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Contador claims yellow atop Verbier
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Astana’s Alberto Contador won the day and the maillot jaune on Sunday, riding away from a small group of favorites on the final climb in stage 15 of the Tour de France.
Contador used the Category 1 climb to Verbier to settle accounts with teammate Lance Armstrong and the rest of his rivals for the overall victory, rocketing away to win by more than 40 seconds over Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck, who collected the white jersey for the best young rider in the process. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) finished third.
"It wasn't a long climb, but we started it really fast and in the end I managed to do what I wanted to make the difference," said Contador. "If I wanted to leave my rivals behind me in the standings, that was the only way I could do it."
Armstrong was far from vanquished, however — with the help of Andreas Klöden he hung on to finish ninth on the day, 1:35 behind Contador, and moved back into second place overall at 1:37. Garmin-Slipstream’s Bradley Wiggins now sits third at 1:46 with Klöden fourth at 2:17, meaning Astana holds three of the top five spots on GC.
Armstrong admitted he was in some difficulty as early as the bottom of the climb and from then on had little else to give.
"I suffered. It was very hard. I was a little bit on the limit at the bottom, I think everybody was a bit on the limit," said Armstrong.
"But Alberto showed he is the best rider in the race."
Into the Alps
Two weeks into the Tour, the race was tackling its second mountaintop finish at the end of the 207.5km stage from Pontarlier in France to Verbier in Switzerland — the ascent to Verbier, which averages 7.7 percent over 8.8km.
Preceding the big climb of the day was a series of smaller ascents:
• The Category 3 Côte du Rafour, a 3.7km climb that averages 5.1 percent, which summits at 8km.
• The Category 3 Col des Etroits, 1.5km averaging 5 percent, summiting at 18.5km.
• The Category 3 Côte de La Carrière, 6.3km averaging 4.4 percent, summiting at 54km.
• The Category 3 Côte de Prévonloup, 4.5km averaging 4.7 percent, summiting at 74km.
• The Category 2 Col des Mosses, 13.8km averaging 4 percent, summiting at 135km.
Happily, the sun was out and the temperatures moderate, around 16 degrees Celsius (61 Fahrenheit) with a light breeze from the southeast.
2009 Tour de France
- Stage 15: Pontarlier to Verbier
- 199km (123.7 miles)
- Stage winner: Alberto Contador (Astana) in 5:03:58
- Stage winner's average speed: 39.3 kph (24.4 mph)
- GC leader: Contador
- Points leader: Thor Husvhod (Cervélo TestTeam)
- Climbing leader: Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas)
- Team GC leader:Astana
- Best young rider: Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)
- Stage wins/GC leaders
- Stage 1 (ITT): Fabian Cancellara/Cancellara
- Stage 2: Cavendish/Cancellara
- Stage 3: Cavendish/Cancellara
- Stage 4 (TTT): Astana/Cancellara
- Stage 5: Thomas Voeckler/Cancellara
- Stage 6: Thor Hushovd/Cancellara
- Stage 7: Brice Feillu/Rinaldo Nocentini
- Stage 8: Luis Leon Sanchez/Nocentini
- Stage 9: Pierrik Fedrigo/Nocentini
- Stage 10: Cavendish/Nocentini
- Stage 11: Cavendish/Nocentini
- Stage 12: Nicki Sorensen/Nocentini
- Stage 13: Heinrich Haussler/Nocentini
- Stage 14: Sergei Ivanov/Nocentini
- Up Next:
- Monday is a rest day. Tuesday's stage 16 is 160km (99.4 miles) from Martigny to Bourg-Saint-Maurice. The stage has a simple profile: an ascent of the hors categorie Col du Grand-Saint-Bernard and then the cat. 1 Col du Petit-Saint-Bernard, then a descent into Bourg-Saint-Maurice.
The peloton was another man lighter after Quick Step’s Tom Boonen withdrew due to illness. The 28-year-old Belgian sprint specialist, who was only permitted to race the Tour at the last minute after organizers barred him over a second positive test for cocaine, was sitting in 148th place in the overall standings, more than an hour and a half behind race leader Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r).
The break du jour
A 15-rider break formed up and had a half-minute at 52km, with mountains leader Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) intent on taking KOM points, but Columbia’s Tony Martin was in there, too, and Astana was not amused.
As Astana set about chasing the escapees, Martin drifted back to the bunch and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Slipstream) went off the front, trailed by a group of eight — former yellow jersey Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank); Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom); Simon Spilak (Lampre); Amael Moinard and David Moncoutié (Cofidis); José Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne); Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi); and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Silence-Lotto). Astarloza was best placed, sitting 18th at 3:02, and became the virtual leader on the road as the break built its advantage over the peloton.
