Astarloza wins stage 16
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Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi) used a daring last-minute break to win the 16th stage of the 2009 Tour de France, a short, tough ride from Martigny in Switzerland, to Bourg-Saint-Maurice in France.
The Spaniard claimed his first Tour stage victory by attacking a four-man break in the final 2km, just as it was about to be joined by a second four-man group, and held his advantage to win by just six seconds ahead of Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux) with Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) third.
"It's the best day of my life," said Astarloza. "I've tried several times to win stages on the race but I've always failed because I'm not that good at sprinting.
"That's why I attacked from far out."
As expected, Saxo Bank came out swinging on the final climb of the day, the Category 1 Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard. But the most Andy and Fränk Schleck could do was stack still more time on the hapless Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), who was unable to follow the Saxo riders' attacks and slipped to 17th overall, more than seven minutes behind race leader Alberto Contador (Astana).
"Saxo Bank tried to attack us with Fränk and Andy, who showed he really was the strongest," said Contador. "I managed to stick with him but it was a difficult stage."
Meanwhile, veteran rider Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) took a horrific spill on the descent of the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard. An ambulance transported Voigt to a hospital in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, where doctors reported that he was able to move his arms and legs.
How it unfolded
Tuesday’s 160km ride into the Alps got right down to business with the hors catégorie Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard, just 16.1km after the start. The 24.4km climb averages 6.2 percent and summits at 40.5km.
2009 Tour de France
- Stage 16: Martigny to Bourg-Saint-Maurice
- 160km (99.4 miles)
- Stage winner: Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi) in 4:14:20
- Stage winner's average speed: 37.7kph (23.5 mph)
- GC leader: Alberto Contador (Astana)
- Points leader: Thor Husvhod (Cervélo TestTeam)
- Climbing leader: Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas)
- Team GC leader: Astana
- Best young rider: Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)
- Stage wins/GC leaders
- Stage 1 (ITT): Fabian Cancellara/Cancellara
- Stage 2: Cavendish/Cancellara
- Stage 3: Cavendish/Cancellara
- Stage 4 (TTT): Astana/Cancellara
- Stage 5: Thomas Voeckler/Cancellara
- Stage 6: Thor Hushovd/Cancellara
- Stage 7: Brice Feillu/Rinaldo Nocentini
- Stage 8: Luis Leon Sanchez/Nocentini
- Stage 9: Pierrik Fedrigo/Nocentini
- Stage 10: Cavendish/Nocentini
- Stage 11: Cavendish/Nocentini
- Stage 12: Nicki Sorensen/Nocentini
- Stage 13: Heinrich Haussler/Nocentini
- Stage 14: Sergei Ivanov/Nocentini
- Stage 15: Contador/Contador
- Up Next:
- Wednesday's stage 17, from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornand is 169km (105 miles), passing over five categorized climbs, including four first category climbs. Tactics will be influenced by the specter of Thursday's Annecy individual time trial.
The race spent about 87km in Italy before returning to France, where it will stay for the remainder of the Tour. The route left Italy at the top of the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard at 128km; the 22.6km climb averages 5.1 percent.
A huge break formed up early on, containing mountains leader Franco Pellizotti and Alexander Kuchynski (Liquigas); Jose Gomez Marchante, Heinrich Haussler and Hayden Roulston (Cervélo TestTeam); Jurgen van den Broeck (Silence-Lotto); Fabian Cancellara and Voigt; Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank); Martijn Maaskant (Garmin-Slipstream); Egoi Martinez and Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel-Euskadi); Casar; Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d’Epargne); David Moncoutie (Cofidis); Fedrigo and Pierre Roland (Bbox Bouygues Telecom); Vladimir Karpets (Katusha); Maxime Bouet (Agritubel); Peter Velits (Milram); and Simon Geschke (Skil-Shimano).
This mob had a lead of 2:05 at 17.2km. Karpets was best placed overall at 20th, 5:56 out of first.
Thinning the herd
Pellizotti, Karpets and Martinez moved ahead of the rest of the group on the Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard. Martinez couldn’t match his mates’ pace and dropped back with 16km still to climb.
Pellizotti led Karpets over the summit with Fedrigo crossing third with a small group at 1:14. The peloton, led by Astana for race leader Contador, followed at 1:58.
At the 60km mark, the two escapees led an 18-man chase group by 1:40 and the peloton by 3:06. The yellow-jersey group eased off for a bit, allowing dropped riders to catch back on — among them Astana workhorse Gregory Rast and green jersey Thor Hushovd (Cervélo) — and the break’s advantage extended further, to five minutes with 75km to race. The first chase group, led by Voigt, was just over a minute behind.
