With wounds weeping through the stitches on both knees and an elbow, Astana captain Alexandre Vinokourov walks like an injured penguin. Having lost more than 8 minutes on race-leader Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank), Vinokourov sits in 19th place, well outside what many would consider a chance of a podium finish.

But has he given up? Hardly.

On a hot and blustery stage 11, Vinokourov gave his troops their marching orders when the peloton entered a strong crosswind section about 105km into the 183km stage from Marseille to Montpellier. About 3km after the peloton rolled through the feed zone, the full Astana squad hit the front in a tight echelon on the left side of the road. Behind, riders scrambled to tuck into the sideways draft. Soon, many riders were lined out in the gutter on the right side of the road, and gaps started to form.

Seeing their plan was working, Astana kept on the gas, and soon half the field was off the back.

“The wind was really strong. We saw some bad faces in the bunch so we decided to attack,” Vinokourov said after the stage.

One of those bad faces belonged to French hope Christophe Moreau (Ag2r), who fell victim to the tactic and finished 3:20 down, dropping from sixth overall to 14th.

Astana’s move may not have been aimed specifically at Moreau – Vinokourov wanted to gain time on any of the favorites in front of him – but Astana didn’t exactly ride easier when they realized who had popped. On stage 8 into Tignes, as Vinokourov was suffering the effects of his stage-5 crash (which alone cost him 2:10), Moreau was attacking repeatedly. Vinokourov lost 5:23 on stage 8 into Autun.

On stage 11, it was Moreau who crashed early in the race. He was sitting near the back of the peloton when the riders flew through the feed zone. When Astana went, Moreau didn’t make it. The other favorites were able to get into position to maintain contact. Astana drove the pack for about 15km until it appeared certain the group containing Moreau would not be able to regain contact.

“You can say whatever you want about this,” said T-Mobile’s Bernard Eisel, who was caught out by the move. “Astana tried it, it worked out. I think Ag2r is not happy at the moment because Moreau crashed today. And then Astana attacked when everybody still had a feedbag around his neck. It’s not gentlemanlike, but what’s gentlemanlike in this Tour?”

Moreau said he broke a cleat in his crash and had to change a shoe.

“There are days like that,” he said. “The Tour is far from finished. It could have been even worse. I could have broken something. I was well supported by my team, because at one moment I was near a breaking point, psychologically. In the Tour, you have to get over these sort of days, even if it isn’t easy. Perhaps something good may come out of the bad. Perhaps now I will have more chances of an opening, more room to move. It’s a black day that I will have to forget.”

Discovery Channel team director Johan Bruyneel commended Vinokorouv’s fighting spirit.

“We were not expecting it at all,” Bruyneel said. “There was a strong tempo in the peloton straight after the feed zone. We had two guys who missed their feed bags – Martinez and Paulinho. All of a sudden Astana started to go. We were in a good position. We had five guys up there. I was looking the favorites. It was only Moreau who wasn’t there.”

The team tactic was just one more example, said the man who directed Lance Armstrong to seven consecutive Tour wins, of how GC riders must be constantly vigilant.

“The Tour de France is three weeks long,” he said. “You have to be there in the flats, in the time trials, in the mountains and in the downhills. You have to be everywhere. You always have to keep fighting. It was a good try from Astana today.”

Mario Kummer, Astana team director, said the decision to ride an echelon at the front came directly from Vinokourov, the Kazakh rider who finished the Tour third in 2003 and fifth in 2005, and who almost single-handedly assembled the Astana team with sponsors from Kazakhstan.

“Today was a very difficult day. It was a lot of crosswind, and nobody knew where the crosswind was stronger and a little bit less,” Kummer said. “We heard from our soigneurs that the crosswind in the feed zone and just after the feed zone was very strong. I told the riders to pay attention, and to stay at the front. Vino told us he wanted to try something. We translated to the other riders, and then they were together and they did the initial [echelon]. We didn’t know that Moreau was behind, but we expected we could drop somebody. The peloton was very long in this situation, and we were riding full-on. After that we watched who was dropped and who was in front. We saw Moreau was dropped, and we continued to work.”

Barloworld’s British rider Geraint Thomas was among those coming into the finish minutes down. Thomas was sitting near the back after the feed zone when Astana hit the gas.

“I was just having something to eat, and of a sudden it was like bang! I was like, ‘F***, man. Thanks for that,’” Thomas said. “I was at the back and just couldn’t move up before it split. Then it split again, and I was in the back again. It was a real long hot day. The heat is really getting to me now after the last two days. It’s just unbelievable. I’ve never been in heat like this before. I’m really tired now, wasted. Everyone says these days are flat and whatever, but they’re harder than the mountain stages to be honest. You can’t sit up because there’s still 100 K to go and you’ll be outside the time limit. It’s so hard.”

Unlike Moreau, at least Thomas had something to celebrate that night, as his teammate Robbie Hunter took the stage win. There would definitely be champagne on the team’s dinner table.

“I’m going to have a few,” he said. “Probably a beer as well.”

Aside from Moreau, none of the other 18 men in front of Vinokourov lost any time on the stage. Nonetheless, Vinokourov felt good on the day. In fact, with 4km to go, Vinokourov had the gall to attack the peloton - and the legs to hold them off for nearly a kilometer.

“It’s a big boost to my morale,” Vinokourov said. “My legs are much better than yesterday. I almost abandoned yesterday, but the team doctor worked on me overnight. I feel a lot better today.”

Astana general manager Marc Biver had never ruled out his star. In fact, he said, the injured rider had intense motivation.

“Vinokourov is like a wounded tiger,” Biver said. “He’s even more dangerous now.”