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Botero wins mountain stage as Landaluze clings to lead in Dauphiné
The hardest stage of the 57th Dauphiné Libéré turned into a proving ground with a month to go to the Tour de France.
The difficult, five-climb sixth stage capped by the hors categorie Joux-Plane climb high in the French Alps revealed three key points: Lance Armstrong is right on track for the Tour; Santiago Botero will be a man to reckon with come July; and Iñigo Landaluze might have just enough gas in the tank to take the overall victory.
Botero won his second stage in four days after reeling in the day’s main breakaway in the 155km march across the French Alps and then dropping David Moncoutie (Cofidis) on the vertiginous descent to Morzine.
“This race was an important test for me to confirm myself before the Tour,” said the Colombian, now second overall, just 49 seconds behind the resilient Landaluze. “I knew Moncoutie was a little nervous on the descents, so that’s why I didn’t try to attack him on the climb up Joux-Plane.”
Landaluze retained the leader’s jersey against a stellar cast of Tour heavyweights, with Armstrong, Alexandre Vinokourov (T-Mobile) and Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) doing their best to eliminate the scrappy Basque bomber.
“I knew I couldn’t follow the strongest climbers; that’s just not my strength. I went at my own rhythm and I still hold the jersey,” said the Euskaltel-Euskadi rider. “Tomorrow is a better day for me because the circuit climb better suits my style of racing.”
Armstrong, meanwhile, added some spark in the late going up the 1691m Joux-Plane, reeling in an attacking Vinokourov and dropping Floyd Landis (Phonak) with 3km to go on the climb.
“I’ll leave here knowing I still have some work to do, but I still have some time,” said Armstrong, now fourth at 1:37 back. “I lack a little punch on the climbs, but I haven’t been racing any big mountains for a while. The Tour is long, and what counts is July 24.”
Over the hills and far away
With three Category 1 climbs, the hors categorie Joux-Plane and a Cat.4 thrown in for good measure, the stage had epic written all over it.
“This race has been really hard,” Armstrong said. “I think someone was in a bad mood when they designed the course.”
Some 141 riders signed in for the start in sunny Albertville, host of the 1992 Winter Olympic Games. But Enrico Franzoi (Lampre-Caffita) didn’t start, and others wouldn’t last for long.
Christian Vande Velde (CSC) said he was headed for an early exit. Fresh off finishing the Giro d’Italia, Vande Velde said his Dauphiné would soon be over in favor of a welcome break after a strong spring campaign.
“I’m going home and lick the wounds,” said Vande Velde, who won’t be racing the Tour de France. “I want to get healthy and go fast in the Vuelta.”
Vande Velde was among 10 riders who didn’t make it to the finish in Morzine. Others to abandon included stage winner Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) and Alberto Contador (Liberty Seguros), who suffered a horrible crash that left him with more than 20 stitches in his right hand.
The promising young Spanish rider, already a winner of five races this season, nearly saw his right ring finger ripped off when his hand got caught in the spokes trying to adjust his computer sensor. (In other Liberty news; Isidro Nozal, the 2003 Vuelta runner-up who tested high for hematocrit before the start of the Dauphiné, was hit by a car while training in Spain. He was taken to a local hospital, but didn’t suffer serious injuries).
Eight riders tore away right out of the gate, including Ivan Gutierrez (Illes Balears), Juan Miguel Mercado (Quick Step), Remy Di Grégorio (Française des Jeux), Joost Posthuma (Rabobank), Massimo Giunti (Fassa Bortolo), Enrico Gasparotto (Liquigas-Bianchi) and Sylvain Calzati (Ag2r).
Gutierrez was first over the Cat. 1 Col de La Forclaz at 30km and the main peloton was already more than 10 minutes adrift on a glorious summer afternoon.
