Frank and Quick·Step's Dries Devenyns.
Km 62: The advance grew to more than 9 minutes.
Km 83: GC's 181th Lance Armstrong tries an attack.
Km 97: But he has no chance. The pack reels him in.
Km 108: On the second mountain sprint, the advance of the escapees shrinked to 5'30.
Km 120: At the second intermediate sprint, Christiano Salerno loses contact to his fellow escapees.
Km 143: The new Russian champion Yury Trofimov tries to attack from the pack. The three escapees in front have an advance of 2'30 with 20km to go.
Km 153: With 10km to go, the pack enters the last climb. While Salerno is back in the pack, his former fellows are still 2 minutes in front, Trofimov is inbetween them and the pack.
Km 155: Quite early, Alberto Contador attacks! Some of the other favorites follow!
Km 158: Basso finds himself in the group around Contador and Gesink. Evans attacks, Devenyns is still left in front.
Km 160: 8 riders enter the last 3 kilometers together. Only the Schleck brothers are missing.
Km 161,5: But no, Andy Schleck comes out of the pack, reaches the front group and attacks right away!
Km 162,5:Basso, Contador and Anton sprint to overtakes Andy Schleck! Who will win today?
Km 163: Andy Schleck keeps his small advance and wins the first mountain stage of this Tour! Basso finishes a good fourth!
Km 163: Dominik finishes within the large pack as the second best Liquigas rider today.
Will Andy Schleck be able to achieve the maillot jaune this year?
I really prefer the mountains! I feel better and the results are better as well.
For our team, or rather for Ivan Basso, it went quite well. He is able to compete with the best riders, at least until now. Contador and Schleck proved to be strong, and Sammy Sanchez plus Igor Anton might be a lethal duo. It will be hard for Ivan to beat them and to reach the podium.
Tomorrow's last climb will be a lot harder, so I better get some sleep now.
The next summit finish, but this time, it's a lot longer and thus harder. The Col de la Ramaz is a first test and will separate the wheat from the chaff, before the riders climb up to Morzine – Avoriaz.
Km 4: Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) sets the first attack.
Km 6: Two national champions follow his attack: Matti Breschel and Heinrich Haussler.
Km 26: The attacks keep coming...
Km 49: Eleven riders established a two minutes lead by now. The best climber is probably Johan Van Summeren, but they're all pretty close. Best-placed rider in the GC is Serguei Ivanov (Katusha), 3'55 back.
Km 58: Fränk Schleck has a puncture! Immediatly, O'Grady and Monfort immediatly fall back to help him.
Km 63: And they're back in the pack.
Km 82: Paul Martens wins the first intermediate sprint.
Km 86: Although the escapees are already 5 minutes in front, Lance Armstrong tries an attack!
Km 94: He soon builds a gap and comes closer to the break.
Km 103:P -> Armstrong -> Break
Km 130: Armstrong hasn't been able to reach the escapees yet.
Km 142: The pack enters the climb up to the Col de la Ramaz, and Saxo Bank immediatly starts to enforce the pace.
Km 150: Armstrong is caught again, while the first group starts to split. The eight men leading maintain an advance of 4 minutes.
Km 152: Cadel Evans, already more than 5 minutes back in the GC, attacks! Yaroslaw Popovych and Michele Scarponi follow.
Km 157: Only 75 riders are left in the main bunch on the descent. Basso is only accompanied by Sylvester Szmyd and a strong Dominik Nerz.
Km 160: Matti Breschel is caught again. 3 riders lead with about 1'30: Heinrich Haussler, Marco Marzano, and Serguei Ivanov.
Km 166: Evans reached the first group, but they're only a minute in front. Popovych and Scarponi follow a little behind.
Km 170: The last climb isn't even reached yet, still Samuel Sanchez, Robert Gesink and Andy Schleck launch a first attack!
Km 175: Six men around Schleck lead now, but only with 50 seconds.
Km 182: With 11 km to go, Ivan Basso ups the pace.
Km 184: The leaders are kept on a short line, their advance doesn't grow to more than one minute.
Km 184: Dominik could keep up with the pack for a long time but now slowly loses contact.
Km 186: With 8 km to go, Basso sets an attack!
Km 190: Together with Igor Anton, Basso is a bit in front of the pack. Alberto Contador flew past them and leads the race.
Km 193: With 1,5km to go, Basso lost contact to Anton, but still keeps his third place. Behind him, Fränk Schleck tries to catch up with him.
Km 194: Alberto Contador wins this stage!
Km 194: Schleck was able to overtake Ivan Basso, who still comes in at a great fourth place.
