[Tour 2004]Stage 11 - Saint-Flour to Figeac

[tour-junkie]

Here's something to try on your next club ride - yesterday's stage
averaged over 40 km/hour through the 148 miles of racing.

The two riders who went down yesterday will not start today -

Matthias Kessler of T-Mobile will not be around to assist Jan Ullrich,
as his high-speed horrific folding his body around a fence post broke a
rib. Stunningly, he did manage to finish the stage.

Sebastian Hinault fractured his 5th lumbar vertabrae in yesterday's crash.

In other sad news, Tyler Hamilton's longtime companion, Tugboat the
labrador had to be put to sleep - he'd been having some health issues.
During last year's Tour, when Tyler suffered with his broken collarbone,
Tugboat and his wife Haven stayed by him in the hotel, and he'd credited
the dog with keeping him calm during the trying times. Tyler had written
about Tugboat a great deal in his online and print columns as well. As
someone who is pretty dog-crazy himself, my thoughts are with him and
hope that Tugboat is enjoying the rabbits and smells in doggy heavan.

In better news, Levi Leipheimer has been announced as the US rider who
will replace Lance Armstrong in the Olympics.

Stage 11 - Saint-Flour to Figeac - 164 km
What this day lacks in distance it definitely makes up for in change of
elevation.  Although certainly not a "mountain stage", there will be
three factors which influence this stage.  First, there will be some
knackered legs after the efforts of Stage 10 - nine climbs do not simply
melt from the quads when you take a shower.  Second, the riders will
probably not see a flat stretch of roadway the entire day.  Third, Stage
12 will be on everyone's mind - it ends with two major climbs; Col
d'Aspin (12.5 km at an average of 6.3%) and La Mongie (15 km at an
average 8%).  So, it the right break gets away, they may find themselves
able to "pull a Virenque", but if any of the potential leaders twitch
towards the front, it could cause some hellish infighting.

A beautiful, hot day greets the riders today. Bastille day winner
Richard Virenque will begin the day in the polka dot Mountain Points Jersey.

Egol Martinez of Euskatel, David Moncoutie of Cofidis and the
ever-present Juan Antonio Flecha from Fassa Bortolo combined to make the
first break that stuck today, after seemingly everyone from every team
tried to get away from the bunch.  But, the leaders were having none of
that, putting riders on the front to pull everyone back, driving up the
average pace to more than 46 kph and putting everything ahead of
schedule by at least a half hour. But, for whatever reason, they all
liked this combination, and have yet to react strongly.

That means the triplets of Figeac have a gap of 6:47 with about 36 miles
to go, while the red and white jerseys of La Boulangerie  continue to
cook themselves to keep the yellow jersey on the shoulders of the
suprisingly tenacious Thomas Voeckler.

The leading troika does not seem impressed, however, as the lead pushes
out to 7:21 with about 30 miles left.

Cattle on the roadway slows down the bunch -- a group of 8 stocky cows
manage to split the bunch before they are herded off of the race route.
  No one other than the bovines make an attack, and everyone regains the
bunch with hopefully not too much "cow-output" on their tires.

It does seem that the peloton has not unfurled all of their sails today
- or maybe more appropirately, they have tucked a couple back in their
bins, clearly content to let things play out in the bunch of three who
are now more than 8 minutes away.

It will be interesting to see what happens on the last bits to the
finish today - yesterday's sharp climb to the line factored in
Armstrong's effort, and he nipped 7 seconds on Heras, Leipheimer, Basso
and Hamilton by being on the front of the gap which appearred on the
climb.  Today finishes with another climb (reportedly at 7.5%) to the
first-ever Tour finish in Figeac.

With 15 miles to go, little has changed in the gap. Personally, I'd like
to see either Martinez or Flecha take the win, as they both ride frames
which are not "compact". Fassa Bortolo rides Pinarello frames with the
"wiggly" fork and seat stays formed in carbon, while Euskatel-Euskadi
uses their Orbea frames made by the Basque cooperative - which do
actually make a compact frame, but Martinez is riding a more traditional
looking model. I dunno, but there's something about a top tube that runs
in a true horizontal line that gives a road machine its grace.