A chase group peeled away from the main bunch on the Cat. 1 Col de la Croix-Fry at 62km. Giving chase were nine riders, including Christophe Moreau (Crédit Agricole), David Arroyo (Illes Balears), Botero and Oscar Pereiro (both Phonak), Moncoutie, Pieter Weening (Rabobank), Marzio Bruseghin and Juan Antonio Flecha (both Fassa Bortolo) and Mikel Astarloza (Ag2R Prevoyance).
The difference between the leaders and the Botero chase group was trimmed to two minutes on the Cat. 1 Col de la Colombiere at 88km. Maryan Hary (Bouygues Telecom) crashed on the fast descent and earned a trip to the hospital with injured vertebrae.
Riders were scattered coming over the Cat. 4 Côte de Châtillon at 116km, with the Botero group closing down on the lingering attackers while there was the first hint of what was to come on the Joux-Plane.
Up the Joux-Plane
The dead wood began to scatter on the lower ramps of the beautiful Joux-Plane climb, a 11.5km ascent at a brisk 10 percent grade. In the group chasing Botero were Leipheimer, Armstrong, Jose Azevedo, Landis, Vinokourov, Kashechkin (Crédit Agricole) and Bruzeghin with Landaluze already having trouble hanging on at 30 seconds back.
“I knew I had to ride at my own rhythm or I would risk losing everything,” said Landaluze. “I’m better on shorter climbs and don’t often race on this big climbs of the Alps. I knew I couldn’t afford to panic.”
Up ahead, the Botero group caught up with the leaders and it soon was Botero alone with Moncoutie trying to stay close. About 30 seconds back were Moreau, Mancebo and Arroyo, while the group containing the favorites was 2:45 back.
“We were going for the stage win today, plus to sew up the team classification,” Botero said. “I wanted to attack from very far away, that’s what I do best. I’m not an explosive rider, but rather a steady one.”
The long, grinding climb was taking its toll. Pereiro fell out of the lead group, and Moreau couldn’t stay with the crook-backed Mancebo. Vinokourov attacked, with Landis marking the move.
Armstrong and Leipheimer didn’t react, letting the duo slip up the road, but not for long. Vinokourov punched the accelerator again to lose Landis, who dropped back to join Armstrong, Leipheimer and Kashechkin.
“Right now, it’s better to find a rhythm, be a little conservative, and stay within your zone. You have to realize it’s 11-12km to the summit,” Armstrong said. “It’s been a very strange race, very open. Levi is riding the strongest right now, but Gerolsteiner didn’t bring a complete team. Maybe they didn’t realize he had the form right now.”
Vinokourov quickly bridged up to Marchante while Kashechkin fell off the pace, leaving the three Americans riding together. That didn’t last long - Armstrong took over and drove hard to put the screws to Landis, who struggled to match the pace of his former boss. “Maybe it was a mistake to go with Vino’ when he should have waited until the end of the climb, but we’re still three weeks from the Tour and we’re not worried about this,” said Phonak team manager John Lelangue.
Landis couldn’t stay with Armstrong and Leipheimer, but rode well to limit his losses. He later crashed coming too fast into a corner off the Joux-Plane, which cost him a little time, but luckily wasn’t seriously injured. He did bend his handlebars and crossed the line 12th at 4:02 to move to seventh at 3:13 back.
Armstrong bridged up to Vinokourov and Marchante, with Leipheimer dangling just off the back, measuring his efforts, careful not to blow up. Armstrong eased the pace to let his training partner come back on.
Up the road with 1km to go, Botero was still doing all the work with Moncoutie glued on his wheel. The Frenchman had hardly taken a pull the entire way up.
Meanwhile, the Armstrong-Leipheimer group topped out 2:19 back, while Landaluze crossed the summit another 1:50 back.
Botero takes the win
Born and raised in Medellin, Colombia, Botero is no stranger to treacherous descents. The smooth French tarmac is nothing compared to the dodgy roads he plies high in the Colombian Andes.
