[Le Tour 2003]Stage 10 - Rolling down to the Sea

[Tour Reporter]

Stage 10 - Gap - Marseille - 219 km

Today's stage begins with a video test pattern and tone, so it looks 
like there may be some time to kill...

Before the stage begins, some grisly details.

Beloki has reportedly broken his femur, wrist and finger.  It was a 
stunning and sad moment as he lay crumpled on the roadside.

The USPS had all scouted the Cat 2 Cote de St. Apollinaire which was 
decisive yesterday, they knew it had pitches which reached 15% - which
explains why it looked steep even on TV. Lance's reaction and 
cross-country jaunt on the downhill side came instantly - You can never 
train for something like that.

Only 172 riders remained at the end of yesterday's stage - obviously 
Beloki did not continue, but also turning in their numbers was Telekom's 
Andreas kloden, Alessio's Angelo Furlan, Saeco's Stefano Zanini, 
FDJ.com's Jimmy Caspar (whose neck must not have felt any better as the 
Alps took their toll), Credit Agricole's Lilian Jegou and Vini 
Caldirola's Eddy Mazzoleni, who rode an extremely strong Giro D'Italia 
this spring.

For those of your playing along at home, the previous stage's hit list 
is as follows:
Samuel Sanchesz - Euskatel-Euskadi - finished outside the time cut, Stage 8
Pierre Bourquenoud - Jean Delatour - Abandoned, Stage 8
Antonio Tauler - Kelme - Abandoned, Stage 8
Ignacio Gutierrez - Kelme  - Abandoned, Stage 8
Nicola Loda - Fassa Bortolo - Abandoned, Stage 8
Sven Montgomery - Fassa Bortolo - did not start, Stage 8
Volodymir Gustov - Fassa Bortolo - did not start, Stage 8
Aitor Gonzalez - Fassa Bortolo - did not start, Stage 8

Others who have hit the bus:
Jaan Kirsipuu - Ag2R - Abandoned, Stage 7
Jesus Manzano - Kelme - Abandoned, Stage 7
Marco Velo - Fassa Bortolo - Abandoned, Stage 7
Alessandro Petacchi - Fassa Bortolo - Abandoned, Stage 7
Luis Perez - Cofidis - Abandoned, Stage 7
Michael Rich - Gerolsteiner - Abandoned, Stage 7
Olaf Pollack - Gerolsteiner - Abandoned, Stage 7

===============
But things finally start, with the riders begining the day out of the 
Alps to the town of Marsailles on the coast of the Mediteranean.  The 
hazy but bright day begins in the 90's, with very high humidity.  It'll 
be a scorcher once again.

The first sprint points found Robbie Mcewen of Lotto-Domo just nicking 
Baden Cooke of FDJeux.com and Jean Delatour's Jean-Patrick Nazon. That 
puts him within two points of Cooke and the Green jersey.

By the time the riders had rolled down to the 2nd Sprint Point - snagged 
by Damien Nazon - a breakaway has clearly established themselves.

7 teams are still intact
171 - Stefano Garzelli of Vini Caldirola did not start today.

Other sufferin' riders include Santaiago Botero at 48:13 behind the 
leader, while Gilberto Simoni is 59 and some change in arrears.

A massive gap of 21:30 to the break, which contains:
43 - Bram de Groot - Rabobank
33 - Jose Vicente Garcia Acosta - iBanesto.com
58 - Fabio Sacchi - Saeco
64 - Philippe Gaumont - Cofidis
77 - Jacob Piil - CSC
102 - Jose Gutierrez - Kelme
142 - Serge Baguet - Lotto-Domo
186 - Damien Nazon - Brioches La Boulangere
193 - Rene Hasselbacher - Gerolsteiner

Another interrace competition they have created for the centenary tour 
is the best time into all of the "original" cities of the 1903 tour.
With the deaparture of Alessandro Petacchi, Baden Cooke has moved into 
the lead of this.

