The stage to Saint-Girons featured three massive climbs in the Pyrenees. If yesterdays climbing stage to Andorre was not enough.
The peddling Pilgrims of pain in this year’s Tour de France started in the village of Andorre and for breakfast a big slice of pie. It was a category one right from the start town, the climb was animated by Cadel Evans. He attacked on the climb. Not joined by any of the overall contenders, a bit questionable tactical sense employed by Cadel. There’s no way that Astana is going to let any other of the GC go off the front and not chase them throughout the day. While Lance was settling behind the wheel of his teammates, Cadel Evans was wasting energy on the front of the bike race. The breakaway finally did get established including Luis Leon Sanchez, Sandy Casar, Mikel Astarloza and Vladmir Efimkin. Efimkin’s teammate is currently wearing the yellow jersey.
Col de port, a very long tough climb, but the peloton managed to go over it without any drama. The breakaway started to split up. Sebastien Rosseler got dropped from the break and a couple of others having trouble with the climb including the first yellow jersey holder of this year’s Tour, Fabian Cancellara.
The last climb of the day was called the Col d’ Agnes. There were a few nervous moments for Lance Armstrong because of the attack put on by Andy Schleck. Lance’s teammates Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Kloden were able to close the gap down to Andy Schleck, but incredible amounts of damage was done to the peloton and it took a long time on the last climb for the front group to get back together.
Luis Leon Sanchez had a great win for his team Caisse d’Epargne. He had to employ the best tactics you could imagine. He had to wait for Efimkin to attack and for the other riders to get re-organized. It was easier to control Efimkin from a little bit behind than to actually have him in the group. So once Efimkin attacked, Sanchez could start his race. For Sanchez, if he went too hard, dragging the breakaway to the finish, he would lose. If he went too easy, they might get caught by the chasing peloton.
It was an ideal day for Lance Armstrong, all he had to do was follow the front wheels while the AG2R team tried to keep Nocentini in the yellow jersey. For Luis Leon Sanchez, it was a sticky wicket trying to get to the finish line first.
Toward the end Sandy Casar and Mikel Astarloza did a little bit of chasing with Sanchez to catch Efimkin, but it was Sanchez who led the plan to perfection, attacked and came across with the win. It was also a win for me, since I was the only man in the whole press corp to pick Sanchez for the win, That was more luck, but at the end of the day luck for me was because Sanchez’s tactics were absolutely flawless.
