[Tour 2005]Stage 19 - Issoire - Le Puy en Velay

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Fri, 29 Jul 2005 23:06:36 -0500


Stage 19 - Issoire - Le Puy en Velay 153 km
The shortest road stage comes the day before the Saturday's individual
time trial. Still there is little to chear about, as the ribbon of the
roadway negotiates 5 categorized climbs and two more sprint points.
Althrough nothing is worse than a Cat2, there seems to be virturally
flats to be found. A descent to the finish may give another
opportunistic breakaway the chance to shine again.

Although Rabobank's Michael Rasmussen has clinched the KoM Jersey, the
Green Points Jersey is still mathematically up for grabs, with enough
points that Thor Hushovd's grip on it can be loosened.

The scenario of an early breakaway has once again been played out, but
this time, the gaps have not formed.

Phonak's Oscar Pereiro, T-Mobile's Guiseppe Guerini and FDJ.com's Sandy
Casar head over the second climb of the day in that order, then buck it
up and try to hold their advantage. They become a quartet when Franco
Pellizotti from Liquigas hammers across the gap to join them.

They've set a particularly torrid pace - 41.6 km per hour for the first
hour.

Behind them by about 50 seconds is a motivated chase group with CSC's
Kurt-Asle Arveson, Phonak's Bert Grabsch, Fassa Bortolo's Juan Antonio
Flecha, Lampre's Salvatore Commesso, Domina Vacanze's Alessandro
Bertolini, Discovery's Jose Azevedo, Rabobank's Pieter Weening, Cofidis'
Sylvan Chavanel, FDJ.com's Carlos da Cruz, who really must be a coffee
achiever to put himseslf in yet another breakaway.

Of course, the chasing bunch contains riders which will tend to favor
FDJ.com, although did manage to blow it with two riders in the final
break in an earlier stage. Phonak will also end up with two riders if
they reform into a larger breakaway. We shall see today how that helps
both groups. .

Although they seemed interested in keeping them in check, the Discovery
team now throttles back a bit at the head of the peleton, allowing the
breakaway to push out into the neighborhood of 3 minutes.

The Cat 2 climb of Col des Pradeaux begins to sink its teeth into
Commesso's thighs, and he decides to celebrate by jumping away from his
companions.

Bertolini cannot stay attached with the accelleration, while the
combined efforts of Da Cruz and Flecha keep everyone else honest on the
way up.

Arvesen works on his international interpersonal communication skills,
trying to convince everyone else that they want to work harder.
Although he again goes to the front and sets the pace, it looks like
everyone has been told not to work. Either that or the previous few
throusand kilometers which everyone has in their legs has begun to take
their toll.

Gerolsteiner's Peter Wrolich coasts along next to the race doctor, who
tries to see just what got into his eyeball.

Up front Commesso hammers, lifting his stocky body out of the saddle and
muttering in odd colloquial tongue, trying to hack down the gap to the
foursome out front.

Word comes through that Cofidis' Stuart O'Grady has been suffering with
some intenstinal difficulties - not perhaps the best way to recover today.

Despite his efforts, Commesso is swept up by the remainder of the chase
group - Weening, Da Cruz, Arvesen, Azevedo and Grabsch, who continue to
cut down the difference to the leaders.

The lead foursome hit the top of the worst climb on the day, with
Pereiro taking the unfortunately useless KoM points. 83 or so kilometers
to the finish. They have, however, edged their lead out to about 3:35
over the main bunch. Arvesen continues to set the pace in the chase
group, but they don't seem to be capable of nicking under the 2 minute
mark in their efforts.

We get a chance to view the slow daance of the feed zone, as Discovery
riders swap sandwiches and see what goodies everybody got. As they slip
food into pockets and munch away, they continue to lose time, sliding
back to 6 minutes in fairly short order. Discovery seems very interested
in being disinterested, and they lollygag at the front as another minute
gets added to the gap. Those folks crunching the numbers begin to
realize that if Pereiro maintains the gap, Vinokourov, Floyd Landis and
Cadel Evans will all get pushed down a spot. That might actually wake
some folks up.

The case group has swollen once again, with those dropped riders
regaining the shelter of the bunch. They'd pretty much have to get off
their bikes and dance a pirouette to get caught - the peleton shuffles
at 8:41, pushing Oscar Pereiro into 7th place on the roadway.

Fifth place Francisco Mancebo kicks the spurs into his teammates, and
the colorful jerseys of Illes Baleares begin to lift the pace, to see if
they can reduce the 8:53.

In the chase group, Commesso again hammers away, but cannot muster
escape velocity and the other riders lock in behind him. As the road
pitches upwards a bit, some members ot he bunch slide away. His efforts
lead the chase bunch to lop off about 20 seconds by the time they hit
the summit. Comemesso notches it up again and the other riders seem
almost ready to let him go off again. No one really wants to drag this
versatile and explosive rider up to the finish line.

Chop-chop-chop.... the gap from the leading four to the peleton drops
suddenly to 7 minutes. The topography begins to undulate a bit before
the screaming and somewhat tricky descent into the finishing town, and
the gaps accordian a bit while the leaders hit the hills and the chasers
enjoy a bit of the gravity push.

