Cavendish wins stage 19 as Ventoux looms
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Columbia's Mark Cavendish won 19th stage of the Tour on Friday, a hilly stage tucked between the Annecy time trial and the penultimate Mont Ventoux stage.
All the GC favorites and race leader Alberto Contador finished safely in the front group, setting up a battle for the Parisian podium on the slopes of Mont Ventoux Saturday. Lance Armstrong (Astana) was the only GC favorite on the right side of a four-second split at the end, picking up a small edge going into the final two days.
Cavendish's win also set up an exciting finish to the sprinter's competition, which may not be settled until the final meters of the race on Champs-Elysees Sunday. Current green jersey holder Thor Hushovd was second on the day. Hushovd now has 260 points, to Cavendish's 235.
The win was expected to go to the member of a long breakaway, but the day's big break was reeled in early and the bulk of the favorites — both the GC favorites and the top sprinters — topped over the last climb just a few seconds behind a late break of world champ Allesandro Ballan and Laurent Lefevre.
Columbia drove the chase to reel in the two and with less than 2km to go and do what they have done four times previous in this Tour: set up Cavendish to take another stage win.
Cavendish called it one of his finest wins.
"Rabobank didn’t think I could get over the climb. They fancied a win for Oscar (Freire), so they went full gas," Cavendish said. "It was really grim on the climb. We had Maxime, George and Tony working for me. It was an amazing thing what they did; to empty the tank like that, the day the before Ventoux, shows they have no egos.
"They gave it everything for me to win. Then for me to go with 260m on a slight uphill, it was hard to do that. That was one of the hardest sprints I’ve ever had to do. That made it quite emotional at finish."
Contador said he was prepared for a tough day on the Ventoux.
"It was a very complicated day today. It was very hard at the beginning because so many guys wanted to be in the break. Then it was very fast on the climb. Some teams wanted to see Cavendish dropped.
"In the final I was worried about a crash and I didn’t want to take risks, and I lost a few seconds, but it’s no problem. I kept the maillot jaune on my shoulders ... I expect the Schleck brothers to attack on Ventoux. I will just focus on defending the jersey, and play it conservatively."
Evans' Eleven
On a day that promised near triple-digit temperatures, 158 riders rolled out of Bourgoi-Jallieu for long, hilly transition stage, the last chance for several teams to redeem their Tour.
Thierry Hupond (Skil-Shimano) got the day rolling with a solo attack in the first two kilometers, and made it over the day's first categorized climb, the cat. 4 Cote de Culin, to add to his seven KOM points, before being sucked up by the pack on the descent.
Soon after, before the 12km mark, a group of 11 rolled off containing one Cadel Evans, last year's second place overall, who has had dismal 2009 Tour.
2009 Tour de France
- Stage 19: Bourgoi-Jallieu to Aubenas
- 178km (110.6 miles)
- Stage winner: Mark Cavendish (Columbia-HTC) in 3:50:35.
- Stage winner's average speed: 46.3 (28.8 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
- Stage 16: Astarloza/Contador
- Stage 17: Frank Schleck/Contador
- Stage 18 (ITT): Contador/Contador
- Up Next:
- Saturday's stage 20, from Montelimar to Mont Ventoux, is the toughest penultimate Tour stage in memory. The 167km (103.8 miles) crosses several lower category climbs before hitting the 21.6km Ventoux climb.
Evans and his mates were soon joined by some others to establish the day's break:
1. Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto)
2. Yaroslav Popovych (Astana)
3. David Millar (Garmin)
4. Kim Kirchen (Columbia)
5. Jose Luis Arrieta (Ag2r)
6. Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d'Epargne)
7. David Arroyo (Caisse d'Epargne)
8. Leonardo Duque (Cofidis)
9. Simon Spilak (Lampre)
10. Carlos Barredo (Quick Step)
11. Geoffroy Lequatre (Agritubel)
12. Jonathan Hivert (Skil-Shimano)
13. Nicolai Trussov (Katusha)
14. Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne)
15. Nicolas Roche (Ag2r)
16. Christophe Riblon (Ag2r)
17. Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step)
18. Styn Vandenbergh (Katusha)
19. Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel)
20. Daniele Bennati (Liquigas)
Fourteen teams were represented in the break. Notably absent were Rabobank and BBox, who drove the front of the pack in chase while the GC favorites from Astana and Saxo Bank enjoyed an easy — if hot — day before Mont Ventoux.
Rabobank, which has not won a stage in this Tour, kept the gap to the break close for about 50km, but by the 80km mark the gap was up to about three minutes. Milram also pitched into the chase, and pulled it back to closer to two minutes.
With the gap coming down, Millar initiated a split in the break, taking Arrieta, Gutierrez, Duque and Popovych with him. The five opened up a 40-second-plus gap over the rest of the break coming into the day's final climb, the cat. 2 Col de l'Escrinet.
The effort was too late, however, as the Rabobank-led pack soon pulled back the remnants of the break. The last to be vacuumed up was Duque, who snagged the day's last intermediate sprint before surrendering.
The favorites — along with sprinters Thor Hushovd and Mark Cavendish — hovered near the front of the large main field hitting the base of the l'Escreinet, where Laurent Lefevre (BBox) took a flyer and was joined by world road champion Alessandro Ballan. The two opened up a 20-second gap on the climb.
The pack came over the top just 15 seconds behind the pair, and Columbia led a furious chase through narrow road, to set up an unexpected field sprint.
The pair held a small gap into the 2k mark, but Columbia's George Hincapie hauled the group up to the pair. Mark Renshaw led out Cavendish as Hushovd held the Manxman's wheel. Cavendish took an early jump on the uphill finish and held it to the end, kicking again with a few meters left to hold off any challenge for Hushovd.
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