With 60km to race the chase had overhauled Pellizotti and Karpets. Behind, Andy Schleck flatted and Stuart O’Grady dropped back to pace him back up to the yellow-jersey group.
The lead group now contained a second danger man, Astarloza, 19th overall at 5:37. He jumped away from the peloton at the summit of the Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard and bridged to the chase on the descent.
The final climb
As the leaders hit the base of the Category 1 Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard they held 4:24 on the peloton, which was shelling riders. Cancellara, Hushovd, Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and Tony Martin (Columbia-HTC) were gone; so, too, was Martin’s teammate Mark Cavendish, who went out the back early on and stayed there, his green-jersey dream apparently over.
Laurent Lefevre (Bbox) attacked the lead group, joined by Pellizotti and Fedrigo, as behind, Saxo Bank sent Chris Anker Sørensen, Nicki Sørensen and Gustav Larsson to the front of the yellow-jersey group to set tempo.
Van den Broeck was next to jump the leaders, laying down a series of attacks that whittled the group down to 14 with 10km to ride before the summit. Fedrigo was still there, as was his teammate Yury Trofimov.
Behind, Saxo was finding it impossible to isolate Contador, who still had two teammates with him — Lance Armstrong and Andreas Klöden.
As Saxo kept the pressure on behind, Amaël Moinard (Cofidis) attacked the leaders only to be marked instantly by Van den Broeck. Then Pellizotti and Van den Broeck traded a couple of jumps and the two finally went clear of their erstwhile mates.
Schleck attacks
Then, finally, Andy Schleck accelerated, slashing the yellow-jersey group to six riders. Brother Fränk was there, as were Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream), Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas), Contador and Klöden, but Armstrong was left behind, along with Carlos Sastre (Cervélo) and Evans.
Ahead, Astarloza was steadily working his way up to Pellizotti and Van den Broeck, finally joining the lead pair with 34km to race. Shortly thereafter Moinard caught on, too.
Then Armstrong jumped, roaring off to hook up with his teammates. Kim Kirchen (Columbia) tried to go with him, but couldn’t hang, and neither could Christian Vande Velde (Garmin) or Rigoberto Uran (Caisse d’Epargne). In moments Armstrong had shot past Voigt and Fränk Schleck to rejoin the yellow-jersey group.
"It was great to see Lance Armstrong make it back to our group on the Petit Saint-Bernard, but in the end I didn't need his help," Contador said.
Voigt ramped it up, too, and soon was at the front working for Andy Schleck.
Meanwhile, as the four leaders summited the Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard Pellizotti took maximum points to pad his lead in the king of the mountains competition, and from there it was 30km of twisting, turning downhill to the finish.
With Saxo unable to ruffle Contador’s feathers, the pressure came off in the yellow-jersey group and dropped riders began to catch back on, Vande Velde and David Zabriskie (Garmin) among them. The Contador group summited some two minutes behind the leaders with another four-man group in between — Stephane Goubert and Nicolas Roche (Ag2r), Fedrigo, and Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux).
Express elevator to Hell, going down
Voigt hit the deck hard on the descent, his front wheel washing out and slamming him face-first to the tarmac. The first photographer on the scene reported that the German was motionless and bleeding from a cut to his face. Jose Angel Gomez Marchante (Cervélo) also crashed, but remounted.
With 12km to go the leaders held just 14 seconds on the first chase and 1:20 on the Contador group, being led by Zabriskie. Ahead, Astarloza was pushing the pace on the sinuous descent, but unable to shed his companions.
With 6km to go the second foursome was just seven seconds behind and the Contador bunch within a minute. Three kilometers later and the chasers had their quarry in sight.
Moinard tried a move, dogged by Van den Broucke, and then Astarloza went with 2km to go. It was the move that stuck — he led under the red kite marking 1km to go, then nearly overcooked a dicey chicane, but he would not be caught. An exuberant Astarloza punched both fists skyward and then blew a two-handed kiss to the crowd. Casar hung on for second with Fedrigo third.
The yellow jersey crossed a minute later, the balance of power unaltered between Saxo and Astana. The real loser on the day was Evans, who finished 46th on the day, nearly three minutes behind Contador.
"I'm out of it," the two-time Tour runner-up said. "I'm out of the race. For a place on the podium at least."
The Silence-Lotto rider then added, cryptically: "Physically, everything (is) fine. But for professional reasons I can't comment on the problems I've been having."
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