Km 194: Dominik kept a good, solid pace all over the climb, and comes in with the biggest group, about 4'30 behind Contador.
Km 194: The loser of today is Andy Schleck, who comes in more than one and a half minutes behind Contador. Maybe Leopard rides for his brother this year?
Contador strengthend his favorite's role with this win!
What a stage. The rankings are more shaped now. For us, Ivan Basso performes great, and is already on the podium. Alberto Contador is the main contender for the overall, and I guess, that Basso, Sanchez, Anton and Andy Schleck will fight for the other two podium spots. Or someone like Andreas Klöden or Michael Rogers might be a surprise.
Also, the youth ranking will be the expected duell between Roman Kreuziger and Robert Gesink.
For me the stage was quite good. Every finish within the Top 50 is nice for me during this Tour. I advanced a lot in the GC as well.
Tomorrow is the first rest day of this Tour, which is pretty nice after these two hard stages.
Wow, impressive ride by Dominik in worlds biggest race debut,good luck for him in the next stages
Basso is also doing fine with his diesel-power, go on!
The third mountain stage in the Alps. Although it doesn't end with a climb, the 208 km will provide some trouble to a lot of riders.
Km 3: French Remi Cusin (Cofidis) launches the first attack.
Km 18: The first breakaway try is caught again.
Km 30: The next riders around Heinrich Haussler try their luck.
Km 43: 10 riders lead with 2 minutes. Yury Trofimov, one of the three national champions in the break, is the best climber among them, and also the best placed in the GC, 5'30 back.
Km 55: The first mountain wasn't selective at all, the pack had a slow pace and is 7 minutes down.
Km 73:Yury Trofimov takes both first mountain sprints, but is still far from the mountain jersey.
Km 85: While Haussler fell back, the other nine riders are already 10 minutes in front.
Km 140: What is that? Is Andy doing a Floyd Landis? He attacks, but the climb is a couple of kilometers away.
Km 148: The front group hits the final climb. With 65 km to go, they're still 8'40 in front.
Km 149: Now, the pack enters the climb. Andy Schleck is only 40 seconds in front...
Km 153: Very early, Dominik falls back. That's not a good sign...
Km 163: While Andy is already 1'20 in front of the peloton, his older brother attacks along with Alexandre Vinokourov.
Km 165: Fränk's attack was half-hearted, but now it's Samuel Sanchez who attacks!
Km 167: Contador attacks from the favorite's group. Sammy Sanchez and Andy Schleck are 50 seconds in front of them.
Km 169: The favorites are reunited, only Sanchez is still in front of them. But Anton and Fränk attack again.
Km 171: 4km from the top of the mountain, Basso finds himself in a group of five, together with Anton, Sanchez, Fränk Schleck and Contador. But he doesn't look that good. It's important for him to keep up until the descent!
Km 173: Contador shook off the others, only Sanchez can follow at least a little. Still, Yury Trofimov is in the lead, 1'30 in front of Contador. In between them are George Hincapie and Stijn Devolder.
Km 175: Trofimov crosses the summit first, still more than a minute in front of Contador. As the Russian is quite a good time trialist, a stage win might be in reach.
Km 175: Basso and Anton reached Sanchez and Contador, Hincapie and Devolder are still with them.
Km 183: Trofimov shows an impressive performance, his advance grew to almost 2'30!
Km 184: Dominik Nerz doesn't seem to feel very good today. He is on the descent in the meantime, and is already 10 minutes behind the race leader.
Km 198: Contador and Sanchez attack! No one else seems able to follow. With ten kilometers to go, Trofimov is still 2 minutes in front.
Km 203: Some riders – Vinokourov, Porte, Leipheimer, Casar - reached Basso's group. Sanchez and Contador are a minute in front of them, but they won't take the stage win away from Trofimov.
Km 205: Casar and Anton attack. Basso tries to counter...
Km 208: After the Russian championship, this is the second big win for Trofimov within a short period.
Km 208: Basso reaches the finish together with Fränk Schleck, but they lose a bit time on Anton, and Sanchez and Contador of course.
Km 208: Along with a couple of Movistar riders, Dominik Nerz reaches the finish more than 10 minutes behind Trofimov.
Phew. A bad day for me. I felt really bad, and so was the result. But anyways, my GC placement is not what is important for us! It's Ivan that we care about. And the Tour continues to be good for him.
Although he lost his podium spot, the set of contenders got a lot smaller. His main competitors will be the Euskaltel duo, Sanchez and Anton. Fränk is already more than a minute behind, and today showed that he seems to be stronger than his brother. Most important will be to minimize the loss to Igor Anton, because Basso should beat him in the time trial. But that is still far away.