The gap moves out to 22:02.  The USPS must be loving it on this day of 
almost constant descending before tomorrow's rest day.  In fact, to say 
that the USPS is easing along would be a drastic understatement - they 
lead the bunch, but are actually passing out waterbottles which were 
just brought up from the car by Roberto Heras. They look as though they 
are just getting ready to start a short training ride.  There's still 
about 67 km to go, and the peleton have just brought the time gap under 
22 minutes.

====================
Today's Trivia Question:
In the history of the Tour, two riders won the best young rider and 
overall title in the same year, who were they?
--------------------

The last 25 km of today's race actually roll through the city of 
Marseille in a very twisting pattern that gets out to a very windy coast.

The breakaway rider continue working well together, rotating smoothly on 
the hot roads.

In the main group, Euskatel-Euskadi has jointed in the pacemaking, which 
seems to increase slightly as they hit slightly twistier roads.  One of 
their riders - Alberto de Munain - had a bit of an altercation about an 
hour ago, striking a young spectator who had dashed out on the course. 
Both hit the pavement, without lasting injuries to either.

The peleton finds a protest on the roadway, as the "temporary artists" 
conduct a mass lie down on the roadway. The peleton is stopped as the 
gendarmes and what looks to be French para-military forces lift the 
chanting protesters and attempt to disperse them back into the trees 
which line this stretch of roadway.  They are not dainty in this act. 
Riders come to a complete stop behind the official cars and motorcycles. 
  Gradually, the black-shirted, club-wielding squad establishes a line 
of defense and roll the protesters toward the gutter.

The name "Renee Jose Bovee" appears on a  banner streched above the 
route. Dunno if this has anything to do with the actual protest.

The riders now slip through on the left hand side and have moved up the 
roads, whether grateful for a slight distraction in the heat and 
humidity of a pokey day or simply annoyed that something is obstructing 
them from the stage-end shower and massage is unclear. Nevertheless, 
they are again underway.

The delay has added to the gap - now 23:47 - as a note, the longest 
successful breakaway in the Tour was 35:54.

Garcia Acosta rips up the roadway on the final cateorized climb of the 
day, drawing the attention of everyone else.  He keeps his head down 
after the KoM crest and moves away fromt he bunch with over 50 km to go 
in the stage.

He moved strongly and has established a 30 second gap over the breakaway 
ex-compatriots and it may be dropping slightly - but the big bunch is 22 
plus minutes behind. Into the outskirts of Marseille, sensing his gap 
slipping as he pushes hard under the 25 km to go banner.

Gilberto Simoni hugs his teammates' wheels on the absolute back of the 
bunch. He's rumored to be contemplating withdrawing after this stage.

The route begins to twist and the roads cut back on themselves, and 
Garcia Acosta is out of the sightline of his immediate chasers, which 
might be enough to get him across the line uncaught...

...and almost as soon as I type that, he's out on the highway, a wide 
straightening road where there's not a spot to hide.

The Euskatel-Euskadi led peleton has pushed the gap down to 16:41 - 
though there seems to be some problems with the timing system and that 
may not be accurate.

In the breakaway, the chasers dink around and attack one another, 
spinning off in pairs which eventually allow Fabio Sacchi to move away 
on a solo accelleration.  He's almost immediately snagged Acosta, but 
the other riders are a bit too wise to let him get away  and hustle back 
up to him.  The sprinters want to keep things together... oops!

Jacob Piil has moved away from the bunch - no attack; the lanky Danish
rider from CSC simply rode away from everyone.  Sacchi takes another 
fast move off the front, knowing the danger of letting this wiley rider 
to get away.  They are still on the highway, elevated above the port 
where all of the Mediterranean ferrys sound their klaxons to greet the tour.

Sacchi has moved most of the way across the gap, and there is 15 km to 
go.  He moves into Piil's slipstream and immediately crosses himself. 
The breakaway remnants again show a reluctance to attack, and the 
Piil/Sacchi pair increase their gap.

Now back down to water level, Sacchi and Piil trade off pulls with 12 km 
to go.  They have pulled out a 45 second gap.  Bram de Groot decides 
there's no point in sprinting for third and fires away.  10 km to go for 
the leaders, with the glorious blue sea just off their right shoulder.

de Groot is moving in his solo attack, up by 20 seconds from the 
steadily deflating breakaway and steadily stalking the leaders.

