Stage 15 Recap, Tour Tradition Scrapped, Boos on the Podium

Today’s stage of the Tour de France from Pamiers to Bagnères-de-Luchon covering some 187 kilometers (117 miles) coming right along the border of Spain, where it will stay for awhile, went uphill and downhill dramatically and at times dangerously in the Pyrénées.  Many of these descents are technical and scary.  In fact today’s route went past the exact spot where Lance Armstrong’s teammate on Motorola in 1995, Olympic champion Fabio Casartelli, had a horrible crash and died while descending the Col de Portet d’Aspet.   They have since built a monument there commemorating this promising young rider who was only 24 years old at the time.  Thankfully, no bad crashes occurred today.

Stage 15 comprised several categorized climbs, a cat 4, the Cote de Carla-Bayle, A cat 2, the Col de Portet-d’Aspet, another cat 2, Col des Ares, and the final serious mountain that no one was looking forward to (except us fans who didn’t have to pedal it), the beyond-category Port de Balès, some 19.3 kilometers of uphill pedaling averaging 6.1% grade but culminating in something like 11% before it finished.

There were 10 riders in the breakaway early on, but they would not have much say in today’s finish.  Valiant effort, but a latecomer to their party Thomas Voeckler, the French National Road Race champion took the stage today with an amazing display of gutsy climbing and even gutsier descending that blew the field away by over a minute.  BMC’s Alessandro Ballan came in second and Footon-Servetto’s Aitor Perez came in third both with the same time, 1:20 behind Voeckler.

Saxo Bank chased for most of the day with little help, and they decided to jam the pedals and make everyone in the peloton suffer more than was necessary on a stage that was likely from the start to be conceded to a break if they got away and really wanted it.  This left Astana’s riders to rest a bit and have fresher legs at the end.  Astana has assembled a good group of climbers to support Alberto Contador in the mountains – and this year, it looks like he needs them.  Prior to this stage, Contador had not yet found a way to drop Schleck throughout this entire affair, and then he found a way.  A controversial, some would say, ungentlemanly way.

Tour de France tradition has always dictated that when the yellow jersey has a small impediment particularly an easily solved mechanical problem everyone slows down a bit and gives the rider a fair chance to catch back up.  It’s been that way for many, many years.  The tradition has actually been observed a couple of times during this Tour.  Lance Armstrong himself, during this year’s Tour was seen disciplining the pack to slow down and respect the rule on a stage he wasn’t even contesting, realizing that it is unworthy of a contender to dig when your main opponent is experiencing momentary technical problems.  It’s simply the right thing to do.

Some, win-at-all-cost competitors don’t seem to understand it, but it’s not rocket science – a win under these circumstances just isn’t the same.  Lets say you’re Usain Bolt and you’re about to blast off on a 100 meter sprint and all your competitor’s shoes fall off, do you run harder?  Lets say you’re a sculling team and the other boats sink, do you row harder?  Let’s try another one, lets say you’re a boxer and the ref can’t see that your opponent’s defenseless (now we’re getting close to it), do you keep pummeling your opponent into a hospital ward as if he’s still an able combatant so you can win something?  That’s not rhetorical.  Would you?  With so much on the line, contracts, endorsement money, national pride, etc, etc these athletes have to search their soul to answer that question cause there’s no rulebook dictating an easy answer.  There is however, public scrutiny of your decision and often condemnation if you get it wrong.

Alberto Contador and his team management were faced with the same question today and they got it wrong.   Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck was attacking Contador and the field with a strong, albeit short-lived attack on a steep part of the final climb when his chain fell off.  He stopped pedaling and fell by the side of the road taking a couple of tries before he got it back on.  Astana’s Alexandre Vinokourov, the closest rider to him immediately saw the problem and started to stand off the pedals.  That’s what etiquette dictates, that’s what sportsmen do.  Surprisingly, that’s not what Alberto did.  He was farther back and could not help but witness the whole thing.  He now claims otherwise.  He decided to up the pace at that point and power through with Denis Menchov and Samuel Sanchez ending up putting more than half a minute on Schleck and taking the yellow jersey off his back by 8 seconds.  This was not an honorable act and perhaps confirms what Lance Armstrong said some time ago during their dust-ups when they were both riding for Astana when he said; ‘Alberto still has a lot to learn.’

It was a bit of an uncomfortable scene at the end of the day when some of the crowd voiced their displeasure at the yellow jersey being placed on Contador’s back.  Never heard hissing and booing quite like that before.  Maybe a tough way to learn a lesson, particularly for someone who otherwise carries himself well and seems a true gentleman.  I can’t help but believe Alberto will think twice next time this type of ill-gotten opportunity knocks.

Team RadioShack would have little to do with these events today.  Levi Leipheimer is holding his 7th place in the overall general classification 5 minutes and 25 seconds down from the current leader.  He continues to hang in their on these difficult steep climbs, and one hopes he can continue to find strength in the coming days to do some damage to the main competitors and take back some time.  Levi can time trial with the best in the world, but it’s not likely that he could claw back 5 minutes on the 50 kilometer time trial still to come from some of the names above him on the leader board.  Lets hope he can find some mountain opportunities soon.

Team RadioShack is still in the hunt for the overall team classification, having a pitched battle now with several teams.  Here’s the standings so far:

1. Team RadioShack Wearing the Leader’s bib numbers today
2. Rabobank    +00’ 18”
3. Quick Step    +00’ 31”
4. Liquigas-Doimo    +00’ 31”
5. Ag2r La Mondiale    +01’ 26”
6. Astana    +02; 43”

Will be fun to watch this play out in the next few days in these horrible, spectacular Pyrénées.

The sleeper story if there is one in this wild contest this year with all the accidents, controversy, lead changes, and French stage wins is Lance Armstrong.  Taken virtually out of contention now for the overall general classification due to one too many misfortunes in this crash-prone Tour this year, he is quietly riding in support of the team and Levi’s chances, while seemingly resting his legs a bit for some big fireworks yet to come.  Johann Bruyneel hinted at it the other day in public comments.  Well, he didn’t just hint, he came out and said that Lance may just go for a stage win before this thing is over.  The man has absolutely nothing to prove, and after all the blood and bruises he’s sustained it’s a big deal for him just to finish this thing.  But that’s not the man’s personality.  He’ll be looking to have some fun.  You’re not going to want to miss any of the rest of these stages, because you never know when that might occur.  A rested, fit, multi-talented Armstrong could conceivably go for any one of the stages that are left and win it.  Can’t wait to see him try if he does.

One last thing, maybe out of the blue, but am I the only one that thinks perhaps a tribute to Mr. Armstrong’s final Tour de France would be fitting?  Shouldn’t the other teams, or even the organizers be considering a display of respect and admiration for the only man who has one this thing 7 times?  He’s brought so much attention, free marketing and appeal to this sport and this race in particular that many people feel it’s time that a formal display of appreciation is shown.  How about breaking tradition a bit and letting Lance lead one of the laps around the Champs Élysées in Paris?  What about having Lance say a few words on the podium once it’s all done?  Heck, I don’t know, what about a lifetime Achievement Award?  Do you have any thoughts on this?  We’d love to hear from you.

By George Hurst, staff writer