Cycling Shirts Guide

Another stage, this time Stage 14, and a trek of 184.5 km from Revel to Ax-les-Thermes, finishing at the sports resort of Ax 3 Domaines, and this day’s racing ushered in the first of four days of grueling cycling in the Pyrenees, designed by the organisers to commemorate the centenary year of the inclusion of the Pyrenees in the Tour de France. The stage started out fairly flat with a couple of rudimentary climbs of category 5, but this simply teased the riders, with a terrifying ending to the stage just around the corner in the form of two back to back climbs, one the hors categorie (HC) climb, the Port de Pailhères (2001 meters or 6565 ft high), followed almost immediately by another nightmare in the shape of the category 1 climb to the finish at Ax 3 Domaines. No final group sprint to today as the finishing line was pretty much right on top of the last hill. There were two intermiediate sprints earlier in the stage for those chasing Green Jersey points.

A very rapid start saw an attack inside the first kilometer, led by Knees (MRM) followed by 11 others, but this initial escape barely lasted 10 km before the majority of the riders fell back into the main group. This left Brutt (KAT), Gutierrez (GCE), Moinard (COF), Thomas (SKY) and Zabriskie (GRM) up front and hoping to build up a nice big lead before the HC climb looming ahead of them. With RadioShack leading the peloton’s chase, Gutierrez eventually slid backwards and was absorbed. No further progress was made until a new attack peeled off the front of the peloton, and by the 25 km mark they – Auge (COF), Rolland (BTL), Riblon (ALM), Van de Walle (QST) and Vaugrenard (FDJ) – captured the front four to make a nine man leading group. They made swift progress to open up a gap of over 9 minutes at Mirepoix but Astana took on a single-handed pursuit, leading the peloton for endless kilometers until, by the time they reach the Port de Pailhères, the gap was just over 4 minutes.

(Photo of Christophe Riblon, by Cah1. Reproduced under Creative Commons licence.)

The huge climb was an open invitation for attacks from the front of the chasing group and Valls Ferri was first to try his luck. Meanwhile, rider in the leading group dropped like flies as Riblon, Moinard and Van de Walle injected some pace into the proceedings. Similarly, the front of the peloton was beginning to fragment, with multiple attacks stretching out the group. At the top of the climb, Riblon had escaped from his little trio, leaving Moinard on his own in second, Van de Walle further behind and also on his own. A new trio were next in the standings at this point consisting of Valls Ferri, Sastre and Kiryienka; followed by a new attacker in the form of Charteau, looking to gain a few more points to consolidate his King of the Mountains title and keep the Polka Dot Jersey on his shoulders for another day. Cunego followed on behind, ahead of Moreau and Garate before the main peloton. Cadel Evans had been popped out the back of the peloton, but is carrying a minor, but nevertheless agonisingly painful, cracked elbow, so was hoping simply to survive these horrific Pyrenees stages.

On the white knuckle ride down the other side of the mountain, Riblon led Moinard, and the following five congealed into a single chasing group. Despite the fact that there was another nasty category 1 climb ahead, but with only 10 km to go, Riblon had suddenly found a second wind, and the belief that maybe he could actually win this stage. He fought his way up the final climb, and was assisted by in-fighting between Schleck and Contador who were less intent on upping the pace, and more concerned about marking each other against sudden attacks. This slight misjudgement perhaps, led other contenders in the General Classification race to steam ahead – notably Sammi Sanchez, Menchov, Gesink and Rodriguez.

By the latter stages of the final ascent, Contador was the lone Astana team member, his team mates having worked hard to burn up the road and destroy the legs of the other elite riders. It was not enough however, as Schleck was still there, and after a couple of failed attacks by Contador, marked closely by Schleck, Menchov fired his turbo and took off, pursued by Sanchez. Contador and Schleck called time after this and settled into a small group with other rivals to ride home with the same time. Sanchez and Menchov gained 14 seconds on the Yellow Jersey, but the day belonged to Frenchman Christophe Riblon, who won his first Tour de France Stage at a very early stage in his career. Interviewed afterwards he joked that yesterday, he would not have bet a euro on himself to win the stage! Well done to him.

The results for Stage 14 and the current GC look like this as the Tour finished its first day in the Pyrenees:

The awarded cycle shirts remain exactly the same as yesterday, with Charteau gaining extra points today and keeping his King of the Mountains Polka Dot Jersey; Petacchi keeps the Green Jersey; and Schleck holds onto the Yellow Jersey for now, warding off Contador’s attempts to attack today, but letting the gap for third and fourth shrink somewhat. That is something to beware of in the next few stages and something the top two riders’ teams will probably put right before Stage 15.

Tomorrow and it’s Stage 15, a 187.5 km journey from Pamiers to Bagnères-de-Luchon. Another HC climb will beckon the riders before the end, but rather than finishing at the summit, this time the riders will finish at the end of a hair raising descent.