Home » Featured, Tour de France News

2009 Tour de France – Stage 12 Results

July 16th, 2009 by Al Fresco 2,223 views No Comment

sorenson2

Here are the results for Stage 12 of the 2009 Tour de France. Nicki Sorenson of the Saxo Bank team went off the front of a seven man breakaway with 23 km to go, and soloed to a victory in Vittel. No change in the General Classification, however, with Rinaldo Nocentini maintaining a narrow gap over Astana’s Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong.

The Course:

Stage 12 took the riders from Tonerre to Vittel in the northeast part of France. Vittel is home to the eponymous brand of mineral water that is a major sponsor of the race. While you would not call today’s stage mountainous in light of what is coming over the next several days, it did include five Category 4 climbs and one Category 3 climb.

This is the home region for Thomas Voeckler (BBox Bouyges Telecom), so he might be expected to go for something today.

The Breakdown:

After a long neutral zone coming out of Tonerre, 3 riders (David Millar, Daniele Bennati and Franco Pelizzoti) made a break attempt as they crested the Cote de Baon, but ended up getting caught just 5 km farther down the road.

Mark Cavendish strengthened his sprinters points reserve at the first intermediate sprint in Channes, taking 6 points ahead of Thor Hushovd, who earned 4.

There were a number of break attempts, one at km 39 and another around km 50, but finally, at km 65, seven riders get away. The men in the break were Laurent Lefevre (Bbox), Sylvain Calzati (Agritubel), Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas), Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel), Nicki Sorensen (Saxo Bank), Remi Pauriol (Cofidis) and Markus Fothen (Milram).

With a relatively late start for a breakaway this group had the potential to stay ahead all the way to Vittel. With 93 km remaining, they had a gap of 4′20″. AG2R, looking to keep Rinaldo Nocentini in yellow for one more day, leads the chase in the peloton.

With about 70 km remaining in the stage, word comes that Romain Feillu has dropped out of the race. We also heard that Jerome Coppel of Francaise des Jeux and Angelo Furlan (Lampre) abandoned earlier in the stage and that Rui Costa of Caisse d’Epargne abandoned overnight after a fall in yesterday’s stage.

Franco Pellizotti is looking to rack up mountain points today, going to the front at the Cote des Grand- Bois and the Cote de Morlaix. Martinez and Sorenson came over second and third on both climbs.

With 48km to go, the gap was hovering around 4 minutes, but at long last, the peloton took up the chase, bringing the gap down to three and a half minutes at the 30 km mark.

There was finally a little excitement as Saxo Bank’s Nicki Sorenson attacked the break at the 23 km mark. He was joined by Sylvain Calzati and they were able to open up a 10-second gap, while the peloton actually fell back to more than six minutes behind.

With about 4 km to go, Sorenson had gone out on his own while Calzati blew up and fell back through his former break companions. Remi Pauriol was blown as well and ended up in no man’s land. Sorenson was able to get out to a 34 second gap and looked good to take it all the way.

Results:

Pos

Tags: ····························

Leave your response!

You must be logged in to post a comment.