Garate's win salvages Tour for Rabo
Spaniard Juan Manuel Garate dedicated his maiden victory on the Tour de France to his Rabobank team.
Rabobank came to the race hoping to challenge for the yellow jersey but their team leader Denis Menchov, the Tour of Italy champion, went from bad to worse on a campaign littered with crashes and mediocre performances.
Having also lost riders through injury, the Dutch outfit were set to go home empty-handed and had been looking to Spanish sprinter Oscar Freire to lift morale on the ride to the Champs Elysees on Sunday.
A day earlier, Garate beat him to it when he capped a grueling day in the saddle with victory on the finish line of the legendary Mont Ventoux.
Having been part of an earlier breakaway, he rode most of the 21.1km ascent in the company of German Tony Martin.
The former Spanish champion attacked once, was caught as he slowed down, but then launched another more decisive attack a few hundred meters from the summit to leave Martin down in second place.
"It is a huge day for me," said 33-year-old Garate after completing the 167km-long stage in just over four and a half hours.
"Since the beginning of the Tour, the whole team has tried to win a stage, without managing it, but I did it today.
"Only last night, I dreamed of this moment, but did not dare think it would happen.
"But it has become a reality and I am here, I have done it."
Menchov meanwhile is 51st overall.
Rabobank suffered since a poor team time trial on stage 4 in Montpelier, when Menchov crashed, and in the days that followed Menchov failed to stay with the leaders.
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