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Soler wins Stage 9; Rasmussen defends lead
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The last wild-card team picked for the 2007 Tour de France showed Tuesday that the organizers made the right choice, after Barloworld's Colombian climber Juan Soler earned an impressive solo win in the 159.5km stage 9 haul from Val-d'Isère to Briançon.
Soler attacked out of the main field halfway up the 12km Cat. 1 Col du Télégraphe and crossed a three-minute gap to join the remnants of a six-man breakaway on the early slopes of the hors catégorie Col du Galibier. He then methodically rode them all off his wheel. From there, the relatively unknown Colombian rider made a daring dash to the finish, charging first over the top of the Galibier, then holding his lead all the way to the finish in Briançon, where he stopped the clock in 4:14:24.
"It's a beautiful victory for me and the team," said Soler, 24, who won last year’s Circuit de Lorraine (after taking the major climbing stage in a solo break) and in 2005 won a stage of his national tour. "I'm a climber, so it's a dream for me to win in a stage over the Galibier."
Soler's dream day was a nightmare for pre-race favorite Alexander Vinokourov. The Astana team captain, who crashed hard on stage 5, was caught out by an attack from fellow GC contender Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Épargne) halfway up 18km the Galibier climb. And while most of the other favorites were able to respond, the quiet Kazakh could not. He finished 20th on the day, 3:24 behind Soler, and some two and a half minutes behind the main yellow-jersey contenders — except for CSC’s Fränk Schleck and Rabobank’s Denis Menchov.
Vino' is now 21st, 8:05 behind race leader Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank), and 5:30 back of Valverde, who is second overall.
"The team worked well to try to reduce the differences to the maillot jaune group, but it's another hard day that I will have to try to overcome," said Vinokourov, before breaking down in tears, knowing his run at the 2007 Tour title is all but done.
The same could be said for Menchov and Schleck. Luxembourg’s Schleck arrived with the Vinokourov group, while Russia’s Menchov imploded, finishing 32nd at 4:33.
"It was a good day for the team," said Schleck, trying to see the bright side. "Carlos [Sastre] could stay with the lead group. It was a bad day for me. I couldn't go with the move. I'm only human. I am not a machine."
Rasmussen showed signs of fatigue but managed to hold onto the yellow jersey he earned a day earlier, finishing with an 11-rider group that broke up slightly on the 2km climb to the finish.
“I am very happy with today,” said the skinny Dane. “Now there is no doubt about who is the captain of this team is. I stayed close to Valverde because he had another teammate up there. I felt like it was a victory for me to be able to fight back the 25 times Valverde tried to attack. I felt very clear in the head today seeing the tactics of the race. It was disappointing that Menchov couldn’t get his ass over the Galibier. I think it’s a climber’s Tour.”
Valverde led the GC group home, taking second behind Soler, at 0:38. Aussie Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) was third with the same time, while Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel), Iban Mayo (Saunier Duval-Prodir), Rasmussen, Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel), Andreas Klöden (Astana), Carlos Sastre (CSC), and Christophe Moreau (AG2R) all finished within a minute of the stage winner.
"I don't know. You see every day it can flip-flop," said Leipheimer when asked to handicap the leaders after the third and final day in the Alps. "I didn't feel all that great but I stayed where I needed to be."
It was full gas from the gun Tuesday, as 171 riders were blown by a tail wind out of Val-d'Isère and straight up the Tour's highest pass, the 9085-foot, hors catégorie Col de l'Iseran. It wasn't long before a break of six had slipped away. The initial selection was ignited by Yaroslav Popovych (Discovery Channel), who crested the opening climb 30 seconds ahead of José Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Épargne), Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel), Vladimir Gusev (Discovery Channel), Stef Clement (Bouygues Telecom) and Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux). The field was another 30 seconds back after 15km of racing.
With the l'Iseran climb complete, the race made its way down the 70km transition to the Col du Télégraphe, and then finally the Galibier. With 100km remaining, the six escapees had come together, upping their lead to 2:48.
That gap would continue to climb, hitting 3:34 at the feed zone in Modane, 72km into the stage. Back in the field, Rabobank was setting tempo in defense of Rasmussen's yellow jersey.
As the second round of climbing commenced, Euskaltel's Astarloza took off on the lower slopes of the Télégraphe. By then the gap to the peloton was down to 2:30, with AG2R riders joining Saunier Duval-Prodir’s David Millar taking up the chase in hopes of setting up their respective team leaders Moreau and Mayo.
Astarloza's continued pressure on the Télégraphe climb split the break, and the Spaniard had 21 seconds on Popovych and three others at the summit, while Soler shot out of the pack when the gap was three minutes and was closing fast. The field, again led by Rabobank, came over the top at 3:10.
After a quick 5km descent to Valloire, the real work of the day began, the grueling Galibier, one of the Tour’s legendary climbs. Astarloza hit the initial 10-percent “wall” alone, but it wasn't long before Popovych, Gutierrez, Gusev and Clement had reconnected with the Spaniard.
