Boonen sprints to victory in Stage 12
Belgian superstar Tom Boonen grabbed his second stage win of the 2007 Tour de France on Friday, nailing a perfectly executed sprint at the close of stage 12's 178.5km ride form Montpellier to Castres.
The victory was the fourth this Tour for Boonen's blue-kitted Quick Step-Innergetic team, and solidified his lead in the chase for the green jersey. Boonen is first with 195 points, with South African Robbie Hunter (Barloworld) second (175), and German Eric Zabel (Milram) third (174).
After a textbook leadout down the right side of the road from stage 2 winner Gert Steegmans, Boonen charged away from the front of the field, holding off Zabel by half a bike length. Hunter was a close third, barely a tire width behind Zabel.
“It was a good day today. Yesterday I didn't have any luck,” said Boonen, who on Thursday was held up in a crash 750 meters from the finish, winding up 37th on the day. “That's life. I won the last stage for sprinters before the Alps and now I've won the last stage before the Pyrenees. So things are going well for the green jersey.”
The first three and 137 others were credited with the same 4:25:32 finishing time, translating to a 40.3kph average speed — fast for a hilly stage buffeted by crosswinds.
There were no changes at the top of the overall standings, with Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank) continuing to lead Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) by 2:35, with Iban Mayo (Saunier Duval-Prodir) at 2:39, Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) at 2:41, and Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) at 3:08. Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) is the top American, eighth at 3:53.
Friday's stage officially began at 12:58 p.m. with 168 riders heading out of Montpellier. That number was quickly whittled to 167 after Milram's Alberto Ongarato crashed at the 7km mark, momentarily remounted his bike, and then opted to call it quits after consulting with the race doctor.
It took all of 3km for the first attack to come, when a group of eight including T-Mobile's Axel Merckx and former KoM leader Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) took off. But with Liquigas leading the chase, the move didn't stick and the race was all together after 17km.
Forty kilometers of fruitless jostling ensued, with the field covering 43.4km in the first hour. Finally, at the 57km mark, the duo of Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Pierrick Fedrigo (Bouygues Telecom) slipped away. The bunch sat up, and the move of the day was chosen.
Fedrigo is best known for winning stage 14 of the Tour a year ago, but it's been slim pickings since. After outwitting Salvatore Commesso on the run into Gap, the Frenchman has tasted victory only once more, winning a stage of the Tour du Limosin in August.
Tour rookie Txurruka is the lightest man in the peloton, tipping the scales at a wispy 123 pounds.
Back in the bunch, race leader Rasmussen drifted back to the red officials' car of race director Christian Prudhomme, likely thanking the Frenchman for his support following reports that the Danish national cycling federation had dropped Rasmussen from its team after he failed to inform them of his whereabouts on two occasions, a violation of out-of-competition testing protocol.
"I do admit I committed an administrative error," said Rasmussen before Friday's stage. "I have already received a warning from the UCI but I am very calm and very relaxed. I have full support from the [Tour de France organizers] and I'm starting in the yellow jersey today.
"I don't blame the UCI; I take responsibility for not informing the UCI of my whereabouts. I know a lot of riders who have received warnings for not giving updated information to the UCI. I'm just one out of many and it's just that I happen to have the yellow jersey."
Stage 12 included four rated climbs, three cat. 4s, plus the cat. 2 Montée de la Jeante, 130.5km into the stage.
At 71km the two escapees had five minutes on the soft-pedaling peloton, with T-Mobile's Marcus Burghardt dangling in between in what became a failed bridge attempt. The German was caught by the field near the base of the Montée de la Jeante, then dropped on the way up.
Txurruka and Fedrigo's margin continued to balloon in the first hour of their breakaway. With 85km covered it was nine minutes, and 5km later it rose above 10. Back in the field Liquigas was again working at the front, hoping to set up their top sprinter, Italian Filippo Pozzato.
After peaking at 11:30, the gap slowly dropped, and by the time Txurruka led the duo over the top of the Montée de la Jeante it was 5:20.
Discovery Channel's Yaroslav Popovych led the bunch over the final climb, thwarting Juan Mauricio Soler's attempt to close the KoM points gap behind himself and Rasmussen. The standings after 12 stages had the Rabobank leader first with 98 points, Soler (Barloworld) second with 89, and Popovych in third (86). With Rasmussen in the race lead — and the yellow jersey — Soler has been sporting the polka-dot jersey since his solo stage 9 win into Briançon Tuesday.