Of course, it is actually a bike race, and these leading three thump out
a tempo led by Flecha as they head over the Category 4 Cote de Bagnac.
The three riders eye one another and not-really-a-climber Flecha sets
the pace to discourage moves by the other two. No one decides to use the
  peak as a springboard to try a 9 mile breakaway.  The heat has
continued to mount and become oppressively humid, temps in the mid-80's,
and Moncoutie has formed a thin white mustache on his upper lip.

The Cote de Bagnac does manage to slice off about 15 or 20 riders
without too much as the main bunch keeps the pressure on.

Flecha rolls back just a bit and then fires away from his other riders.
  He  is immediately marked by Martinez - when Moncoutie rolls back up,
he swings out and goes hard.  The two Spaniards eyeball one another but
do not respond.  The textbook counterattack puts him immediately up the
roadway as you can literally see the other two riders deflate and begin
pedaling with gushy bananas in their legs.

The gap quickly becomes a minute and we have the possibility of two back
to back French victories for the first time in at least 10 years.  2.5
miles to go, Moncoutie pushes a huge gear on the slight downhill to
town, screaming under the 5 km banner in excess of 38 mph.  He has a
little finishing climb ahead of him in the final  kilometer, not enough
to even show on the profile, but that will be a moot point as the gap
has now pushed out to 1:40.

Under 1 km to go banner, around a couple sharp turns and with two or
three looks back, Moncoutie realizes he will not be caught and
celebrates his first ever stage vicotry before the extremely partisan
crowd.

The two Spaniards ride side by side up the incline to the finish before
Flecha drives away from Martinez as if he had a motor on board. They
cross the line a bit more than two minutes behind.

The peloton punches it through the town as T-Mobile works to set up Erik
Zabel.  Armstrong marks the move strongly as the sprinters remember what
they need to do and swarm after him.  As they hammer up the rise to the
finish, Gerolsteiner's Danilo Hondo feels he has the legs to take the
remaining spring points and makes a move on the inside of the curve.
Zabel responds instantly, but he's brought along a big Nordic shadow in
the shape of Thor Hushovd.  Hushovd punches out enough wattage to light
up 47 1/2 Christmast trees and moves cleanly ahead of Zabel, who in turn
has dropped Hondo.  From mid-pack, McEwen makes his trademark sudden
appearance in front of Hondo, but cannot catch the other two before he
runs out of racecourse.  Armstrong flows in right afer McEwen.

Zabel's finish moves him up within 9 points of McEwen's total in the
Green Points Jersey.  Both Zabel and O'Grady are capable of keeping in
contact as the roadway heads upward, and because of the way this year's
Tour route plays out, the threat of being dropped in the mountains may
play a larger part in who wears the Green Jersey in Paris.


Stage 11 Results -
1 - David Moncoutie - Cofidis - 3:54:58
2 - Juan Anonio Flecha - Fassa Bortolo - 2:15
3 - Igol Martinez - Euskatel-Euskadi - 2:17
4 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole - 5:58
5 - Erik Zabel - T-Mobile - s.t.
6 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto - s.t.
7 - Paolo Bettini - Quick-Step - s.t.
8 - Danilo Hondo - Gerolsteiner - s.t.
9 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - s.t.


General Classification After 10 Stages
1 - Thomas Voeckler - La Boulangerie - 46:43:10
2 - Stuart O'Grady - Cofidis - @3:00
3 - Sandy Casar - FDJeux.com - @4:13
4 - Richard Virenque - Quick-Step - @6:52
5 - Jakob Piil - CSC - @7:31
6 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - @9:35
7 - Erik Zabel - T-Mobile - @9:58
8 - Jose Azevedo - USPS - @ 10:04
9 - Jose Enrique Guiterrez - Phonak - @10:09
10 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Balears - @10:18
11 - Tyler Hamilton - Phonak - s.t.


Tomorrow's Stage -
Stage 12 - Castelsarrazin to La Mongie - 197.5 km
Things are heating up in the pain skillet, and everyone is going to get
a helping. A long steady gain in elevation for the first 150 odd
kilometers will let the riders duke it out for the two sprint points,
and then things kick up.  The Category 1 Col d'Aspin gains a couple
thousand quick feet, averaging 6.5% for the 12.3 km ascent.  Then as
soon as the riders drop down from that peak, they dive for the low gears
as they climb La Mongie - the "Hors Categorie" 1715 meter climb goes
upward for 12.8 km at an average of 6.8%.  Though this may not be a
decisive stage for the leaders, there will be nowhere to hide for the
pretenders.



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