Knowing that Moncoutie is a little nervous on the descents, the blond-haired, blue-eyed Colombian dropped like a rock to win the stage 23 seconds ahead of the Frenchman.
With an impressive stage victory in the 47km time trial and another in the hardest climbing stage of this very demanding Dauphiné, Botero confirms that he will be among the front-line contenders for the Tour. But is he peaking too soon, as Armstrong suggested to some journalists? Botero says he hopes not.
“Lance has won the Dauphiné before and been strong in the Tour. Every rider is like their own planet. I don’t know if I can maintain my form until July, but let’s hope I can and prove him wrong,” said Botero.
Botero is careful not to get too bold in his pre-Tour statements, a practice that’s come back to haunt other would-be challengers to Armstrong. But Botero is gaining confidence after two years struggling without results at T-Mobile, insisting he’s stronger in the mountains without losing his prowess in the time trials.
“If Lance is as strong as the previous year, it will be difficult to beat him,” Botero said. “It’s our last chance against him, so we’re going to try. The only way is to risk everything, to try to win. Maybe you lose everything, but if you don’t, you’ll never do anything anyway.”
But this is the Dauphiné, not the Tour. And now that he sits second overall, Botero concedes that it might have been a mistake to let Landaluze get into that breakaway in stage 5.
“That was an error. We should have had someone in the breakaway or worked harder to limit the time,” Botero admitted. “We didn’t trust him that he would be strong enough on the climb, and now he’s demonstrated he’s strong. He surprised us and now he has the jersey.”
Landaluze holds steady
Landaluze crossed the line 13th at 4:17 back, good enough to keep that jersey going into Sunday’s 128km finale at Sallanches. With 49 seconds to Botero and 1:16 to Leipheimer and 1:37 to Armstrong, he’s sounding more confident as well.
After surviving the Joux-Plane, Landaluze knows the ball’s in his court going into the finale, which features 10 passes up the short, steep Cote de Domancy on the finishing circuit in Sallanches.
“We’ll try to give everything to win. I’m better on the shorter climbs than these long ones,” said Landaluze, who was docked with a 10-second penalty for illegal pushes during the stage, a difference that could prove decisive Sunday. “They have to attack me, I only have to defend.”
Landaluze is a sturdy gregario who quietly does his work for others, a task he’ll resume at the Tour when he’ll be working for team captain Iban Mayo. But he knows that he has the chance of a lifetime to win the Dauphiné.
“A lot of people have said that during my career I haven’t believed enough in myself,” he said, adding that a big group of rowdy Basque fans drove overnight from Spain to be on hand to cheer him on. “If I can manage to win a race with this much prestige, maybe I will have to believe them.”
Even Armstrong tipped his hat to the Basque rider, whom many expected to crumble in the big cols.
“Landaluze rode a smart race,” Armstrong said. “He did a good job on the climb to keep the jersey.”
Top 10
Stage
1. Santiago Botero (Col), Phonak, 4:30:54 :00
2. David Moncoutie (F), Cofidis, at 0:23
3. Francisco Mancebo (Sp), Illes Balears, at 0:53
4. Christophe Moreau (F), Crédit Agricole, at 0:58
5. Marzio Bruseghin (I), Fassa Bortolo, at 2:27
6. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), T-Mobile, at 2:50
7. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, at 2:52
8. David Arroyo (Sp), Illes Balears, same time
9. Jose Gomez Marchante (Sp), Saunier Duval, s.t.
10. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner, s.t.
Overall
1. Inigo Landaluze (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, 25:16:26
2. Santiago Botero (Col), Phonak, at 0:59
3. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Gerolsteiner, at 1:26
4. Lance Armstrong (USA), Discovery Channel, at 1:47
5. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), T-Mobile, at 1:50
6. David Moncoutie (F), Cofidis, at 2:42
8. Marzio Bruseghin (I), Fassa Bortolo, at 4:08
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