[Tour 2005]Stage 9 - Gerardmer - Mulhouse

[race-report@cyclofiend.com]

Stage 9 - Gerardmer - Mulhouse - 171km
Climbs leading to a real climb - the Cat 1 Le Ballon d'Alsace at an
average of nearly 7%. After the sharp descent, it's a steady descent to
the finish. There's no rest for the weary today, and it will be
interesting to see how things continue to shake out.

First off, Lance Armstrong said after yesterday's stage that neither he
or the team felt very good, and they had "some talking to do" last
night. You can read more into these things than necessary, and Armstrong
is nothing if not a master of deception and poker tactics. Nevertheless,
he was isolated on that last climb of the day, and had to watch attacks
from three T-Mobile riders in addition to other serious contenders.
Certainly, Armstrong played it cool and correct, reacting but not
overreacting. But what might have happened is that other riders may be
sensing a touch of weakness to exploit.

On the other side of the coin, this is exactly what T-Mobile said they
would do. It should not have come as a suprise to the Discovery squad.

On the roadways, wreckage has occurred over the first couple hours of
racing, and we find damage at the front as well, as Liquigas rider Dario
Cioni slips away from Polka-Dot wearin' Michael Rassmussen. Rasmussen
has been racking KoM points all morning.

The peleton some 8 minutes behind the Rabobank rider. In the middle is a
small group with Christophe Moreau from Credit Agricole,
Angel Viscioo of Liberty Seguros, Xabier Zandio of Illes Balears, Inigo
Landaluze from Euskatel-Euskadi, Phonak's Alexandre Moos and CSC's Jens
Voigt, who was the animator of the original attacks on the day. They
drift along about 5 minutes ahead of the peleton.

Rassmussen crests his fifth climb of the day, again taking maximum
points for hmself. The 1999 World Mountain Biking Champion continues to
tick easily up the incline. One should not discount the ability of a
successful offroad rider to push himself along alone at a high rate of
speed.

Today the Discovery team has shaken off the cobwebs and Lance is clearly
riding his own race.

Riding a less happy race is big Thor Hushovd, who has become unstuck and
gone adrift.

But there's more bad news about in the Daily Pelton today -

A silly little crash at the 4 km point took down several riders, but put
the big kabosh on Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano's chances this year - the
clearly on-form Liberty Seguros rider had a serious problem with his
tailbone or hip and could not even raise his leg over his bike to rejoin
the race.

The big German Jan Ullrich caused a panic by crashing on an early
descent. Never touted as an above average descender, he was able to get
himself back on the bike and rejoin his team to be escorted back up to
the bunch. As every news camera in cycledom focused in on his bloody
left thigh, Jan tucked himself back into the Discovery-led peleton.

CSC rider Dave Zabriske peeled his numbers off and slipped into the team
car, succumbing finally to the injuries he received after skipping along
the pavement during the Team Time Trial.

Saunier Duval rider Jose Gomez tangled with Salvatore Commesso in the
feed zone, dumping both riders, but ending Gomez' chances with a
probable broken collarbone.

Thus hopefully ends the day's series of unfortunate events....

Credit Agricole slides back a couple riders to keep Hushovd in touch
with the events of the day, because if the climbers don't try to blow
things apart on the steep climb still to come, there is a steady
downhill to the finish. This could be a sprint finish if the cards are
played cautiously today.

The Category 1 Ballon d'Alsace is the first mountain every climbed in
the Tour, first attempted in the race of 1905. Rassmussen continues to
ascend, all knees and bird-bones.

The Discovery-led peleton clinks along now 9:28 behind Rassmussen. Pavel
Padrnos punches his dance card and eases back to find the grupetto,
having thumped out Armstrong's climbing rythmn for much longer than one
would expect from such a big rider. Discovery's next line ease to the
front of events - George Hincapie and Chechu Rubiera lead Lance while
Yaraslav Popovych and Paolo Salvodelli sit right behind him.

Now that the climb has begun to bite, Moreau, Voigt and Vicioso have
clipped off the others in the bunch, though Vicioso staggers slightly
and then turns his ears inside out to find his own cadence, suddenly off
the back behind the other pair.

Moreau continues to set a strong pace upwards, and they hone in and
catch the almost forgotten Dario Cioni. He moves behind them almost as
fast as the spectators alongside the course.

