Friday, July 11, 2008
Stage Seven: Brioude to Aurillac
A big group of 61 riders crossed the line today at 21:53 after the stage-winning rider. Lanterne Rouge Wim Vansevenant of Silence-Lotto crossed the line just before them at 20:16, not far behind teammate Johan Van Summeren (who crashed on a descent).
It was a bad day for several riders - Manuel Beltran of Liquigas was pulled from the race for a positive EPO "A" test from stage one after finishing 33rd for the stage (26th overall), and there were four abandons:
166 JEGOU Lilian (FRA) FRANCAISE DES JEUX withdrawal
121 MOREAU Christophe (FRA) AGRITUBEL withdrawal
106 GADRET John (FRA) AG2R-LA MONDIALE withdrawal
95 FACCI Mauro (ITA) QUICK STEP withdrawal
According to the Cyclingnews coverage: Moreau attacked and was dropped on one of the first climbs at about 85 km into the stage, and abandoned at 96 km (but had not crashed). Facci abandoned at some point before that. Gadret abandoned at about 110 km in the stage/49 km to go.
Former Lanterne Rouge (2006, stage 4) Magnus Backstedt of Garmin-Chipotle was eliminated for finishing outside the time limit for the stage.
The last four riders in the standings (with 170 riders left in the race) remain mostly the same - although Nicki Sorensen of CSC-Saxo has moved up to 141st overall, and the margin between the last two riders has decreased to 33 seconds:
167. HAUSSLER Heinrich 114 GEROLSTEINER 29h 14' 29" + 50' 49"
168. KUSCHYNSKI Aleksandr 66 LIQUIGAS 29h 15' 51" + 52' 11"
169. AUGE Stéphane 182 COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 29h 16' 38" + 52' 58"
170. SPRICK Matthieu 146 BOUYGUES TELECOM 29h 20' 52" + 57' 12"
171. VANSEVENANT Wim 9 SILENCE - LOTTO 29h 21' 25" + 57' 45"
Note: Apologies to my regular readers, but I'm going out of town tomorrow to a race and may not be able to update this blog for a few days.
It was a bad day for several riders - Manuel Beltran of Liquigas was pulled from the race for a positive EPO "A" test from stage one after finishing 33rd for the stage (26th overall), and there were four abandons:
166 JEGOU Lilian (FRA) FRANCAISE DES JEUX withdrawal
121 MOREAU Christophe (FRA) AGRITUBEL withdrawal
106 GADRET John (FRA) AG2R-LA MONDIALE withdrawal
95 FACCI Mauro (ITA) QUICK STEP withdrawal
According to the Cyclingnews coverage: Moreau attacked and was dropped on one of the first climbs at about 85 km into the stage, and abandoned at 96 km (but had not crashed). Facci abandoned at some point before that. Gadret abandoned at about 110 km in the stage/49 km to go.
Former Lanterne Rouge (2006, stage 4) Magnus Backstedt of Garmin-Chipotle was eliminated for finishing outside the time limit for the stage.
The last four riders in the standings (with 170 riders left in the race) remain mostly the same - although Nicki Sorensen of CSC-Saxo has moved up to 141st overall, and the margin between the last two riders has decreased to 33 seconds:
167. HAUSSLER Heinrich 114 GEROLSTEINER 29h 14' 29" + 50' 49"
168. KUSCHYNSKI Aleksandr 66 LIQUIGAS 29h 15' 51" + 52' 11"
169. AUGE Stéphane 182 COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 29h 16' 38" + 52' 58"
170. SPRICK Matthieu 146 BOUYGUES TELECOM 29h 20' 52" + 57' 12"
171. VANSEVENANT Wim 9 SILENCE - LOTTO 29h 21' 25" + 57' 45"
Note: Apologies to my regular readers, but I'm going out of town tomorrow to a race and may not be able to update this blog for a few days.
Labels: Auge, Backstedt, Beltran, Facci, Gadret, Haussler, Jegou, Kuschynski, Moreau, Sorensen, Sprick, Van Summeren, Vansevenant
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Stage Four: Cholet Time Trial
Today eight riders finished more than five minutes behind the lead rider in the first individual time trial of the 2008 Tour. Some of them are tired and sore from the first three stages; and some of them are saving themselves for the upcoming mountain stages. They include our current Lanterne Rouge Wim Vansevenant and former Tour de France Lanterne Rouge, climbing specialist Leonardo Piepoli (stages 1-3, 2005).
171. GADRET John 106 AG2R-LA MONDIALE 40' 44" + 05' 00"
172. CHICCHI Francesco 63 LIQUIGAS 41' 00" + 05' 16"
173. VANSEVENANT Wim 9 SILENCE - LOTTO 41' 01" + 05' 17"
174. DE LA FUENTE David 174 SAUNIER DUVAL - SCOTT 41' 18" + 05' 34"
175. COOKE Baden 55 BARLOWORLD 41' 26" + 05' 42"
176. WEENING Pieter 139 RABOBANK 42' 03" + 06' 19"
177. PIEPOLI Leonardo 179 SAUNIER DUVAL - SCOTT 42' 28" + 06' 44"
178. BICHOT Freddy 122 AGRITUBEL 42' 54" + 07' 10"
Four riders now have accumulated more than 15 minutes time behind the leader:
175. SORENSEN Nicki 18 TEAM CSC SAXO BANK 14h 19' 47" + 15' 06"
176. SOLER HERNANDEZ Juan Mauricio 51 BARLOWORLD 14h 22' 27" + 17' 46"
177. SPRICK Matthieu 146 BOUYGUES TELECOM 14h 22' 36" + 17' 55"
178. VANSEVENANT Wim 9 SILENCE - LOTTO 14h 24' 46" + 20' 05"
So Wim Vansevenant retains his position as Lanterne Rouge today with a time gap of over 2 minutes to the nearest rider.
171. GADRET John 106 AG2R-LA MONDIALE 40' 44" + 05' 00"
172. CHICCHI Francesco 63 LIQUIGAS 41' 00" + 05' 16"
173. VANSEVENANT Wim 9 SILENCE - LOTTO 41' 01" + 05' 17"
174. DE LA FUENTE David 174 SAUNIER DUVAL - SCOTT 41' 18" + 05' 34"
175. COOKE Baden 55 BARLOWORLD 41' 26" + 05' 42"
176. WEENING Pieter 139 RABOBANK 42' 03" + 06' 19"
177. PIEPOLI Leonardo 179 SAUNIER DUVAL - SCOTT 42' 28" + 06' 44"
178. BICHOT Freddy 122 AGRITUBEL 42' 54" + 07' 10"
Four riders now have accumulated more than 15 minutes time behind the leader:
175. SORENSEN Nicki 18 TEAM CSC SAXO BANK 14h 19' 47" + 15' 06"
176. SOLER HERNANDEZ Juan Mauricio 51 BARLOWORLD 14h 22' 27" + 17' 46"
177. SPRICK Matthieu 146 BOUYGUES TELECOM 14h 22' 36" + 17' 55"
178. VANSEVENANT Wim 9 SILENCE - LOTTO 14h 24' 46" + 20' 05"
So Wim Vansevenant retains his position as Lanterne Rouge today with a time gap of over 2 minutes to the nearest rider.
Labels: Bichot, Chicchi, Cooke, De La Fuente, Gadret, Piepoli, Soler, Sorensen, Sprick, Vansevenant, Weening
