[Tour 2004]Stage 15 - Valreas to Villard de Lans

[tour-junkie]

Stage 15 - Valreas to Villard de Lans - 180.5 km
To the Alps, to the Alps.  Clean cows, wildflowers, and that Von Trapp
family wandering around singing. We begin 4 hard days in the Alps.  7 big
climbs will test the riders, and as others have observed, the Alps are
different than the Pyrenees.  Near the middle of the stage, the riders will
hit the Category 2 Col des Limouches - almost 11 km at 6.3% average - and
then they go immediately up the Category 1 Col de l'Echarasson, 12 km at
7.4%.  Three categorized climbs follow even that effort, and there will be
much to monitor on these little-travelled climbs.


The race will finish above Grenoble.  480 miles to go to Paris.  I'm still
trying to figure out just how Roberto Heras has ended up 27-odd minutes down
on Lance Armstrong.

Euskatel's Iban Mayo has looked into the mirror and found nothing. CSC's
Jakob Piil is paying for his earlier aggressiveness and the worsening
condition of a sore knee.  Neither rider have taken the start line today.

The early climbs have provided a flurry of attacks, of which Rabobank's
Michael Rassmussen and our-boy-in-polka-dots, Richard Virenque are the
remaining escapees with a 3:11 over the Armstrong group.  There are stray
riders strung between those two groups, but now that the more serious peaks
of the second half of the race are taking their toll and sending them
backwards. 

Ullrich has attacked on the vicious Col de l'Echarasson!

After a  bit of softening up by T-Mobile teammates Guiseppe Guerini and
Andreas Kloeden, Jan Ullrich has kicked up his heels and moved away from the
Armstrong bunch.  Taking a look behind, he sees that Armstrong is not
reacting.  He gains 20 seconds almost immediately, as the big German climbs
with exceptional power.

The accelleration chops off Francisco Mancebo and puts the Mailliot Juane
way off the back.  This attack has come with 36 miles to go, over a
difficult, but not exceedingly steep climb.

In the chase group, no panic shows in the USPS camp as Floyd Landis pulls
Jose Azevedo and Armstrong along. Behind him, Ivan Basso & Carlos Sastre,
Andreas Kloeden (who has left some hip skin on the roadway already today),
Rabobank's Levi Leipheimer, Saeco's Marius Sabaliauskas.

Virenque and Rassmussen  go through the crest, followed by Laurent Brochard
and Jens Voight about 30 seconds back.

Lance barely seems to be breathing hard, while up front, Ullrich is sucking
in everything he can get.  However, Ullrich is making some serious gains on
the bunch.  He's spit on the fire and called in the dogs - whether because
he feels he can crack this race apart for himself or to launch his teammate
Kloeden is not particularly clear just yet.  It does seem a long way out to
be trying this move, although the remaining climbs are the type which
Ullrich can conquer.

Jens Voight has totally sat back and is practicing his track stand up ahead
of the Armstrong group - clearly ordered to wait for his teammate Basso.

Ullrich  has caught Laurent Brochard who drops into his slipstream.  There
too is Santos Gonzalez, who has managed to keep the German in his sights.
The hard efforts have so far netted him 40 seconds.  The big question - if
indeed this is for Ullrich himself - is how much will be gained at what
cost.

The gap sits now at 35 seconds, and the Armstrong group has swollen with the
stragglers who have been scooped up by their increased pressure.

The yellow Jersy has found some teammates to lead his group, but seems to be
struggling more than in previous stages.

Ullrich, Brochard and Gonzalez scream down the descent and set up for the
last two climbs of the day - a pair of Category 2 climbs that aren't
particularly heinous. As soon as the topography flattens, Ullrich again
drives the pace, but it will be all for naught. They are caught on the
straight road which connects them to the final stretches of the stage.

27 km to ride.

The accelleration in pursuit of Ullrich has opened 5 and a half minute gap
to the main bunch which contains the Yellow Jersey, which has shifted the
"virtual" jersey to the shoulders of Lance Armstrong.

Other victims of the increased effort include the aforementioned Mancebo,
plus  Georg Totschnig of Gerolsteiner and Sandy Casar from La Boulangerie,
who could not stay attached either. Roberto Heras and Gilberto Simoni have
not elected to invest the effort to stay in contention with the lead group.

Things have calmed down as the lead pair go up the Col de Chalimont - a 10.3
km climb of 5.8%.  Among the members of the chasing group, former USPS rider
Christian Vandevelde, who now rides for Liberty, benefits from his presence
in the earlier break.

Of course, as soon as I write that, Vandevelde drifts out the back of the
bunch, unable to match pace as the Armstrong group ticks out a climbing
cadence.

Somewhere in the excitement, Domina Vacanze rider Paolo Valoti has abandoned
the race.

The Landis-led chase group has eased up to around 30 seconds, and there's
still a bit to go before the crest of this hill.

We find Voeckler struggling along behind the peloton, team manager alongside
to see if there's anthing which can be done.  Unless he has some lucky
yellow shoes he can put on to match his socks, shorts, helmet, gloves and
jersey.... 

Leipheimer moves ahead as they near the Virenque/Rassmussen pair.  There are
16 km to go, and after taking a quick look back, Leipheimer hunches down and
makes another accelleration, leaving behind his teammate.

In the chase group, Landis finds an easier gear and drifts back a touch.  As
they begin to tighten the straps to hike back up to Levi, first Brochard and
then Voight begin to fall back into the trailing gap. It looks like
Sabaliauskas has become detached as well.

