The next stop in the Alps proved to be another critical stage for a a few GC guys. 2 HC climbs at the end of the stage made it one of the more difficult stages of the race.
Several attacks and counters went off early in the stage until a true break was established about 40km into the race. The break contained over 20 men before it broke up into smaller groups. Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) took off by himself to get over the Col de Lombarde first. The first chase group was back a few minutes and the yellow jersey group, led by CSC-Saxobank, sat at about 10 minutes back.
On the 2nd HC climb of the day, the break began to shrink as riders fell off the pace and the yellow jersey group kept a steady pace. CSC riders wasted themselves for their leader and popped Christian Vandevelde (Garmin-Chipotle) off the back. When the lead riders went over the top, Schumacher had been caught by Yaroslav Popovych (Silence Lotto), Kanstantin Sivtsou (Columbia), John-Lee Augustyn (Barloworld), Tadej Valjavec (Ag2r), George Hincapie (Columbia), Cyril Dessel (Ag2r), Sandy Casar (FdJeux), and David Arroyo (Caisse d’Epargne). At the end of the climb and on the fast and technical descent, Popovych, Dessel, Casar, and Arroyo got a gap that would stick for the rest of the race. Dessel took the victory at the bottom of the descent, which is a big one for the French on such a difficult stage.
The yellow jersey group went over the top and a few rider fell off the pace on the descent. The biggest loser aside from Vandevelde was Denis Menchov (Rabobank) who would lose 30 seconds to Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto).
Top 5 GC looks like this…
1. Frank Schleck (Lux, CSC-Saxo Bank, 68:30:16
2. Bernhard Kohl (A), Gerolsteiner, at 0:07
3. Cadel Evans (Aus), Silence-Lotto, at 0:08
4. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC-Saxo Bank, at 0:49
5. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, at 1:13
If Cadel can stay within a minute or so of the yellow jersey after tomorrow’s stage I think he has a great shot at winning the whole race with a good TT performance. Bernhard Kohl should definitely be one to watch during tomorrow’s stage up the treacherous Alp d’Huez.
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