Tour de France Stage 17 Recap – The Mighty Tourmalet Decides It!

Today’s much anticipated final mountain stage of this year’s Tour de France, covering 174 Kilometers (108 miles) over 4 categorized climbs – almost a third of it going straight uphill into the day’s mist – very likely determined the winner of this year’s Tour de France.  In fact, it probably decided much more than that.  It completely scrambled the general classification and although Team RadioShack’s riders performed better than any other team overall, their individual leader in the GC Levi Leipheimer dropped out of any possibility of a podium finish with a very difficult day on the decisive Tourmalet.

As envisioned by much of the cycling world there was an epic struggle by Saxo Bank’s 25-year old Andy Schleck to distance himself from the race leader, Astana’s 27-year old Alberto Contador, but the white jersey could not gap the yellow jersey even though the two battled alone on the mountain, far away from the rest of the field for the final 10 kilometers.  With Alberto far outshining Schleck in the time trail discipline (Saturday’s stage 19) Andy has no way of putting any time on the maillot jaune now and has affectively conceded the overall victory to the talented Spaniard.  Andy was not unhappy, however, at the stage’s end today, having given his best effort and winning the stage.

One of the surprises of the day was Chris Horner’s 8th place finish on this mountainous stage.  Although many knew he could do this and more, finding the extra reserves after all of his strenuous efforts in support of other teammates was pretty special.  He moved into 10th place in the general classification and is now the top Team RadioShack rider in the GC.

The riders today experienced much different weather than they had been used to over the past week.  Rather than sweltering dry heat with melting asphalt, it was rainy and cold with slick roads, thick clouds overhead and heavy mist in the mountains.  No overhead shots today with the helicopters grounded, and the cyclists were in their jackets and arm warmers throughout the chilly, damp effort.

If you squinted at the map of today’s route, it looked like Tuesday’s stage in reverse.  Starting in Pau it headed south toward Spain then turned left in a counter-clockwise motion heading toward and ending up back on the mighty (beyond category) Tourmalet which as of today has found its way in this race 80 times.  With it’s 18.6 kilometers of 7.5% climbing adding to today’s overall 42 kilometers (over 26 miles) of climbing averaging over 7% grade, it was arguably the hardest test for the riders, coming in the 3rd week of the race and it was the last chance for several cyclists to attempt a serious move on their fellow competitors.

Levi Leipheimer was one of the riders hoping to be strong enough to work his way up, but after his last couple of mountain rides, he knew his form this year was not quite there.  Levi is nothing if not honest and practical about his chances and after Stage 16 said with some displeasure; “I didn’t make any mistakes, I’m just not strong enough.  What do you say?  You know what? Ninety-nine percent of the people in the race are in this [same] situation. There are only two guys who can play games on the last climb. Everybody else is at their limit. You do what you do, you try to hang on, you look for an opportunity to maybe go away early.”  He went on to say, “You saw Carlos [Sastre] did that [on stage 14], but it didn’t get him anything. I race for the finish, I don’t race for TVs.”  He sad, “It doesn’t look so good right now, but anything can happen.  You always have to hope for the best.”  Levi didn’t have his best today breaking down at the very end after contending the stage all day, finishing 43rd, 8:59 behind the leaders and now out of contention in 13th on the GC, 14:24 behind.

As Levi said, the two main contenders for this year’s Tour would be the main event on this final mountaintop finish. Saxo Bank’s Andy Schleck knew, given Alberto’s time trialing ability, that he’d have to take a big bite out of Alberto’s time or his chances of winning this year’s Tour were over.  “There’s only one way to attack, and that is on the Tourmalet,” he said.  When asked if he’d risk his 2nd place standing he said, “I’m willing to risk it. I have to try everything.”  He went on to articulate what everyone had been thinking for days;  “I know I need to be in yellow on the time trial start ramp to have a chance to win this Tour.”

Up that final Tourmalet climb, Saxo Bank set a fierce, with many riders dropping out of the main pack of what was left of the peloton which was only about 22 riders with 12 kilometers to go.  Team RadioShack still had 4 riders in this small bunch, Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Klöden and Chris Horner all still looked in contention for the stage.  Rabobank’s Denis Menchov was hanging on in this small group, as was Euskaltel’s Samuel Sanchez, Omega Pharma’s Jurgen Van Den Broeck and Rabobank’s Robert Gisink, all fighting to keep or better the placement in the overall standings.

With 9.9 kilometers to go Schleck made the anticipated move; Contador chased, right on his rear wheel and they pedaled away from the field.  Levi started to hurt and dropped back a bit, and then more.  Horner was up front, Lance was just behind, and the Kloden ahead of Levi.  Schleck set a determined pace and he and Contador left the small peloton behind by more than a minute in no time.  Schleck did almost 99% of the pace setting and Contador did not appear to challenge the stage victory at the end in recognition of it, not that he had that much gas left in the tank anyway.

So the mighty Tourmalet had its say today and just about decided everything.  With 2 non-GC-changing stages to come, tomorrow’s sprinter’s stage, and Sunday’s ceremonial circuit, the general classification is complete, except perhaps for determining that third step on the podium.  That was almost determined today when Samuel Sanchez fell hard early in the race and looked like he would have to abandon.  How he picked himself up off the pavement and pedaled his way back into things keeping his 3rd place standing in the race is beyond me – an amazing display of determination and heart.   He stands 21 seconds ahead of Menchov who could just claw that back in Saturday’s 51 kilometer individual time trial.

The climber’s jersey is probably completed now with Bbox’s Anthony Charteau sitting 15 points ahead of Caisse d’Epargne’s Christophe Moreau.  Andy Schleck conceded yellow today, but he will not be giving up the white jersey for the best young rider, so that’s finished too.  The ping-pong battle for the sprinter’s green points jersey is one competition that is still on and may not be decided until we get to Paris, with Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd only 4 points ahead of Lampre’s Alessandro Petacchi, with an outside chance that HTC-Columbia’s Mark Cavendish could still stage-win his way into it.  And lastly, the Team competition is still looking strong for Team RadioShack, now 8:30 ahead of Caisse d’Epargne.

This is not to say that the race is over.  We still have 3 stages left and many of us will be glued to the route’s roadsides or our TV sets continuing to soak up every last moment of this the greatest race in professional road racing.  We’ll still be rooting for our hero(es) and for many that simply means, for Lance Armstrong, to give us one more great performance accomplishing feats that, like the mountain today, are beyond our ability to categorize.  There will still be some fireworks to come, but with the massive Tourmalet know in the rearview mirror one already senses the last few pages of this great novel coming to a close.

By George Hurst, staff writer