Up front, Rassmussen floats out of the saddle with the posture of the
classic climbers. Suddenly, the barriers appear before Rassmussen and he
takes his final KoM points for the day.

The Discovery tempo is squeezing off rider after rider. Armstrong and
his teammates look calm and in control. Small groups band together to
find a common pace that will get them over the crest.

Now Moreau and Voigt crest the hill 4:20 behind Rassmussen.

The Armstrong-led peleton hit the mountain top 9:35 behind Rassmussen.

Rassmussen streaks down the descent at hair-raising speeds. Pedaling
hard in the biggest gear he can find, his textbook perfect line of
descent seems to be considerably faster than the chasing duo.

The roads begin level slightly and Voigt begins to show his stuff,
taking serious pulls with his massively powerful style. Voigt nips ahead
and rolls through the sprint point with 40 km to go. If they can
maintain even a minute over the chasing Armstrong group, the CSC rider
will take over the Yellow Jersey. Strategically, this is a nice move for
the Discovery squad, as Voigt will not be able to continue to hang on in
the big mountains which lie ahead, but CSC will have to put their noses
into the wind a bit more frequently in defense of it.

The Moreau/Voigt combine has chipped into the Rassmussen lead slightly,
but the gap still sits around 4 minutes. It's interesting to see a
"climber" continue to hold his gap on the flattening roads over such
powerful riders. But, Voigt's goal must be to put on a Yellow Jersey
this afternoon, and that requires him to only maintain less than 60
ticks of the clock over the big bunch.

As the bunch skims through town, Didier Rous clips a haybaled center
divider and punches all the air out of his lungs and leaves a bit of his
dermal layer as a gift to the town.

Up the roadway, Voigt skips over to the right hand side of hte roadway
and tears his rear wheel out of the drops. He's quickly met by the
mechanic who has him back on the road before you realize he'd stopped.

Rassmussen continues to increase his speed and thrums out a still-strong
cadence in what is beginning to look like a 167 kilometer breakaway. The
team car sneaks up next to him just to make sure he's got the fuel left
in the tank as they course under the 10 km to go banner.

He rides alone into the streets of Mulhouse, crowds increasing as he
ticks under the 4 km to go banner. He's passing through the kilometers
at time of one minute, 15 seconds. Try that on your next club ride. Oh,
don't forget to ride 168 kilometers first...

The long-awaited red kite flies tantalizingly ahead, now above, now
behind the hard-charging Danish rider. Michael Rassmussen pulls through
a chicane, checks one last time under his arm that no one has snuck up
behind. He rides against an unending wave of noise and spreads his arms
wide as he crosses the line - no photo finish for Rabobank today! Off
his bike afefter the finish, he holds his head in disbelief.

Back on the race coruse, Voigt and Moreau work as hard as they can to
get the maximum time gap to the peleton - Voigt trails Moreau and they
both bend every ounce of oomph out of their bodies. Moreau rolls over in
second place at 3:02, Voigt on his wheel. The countdown for Yellow begins.

The big bunch heads home with Cofidis sprinter Stuart O'Grady smartly
nabbing 4th place to. But when the clock stops exactly 3 minutes later,
it is too late to for Armstrong to hang onto the Jersey, and it moves
onto the shoulders of CSC rider Jens Voigt.


Stage 9 - Gerardmer - Mulhouse
1 - Michael Rassmussen - Rabobank - 4:08:20
2 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - +3:04
3 - Jens Voigt - CSC - s.t.
4 - Stuart O'Grady - Cofidis - +6:04
5 - Philippe Gilbert - FDJ.com - s.t.


GC - End of Stage 9
MJ - Jens Voigt - CSC - 32:18:23
2 - Christophe Moreau - Credit Agricole - +1:50
3 - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - +2:18
4 - Michael Rassmussen - Rabobank - +2:43
5 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +3:20

Tomorrow - First Rest Day

Tuesday - Stage 10
Grenoble - Courchevel - 192 km
One of the three true mountaintop finishes on this year's Tour. There
are a couple of sprint points tossed in there to mock the sprinters, but
there's a climb at around 118 kilometers - the Cat 1 Cormet de Roselend
which reaches 1967 meters, the climb to the tape at Courchevel, a 22 km
climb which averages a bit over 6% to the height of 2,000 meters. It's
not a steep climb, and might not be the best place for Armstrong to lay
down the gauntlet, but it will shake the shaken to the core. And you
think your Mondays are tough...



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