Tomorrow might be a stage for a breakaway, and maybe I'm going to try something...
Wouldn't expect that result in a stage like this.. too bad for Dominik that Andy attacked that early - most probably the reason for a higher pace up the mountain(s). Strong performance by Contandor's group there, but 20"-loss for Basso is still okay.
After the hard days in the mountain, today is a transfer stage. It's not completely flat, but not too demanding either. Might be a good day for a break.
Km 4: Among the first escapees is Dominik. It's his first try during this Tour...
Km 12: Nine riders around Dominik lead with 45 seconds to the pack.
Km 17: But they're caught again.
Km 21: Again some riders try it. Christiano Salerno is there.
Km 26: They're 1'30 in front, but the attacks don't stop...
Km 32: 5 riders around Salerno lead, the pack is down by more than 2 and a half minutes. Romain Zingle (Cofidis) and Frederik Willems (Omega) are in between them...
Km 36: … and catch up with them. The other escapees are: Kurt Arvesen (Sky), Theo Bos (Rabobank), Björn Leukemans (Vacansoleil) and Koldo Fernandez (Euskaltel).
Km 48: The advance grew to five minutes.
Km 65: Strange move: Bos and Fernandez attack from the first group. Arvesen follows.
Km 79: Only Arvesen is left in front of the group, which leads by 8 minutes to the pack.
Km 83: The pack starts chasing...
Km 85: While Bos and Fernandez fell back on the first ascent, Salerno tries to reel Arvesen back in.
Km 109:Arvesen still leads, but the advance of the escapees decreased to 5'30.
Km 145: Salerno and his fellow escapees are caught again, but Arvesen holds 40 seconds as a lead.
Km 150: Arvesen is back in the pack as well. The pack is in the meantime on the penultimate climb. Dominik is still in there, while Szmyd and Belotti already fall back. A nice performance so far.
Km 154: Alexander Vinokourov attacks on the mountain sprint.
Km 161: Dominik is at the back of the peloton. Let's hope he can recover a bit on the descent.
Km 168: With 12 km to go, and 2 km to the last mountain, Ivan Basso attacks! Contador, Van den Broeck, Vinokourov, Fränk Schleck and Sandy Casar follow.
Km 173: 7 km to go. Those six riders maintain a gap of a bit more than 50 seconds.
Km 176: Dominik fell back into one the first grupetto...
Km 179: The sprint for the stage win begins, and Basso has a small gap. Can he hold that?
Km 180: No! Sandy Casar overtakes him. But a great result nevertheless for Basso.
Km 180: Guillaume Bonnafond wins the sprint of the peloton. With a 16th spot, Edvald Boasson Hagen gains the lead in the points classification.
Sandy Casar serves for the first French stage win of this Tour.
Meh. I just don't really like hilly stages. But for our team, the stage was great! Ivan Basso's brave move totally succeeded, and although he couldn't win the stage, the seconds he gained today might be decisive in the end.
But on the other hand, Jacopo Guarnieri had to abandon today. He fell out of the time limit along with 13 other riders, among them Mark Renshaw and Robbie McEwen.
Tomorrow, we'll have another flat stage. Not really my terrain, but let's see.
Stay tuned,
Dominik
Edited by cunego59 on 30-07-2011 10:55
Just been reading the last few pages, what can I say? Dominik really improved so far! A nice top 10 plus Youth Jersey in Slovenia and keeping up nicely inside the top 100 in le Tour, after in the early season races in Spain finding hard to keep up with the best.
hey
nice move by basso there looks good for the podium so far
and for dominik nice try to get in the break hopefully he can stay in a groupe a little longer in one of the next days but good ride so far except that one day of
After some hard days, this stage is completely flat. The sprinters will probably get their chances.
Km 3: Vicente Reynes is the first rider who attacks. Not his first try in this Tour.
Km 25: They were immediatly successful, and six riders form the break of the day. Bole and Quinziato are the most notable riders there.
Km 59: On the mountain sprint, they maintain a gap of almost 9 minutes.
Km 74: The advance breaks the 10 minutes limit.
Km 90: With 91 km to go, the break is still 11 minutes away. Looks like they might succeed.
Km 131: 50 km to go, and the break is 15 minutes in front. They will fight for the win. Grega Bole is the best sprinter, Reynes and Adrien Petit (Cofidis) might be able to challenge him.
Km 165: To avoid a sprint, Francisco Javier Aramendia (Euskaltel) and Mauro Quinziato (BMC) attack.