Back in the field Juan Miguel Mercado (Agritubel) attacked off the front, while the top GC favorites were content to sit in and watch each other. While Mercado soon faded, Soler caught the front five 10km from the summit and drove right through them.
"I attacked like a crazy man," said Soler. "I didn't know the Galibier, but I looked at the road book and I knew it was hard."
Astarloza, Popovych, Gutierrez and Clement briefly held on, but Gusev was gone almost instantly.
Back in the bunch, 7.5km from the top, Valverde launched a vicious attack that split the chase group, and left Vinokourov behind. A day earlier Klöden was instructed to stay with his team leader under similar circumstances, but this time the German moved off on his own, indicating a clear shift in leadership for the Astana team.
Evans, Rasmussen, Mayo, Leipheimer, Contador, Sastre, Moreau, and Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) also made the cut, as the group sailed by Mercado.
Valverde kept the pressure on, and it wasn't long before Kashechkin and Moreau were dangling off the back. Moreau would claw his way back, but Kashechkin headed back to the peloton to help his struggling team leader.
"I attacked in the Galibier because I realized that Vinokourov was in difficulty,” explained Valverde, whom Moreau criticized a day earlier for not being aggressive when the Astana leader was on the ropes. "I believe to have proven that I am not a rider who does not take the initiative. When there is an opportunity to attack, I do it.”
While Soler continued his solo assault, Contador launched an attack of his own inside 5km from the summit. Evans was the only rider to come across, as the pair set out after Popovych, the only rider left from the day's early breakaway. Contador's pace was too much for the Aussie, and Evans slowly dropped off.
Soler was first over the Galibier, with Contador uniting with teammate Popovych at the crest, 2:05 behind the leader. Evans was next at 2:20, with the Valverde-Leipheimer-Rasmussen group at 3:15.
On the descent, Discovery’s Popovych and Contador launched a two-man time trial, trying to bring back Soler. With 25km to go the margin was down to 1:36. Meanwhile, Evans sat up, opting to save his energy for the 2km climb that preceded the finish.
Evans proved smartest of the three, and with 5.4km to go Popovych and Contador were absorbed by the Evans-Valverde-Leipheimer-Rasmussen group.
"I attacked because we had riders up the road in the break," explained new white-jersey holder Contador, who is fifth overall at 3:08, just 45 seconds ahead of team leader Leipheimer. "We hoped we could catch Soler, but he was stronger than we expected. Today I attacked to try to win the stage. We still will be working for Levi. I don't know about my own chances. I'm still young and the third week of the Tour is very hard this year. But so far the legs are responding."
On the run to the finish, Soler shot several nervous glances over his left shoulder, before zipping up his red-and-white jersey 100 meters from the line, then cracking an ear-to-ear smile and pumping his fists in the air.
"I was 17 years old when I started to ride a bike and my first ambition was to ride the Tour and win a stage," said an emotional Soler, who is the second Colombian after Santiago Botero to win a Tour stage in Briançon. "I never thought it would come true. But my team trusted me and brought me to the Tour. I have paid them back for their support with this victory. Now I dream to win the Tour someday."
That dream won't come true this year, the same thing that can almost surely be said for Vinokourov.
With the Alps in the rearview mirror, the Tour heads south from Tallard through Provence to Marseille on the Mediterranean coast. Stage 10's 229.km route is a rolling affair with four rated climbs (two Cat. 4s, two Cat. 3s), and looks prime for a successful breakaway.
The two Cat. 3 climbs come in the final 30km, and could split up a breakaway or disrupt the chasing efforts of the sprinters' teams. The Col de la Gineste, out of the small wine town of Cassis, summits 10km from the finish, which is on a wide boulevard on the eastern edge of Marseille.
There have been 32 stage finishes in Marseille, the most recent in 2003 when Denmark's Jakob Piil out-sprinted Italy's Fabio Sacchi. With the GC split apart by the Alps, a long-distance breakaway by riders out of contention is very likely in 2007.
Tour de France, Stage 9
1. Juan Mauricio Soler (Col), Barloworld, 4:14:24
2. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse d’Épargne, at 0:38
3. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, same time
4. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery, at 0:40
5. Iban Mayo (Sp), Saunier Duval, at 0:42
6. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, s.t.
7. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery, at 0:42
8. Kim Kirchen (Lx), T-Mobile, at 0:46
9. Andreas Klöden (G), Astana, s.t., s.t.
10. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, s.t.
Overall
1. Michael Rasmussen (Dk), Rabobank, 43:52:48
2. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse d’Épargne, at 2:35
3. Iban Mayo (Sp), Saunier Duval, at 2:39
4. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, at 2:41
5. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery, at 3:08
6. Christophe Moreau (F), Ag2r, at 3:18
7. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, at 3:39
8. Andreas Klöden (G), Astana, at 3:50
9. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, at 3:53
10. Kim Kirchen (Sp), T-Mobile, at 5:06
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