With the Montée de la Jeante in the rearview mirror, the break and field made the dash down 40km of winding back roads before the fast 8km run to Castres.
Lampre and Française des Jeux took over the pace-making after the final climb, bringing the gap down to 3:26 with 20km to go. The Italian and French teams have been shut out this year, each hoping to break through with their fast men, Alessandro Ballan and Sebastien Chavanel.
With 25km to go the margin was 2:25, with Lampre, Française des Jeux and now Quick Step working at the front. At 10km to go the advantage was 60 seconds, and at 4km it was 24. The catch finally came with 1km to go, setting the stage for Boonen's sixth career Tour victory.
"The objective was to get into a breakaway today and I was in two of them earlier today before this one stuck,” said Fedrigo. “The headwind didn't help.
“It's too bad we got caught right before the finish. We came through a round-about and I could see the peloton barreling down on us. It's tough to get caught so close to the line. I will try to keep my head on for the Pyrenees because there are some good stages for the attackers."
Coming down the final stretch, Boonen sat third wheel, with Zabel fourth and Hunter fifth. The lead rider pulled off, leaving the final pull to Steegmans, who took his team leader to the 150-meter mark. From there Big Tom took over, blasting off the front and throwing his hands in the air as he crossed the line. After the finish Boonen parceled out hugs to several teammates as he made his way to the winner’s podium.
Next up at the Tour de France is the first of two critical individual time trials. Stage 13's 54km trip around Albi starts at 12:40 p.m. local time (6:40 a.m. EST). The final rider is slated to leave the start house at 5:10 p.m. (11:10 a.m. EST).
The course is a long, hilly affair that traces its way around the edge of the Massif Central. After rolling out of Albi to the east on long, straight roads that climb gradually to the first time check at Villefranche d'Albigeois (18km), it follows a sharp descent to the town of Ambialet (29km), where the riders turn left along the Tarn River valley before tackling the main climb (560 feet in 3km) to the second time split on the Côte de la Bauzié (38.5km). The final 15km is mainly downhill on a highway back into Albi.
Albi has hosted eight Tour stage finishes, the most recent in 1999, when Salvatore Commesso dispatched fellow Italian Marco Serpellini after a long breakaway.
The nearby Cap'Découverte time trial of 2003 went to Jan Ullrich ahead of Lance Armstrong and Alexander Vinokourov. Albi is famed for its medieval red-brick cathedral and is the birthplace of painter Toulouse-Lautrec.
Four years after his third place, Vinokourov's injuries from a stage-5 crash have put him out of yellow-jersey contention, but the Kazakh's Astana teammate Andréas Klöden is still in contention and will be the favorite to win this 54km time trial. Likely challengers include Discovery's Levi Leipheimer and Predictor-Lotto's Cadel Evans. Also expect a fast time from CSC TT specialist Fabian Cancellara, the reigning world time trial champion and winner of the Tour prologue in London two Saturdays ago. Cancellara was 6:34 behind Boonen on Friday, a sign he may have been saving himself for Albi.
Stage 12
1. Tom Boonen (B) Quick Step, 178.5km in 4:25:32
2. Erik Zabel (G), Milram
3. Robert Hunter (RSA), Barloworld
4. Daniele Bennati (I), Lampre-Fondital
5. Thor Hushovd (N), Crédit Agricole
6. Bernhard Eisel (A), T-Mobile
7. Sebastien Chavanel (F), Française des Jeux
8. Nicolas Jalabert (F), Agritubel
9. Robert Forster (G), Gerolsteiner
10. Andrey Kashechkin (Kz), Astana, all s.t.
Overall
1. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 57:37:10
2. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne, 2:35
3. Iban Mayo (Sp), Saunier Duval-Prodir, 2:39
4. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, 2:41
5. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel, 3:08
6. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 3:39
7. Andréas Klöden (G), Astana, 3:50
8. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, 3:53
9. Kim Kirchen (Lux), T-Mobile, 5:06
10. Mikel Astarloza (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 5:20
To see how the stage developed, simply click here to open our Live Update Window. Then stay tuned for features, photos and complete results.
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