[Tour 2002]- Stage 14

[CycloFiend Tour Addict]

Updates & Errata -
Credit Agricole had the gall (gall of the Gauls?) to either announce the
nonrenewal of  or summarily terminate the contract of  Jonathon
Vaughters.  It's a shame really, and the man has been dogged by the most
exceptional run of bad luck in this race.

Robbie McEwen wears the Green Jersey at the start of the stage, rather
than Erik Zabel, as his finish yesterday tied him on points, but his
intermediate sprint results were better than Zabel, and so was able to
lift the jersey from his shoulders.

Stage 14 - 221 km - Don't stop 'til you see the summit of Mt. Ventoux.

"Can the Frenchman escape?"

Today, the road doesn't really begin to climb until kilometer 189, then
does so to the dizzying height of 1912 meters - lessee, isn't that
around 6,000 feet?.

Despite the heat in the valleys, but probably because of the flatness of
the stage, a breakaway mustered itself  in first half hour, narrowed
from just over 11 minutes to 9:38 - led by Richard Virenque of Domo -
the highest placed rider at 15:44 back.  Although he lost several points
in my book at his continued denials before finally admitting to doping
charges, his efforts after a lengthy suspension have been impressive,
last year snagging Paris-Tours with a long breakaway.

The breakaway partners:
28 - Mikel Pradera - ONCE
64 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole
66 - Anthony Morin - Credit Agricole
71 - Richard Virenque - Domo
89 - Marco Velo - Fasso Bortolo
132 - Dariusz Baranowski - iBanesto.com
151 - Marco Serpellini - Lampre
181 - Alexandre Botcharov - Ag2R Prevoyance
198 - Christian Moreni - Alessio
202 - Stephane Auge - Jean Delatour

The peloton began the day with 164 riders - only 25 have retired so far
this Tour, and the majority of which have done so with broken bones.
Paolo Bossoni of  Tacconi Sport missed today's sign-in, without having
need for a cast.

Rabobank and CSC driving the peloton along the roadway, trying to keep
their men Levi Leipheimer and Carlos Sastre close enough to launch them
onto the climb.
The gap has dropped to 9:12 now, and the leaders are about 13 km from
the town of Bedoin, from which the climb begins. Anthony Morin has
drifted off the back of the breakaway for a "natural break" - figuring
that he won't be able to keep things going once the roadway pitches up.
Phil mentions that a number of riders have been struck by
"gastroenteritis".  That would make for a long, long day in the saddle.

We're rolling along about 23 km from the finish, and the gap is now
about 8 minutes.  The old "1 minute reduction per 10 km chased" estimate
is out the window today, as the final bit will take in the realm of 45
minutes for the final climb.

Today's Trivia Question:
Who are the only two riders to win a stage atop Mt. Ventoux and win the
Tour in the same year?

Under the 20 km to go.  The roadway pitched upwards about a  kilometer
ago, and so far no one is bleeding from their ears.  Nothing to do but
climb, as there's a hearty 7.5% average gradiant before them.  Tuck it
in boys, nothing but pain lies before you.

Tidbit - the summit of Ventoux was actually deforested abou 400 years
ago, to build ships.  The most barren sections of it are actually a scar
of what was then heavy industry.

Christian Moreni ups the pace a bit and pops Velo, Auge and a few others
off the back of the breakaway group. Virenque, Botcherov, Baranowski,
Serpellini, Hushovd, Pradera manage to move up with him, and the gap is
down to about 7 minutes. Moreni quickly suffers for his early exuberence
as Baranowski sets a faster pace up into the
forested-but-not-shaded-on-the-roadway section. He's not losing sight of
the others, yet...

Behind them, the peloton has split - the gapped riders unfortunately
including Laurent Jalabert, clearly having a bit of a down day after his
huge efforts on the previous days.  Hincapie and Landis drive the pace
up at the front, with Armstrong now only 6:20 behind and eating into the
gap.

Behind them, a typical them begins playing - contenders, pretenders and
domestiques begin to jettisoned off the back of  the group in earnest.
Dario Frigo gets ousted along with Christophe Moreau.  Hincapie comes
back as his pull up front ends.

Up front Botcharov stiffly raises the cadence, Virenque, Serpellini,
Pradera have the the gumption to regroup with him.  Zipper completely
undone, Virenque climbs in a labored manner, but is staying at the front
of the four man split. The steeper part of the climb is causing a ball
of fat to appear at the back of the Frenchman's neck, and he gets out fo
the saddle to keep the pedals moving.  All four move upwards, and no one
looks good.

