Menchov Wins The Day: Landis Takes The Lead!

Stage Details _ Five climbs: Col du Tourmalet (‘hors category’ – 18.3km with an average gradient of 7.7% at 75km); Col d’Aspin (category-one – 12.4km, 5.1% at 105km), Col de Peyresourde (category-one – 9.7km, 6.8% at 136km), Col du Portillon (category-one, 8.0km, 7.9% at 161km) and Pla-de-Beret (13km, 5.5% at 204.5km). _ Intermediate sprints: at Arcizac-ez-Angles (at 17.5km) and Luchon (at 151.0km). _ Weather conditions: fine and 23 degrees Celsius in the air; 29 degrees at road level at the start. _ Number of starters: 168 riders. No overnight retirements. Official start time: 11.11am _ _ The Progress Report _ _ Four Polka-Dot Hopefuls Establish An Escape… _ The attacks began at the 2km mark. Six riders were involved in the initial escape (Voigt, Calzati, Le Mevel, Verbrugghe, Gilbert and Vaugrenard). They were caught at 3km by Geslin and Garcia Acosta. This move was reeled in by the T-Mobile-led peloton at the 5.5km mark. The pace was extremely fast but McEwen attacked to claim six points (ahead of Steegmans & Gilbert) at the first intermediate sprint. De la Fuente and Camano attacked at the 31.5km mark. They were caught by Wegmann and Flecha at 32km and had a lead of 35”; at 38.5km – 3’05 and the peloton, led by AG2R appeared content to allow the escape some leeway. The average speed for the first hour was 45.9km/h. _ _ _ Col du Tourmalet & Col d’Aspin… _ At the base of the Col du Tourmalet the peloton was 8’10” behind Flecha, De la Fuente, Camano and Wegmann – this was the maximum gain of the escape. At the 65km mark, the peloton was 8’00” behind. Mayo was one of the first riders to be dropped. With 5km to climb, the four escapees led the peloton by 5’25”. De la Fuente attacked in the final 200m of the climb to lead Wegman over the summit the other riders to earn points were: Camano, Flecha… Voeckler and Rasmussen attacked the peloton to claim fifth and sixth 3’50” behind the four stage leaders then came Dessel, Totschnig, Moreau and Boogerd at 4’00”. Riders dropped included Rubiera, Savoldelli, Ekimov, Casar, Gilbert… _ Voeckler was 3’55” behind the four leaders at the 92km mark; the peloton was at 5’35”. With 5km to climb to the Col d’Aspin summit, Voeckler was at 2’20” and the peloton was at 5’10”. At the top, the points were won by: Wegmann, De la Fuente, Flecha, Camano… at 1’30” was Voeckler… at 3’45” was Rasmussen, Boogerd, Caucchioli and the rest of the yellow jersey’s peloton. The average speed for the third hour was 32.7km/h. _ _ Col de Peyresourde & Col du Portillon… _ With 7km to climb, Wegmann attacked the lead group. Camano was dropped immediately then Flecha conceded. With 5km to climb, Wegmann and De la Fuente led Flecha by 30”, Voeckler by 55”, Camano by 1’20” and the peloton by 4’05”. The average speed for the fourth hour was 30.5km/h. Popovych, Simoni, Garzelli, Rubiera, Pereiro were some of the riders dropped near the top of the Col de Peyresourde. At the top of the points were won by: 1. De la Fuente 15pts; 2. Wegmann 13pts at 18"; 3. Flecha 11pts at 2’10"; 4. Rasmussen 9pts at 3’00"; 5. Boogerd 8pts; 6. Caucchioli 7pts at 3’10"; 7. Arrieta 6pts; 8. Goubert 5pts… and the rest of the peloton. Wegmann caught De la Fuente 5km before the sprint in Luchon. De la Fuente led Wegmann over the line in Luchon; Flecha was at 3’10” and the peloton at 3’45”. _ Wegmann attacked with 7.5km to climb to the Col du Portillon. De la Fuente couldn’t follow and the peloton began the fourth ascent 3’40” behind Wegmann. With 6km to climb, T-Mobile swamped the AG2R riders at the head of the yellow jersey’s group. Dessel quickly lost contact. The group thinned down to 16 riders: Azevedo, Sastre, Schleck, Rogers, Kloden, Moreau, Boogerd, Rasmussen, Toschnig, Leipheimer, Fothen, Evans, Landis, Zubeldia, Parra, Arroyo and Cunego and Simoni. These riders caught and passed Wegmann. With 1.5km to climb, only De la Fuente remained up front. His advantage was 2’00”. At the summit the points were won by: De la Fuente, Rasmussen at 1’30"… then Boogerd, Landis, Moreau, Sastre, Leipheimer, Schleck… the yellow jersey was 3’40” behind. _ _ “The Favourites” Of 2006 Come Forward… _ Cunego and Arroyo attacked the Landis group on the descent of the Col du Portillon. They caught De la Fuente with 28km to go. They were 55” ahead of Landis’ group. The leading trio was caught 24km from the finish. Cunego and De la Fuentes were dropped with 17km to go. The lead group included all the favourites for the 2006 Tour - Azevedo, Sastre, Schleck, Kloden, Rogers, Moreau, Leipheimer, Fothen, Totschnig, Menchov, Boogerd, Rasmussen, Evans, Landis, Arroyo, Zubeldia, Parra and Simoni. _ _ Rabobank Set Menchov Up For Victory! _ Rasmussen set the tempo in the valley between the 4th and 5th climbs then Boogerd came forward and split the group with 10km to go the group was: Boogerd, Menchov, Evans, Landis, Leipheimer, Sastre, Kloden. With 6km to go, Menchov attacked: Boogerd and Kloden dropped from the lead group. Five riders led from that moment on: Landis, Menchov, Leipheimer, Evans and Sastre. The only real attack of this group came from Leipheimer; this caused Sastre and Evans to lose contact 2.5km from the finish. Menchov burst into the lead with 250 meters to go and won his first Tour de France stage. _ Landis’ third place time bonus was needed to push him into the lead of the general classification because Dessel finished 3’45” behind the winning trio.