Bike World News

Cycling news, race results, new products, fitness, maintenance and more

Tour de France – Stage 11 Results

July 16th, 2008 by Ron Callahan 150 views No Comment

Today’s stage was 168km from Lannemezan to Foix. Despite being in the Pyrenees, the only significant climb of the day was the Category 1 Col de Portel.

The first hour of the race was fairly calm. The peloton stayed together through the first intermediate sprint at km 19.5, with Leonardo Duque (Cofidis) taking the points ahead of Thor Hushovd (Crédit Agricole) and Oscar Freire (Rabobank).

Thomas Voelker took advantage of the post-sprint chaos to sneak off of the front. A large group pursued and he and the group were recaptured at km 28.

At km 35, Kurt-Asle Arvesen (CSC-Saxo Bank) and Fabian Wegmann (Gerolsteiner) attacked and were soon joined by 11 others: Filippo Pozzato (Liquigas), Pierrick Fédrigo (Bouygues Telecom), Alessandro Ballan (Lampre), Alexandre Botcharov and Dmitriy Fofonov (Credit Agricole), Martin Elmiger (AG2R La Mondiale), Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank), Marco Velo (Milram), Benoît Vaugrenard (Française des Jeux), Gert Steegmans (Quick Step) and Amaël Moinard (Cofidis).

The break’s gap quickly grew to 3 minutes as they were setting nearly a 48 km/hr pace. Gert Steegmans dropped back into the peloton, which was letting the break run wild as there were no yellow jersey contenders in the bunch.

It was Pozzato, Velo and Moerenhout through the second intermediate sprint at km 69. At that point, the break enjoyed an 11 minute lead which bloomed to 14 minutes by km 92. Silence-Lotto and Garmin were sitting at the front of the peloton protecting their G.C. places, but weren’t expending an exceptional amount of energy.

Amaël Moinard decided that the break’s pace was not fast enough for him, so he decided to go out on his own at km 100. He was the first over the Col de Portel and led the rest of the break by nearly 2 minutes.

Back in the peloton, Oscar Pereiro (Caisse d’Epargne) attacked the peloton. He was able to get a 2 minute lead over the pack, but never caught the breakaway, which by this time was 12′45″ up the road.

As the race headed into Foix, there was a short rise with a fast descent. By this time Moinard’s advantage had dropped to 22 seconds. With 3 km to go, he was caught by Elmiger and Arvesen. 2 km from the finish, Ballan managed to join the leaders and Moerenhout jumped in as well. The four sprinted for the finish and Arvesen was across first by only width thickness of a tubular tire. Elmiger was right at his shoulder and Ballan was close behind.

Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto), Frank Schleck (CSC-Saxo Bank) and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin Chipotle) all rolled through with the peloton, so no significant changes in the G.C. for tomorrow’s short jaunt through the Alps on the way down to the Mediterranean. Look for a sprint finish in the seaside town of Narbonne.