Landis now drops away from the lead of the climbers, taking with him
Laurent Brochard and a few others.

Chechu Rubiera takes over the climb, Lance in his hip pocket.  Joseba
Beloki and some sufferin' Spaniards are in the group, hoping to hold his
wheel, but they don't yet look like they are under devastating
pressure.  Others aren't so lucky, as David Millar now drops back into
the motorized vehicle section.

Actually, that last statement is proving to beg less accurate: the
Armstrong group has shunted off Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano - Beloki,
Roberto Heras, Santiago Botero, Ivan Basso, and Raimondas Rumsas all
remain in the bunch as the gap drops down to 5:22.  ONCE's Jose Azevedo
had hit them with an accelleration, but he now drifts back, having
succeeded only in sawing his teammate off the back.


The peloton is nonexistent as climbers and would be hopefuls  litter the
roadway.  The largesr groups might contain 7 or 8 riders.  Bobby Julich
is off and away among the team cars. Others will follow.

Virenque is sweating buckets of water, but seeming to stumble less over
the pedals.  He hits it hard for eight or ten pedal strokes and moves
away from Botcharov, but only gains 20 meters.  Botcharov raises his
pace a bit and tries to make a fight out of it for a while - but
Virenque's pace soon gains him a solid minute lead.  The lanky Frenchman
now has a 5:10 gap over the Armstrong group and only about 10 km to the
summit. He looks a little better now, though by no stretch of the
imagination is he riding with ease.

Heras strangley drops away from the front, after Rubiera drifts back
from his pull.  ONCE's Azevedo and Beloki remain in the group with
Rumsas and Basso.  That puts Armstrong alone for the first time in this
tour.  Water bottles from the roadside are passed through the leaders,
and the water showered among them.

Oscar Sevilla has found a more effective cadence after drifting away
earlier as well, and manages to pass a dropping and increasingly
drooping teammate Botero.

Virenque at just over 9 km, all elbows and knees - once again working
the climbing style that gained him 5 (or was it 6?) KoM jerseys in the
past.  His arms seem about as thin as his bicycle's stem. But, he's
finding a rhythm and clearly buoyed by crowd's exhaltations.

Behind him, the Armstrong group captures Auge, and run up on Marco
Velo.  The gap to Virenque now down to 4:41 as 8 km's remain.

As if appearing out of the rocks themselves, Ivan Gotti and Levi
Leipheimer have found their gumption again, and ride an ever-increasing
cadence - fighting their way back up to the front.  Without the impetus
of the USPS mountain men, the gap has not been decreasing against
Virenque, and others are probably getting the word that they are no
longer dropping back.  Beloki sits behind Azevedo, and riders in the
group move in a disorganized fashion.

Beloki puches it!  Armstrong is stuck behind Azevedo and another rider,
and has to slow and loop around the long way as Beloki moves up the
roadway.  No one else in the group can even try to think about raising
the pace.  But, Armstrong  has reacted immediately, to the move.
Armstrong comes quickly onto his wheel and fires past him. Out of the
saddle, the accelleration visibly breaks Beloki's rhythm.  Armstrong
continues to distance the would-be attacking Spaniard.

Y'know, one phrase comes to mind...."Don't make me angry - you wouldn't
like me when I'm angry..."

Beloki had brass ones to try that attack, but Armstrong now sits up the
road and cranks over a beautiful cadence, seated and moving hard to
climb towards Virenque.  There's a posted gap of 4:00 or so, but he's
just flying as he drops into a cadence of pure speed.  Beloki managed to
drop himself into the salad shooter and bits of him seem to hover in the
air as he has trouble remaining in three dimensions. He has a curl in
his upper back and shoulder blades that looks distinctly unhealthy.

Up towards the summit, Virenque seems to be beyond sweating as he moves
up among the rocks and increasingly insane fans.  He rolls under the 4
km to go banner.  Head bobbing all over the roadway, he continues to
lurch out of the saddle,  trying to keep it moving forward.  About 10
seconds later Lance rolls under the 5 km banner -  a bit more than a km
behind him.  Midway in the cogset, mind you, seated and just hammering.
Virenque has been away for 193 kilometers. But it's the next four that
will either make or break his efforts.

Beloki, Azevedo, Mancebo, Basso, Rumsas have grouped together.  They
have lost a minute as of right now, and there's a bit more up to the
stage.  Baranowski has now been caught by Armstrong.   There's still
roughly two km's to go for Virenque, and he just might have started with
enough time to pull this one off!

