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Dessel drills it to win stage 16; Schleck defends yellow
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Cyril Dessel (Ag2r) won stage 16 of the Tour de France on Tuesday as Frank Schleck, backed by an indomitable CSC-Saxo Bank team, kept his grip on the maillot jaune. Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), meanwhile, gained time on Rabobank's Denis Menchov while American Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Chipotle) slid to sixth overall, more than three minutes back of the race leader.
“I really wanted to win a stage in this Tour," said Dessel, who set a thunderous pace in a breakaway for teammate Tadej Valjavec, who briefly became the race leader on the road. "I didn't have such great legs in the Pyrenees, but today was the best chance in the Alps. The tactics today were to go into a breakaway because we had a feeling that the GC riders would let us go.
“In the end, [David] Arroyo went and I was able to counter his attack and drive it to the line. It's a double pleasure because we moved Valjevec into the top 10, so we're very happy."
Schleck was equally pleased with the result.
"The team was great again today," he said. "We had Jens [Voigt] there taking some pulls. Andy [Schleck] set another brutal pace. There were only six of us from the GC there. It was very hard today. I didn't attack today because I couldn't. I was in the red, but so was everyone else."
The route:
The 157km race from Cuneo to Jauciers included a thousand feet of climbing in 82km, over two of the toughest hors categorie passes in Europe — the Col de Lombarde (7 percent over 21km) and the Cime de la Bonette (6.2km over 26.7km).
The early break:
Sylvain Chavanel (Cofidis) got the ball rolling early, attacking at kilometer zero only to be retrieved at the 2km mark. Vladimir Efimkin (Ag2r), Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) had digs, as did David Miller (Garmin-Chipotle), George Hincapie (Columbia), Stuart O'Grady (CSC) and the pesky Chavanel, who just kept popping out of the bunch like a jack-in-the-box.
Despite the relentless attacks and counters, nothing stuck until 39km when a quintet of riders snapped the elastic — Samuel Dumoulin (Cofidis), Sebastien Rosseler (Quick Step), Christophe Le Mevel (Crédit Agricole), Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) and Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom).
The break quickly took time, leaving the peloton 90 seconds in arrears in just 4km. A chase group of some two dozen men, among them green jersey Oscar Freire (Rabobank), Hincapie and Danny Pate (Garmin-Chipotle) formed up in between.
Dumoulin fell out of the break, leaving a foursome out front on the narrow, winding Lombarde. Rosseler was next to fade, then Le Mevel, and it was just Schumacher and Voeckler in the lead.
Schumacher's solo
And then Schumacher went it alone, racing up and over the summit and down the other side toward Isola, the first rider in the 95th Tour to return to France after the peloton’s sojourn in Italy.
More than nine minutes behind, CSC-Saxo Bank was setting the pace in what remained of the peloton containing race leader Frank Schleck and the remainder of the contenders. Midway between the hare and the hounds was a group of some 30 riders. Ahead lay the Col de la Bonette, at 2802 meters the tallest climb ever seen in the Tour.
Valjavec was best placed in the first chase in 13th overall at 6:27, and briefly became the race leader on the road as it tipped upward once again. Pate, meanwhile, slipped out of the pursuit, clearly feeling the effects of his labors on stage 15.
Schumacher led the yellow-jersey group by more than 10 minutes going onto the lower slopes of the Bonette, but held just three minutes on the first chase.
The final climb: the Bonette
The final 9km of the Bonette average 9 percent, with the maximum grade of 10.2 percent continuing for a whole kilometer. From the 9193-foot summit (the highest in France), it was a rapid 22km downhill on a recently resurfaced road to Jausiers, with 1.5km of valley roads before the finish line.
In the peloton, former yellow jersey Evans found himself without teammates once again as CSC set tempo. Fabian Cancellara ground out the revs as long as he could and then clocked out, leaving Andy and Frank Schleck, Carlos Sastre and Volodomir Gustov in charge.
Gerolsteiner’s Markus Fothen and Sebastian Lang lent CSC a hand, on behalf of their teammate Bernhard Kohl, further thinning the herd and helping nip Schumacher’s lead down to eight minutes with 35km to race. Menchov remained in the yellow-jersey group, as did Evans and Vande Velde.
Of more concern to the German’s stage hopes was that chase group, which had closed to within two minutes within 15km of the summit. Valjavec, eager to wear that yellow jersey for real, attacked the group, quickly marked by Evans’ Silence-Lotto teammate Yaroslav Popovych, Kanstantin Sivtsov (Columbia) and John-Lee Augustyn (Barloworld), and the chase began to fragment, with Lampre’s Damiano Cunego and Sylvester Szmyd among those unable to follow.
As Dessel began setting a frenetic pace for teammate Valjavec, CSC’s Kurt-Asle Arvesen dropped out of the chase and back to the peloton to help Andy Schleck run the pursuit for his brother, whose overall lead seemed in jeopardy despite CSC’s strength in numbers. The pace soon began claiming victims. Kim Kirchen (Columbia) hung grimly on, but Efimkin and Vande Velde both fell back.