Crash in the Main field -

Padrnos seems to be involved. No footage from the race moto cameras, as 
all seem to have moved up to enjoy the coastline.  He is reported to be 
back on his machine and rejoining the peleton.

5 km to go, and the lead pair still work well together.  They are smart 
enough to keep the effort high in anticipation of tactical maneuvering 
and resultant slowing.

Under the 3 km to go banner. Through a couple sharp turns in relatively 
narrow roads. Now the two riders onlto the dead long straight and wide 
finish.

The two riders shake hands on an effort well done, clearly a "may the 
best rider win" offering after nearly 200 km out on the attack together.

But, it is an actual race, no? Under 1 km to go Piil takes over the the 
front, Sacchi has pushed him in front.  They begin soft-pedaling a bit 
and Piil takes a second to evaluate Sacchi's condition. He actually has 
a moment to take up his communications microphone and either ask a 
question or comment to the team director, Bjanrne Riis.  He may just be 
checking that de Groot is still safely in arrears, as there's no way he 
could see through the traffic which follows them.

Piil wisely rides up against the left hand barriers to force an attack 
to the windy side of the road. Sacchi prowls and Piil keeps looking back 
and listening for any hint of the first move as if they are riding a 
match sprint.  Suddenly Sacchi goes, moving out and around, driving hard 
for the line. Piil reacts strongly, gaining his slipstream.  You can see 
him gather himself, then Piil fires out to Sacchi's right, moving up 
smartly alongside.  They strain side by side, but Sacchi begins to run 
out of fuel and drops back as Piil surges. Piil takes it!

de Groot rolls through by himself, having just waiting a few seconds too 
long before starting his move to bridge.

In the last bunch of the breakaway, the riders switch and swarm, moving 
side by side to see who can gain the advantage.  Nazon starts from the 
front and none of the exhausted riders can come around him.

There are some other riders in this race.  Or, there is another race 
which rolls along a bit slower.  The size of the time gap allows the 
helicoptor cameras to concentrate on the beauty of the region, showing 
the incredible blue of the Mediterranean against the whitewashed 
foundations of ancient forts. We hear a post-race interview with Piil, 
who may have time to get his massage before the bunch arrives.

The big bunch - containing Padrnos, whose jersey side an back is roughed 
up quite a bit - moves into the broad, wide straightway to the finish.

At the head of the bunch is Cofidis' David Millar, who must think 
someone other than FDJeux.com's Brad McGee is on his wheel. 
Vini-Caldirola/Nor-Cal boy Fred Rodriguez has positioned himself well, 
as has Erik Zabel.  Millar finally peels off and McGee accellerates to 
warp speed, dragging teammate Baden Cooke in a textbook leadout.  Zabel 
nabs Cooke's wheel while McEwen moves up on the inside.  Rodriguez is 
boxed a bit between Zabel and McEwen.  Zabel begins his move, but can 
come no further up than midway on Cooke.  McEwen now threatens strongly 
on the inside, screamming up within a whisper of the barriers.  He draws 
up even with the supersonic Cooke.  They both lunge for the line - Cooke 
just nicks him!

Stage 9 - Results
1 - Jacob Piil - CSC - 5:09:33
2 - Fabio Sacchi - Saeco - s.t.
3 - Bram de Groot - Rabobank - @ :49
4 - Damien Nazon - Brioches La Boulangere - @ 2:07
5 - Rene Hasselbacher - Gerolsteiner - s.t.
6 - Philippe Gaumont - Cofidis - s.t.
7 - Serge Baguet - Lotto-Domo - s.t.
8 - Jose Vicente Garcia Acosta - iBanesto.com - s.t.
9 - Jose Gutierrez - Kelme - @ 5:06
10 - Baden Cooke - FDJeux - @ 21:23

Overall - No Change

Tomorrow's Stage -
None. Rest and Transfer to Narbonne, where the rides will start a 
relatively short 153 km stage on Thursday, to be followed on Friday by 
the first Individual Time Trial.


====================
Today's Trivia Answer:
Laurent Fignon - 1983
Jan Ullrich - 1997
--------------------


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