This time Sastre winches back the escaped Santa Rosa boy.  The lead group
rides up reasonably narrow roads, zipping along quite quickly having been
reduced to 8 riders.  They have found themselves just over 7 minutes ahead
of the main bunch. 

Kloeden now drifts back to chat with the team car, then zips up to the bunch
again.  As the lead group nears the crest of the climb, Virenque
materializes again and grabs the KoM points. A narrow and twisty descent now
lies before the riders, as they array themselves into a single file line.
Behind them, the bunch now hovers at 7:31.

Michael Rasmussen and Jens Voight have scorched the descent and slide up on
the back of the breakaway bunch.  The riders pass under the 10 km to go
banner at an incredible pace.  Now, much to my chagrin as I can't easily
type his name, Sabaliauskas punishes himself to regain the bunch.  As soon
as Voight gets himself to the front, he starts chopping out a relentless
rhythm, leaving Sabaliauskas to suffer over a probably insurmountable gap of
tarmac.  

The riders turn right into town and run out of through twisty bits of
roadway, Voight and Sastre gunning it on the front and Rassmussen straining
to keep attached at the back.

They make a left hand turn while Armstrong slips to the back of the bunch to
watch how things unfold.  Voight continues to bury himself, followed
immediately by Azevedo and Leipheimer.  They hit the steepest bit of the
climb at 2 km to go - the first part is 9%.  Sastre tumbles out the back,
and Voight becomes unstuck.  Azevedo drifts away and Rassmussen gets left.
Now even Virenque has been cast off.

Five riders remain. Kloeden is tapping out the pace at the front, followed
immediately by Ullrich and Basso.  Ullrich has notched himself into his big
ring and is ready to leap form his tactical position at the second to last
int he bunch.  Leipheimer is right on the rivet at the tail of events.

Armstrong is out of the saddle and dancing, moving easily, he takes look
back as he hears the increased breathing of Leipheimer.

500 meters to go

Leipehimer has been nicked off the back and four remain moving together.
Kloeden looks back to see who is left, but doesn't stop setting the torrid
pace. 

Now Basso goes hard and things start to happen extremely fast - behind the
Italian, Ullrich seems to be slightly boxed between the barriers on his
right and Armstrong on his left.  Armstrong kicks it up a couple notches and
moves quickly past the accellerating Basso, who zips over to grab his wheel.
Ullrich suddenly finds himself slightly gapped, and then totally on the
wrong side of the final sweeping left hand turn, as Armstrong sweeps through
it and moves wide, leaving the German nowhere to go and with nothing to
show.  

Armstrong takes a quick look back to see a good slug of pavement between him
and the earlier attacking German.  If anything, he seems to accellerate even
more, knowing that his adversary is behind and the Yellow Jersey lies before
him. He punches the air emphatically, clearly
pleased with his efforts.

Stage 15 Results - 
1 - Lance Armstrong - USPS - 4:40:30
2 - Ivan Basso - CSC - s.t.
3 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - :03
4 - Andreas Kloeden - :06
5 - Levi Leipheimer - Rabobank - :13
6 - Richard Virenque - :48
7 - Michael Rassmussen - Rabobank - :49
8 - Jens Voight - 1:04
9 - Carlos Sastre - CSC - 1:24

The wreckage rolls in - Julich, Chavanal, Guerini and a group come through
8:45 behind the leading group.

Moving up the final bits of the climb alone, Thomas Voeckler hits the final
turn and rolls through the line 9:30 back. He has finished his reign in
Yellow for this Tour.

Lance will put on his 61st Yellow Jersey, putting him third in the "quantity
count" in the history of the Tour, behind Eddy Merkcx and Bernard Hinault.

Onstage for the second time today, Armstrong pulls on his 61st career Yellow
Jesey - The Lion and bouquet go skyward and the crowd goes utterly and
thoroughly nutty - you can hear the chant of "Lance, Lance, Lance!" build up
in the air as he shakes hands with the dignitaries on the side of the stage.

Thomas Voeckler pulls on the other jersey has has held - the White Jersey
for the best young rider.

General Classification:
MJ - Lance Armstrong - USPS
2 - Ivan Basso - CSC - 1:25
3 - Andreas Kloeden - T-Mobile - 3:22
4 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Baleares - 5:39
5 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - 6:54
6 - Jose Azevedo - USPS - 7:34
7 - Georg Totschnig - Gerolsteiner - 8:19
8 - Thomas Voeckler - La Boulangerie - 9:28
9 - Pietro Caucchioli - Alessio - 10:10
10 - Levi Leipheimer - Rabobank - 10:58

Individual Time Trial - L'Alpe D'Huez - 15.5 km
Nowhere to hide on this climb.  780 meters elevation to 1850 meters at the
finish. The classic 21 switchbacks, ridden one rider at a time. You do the
math - remember to multiply by three when you're done to get a rough idea of
feet climbed. For the locals, it's like doing a time trial up Mount
Tamalpais - well I guess if you add a couple hundre more feet of elevation.
You know that this stage will weigh on everyone's mind for tonight. The big
men will cry and even the bird boned boys will suffer to the last moment.

I'm sorry to say, the Alp D'Huez time trial will  be the final "real-time"
report of this year - I need to pick up the tent for a few days, which due
to Circumstances Beyond My Control, will take me away from the live feed for
one epic Alps stage, one epic Time Trial, and a Potentially Never Before
Seen Celebration in Paris.  Remember to agitate at your local sports bar or
coffee shop to get the channel changed.
  
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