With 30km to race Arvesen finally popped, having brought the peloton to within 30 seconds of the Valjavec group and 4:30 behind Schumacher. The Schlecks and Sastre were still there, with Menchov, Kohl, Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) and Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
Just short of the summit Dessel overhauled Schumacher, who tacked onto the chase group. CSC’s Jens Voigt, meanwhile, dropped back to assist his race leader as the contenders tested one another with short feints — Sastre, Valverde and Kohl all tapped the gas briefly, with Kirchen showing some signs of weakness.
Five kilometers from the top, Schumacher finally cracked, drifting away from the lead group, as Voigt drilled it in the yellow-jersey group.
The leaders clung to a lead of more than two minutes with 1km to climb — and then Barloworld’s Augustyn shot away to clear the summit alone, hoping to find some small redemption for his troubled team, which will lose its title sponsor after the Tour reaches Paris. Dessel was second over the top, followed by Popovych. Valjevec, Hincapie and Sitsov were all distanced. Behind, Voigt finally blew and Andy Schleck took over the pacemaking for his brother.
And then Augustyn came to grief on the descent, rocketing off the highest paved road in Europe on a right-hand turn and into the gravel, losing his bike down the side of the mountain in the process; he clambered back up, on hands and knees, to watch the lead chase rocket by.
Kohl led the yellow-jersey group over the top. Menchov lost contact as Evans opened it up on the descent, trying to take time from the big Russian — and narrowly missing a motorbike that had stopped to assist Augustyn. But ahead it was Popovych, Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux), Dessel and David Arroyo (Caisse d'Epargne) leading the way into Jauciers, battling it out for the stage win.
Popo’ jumped first with 1km to go, followed by Casar. Arroyo went left, and Dessel fought back, catching his wheel and shooting past for the stage win. Casar hung on for second, with Popo’ third.
“It's a special pleasure to win today, with such a difficult stage that tackled such mythic climbs as La Bonette," said Dessel. "It was a very hard finish, very dangerous. Popo' was the most dangerous on the descent. I tried to stay with him and not lose the wheel. The most important was the positioning in the final kilometers. Popo' attacked but he went too early. I countered at the right time."
Hincapie, who had hoped to be in the fight for the stage win, lost his shot on the final steeps of the Bonette and had to settle for fifth, 24 seconds back.
"I'm really disappointed," he said. "I thought I could win the stage today, but I just couldn't hold on for the last 500 meters over the top of that climb. Even then, I thought I could catch back on the descent, but it was just too technical. I would have to have risked my life to catch back on."
Andy Schleck led in the yellow-jersey group containing Evans and Kohl some 90 seconds later, regaining the white jersey of best young rider for his trouble.
"It's good to get it back," he said. "I had a bad day at Hautacam and I lost my chances in GC. Now I am going to work for the team. That's all I can do. It's nice to have the white jersey — I'd like to trade it for the yellow jersey some day."
Menchov, meanwhile, conceded some 30 seconds to Evans, with Vande Velde dropping two-plus minutes. When the GC was calculated, Frank Schleck led Kohl by seven seconds, with Evans third at eight seconds. Sastre sat fourth at 49 seconds, with Menchov fifth at 1:13.
As for Vande Velde, who apparently crashed on the descent, he slipped to sixth at 3:15. European correspondent Andrew Hood and senior writer Neal Rogers contributed to this report.
Stage 16: Top 10
1. Cyril Dessel (F) AG2R La Mondiale), 157kkm in 4:31:27 (34.70 km/h)
2. Sandy Casar (F), Française des Jeux, same time
3. David Arroyo Duran (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne, s.t.
4. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Silence-Lotto, at 0:03
5. George Hincapie (USA), Team Columbia, at 0:24
6. Nicolas Portal (F), Caisse d'Epargne, s.t.
7. Tadej Valjavec (Slo), AG2R La Mondiale, s.t.
8. Stefan Schumacher (G), Gerolsteiner, at 1:03
9. Andy Schleck (Lux), CSC-Saxo Bank, at 1:28
10. Bernhard Kohl (A), Gerolsteiner, s.t.
Overall
1. Frank Schleck (Lux, CSC-Saxo Bank, 68:30:16
2. Bernhard Kohl (A), Gerolsteiner, at 0:07
3. Cadel Evans (Aus), Silence-Lotto, at 0:08
4. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC-Saxo Bank, at 0:49
5. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, at 1:13
6. Christian Vande Velde (USA), Garmin-Chipotle, at 3:15
7. Kim Kirchen (Lux), Columbia, at 3:23
8. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse d’Epargne, at 4:11
9. Samuel Sanchez (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 4:38
10. Tadej Valjavec (Slo), Ag2r, at 5:23
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