Commesso-commesso-commesso... pulses away, gestures at his lackadasical
fellow-travelers and tries to spur something, anything, but again it
falls to naught. I hope he doesn't take it personally. I don't think
I've ever seen a group fracture and reform so many times.

In contrast, the four riders off the front give an exhibition of a
small-scale team time trial. The foursome plays through the last sprint
point of the day - Bellevue (although it _is_ tempting to type
Belleville...) which finds Pereiro nicking a quick 6 second bonus. He is
line hungry today.

6:50 behind the leaders, the peleton follows behind the efforts of Lotto
and Gerolsteiner.

Commesso...oh never mind...

Another Commesizaton at the 25 km to go banner, and one of the chasers -
Chavanel, Da Cruz or Flecha - takes a quick swat at some wine-laden
spectators who had wandered out pretty m8uch directly in front of him.
He ziggs at the same moment, narrowly avoiding a silly trajedy. This
time Commesso stays ahead for a bit longer, gets joined by Chavanel and
Arvesen. They rotate a bit, but Grabsch and Portal reconnect without
undo effort. Grabsch of course won't work a speck as his man is away up
front, which may doom this effort again. But, they are at least close
enough to the finish for them to think seriously about maintaining the
effort.

The leaders begin to sweep down the final bits, coming under the 5 km to
go banner. Everyone begins to eye one another a bit as gravity swings
them down and riders suck the last gulps from their bottles and toss
them aside. Pellizotti looks like the youngster in the group, but he's a
pretty savvy rider with some decent speed. Pereiro must be a bit
conflicted, as he wants the break to maintain time (as he is in 10th now
on the roadway - the peleton about 5:50 back), but he would certainly
enjoy taking another stage. In fact, he's almost exactly in the same
position as Cadel Evans was when Pereiro swung around him to take the
stage.

Guerini fires up the road from the last position in the bunch, and the
other three just look at each other and say "DOH!". He's got a strong
gap and begins metabolizing pieces of his lungs. He takes another look
back in the heat waves and sees nothing but cars and crowds. Guerini's
effort began a good 1400 meters from the line. An absolute textbook
attack to win!

In the chase bunch, Commesso - no, I'm not making this up - moves at
precisely the same spot as Guerini to take fifth place absolutely
uncontested from the lolly-gaggers who accompanied him.

Cofidis' Cedric Vasseur and Matthew White make a strong tempo for the
bunch, who now are sprinting for 14th place - Robbie McEwen appears
suddenly around the last corner and just beats Thor Hushovd to the line
snaggin just one pont back from the big Norwegian in the Points
competition. I wonder if he thinks back to that early stage where he
became entangled with O'Grady as they fought to the line. With those
points, he may well have been in the Green...


Stage 19 - Results -
1 - Giuseppe Guerini - T-Mobile - 3:33:04
2 - Sandy Casar - FDJ.com - +:10
3 - Franco Pellizotti - Liquigas-Bianchi - s.t.
4 - Oscar Pereiro - Phonak - +:12
5 - Savatore Commesso - Lampre - +2:43
6 - Kurt-Asle Arvesen - CSC - +2:48
7 - Nicolas Portal - Ag2R - s.t.
8 - Bert Grabsch - Phonak - s.t.
9 - Sylvain Chavanel - Cofidis - s.t.
10 - Pieter Weeningportal - Rabobank - 3:50
11 - Jose Azevedo - Discovery - 4:21
12 - Carlos Da Cruz - FDJ.com - s.t.
13 - Juan Antonio Flecha - Fassa Bortolo - s.t.
14 - Robbie McEwen - Lotto - 4:31
15 - Thor Hushovd - Credit Agricole - s.t.




General Classification - After Stage 19
MJ - Lance Armstrong - Discovery - 81:22:19
2- Ivan Basso - Team CSC - +2:46
3- Michael Rasmussen - Rabobank - +3:46
4 - Jan Ullrich - T-Mobile - +5:58
5 - Francisco Mancebo - Illes Balears - +7:08
6 - Levi Leipheimer - Gerolsteiner - +8:12
7 - Cadel Evans - Lotto - +9:49
8 - Alexandre Vinokourov - T-Mobile - +10:11
9 - Floyd Landis - Phonak - +10:42
10 - Oscar Pereiro - Phonak - +12:39
















Tomorrow's Stage -
Stage 20 - Individual Time Trial - St. Etienne 55.5 km
A technical route with climbs.... hmmmm, whose strengths does that play
to? With no win in a road stage, Armstrong will be motivated to show
that he is the strongest rider. No better place to throw it down than
the twisty tough Time Trial. There can't be much time spent going
straight, and I cannot recall a "flat" TT which actually had in it a
Cat3 climb.

Of course, the other critical time gaps will be from Ullrich to
Rasmussen, and you can cover 5th place Francisco Mancebo through 9th
place Floyd Landis with about 3 and a half minutes. Over this course,
it's all a possibility. For a wealth of riders, this absolutely will be
the "race of truth."

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