Km 169: They split, and have both an advance of 20 seconds to each other respectively the other escapees.
Km 173: Aramendia is caught and falls immediatly back, but Quinziato is still 30 seconds in front.
Km 178: The sprint begins, Quinziato is only a little in front.
Km 180: Quinziato is overtaken. In front, Petit and Bole fight for the stage win.
Km 181: Bole prevents the second French stage win in a row.
Km 177: Behind them, the sprint for important points begin. Cavendish has Boasson Hagen's wheel.
Km 180: Farrar is in front, behind him are Rojas, Boonen and Boasson Hagen.
Km 181: And that's how they come in. Boonen thus comes closer in the points classification.
Km 181: Due to Aramendia's taking part in the break, Euskaltel gains the lead in the team classification.
Damn! This morning, I was talking to our DS about breaking away, but they told me that a break wouldn't have any chances as the sprinter teams wouldn't let them go. Not a bit of it! But who would have thought that...
The good thing was, that I had enough energy left to try something in the sprint. And ended up 23rd - 17th of the pack! A pretty good result for me I think!
I definetely want to try a break again at least once this Tour. Maybe tomorrow, but probably not, because 210 kilometers might be too long for me.
Just caught back up , great to see Basso 2nd in GC, and Nerz is really showing his future potential even tough he keeps getting dropped. With a great team around the Tour should provide a great learning experience if anything.
And yes, I'm positively surprised by Dominik, he often holds on longer than Belotti, and sometimes even longer than Szmyd, and as he has still a lot of potential left, I think we can expect quite a lot from him in the upcoming years (given that I will have the time and endurance to continue the story so long, that is).
One of the longer stages of this Tour. It's rather hilly, but shouldn't be very selective. Another breakaway win is not unlikely.
Km 3: Francesco Belotti is among the first escapees. Liquigas probably doesn't want to miss another chance.
Km 34: Belotti is caught again, no break is stable until now.
Km 42: Two groups, 5 and 4 riders, are 1'40 and 2'40, respectively, in front of the pack. They're mostly sprinters.
Km 65: The first four riders, led by Leonardo Duque, pass the first mountain with a bit more than 5 minutes of advance.
Km 97: With 115 km to go, the advance grows to more than 10 minutes.
Km 118: No one seems to be willing or able to reel the escapees back in. 94 km to go, 12 minutes of advance.
Km 148: Again, we'll have a breakaway win. The pack is down by 15 minutes. The stage winner will be either Leonardo Duque (Cofidis), Leonardo Bertagnolli (Lampre), Maxime Monfort (Leopard) or Kurt Arvesen (Sky). Duque and Bertagnolli are the favorites, the Colombian is the better sprinter, while Bertagnolli is clearly the best hilly rider.
Km 190: The front group splits! Bertagnolli got loose of the others. Duque and Monfort are 23 seconds behind him, Arvesen is half a minute further behind.
Km 201: Bertagnolli is out of control: During the last kilometers, he increased his advance to 1'30!
Km 208: The Italian is on the last 4 kilometers. He will take this win.
Km 210: Monfort and Duque sprint for the second place. Monfort looks faster.
Km 212: A great win for Bertagnolli.
Km 212: Duque secures his second spot. As if his season wouldn't be awesome enough.
Km 212: In the bunch, the riders prepare for the sprint for place five...
Km 212: … which Contador wins in front of Samuel Sanchez and Boasson Hagen. Basso comes in ninth.
Other jersey, same gesture. Bertagnolli developed a lot this season, and this is the highlight so far.
Okay. Seriously. We need to put men in the breaks. Saxo Bank is just not able to reel them back in...
Apart from that, the stage wasn't bad at all. Basso lost 8 seconds to Sanchez, but gained time on all other contenders (except Contador, of course). Especially Igor Anton and Sandy Casar lost quite a lot time.
Some other classification changed a bit, too. Hagen extended his lead in the points classification, this guy is in magnificent shape. Same applies for Contador in the mountain ranking. Kreuziger lost a lot of time in the young riders classification. And last but not least, Leopard gained the lead in the team ranking, due to Monforts break.
Let's hope, we bring some one in the break tomorrow.
Oh, and by the way: I just noticed that firstly, I got more than 400 posts now, and secondly, and more important, this story has more than 10k views! Thanks a lot for all the support guys!
Too bad Liquigas had no one in the last two succesful breaks But especially in stage 12, I wouldn't let Dominik jump into a break, too There will be still a few chances for breakaways and I hope for you jumping into the right one!
But especially in stage 12, I wouldn't let Dominik jump into a break, too 