ONCE's Pradera somehow continues managing to make pace for his teammate,
Beloki, who has finally dragged himself up to the former breakaway
rider.

Virenque suffers inito the barriers - he'd cut off his arm right now if
he thought it would lighten his load enough.  Armstrong now 3:13 back -
riding along at 17 mph.

Pradera has lost contact with the chasing group, but looks up through
his delerium and sees that team leader Beloki also drifted away. Pradera
again fires ahead of Beloki to try pace his leader along.  Someone give
that man a raise.

Can Lance make up 1 in 1? Armstrong rides under the 2km, as Virenque
just manages to make  the 1 km banner.  Virenque is pedaling squares and
would pay anything for a 28T cog. Beloki has crumbled, lurching across
the roadway. Somewhere in the distance, he is sure that a Flamenco band
is playing a tune he remembers from childhood. Rumsas continues to
hammer out his climbing cadence, dropping everyone except for Basso, who
knows he must cling to the purple and pink clad rider in front of him.

Virenque can tell he can win, if he can dispell the pain for just a
couple more minutes - 6000 foot altitude makes  for thin air, and he
turns his lips inside out to gain more.  If he had a free hand, he'd
probably cut himself an esophogeal airway.  But, he smells it now!
Somehow he has managed to come to his 5th Tour Victory in his 10th
tour.  He throws himself around the steep final switchback - the final
step in a 200 km breakaway, and Richard Virenque finishes with a salute
to the sky. Somewhere in the last couple minutes, he even managed to zip
up his jersey.

Though he will not catch Virenque, Armstrong continues to increase time
over almost every other rider. Botcharov has somehow survived in the gap
to take second place - hits the last little sharp switchback and worms
his way up the roadway to finish 1:57 back, but followed immediately by
Armstrong!

Marco Serpelli arrives followed by the serious GC contenders - Raimondas
Rumsas tows Ivan Basso up to the finish, then pops ahead squeezing out
the last few seconds which may make a difference for him in the coming
days.  Mancebo comes across, then finally Beloki is paced in 4:05 behind
the winner.

Levi Leipheimer finishes a strong 4:26 down on the day, followed by the
heretofore invisible Ivan Gotti of Allessio.  Tyler Hamilton crosses at
7:09, off the pace, but ahead of Sastre.  Down the roadway, Santiago
Botero is crushed - again crouched low on the bike, his big shoulders up
around his ears - now he'll come in just over 15 minutes down.

Virenque stands on the podium with nothing behind him but the clouds and
sky, as he climbed to the heavens - aided no doubt by an 8 minute
headstart.

Quote of the Day:
"It wasn't very hard before he attacked, so I decided to start the race
then..." Lance Armstrong.
(when asked about Beloki's move on the slopes of Ventoux).

Stage 14 - Lodeve to Mt. Ventoux
1- Richard Virenque - Domo
2 - Alexandre Botcharov @ 1:58 - Ag2R-Prevoyance
3 - Lance Armstrong @ 2:20 - USPS
4 - Marco Serpellini @ 2:54 - Lampre
5 - Raimondas Rumsas @ 3:36 - Lampre
6 - Ivan Basso @ 3:39 - Fasso Bortolo
7 - Francisco Mancebo @ 3:51 - iBanesto.com
8 - Joseba Beloki @ 4:05 - ONCE
9 - Dariusz Baranowski @ 4:10 - iBanesto.com
10 - Ivan Gottti @ 4:16 - Alessio

GC -
Malliot Juane - Lance Armstrong
2 - Joseba Beloki - 4:21
3 - Raimondas Rumsas - 6:39
4- Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano - 7:04
5 - Francisco Mancebo - 10:49
6 - Jose Azevedo - 10:57
7 - Roberto Heras - 11:35
8 - Oscar Sevilla - 12:45
9 - Levi Leipheimer - 12:54
10 - Richard Virenque - 13:12


Today's Trivia Answer:
Eddie Merckx 1970
Charly Gaul in 1958


Tomorrow - REST DAY

Tuesday - Stage 15 - Vaison la Romaine to Les Deux Alpes - 226.5 km
This year's longest stage, covering a succession of  7 categorized
climbs.  Although the only Category 1 is the finishing climb - up  11
km, average 6.5% gradiant Les Deux Alpes.  There's a steady diet of 2's
and 3's, but this entire stage could almost seem to be a warmup for
Wednesday, when the riders encounter the Col du Galibier, Col de la
Madelaine and La Plagne - all three HC climbs...  Still, it will be a
long, hot day in the saddle.  I would expect we shall be less one or two
riders after the devastating climb of Ventoux.