Tour de France Stage 17: Sastre the Seventh Leader After Commanding Performance
The CSC team has always had the strength of numbers and while Carlos Sastre has had a relatively quiet Tour de France in 2008, he made his one attack count. The Spaniard surged ahead at the base of the final climb, rode his way into a commanding lead and ended up winning by over two minutes and taking the yellow jersey. His team-mate and former race leader was content to watch as a seventh rider raced into the overall lead but every other favorite was forced to pace himself to the summit minimizing the time lost to an inspired rider who claimed his second stage victory in the Tour de France and inherited the overall lead.
The Progress Report
The 210.5km 17th stage from Embrun to the celebrated summit of L’Alpe d’Huez began at 11.40am. There were 151 riders in the race. The itinerary included four climbs: one category-3 (the cote de Saint-Marguerite, at 31km), followed by three ‘Hors Categorie’ challenges – the 2,645m Col du Galibier (featuring the ‘Souvenir Henri Desgrange’) at 79km, the 2,067m Col de la Croix de Fer at 156km and the final rise to the ski station of L’Alpe d’Huez at an altitude of 1,850m. The intermediate sprints were in Monetiers-les-Bains (at 57.5km) and Bourg d’Oisans, just before the last climb (195km).
Four Establish Escape
The first attack of the stage stuck: Di Gregorio (FDJ), Velits (MRM) and Perez (EUS) jumped ahead at 3km and built a lead of 15” before being chased down by Schumacher (GST) at 15km. The peloton allowed the advantage to grow but CSC was diligent at the head of the bunch that trailed by 2’00” at 28km and 4’10” at 42km. The average for the first hour was 44.6km/h. At the base of the Galibier, the peloton’s deficit was 5’45”. Schumacher claimed the ‘Souvenir Henri Desgrange’. The only attack in the peloton came from Txurruka, Augustyn, Wegmann, Voeckler and Kohl in the closing kilometer of the pass and the polka-dot jersey led this group to the line 4’45” behind Schumacher. The peloton was at 5’00” at the summit. Perez overshot a corner early on the descent but quickly remounted and set the tempo for the escapees on the descent.
Col de la Croix de Fer
Di Gregorio was dropped from the lead group on the descent of the col du Telegraph (around the 110km mark). At the base of the third climb, the Frenchman was 2’40” behind his former escape companions. The peloton went through the feedzone (119km) with a deficit of 6’50” and at the foot of the Col de la Croix de Fer it was at 7’20” – this was the maximum gain of the escapees. O’Grady led the bunch virtually from the moment the escapees established an advantage. Cancellara took over the pacesetting duties at the base of the third climb. Perez dropped from the lead group 20km from the top. Cancellara reduced the advantage of the escapees to 4’20” with 15km to climb. By then there were just 40 in the yellow jersey’s peloton: Nibali, Popovych, Hincapie, and many others failed to match the pace of the TT world champion. Velits dropped Schumacher 6km from the summit.
Schumacher was caught 4.7km from the top of the Iron Cross climb.
The yellow jersey’s group thinned down to 18 riders before the top including: Evans, Aerts, Sastre, Arvesen, Schleck, Schleck, Valverde, Arroyo, Siutsou, Froome, Fofonov, Efimkin, Goubert, Valjavec, Kohl, Menchov, Weening, Casar, Moncoutie and Vande Velde. At the top, Velits led by 1’10”. Soon after the summit, Pineau caught and attacked the yellow jersey’s peloton and caught the stage leader 30km from the finish. The peloton was at 1’50”.
Sastre Dominant At L’Alpe d’Huez
The advantage of Pineau and Velits was just 1’10” at the start of the final climb. It was as though their escape never happened once the climb began. CSC had six rider in the lead of the peloton at the start of the final ascent. Cancellara peeled off and it was Game on for Carlos Sastre who bolted ahead, past the escapees and never to be seen again until he threw a victory salute and kissed his CSC jersey as he crossed the line, 2’03” ahead of his nearest rival. Menchov tried to follow the Spaniard but was dropped 12km from the line. Then an elite selection that contained: Frank and Andy Schleck, Evans, Kohl, Vande Velde, Valverde, Goubert, Efimkin, Valjavec and Vande Velde formed. Each of these riders would attack at one stage or another except for Evans who took control of the chase with 4km to go. He led the pursuit of Sastre and focused on minimizing his loss to the rider who began the stage in fourth, 49” behind his team-mate and ended it in the yellow jersey, 1’24” ahead of Frank Schleck.
