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Casar wins Stage 18; Contador in yellow
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In a battle among two Frenchmen and a pair of soon-to-be retirees, Française des Jeux's Sandy Casar was fastest of the four, taking victory in stage 18 of the 2007 Tour de France.
Casar, who crashed into an unleashed dog early in the day, launched a cunning attack late in the 211km ride from Cahors to Angoulême, then held off the chasing trio of Axel Merckx (T-Mobile), Laurent Lefevre (Bouygues Telecom) and Michael Boogerd (Rabobank). It was the 29-year-old Frenchman's first career Tour stage victory, and the second for the host country at this year's race.
Merckx, who with Boogerd is in his final season of racing, was second, followed by France's Lefevre and then the Rabobank rider.
"At last!" said Casar, who has three runner-up finishes in Tour stages, including stage 10 this year when countryman Cedric Vasseur narrowly beat him to the line. "It's been a long time in coming.
"I waited as long as I could [in the last 5km Friday], then just went for bust. A finish after a slight incline is what suits me best."
Boogerd had been hoping to grab a stage win to help soothe the pain of seeing his former team captain, then-race leader Michael Rasmussen, evicted from the Tour, but it was not to be.
“My legs felt really good today. I think maybe I was the strongest up the hill, but I'm not the strongest in the sprints," said Boogerd, who refused to talk about his former teammate. "I'm really tired [of answering questions about Ramussen]."
Green-jersey leader Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) led a well-rested field across the line 8:34 later. That widened the Belgian's lead in the points standings to 234-210 over South African Robbie Hunter (Barloworld). German Eric Zabel (Milram) is third with 206 points.
Behind the sprinters, first-time yellow-jersey holder Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) was on the wrong end of a break in the bunch. That cost the 24-year-old Spaniard three seconds in the overall standings. Contador now leads Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) by 1:50, with American Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel), who also missed the split, third overall at 2:49.
The top three will face off in Saturday’s time trial to decide the order of the final podium in Paris.
Contador and Evans have met twice this year in the race of truth. The Spaniard beat Evans by 53 seconds in the Volta al Pais Vasco's 14km TT in April. But two months later the Aussie turned the tables, taking 2:43 out of Contador in the 40.7km time trial at June's Dauphiné Libéré.
Leipheimer did not race Pais Vasco, but was 32 seconds back of Evans at the Dauphiné TT.
“In my opinion, Alberto is the favorite,” said Leipheimer. “He’s got a good gap on Cadel and a good gap on me. If we end up first and third, [win the] team classification, and have [Yaroslav] Popovych in the top 10, it’s phenomenal.” The fortunate four
Racing kicked off Friday afternoon at 12:31, with 141 riders rolling away from Cahors. After several early attacks were neutralized, a four-man group including Boogerd, Lefevre, Casar and Frederik Willems (Liquigas) tried its luck at the 17km mark.
The move stuck and after 30km they had 2:25 over the main field, with Belgian Merckx chasing in the middle. Unlike a day earlier, when Caisse d'Epargne initially refused to let the break go, this one slipped away easily.
The only impediment early on was an unleashed dog that wandered into the road, causing a high-speed pile-up. Casar couldn't avoid the brown canine, and took out Willems in the process. In the aftermath Willems drifted back to the bunch, while Casar soldiered on after a bike change. The Frenchman also suffered a nasty scrape on his right hip, and required attention from the medical car on several occasions later in the stage. The dog appeared to be okay, scurrying away from the scene with its owner in hot pursuit.
"The dog wasn't on a leash, so of course it surprised me," said Casar. "We were still going really fast because we didn't really have a big gap on the peloton. Crashing is just part of the job, but at the same time I thought it was over for me." It was the second dog-rider encounter of the '07 Tour. T-Mobile's Marcus Burghardt collided with a Labrador on stage 9.
Initially the stage 18 accident split the group, with Boogerd and Lefevre left in the lead alone. But when the pair realized that the peloton was not chasing, Boogerd pulled over for a nature break, allowing Casar to re-connect and Merckx to complete his bridge. At the 36km mark the foursome had 5:35 on the bunch.
With Boogerd the top GC rider in the break, 16th at 27:50, Contador and Discovery were content to set easy tempo on the 63rd birthday of former Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc. By the time the field crossed the 50km mark, the break was nine minutes up the road; at 69km it was 11 minutes.
The average speed for the first three hours was a modest 41.4kph, the field content to sit and spin in advance of Saturday's key time trial. With 90km to go the front four were 15:20 ahead of the peloton. Their margin eventually crested above 17 minutes, which pushed Boogerd into a virtual top-10 placing and set off alarm bells back in the bunch.
Euskaltel sent its eight remaining riders to the front, intent on protecting the GC placings of Haimar Zubeldia (fifth) and Mikel Astarloza (10th). The Spanish outfit trimmed the gap below 10 minutes, but was never close to bringing back the front four.
The escapees finally broke their alliance 10km from the finish when Boogerd attacked. But his three companions quickly closed down the Dutchman and the coalition was temporarily renewed.
Lefevre took the next shot, with 6km left, but Boogerd led the chase back with huge crowds looking on.
Finally Casar made the move of the day, dodging left at a small traffic island, while the other three went right. Casar's line was shorter, allowing him to open a 50-meter advantage. Boogerd and then Merckx managed to reel the Frenchman back in. But the effort sapped their strength, and when Casar made his final dash to the line on the uphill finishing stretch, no one could bring him back.
Next up
The winner of the Tour de France will almost surely be decided with stage 19's 55km individual time trial from Cognac to Angoulême. The first rider is scheduled to depart at 10:43 a.m. local (4:43 a.m. EST), with Contador the last man out at approximately 4:20 p.m. (10:20 a.m. EST). This TT course is a fairly straightforward affair on rolling country roads that wind through wine vineyards.
Stage 18
1. Sandy Casar (F), Francaise des Jeux, 5:13:31
2. Axel Merckx (B), T-Mobile, at 0:01
3. Laurent Lefevre (F), Bouygues Telecom
4. Michael Boogerd (B), Rabobank, all s.t.
5. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, at 8:34
Overall
1. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel
2. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, at 01:50
3. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel , at 02:49
4. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, at 06:02
5. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 06:29
To see how the stage unfolded, simply click here to open our Live Update Window. Then stay tuned for features, photos and complete results.
