Rasmussen holds, Disco flexes
Stage 14 did not disappoint in terms of having a great race.
It was Vinokourov, not Rasmussen who could not recover from the previous day's time trial. Vino blew up on the penultimate climb and finished almost 30 minutes behind the stage winner. Rasmussen finished a bike length behind the stage winner.
Kloden and Evans cracked on Plateau de Beille, and each dropped in the standings. While Alberto Contador and Rasmussen matched each other attack for attack, Soler, Leipheimer, and Sastre were just a few seconds behind them.
Stage results:
1. Alberto Contador (Disco)
2. Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) s.t.
3. Juan Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) +0:37
4. Levi Leipheimer (Disco) +0:40
5. Carlos Sastre (CSC) +0:53
6. Andréas Klöden (Astana) +1:52
7. Cadel Evans (Lotto) +1:52
8. Antonio Colom (Astana) +2:23
9. Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) +2:23
10. Yaroslav Popovych (Disco) +3:06
Popovych was a superdomestique again. The guy was dropped on the first climb, but rode back to the yellow jersey group. On the final climb he set the pace that dropped Kloden, Kashechkin, and Rasmussen's teammates. After he stepped aside for Contador and Leipheimer to attack, he kept a good pace to finish fast enough to give his team the lead over Astana in the team competition. Popovych was superb. Today Discovery showed the same sort of dominance that they had in the Armstrong years.
The standings also show how deep Astana is. With Vinokourov out of it, they still had three men in the top 9. Kloden and Kashechkin are still in the top 10 overall, and the team is only 2 minutes behind Discovery.
Blah, blah, blah. No one can drop Rasmussen in the mountains, and today his lead is greater than yesterday.
Overall standings:
1. Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank)
2. Alberto Contador (Disco) +2:23
3. Cadel Evans (Lotto) +3:04
4. Levi Leipheimer (Disco) +4:29
5. Andreas Kloden (Astana) +4:38
6. Carlos Sastre (CSC) +5:50
7. Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) +6:58
8. Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel) +8:25
9. Alejandro Valverde (Banesto) +9:45
10. Yaroslav Popovych (Disco) +10:55
At this point Rasmussen has a comfortable advantage on everyone but Contador and Evans. That could change if he cracks or if someone goes wild and steals a lot of time on one climb. But what Rasmussen needs to do is build margin for error in the Pyrenees. Today he did that on everyone except Contador.
Finally, in one of the more amusing Tour tidbits involving two guys we love to mock, the Saunier team drove the peloton up the penultimate climb of the day. In fact, David Millar's pacework knocked Vinokourov out of the peloton and gave Popovych problems. It was, apparently, an effort to support an attack by Iban Mayo. Or perhaps no one told him. Mayo was a non-factor and finished almost 10 minutes behind Contador. Doh!
It was Vinokourov, not Rasmussen who could not recover from the previous day's time trial. Vino blew up on the penultimate climb and finished almost 30 minutes behind the stage winner. Rasmussen finished a bike length behind the stage winner.
Kloden and Evans cracked on Plateau de Beille, and each dropped in the standings. While Alberto Contador and Rasmussen matched each other attack for attack, Soler, Leipheimer, and Sastre were just a few seconds behind them.
Stage results:
1. Alberto Contador (Disco)
2. Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) s.t.
3. Juan Mauricio Soler (Barloworld) +0:37
4. Levi Leipheimer (Disco) +0:40
5. Carlos Sastre (CSC) +0:53
6. Andréas Klöden (Astana) +1:52
7. Cadel Evans (Lotto) +1:52
8. Antonio Colom (Astana) +2:23
9. Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) +2:23
10. Yaroslav Popovych (Disco) +3:06
Popovych was a superdomestique again. The guy was dropped on the first climb, but rode back to the yellow jersey group. On the final climb he set the pace that dropped Kloden, Kashechkin, and Rasmussen's teammates. After he stepped aside for Contador and Leipheimer to attack, he kept a good pace to finish fast enough to give his team the lead over Astana in the team competition. Popovych was superb. Today Discovery showed the same sort of dominance that they had in the Armstrong years.
The standings also show how deep Astana is. With Vinokourov out of it, they still had three men in the top 9. Kloden and Kashechkin are still in the top 10 overall, and the team is only 2 minutes behind Discovery.
Blah, blah, blah. No one can drop Rasmussen in the mountains, and today his lead is greater than yesterday.
Overall standings:
1. Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank)
2. Alberto Contador (Disco) +2:23
3. Cadel Evans (Lotto) +3:04
4. Levi Leipheimer (Disco) +4:29
5. Andreas Kloden (Astana) +4:38
6. Carlos Sastre (CSC) +5:50
7. Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) +6:58
8. Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel) +8:25
9. Alejandro Valverde (Banesto) +9:45
10. Yaroslav Popovych (Disco) +10:55
At this point Rasmussen has a comfortable advantage on everyone but Contador and Evans. That could change if he cracks or if someone goes wild and steals a lot of time on one climb. But what Rasmussen needs to do is build margin for error in the Pyrenees. Today he did that on everyone except Contador.
Finally, in one of the more amusing Tour tidbits involving two guys we love to mock, the Saunier team drove the peloton up the penultimate climb of the day. In fact, David Millar's pacework knocked Vinokourov out of the peloton and gave Popovych problems. It was, apparently, an effort to support an attack by Iban Mayo. Or perhaps no one told him. Mayo was a non-factor and finished almost 10 minutes behind Contador. Doh!
posted by uberschuck at 1:10 PM
1 Comments:
I've been watching but I've been offline these past few days in the drunken haze that is the weekend after finals. So thanks to Jason for picking up slack.
Anyway, Vino had a really bad day. It's bad enough to come riding in with the autobus, but then to get caught in a crash because your teammate got a flag stuck in his wheel? Yeesh. Yesterday, it looked like Vino was back in this thing. Now he's a half hour back. He is done.
The big news right now is not that Rasmussen is kicking the hell out of people, but that he missed two drug tests this year. Missing three tests is a violation. But everyone is going nuts on Rasmussen because he's apparently a cheater because he hasn' failed a test and is still within the rules.
I don't care. But if a guy is under suspicion, he's obviously guilty.
Soler is making a nice run at the dots. He had the virtual lead after the first climb. Rasmussen can't contend on those intermeidate climbs because the yellow comes first. The door is open for a huge upset.
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