Hesjedal hit the summit of the Côte de Prévonloup 27 seconds ahead of the Cancellara group. Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank) crested at 31 seconds, followed by the peloton at 1:57.
At the 79.5km mark, the nine leaders had 1:51 on the peloton with Flecha chasing a half-minute back. Ten kilometers later he finally caught on and the 10-man break led the peloton by 3:33, with Astana holding the leash.
The gap went out a bit — with 95km to race, the break held an advantage of 4:10 on the peloton. But at the top of the Category 2 Col des Mosses with 70km to race, the margin was down to three and a half minutes and Liquigas had moved forward to lend Astana a hand on behalf of mountains leader Pellizotti and white-jersey contenders Nibali and Roman Kreuziger. Nocentini’s Ag2r team was conspicuous by its absence at the head of affairs after a week of defending the maillot jaune.
Cancellara briefly took a gap on the descent of the Col des Mosses, resplendent in the jersey of the Swiss national road champion. The Swiss roads were smooth and dry, and a strong tailwind made the going even easier after three and a half hours in the saddle.
With 45km to race the break had expanded its margin, to four and a half minutes. But Liquigas cranked up the volume once more and quickly took a minute back in just 7km.
The last shall be first?
The break took a margin of just over three minutes under the 25km-to-go banner in Martigny. Three kilometers later Spilak shot away from the leaders. Dead last on stage 13 and eliminated by the time cut only to be given a reprieve by the race jury, the Lampre rider quickly took a 15-second advantage.
As the peloton hit 20km to go its deficit to the leaders was just two and a half minutes. Liquigas was still driving. Garmin-Slipstream was moving forward for Wiggins and Christian Vande Velde.
Spilak had extended his advantage to nearly a minute with 15km to go, and the break was in disarray with the peloton closing in. A frustrated Astarloza had a dig, chased by Van Den Broeck and Hesjedal. Fedrigo and Cancellara hooked up and soon it was a four-man chase.
Behind, Milram came to the front for Linus Gerdemann as Liquigas decided it had done enough for one stage. Ahead, Spilak hit the base of the final climb, chased by what was now a five-man group, augmented by Hesjedal.
Then Garmin and Saxo Bank came to the front of the bunch, with first David Millar and then Jens Voigt driving the pace, relentlessly sweeping up the remnants of the shattered break. Mountains leader Pellizotti couldn’t stick and drifted back. Defending champion Carlos Sastre (Cervélo TestTeam) also dropped off, as did Nocentini, his stint in yellow finally coming to an end.
Contador attacks
Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) had an experimental dig with some 6km to race, and then Contador launched, quickly leaving the other favorites behind. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) shot away after him as brother Fränk, Armstrong, Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), Wiggins, Vande Velde, Nibali and Kreuziger continued to climb at their own pace.
"Contador was impressive," said Vande Velde. "He went away very fast. What he did by himself, and the time he put into others, was remarkable.
"Contador really wanted to put his foot down to show authority, both on his team and on the Tour de France. And Saxo Bank set a brutal tempo at the bottom, which pretty much set Alberto up, in all honesty. More or less they made it very easy for Alberto."
Vande Velde soon found the going tough and fell out of the chase, eventually crossing 22nd at 2:41 back. But Sastre fought his way back to the Armstrong group, led by Andreas Klöden. Wiggins tried his luck but was quickly nailed back by Fränk Schleck, who then launched an attack of his own, trying to join his brother up the road.
Three kilometers from the line Contador had a half-minute on Andy Schleck as he drove through the raucous crowds lining both sides of the climb. Brother Fränk was 50 seconds back, joined by Wiggins and Nibali, with the Armstrong group at more than a minute.
Sastre was next to leave Klöden and Armstrong behind, and Evans soon followed. But no one would catch Contador, who entered the final kilometer with an insurmountable 40 seconds over Andy Schleck as the indefatigable Sastre bridged to Fränk Schleck’s chase group.
Then up went the zipper and kapow went the index-finger pistol as Contador crossed the line alone — ready to reclaim the yellow jersey he last wore in 2007.
Race notes
• The stage proved a wake-up call of sorts for Armstrong, who said afterward that he "had no idea what to expect" from himself once the going finally got hard. "I felt good going in, but today was harder than Andorra," he said. "I was definitely missing the required high end."
• Vande Velde was content with his ride, saying that while he had hoped to do better, "it's not so bad, considering where I am coming from. I never even expected to be here, and now that Wiggo is the only one that my team is relying on, it’s a perfect situation. I can be the best lieutenant that he’s ever asked for."
• Spilak, the man who led the way onto the final climb, was reeled in 6.5km from the line. He finished in 70th place — nearly seven and a half minutes behind the new leader of the Tour — but for his efforts was named the most aggressive rider on the day.
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