Garate wins on Ventoux
Astana defends as Andy Schleck's tireless aggression fails to upset the top GC positions
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Rabobank finally got a victory in the 2009 Tour de France as Juan Manuel Garate joined an early break on Saturday and stayed away to win the penultimate stage atop the forbidding summit of Mont Ventoux.
Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck did all he could do to upset the top of the GC — his team powered the peloton much of the day and Schleck led the yellow jersey group for much of the climb, attacking alone and with his brother Frank.
However, Schleck was unable to shake race leader Alberto Contador or third-placed Lance Armstrong and Contador retained his overall lead heading into the final, largely ceremonial, stage into Paris on Sunday.
"This is a very important win for me," Garate said at the finish. "I came here to help Denis, but he's not at his best after winning the Giro, so I had my chance today. It was very hard on the final climb and there was a lot of headwind. I had to go to the maximum on the final kilometers because we heard that the favorites were closing in on us."
Contador said Schleck was impressive.
"Andy Schleck was attacking without mercy, but I only had to follow him, and I was able to do it. Andy is very strong and he revealed it again today," he said.
Early break, and a Saxo chase
The route included 144km of windy, rolling riding before hitting the slopes of the Ventoux, and a group of 13 riders took off in the first 5km, soon joined by three others to form the break du jour.
The 16 contained no overall threats, and steadily built up a lead of around ten minutes as the race slipped through the lavender fields and over the four lesser climbs before the base of the mighty Ventoux.
The 16:
- Tony Martin (Columbia), 44th at 55:39
- Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank), 67th at 1:37:57
- Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne), 74th at 1:48:28
- Maxime Bouet (Agritubel), 79th at 1:51:00
- Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel), 82nd at 1:52:11
- Joost Posthuma (Rabobank), 83rd at 1:57:07
- Hayden Roulston (Cervelo), 90th at 2:03:29
- Christophe Riblon (Ag2r), 94th at 2:11:34
- Alexandre Kuschynski (Liquigas), 102nd at 2:18:31
- Mickael Delage (Silence Lotto), 111th, at 2:36:32
- William Bonnet (Bbox), 134th at 3:03:30
- Daniele Righi (Lampre), 124th at 2:50:19
- Anthony Geslin (FdJ) 129th, at 2:56:55
- Albert Timmer (Skil-Shimano), 141st at 3:10:11
- Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), 148th, at 3:21:15
- Cyril Lemoine (Skil-Shimano), 150th at 3:22:42
Back in the pack, Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara and Stuart O'Grady set the pace at the front, followed by Contador and his teammates.
Despite the Saxo pace-making, the break still entered the final 20 miles with around eight minutes' lead. Astana soon took over the chase, briefly splitting the field into several groups in the crosswinds.
2009 Tour de France
- Stage 20: Montelimar to Mont Ventoux
- 167km (103.8 miles)
- Stage winner: Juan Manual Garate (Rabobank) in 4:39:21
- Stage winner's average speed: 35.9 kph (22.3 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
- Stage 19: Cavendish/Contador>/dd>
- Up Next:
- Sunday's final stage from Montereau-Fault-Yonne to Paris, is 164km (101.9 miles). Much of the ride is traditionally a celebratory parade for the finisher, until the eight finish laps on the Champs-Elyees.
The groups soon came back together and Saxo resumed the chase, aided by Garmin, and pulled the gap back to about 5 minutes at the base of the nearly 22km Ventoux climb.
The front group split again with Garmin's David Millar at the front, and Carlos Sastre and Cadel Evans were among those on the wrong side of the gap.
Meanwhile, up front Garate, Martin and Riblon split off from the breakaway as the group exploded on the early slopes.
The leaders hit the Ventoux
Saxo's Nicki and Chris Anker Sorensen drilled it at the front as the yellow jersey group hit the base of the climb, packed with an enormous number of fans.
Frank Schleck was the first of the favorites to attack, quickly marked by Armstrong. Andy Schleck soon countered, marked by Contador. With 12km still to go, the remnants of the breakaway (all but Garate, Martin and Riblon) was sucked up and the lead group was down to just six men: Contador, the Schlecks, Armstrong, Wiggins and Nibali. Silence Lotto's Jurgen Van de Broeck and Astana's Andreas Kloden were dangling just off the back, almost tacking on when the pace slackened between attacks.
The Schleck brothers attacked repeatedly, with Contador marking Andy and Armstrong marking Frank and Wiggins.
With 8.5km to go, Contador followed an attack by Andy Schleck and Nibali bridged, while Armstrong continued to mark Wiggins and Frank. The Armstrong group slowed enough for Kloden and KOM Franco Pellizotti to latch on.
Andy Schleck found himself with a significant gap with Contador and Nibali, but was unable to drop Contador and was doing nothing to pull his brother onto the final podium.
With 5.5km to go, Andy Schleck slowed and the lead gang came back together — minus Pellizotti, who went off on his own in hopes of chasing down Garate and Martin, who were still a bit over a minute off the front at the tree line (Riblon having already gone backwards through the chase groups).
With just 4km to go, Andy attacked with Frank glued to his wheel, but the bros didn't get far, as Armstrong and Contador easily bridged.
The Schlecks continued to drive the front, however, as Wiggins struggled to stay on the group.
Up front, Pellizotti could not catch the front pair and Garate tried to dump Martin with 2k to go and then threw in a final jump with 100 meters to go to take Rabo's first stage win of this Tour.
Martin rolled in second and Andy Schleck took the sprint for third, ahead of a grinning Contador and Armstrong.
Contador expressed some relief at the finish.
"I had a good day and I was able to keep him close. ... Winning this Tour has been very difficult, much more difficult than it appears from the outside. I was really suffering today, but I knew that every minute that passed, I was that much closer to winning the Tour."
Schleck said he tried everything to get rid of Armstrong.
"We were attacking to try to move Frank up onto the podium, but we saw that Lance was very strong. We tried with all we could, but the others were climbing strong as well," he said.
"We have to be happy with the Tour, with second and fifth, stage wins and the white jersey. Alberto was strongest in this Tour and he deserves to win. I am still young, I will have plenty of chances to win a Tour."
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