SLU Cycling will be hosting two informational meetings next week for any interested cyclists. We are planning to meet at 7 pm on September 3 and 4 in Ritter Hall 202. You only need to make it to one of them to get all of the information you’ll need. If you can’t make it and still want information, get in contact with us as soon as possible. Until then, see you out on the road!
The final stage into Paris is a traditional easy ride to the final circuit course, when the pace picks up and the riders sprint around several times for the spectators. Today was no different, with Carlos Sastre and his teammates able to drink a flute of champagne.
Attacks started at about 30km to go, but all were reigned in. Today came to a sprint finish with Gert Steegmans (QuickStep) winning the final stage of the 2008 Tour de France.
Here is your 2008 top ten finishers in GC:
1 Carlos Sastre (CSC-Saxobank)
2 Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto)
3 Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner)
4 Dennis Menchov (Rabobank)
5 Christian Vande Velde (Garmin)
6 Frank Schleck (CSC-Saxobank)
7 Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel)
8 Kim Kirchen (Columbia)
9 Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne)
10 Tadej Valjavec (Ag2R)
Green Jersey Winner: Oscar Freire (Rabobank)
KOM Jersey Winner: Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner)
Young Rider Jersey Winner: Andy Schleck (CSC-Saxobank)
Team Award: CSC-Saxobank
Congrats to Carlos Sastre and all the riders of the 2008 Tour.
Matt and I would like to thank all the readers on this site for reading and commenting on our coverage. Talk to you all next Tour de France. And to the team members reading, see you in the fall.
Today is the second and last ITT of the 2008 Tour. It is the last real place to gain time or change GC rankings. It will be a battle for the spots in the top 10.
I cannot really do play by play for a TT, so I will list the stage top 10 and then the GC top ten. On the stage is:
1 Schumacher 1:03:50
2 Cancellara @ :21
3 Kim Kirchen @ 1:01
4 Vande Velde @ 1:05
5 Millar @ 1:37
6 Menchov @ 1:55
7 Evans @ 2:05
8 Lang @ 2:19
9 Kohl @ 2:21
10 Hincapie @ 2:28
Congrats to Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) on the win, his second this tour, both coming from the ITTs.
The GC is:
1 Sastre
2 Evans @ 1:05
3 Kohl @ 1:20
4 Menchov @ 2:00
5 Vande Velde @ 3:12
6 Schleck @ 4:28
7 Samuel Sanchez @ 6:32
8 Kim Kirchen @ 7:02
9 Alejandro Valverde @ 7:26
10 Tadej Valjavec @ 9:12
Congrats to CSC as well, it seems that they have won three competitions in the 2008 Tour de France. Look in tomorrow for the last stage of the Tour, riding into Paris via the Champs Elysees.
Damiano Cunego (Lampre) did not start today, he had crashed yesterday and finished behind the field.
Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel), Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom), Alessandro Ballan (Lampre), and Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) went in an early break today on the first cat. 3 climb. They were caught a little later in the stage, and didn’t manage to stay out for even half the stage. Liquigas took on the chase to catch them.
Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) and Francaise des Jeux’s Jeremy Roy attack the main group and get a gap. At 33km to go the break had over four minutes.
The break sticks today and Chavenel is the winner of stage 19. No changes in jerseys or GC today. Tune in tomorrow to see if CSC can defend its leads in the team, young rider, and GC classifications. Tomorrow’s stage is the ITT, and the last chance for Cadel Evans to take the lead. CSC truely has been dominate this Tour.
Today’s stage was hot and had a few decent climbs, but nothing to really change the GC. A breakaway formed with Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) and Marcus Burghardt (Columbia) as the two who got up the road. There are three riders behind them in their own break: Romain Feillu (Agritubel), Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel), and Christophe le Mevel (Credit Agricole). The main group seems to not want to chase today, maybe from the mountains they had to climb yesterday. Damiano Cunego (Lampre) crashed today at about 25km into the race and has been struggling behind the field.
Towards the end of the stage is a small climb and the breaks are still away. It seems that they will stick today.
The breaks have mini attacks and breaks and the duo sprint for the finish. Marcus Burghardt (Columbia) wins, the fifth stage win for team Columbia. Barredo comes in second. All jerseys stayed the same.
Alp d’Huez is a climb synonymous with the Tour and is always a very entertaining stage. The riders finally made their way to this epic climb this afternoon under sunny skies.
Although everyone was thinking about the famous climb at the end of the stage today, the peleton had to worry about a few other obstacles first. The Col du Galibier and the Col de la Croix de Fer stood in front of the riders when the day began. The aggression started very early with Ruben Perez (Euskaltel), Remy Di Gregorio (FdJeux), Peter Velits (Team Milram), and Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) getting a gap to tackle the climbs on their own. Schumacher has been in the spotlight quite a bit throughout this year’s Tour.
