Stage 15—Alpe d’Huez
At the finish line...
1Frank Schleck (CSC)
2 Damiano Cunego (Lampre) +0:11
4 Floyd Landis (Phonak) +1:10
5 Andreas Kloden (Telekom) +1:10
9 Carlos Sastre (CSC) +1:35
10 Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) +1:49
11 Denis Menchov (Rabobank) +2:21
14 Oscar Pereiro (Banesto) +2:49
16 Cadel Evans (Lotto) +2:49
18 Axel Merckx (Phonak) +2:56
19 Cyril Dessel (AG2r) +3:04
24 David De la Fuente (Saunier) +3:36
Tom Boonen (Quick Step) DNF
There was lots of action, yet I feel cheated.
Frank Schelck was part of the long breakaway, yet survived for the win, which is outstanding. The fact that the GC contenders called the dogs off is no reason not to respect Scheck’s great performance. CSC down & out? Speaking of CSC, our man Jens Voigt was in the breakaway too. He played the part of uberdomestique in making tempo for both Schleck and later Sastre. Jens has officially earned a spot on the TdF All-Star team.
Cunego finally showed a sign of life and made up a little time on Marcus Fothen, but he’s still far behind in the white jersey competition.
Floyd Landis is obviously trying to win using the Miguel Indurain strategy: beat everyone in the time trial and make sure they don’t beat you in the mountains. It’s driving me nuts because I want him to win, yet I hate the strategy. My other problem is that he lacks the killer instinct to put this race away. In the Pyrenees he didn’t keep the pressure on Kloden when he was weak. Well, Kloden is back and still dangerous. Today he refused to attack when Menchov was in difficulty. Menchov recovered and lost only 1 minute. It could have been worse; Floyd should have raised the tempo to put another minute on him. So, because Floyd lacks the killer instinct, Menchov and Kloden are still in this thing.
Pereiro was defiant in defending the yellow jersey. He’s only 10 seconds out, but he’ll probably fall off the map tomorrow.
I’m even more impressed with Cyril Dessel, who has absolutely no business riding with these guys, yet is still fighting. Dessel never got the memo that he isn’t this good. After Alpe d’Huez he is ahead of Menchov, Kloden, and Sastre.
It was a wise move by Phonak to put Axel Merckx in the breakaway so that he could help Landis on the final climb. Lands got about half a kilometer out of him, so let’s not wet our pants about how good Phonak turned out to be. The fact is, they had to resort to that tactic because it’s their only hope of having anyone within sight of Landis at crunch time. Imagine how weak they’d be without their brilliant move of surrendering the yellow jersey so they could save themselves for today. Uh huh.
It looked like Michael Rasmussen was gradually catching David de la Fuente, but today David took a bunch of points by placing himself in the breakaway. That put a big gap on Rasmussen. There are a lot of points left in the next two days, but de la Fuente suddenly looks like he could win.
Tom Boonen abandoned today. With so few sprinting points remaining, McEwen simply has to finish the race to win the green jersey.
Why do I feel cheated?
I’d like the champion of the Tour to win it by riding away from his rivals. Just once, Floyd (or whoever), I want to see you attack your competition and continue the attack until no one is on your wheel. Winning by attrition still counts, but winning assertively sure looks a lot better.
1Frank Schleck (CSC)
2 Damiano Cunego (Lampre) +0:11
4 Floyd Landis (Phonak) +1:10
5 Andreas Kloden (Telekom) +1:10
9 Carlos Sastre (CSC) +1:35
10 Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) +1:49
11 Denis Menchov (Rabobank) +2:21
14 Oscar Pereiro (Banesto) +2:49
16 Cadel Evans (Lotto) +2:49
18 Axel Merckx (Phonak) +2:56
19 Cyril Dessel (AG2r) +3:04
24 David De la Fuente (Saunier) +3:36
Tom Boonen (Quick Step) DNF
There was lots of action, yet I feel cheated.
Frank Schelck was part of the long breakaway, yet survived for the win, which is outstanding. The fact that the GC contenders called the dogs off is no reason not to respect Scheck’s great performance. CSC down & out? Speaking of CSC, our man Jens Voigt was in the breakaway too. He played the part of uberdomestique in making tempo for both Schleck and later Sastre. Jens has officially earned a spot on the TdF All-Star team.
Cunego finally showed a sign of life and made up a little time on Marcus Fothen, but he’s still far behind in the white jersey competition.
Floyd Landis is obviously trying to win using the Miguel Indurain strategy: beat everyone in the time trial and make sure they don’t beat you in the mountains. It’s driving me nuts because I want him to win, yet I hate the strategy. My other problem is that he lacks the killer instinct to put this race away. In the Pyrenees he didn’t keep the pressure on Kloden when he was weak. Well, Kloden is back and still dangerous. Today he refused to attack when Menchov was in difficulty. Menchov recovered and lost only 1 minute. It could have been worse; Floyd should have raised the tempo to put another minute on him. So, because Floyd lacks the killer instinct, Menchov and Kloden are still in this thing.
Pereiro was defiant in defending the yellow jersey. He’s only 10 seconds out, but he’ll probably fall off the map tomorrow.
I’m even more impressed with Cyril Dessel, who has absolutely no business riding with these guys, yet is still fighting. Dessel never got the memo that he isn’t this good. After Alpe d’Huez he is ahead of Menchov, Kloden, and Sastre.
It was a wise move by Phonak to put Axel Merckx in the breakaway so that he could help Landis on the final climb. Lands got about half a kilometer out of him, so let’s not wet our pants about how good Phonak turned out to be. The fact is, they had to resort to that tactic because it’s their only hope of having anyone within sight of Landis at crunch time. Imagine how weak they’d be without their brilliant move of surrendering the yellow jersey so they could save themselves for today. Uh huh.
It looked like Michael Rasmussen was gradually catching David de la Fuente, but today David took a bunch of points by placing himself in the breakaway. That put a big gap on Rasmussen. There are a lot of points left in the next two days, but de la Fuente suddenly looks like he could win.
Tom Boonen abandoned today. With so few sprinting points remaining, McEwen simply has to finish the race to win the green jersey.
Why do I feel cheated?
I’d like the champion of the Tour to win it by riding away from his rivals. Just once, Floyd (or whoever), I want to see you attack your competition and continue the attack until no one is on your wheel. Winning by attrition still counts, but winning assertively sure looks a lot better.
posted by uberschuck at 5:10 PM
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