The breakaway never was given a huge leash, especially with CSC-Saxobank lining up their boys and just drilling it for much of the stage. On the Col de la Croix, Velits was the only member of the breakaway to go over the top still in front of the hard-charging field. CSC had the group moving at a furious pace, but they couldn’t quite crack any of the yellow jersey contenders. Jerome Pineau (Bouygues Telecom) left the lead group to join Velits after descending, only to be eaten up before the base of the dreaded final climb.
All of the GC contenders were there when Alp d’Huez was right before their eyes. Carlos Sastre (CSC-Saxobank) was really the first to attack and took Denis Menchov (Rabobank) with him. The gap was closed fairly quickly, but soon enough, Sastre was on the attack again. This time the group had no answer. He had both Schleck brothers back in the group and making sure to cover anyone that would try to bridge up to him. Once Sastre got a gap, he was gone for good. All of the GC guys gathered around Frank Schleck (CSC-Saxobank) to climb around the yellow jersey. Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) was forced to do most of the pace-making and he continued to look like he was about to collapse (like he always does when he climbs). Sastre would roll over the line by himself, taking the glory of an Alp d’Huez stage win along with the yellow jersey.
The GC guys continued to fight it out to gain some time on each other. Samuel Sanchez (Euskatel) put in an attack that was covered by Andy Schleck (CSC-Saxobank) and those two would come in 2nd and 3rd respectively. The rest of the GC guys came in at about the same time.
So here goes the new GC…
1. Carlos Sastre
2. Frank Schleck 1.24
3. Bernhard Kohl 1.33
4. Cadel Evans 1.34
5. Denis Menchov 2.39
6. Christian Vande Velde 4.41
With Sastre’s extremely questionable TT ability, I can’t see him running into Paris in yellow. As much as I hate to say it, I think Evans will wrap this thing up in the TT and win over Frank Schleck and Menchov by less than a minute. Hopefully I’m wrong…
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.
The first day in the Alps and we see many changes… Mark Cavendish did not take the start today, he said he was tired and is starting to focus on the Olympics.
The race was in the rain today, as a breakaway containing Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel), Jose Luis Arrieta (Agr2), Simon Gerrans (Credit Agricole) and Danny Pate (Garmin) gained up to 13 minutes on the field.
Stijn Devolder of Quick Step retired from the race as the main group goes over the first climb of the day.
Caisse d’Epargne’s Oscar Pereiro went over the guard rail on a descent, and has broken his collarbone.
Large crash by a roundabout on the flat between the big climbs. CSC is on the front pushing the pace.
There is just 28k to go and the break still has a 14:30 advantage.
Many attacks and counters on the final climb, and the break’s lead is falling…
The break sticks! Simon Gerrans (Credit Agricole) wins the stage. Frank Schleck (CSC) is the yellow jersey leader now, Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner) is the new KOM leader. Lots of great racing today.
Barloworld is ending its sponsorship after 2008 due to the positive test from one of their riders several days ago.
Today was hot and sunny, and as usual a break had formed. Today was a little uneventful, but I will give you the rundown.
At 50km to go the break had a little over two minutes in advantage.
Milram and Liquigas (who recently signed Ivan Basso) pick up the chase.
There are some attacks on the small climb going to the finish, but none stick.
There is a mass sprint finish, and Oscar Freire (Rabobank) wins.
No change in jerseys or GC.
Here is an update about yesterday’s doping scandal. La Gazzetta dello Sport says that Ricco has been fired by the Saunier Duval team for violating the team’s ethics code. Leonardo Piepoli has also been let go amid rumors of another positive doping test. Due to this news, Saunier Duval is considering withdrasing its sponsorship. Ricco insists that he is innocent and has never doped.
Another sprint stage, another breakaway, this one contains Niki Terpstra (Milram) and Florent Brard (Cofidis). They have about eight minutes on the chasing peloton. They had an advantage of 10 minutes at 21km into the stage, but it’s starting to fall.
At the feed zone, the break still had a 6:18 advantage, with about 100km to go.
74km to go and the two-rider break continues, Brard and Terpstra have 4:41 to the field.
The break was passed, and the sprint starts to pan out in the last 2.5 km. Here is the finish… Mark Cavendish takes his fourth stage of the 08 Tour! Second was McEwen, third was Romain Feillu. So Cavendish moves into second in the points competition. The jerseys and standings remain the same, with no problems or crashes to speak about.
Log on tomorrow for MATT FAVOINO’s triumphant return to the blogging world as the race heads into the Alps. Don’t give him too hard of a time.