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Stage 15 of the Tour de France Yields New Leader

Frank Schleck attacked in the final 500 meters of
Stage 15 to take the yellow jersey from Cadel Evans.
Photo: Graham Watson

Stage 15 marked the first of three consecutive stages in the high Alps for the 2008 Tour de France, and it is upon these mountain roads that the race may be ultimately decided. Yet, while today’s stage culminated in a summit finish – the best opportunity for riders to attack each other and create big time gaps – the times separating the top six riders in the Tour actually decreased instead of increased. That’s how competitive this year’s race is, and it gives you an idea of how exciting the racing will be over the next two stages.

 

As usual the day started with a flurry of attacks leading to the establishment of a breakaway group. The Garmin-Chipotle team wanted a rider in the day’s long breakaway just in case they needed that rider to drop back and help out team leader Christian Vande Velde on the final climb. Toward that end, Danny Pate of Colorado Springs got himself into the successful four-man breakaway, but once the group’s lead grew to nearly 17 minutes over the peloton it became clear that the stage winner would be one of the men in the breakaway. Pate rode well on the final climb, but was eventually outpaced by Australian Simon Gerrans and Egoi Martinez in the final 500 meters.

 

Behind the breakaway group, the peloton took it relatively easy on the Col Agnel, although that doesn’t mean the ascent to over 2700 meters (about 9,000 feet) wasn’t difficult. Not only was the climb difficult because of its length and pitch, but the weather didn’t exactly cooperate. The riders were pelted by scattered rain showers and the temperatures at the summit were only in the 50s. Already wet and cold, the 40-plus-minute descent off the mountain was chilling and treacherous. Oscar Pereiro, the default winner of the 2006 Tour de France after Floyd Landis was stripped of the title, suffered worst of all. He crashed into a guardrail leading into a downhill switchback and tumbled over the edge, falling about 20 feet to the road below. While he is out of the Tour de France with a broken shoulder, he’s fortunate to leave the race without more serious injuries.

 

The weather continued to wreak havoc with the main field. The sun broke through the clouds and the riders quickly went from struggling to stay warm to baking in high humidity. Then, on a routine roundabout on the flat roads in the valley, the peloton split to go around on both the right and left sides. But due to the rain, the road was slick as ice and there were simultaneous crashes that brought down nearly 40 riders, including nearly every man on the Garmin-Chipotle squad. Everyone remounted and rejoined the field as the peloton sped toward the base of the final ascent to the finish line.

 

The 11-kilometer ascent of the Prato Nevoso was long considered a critical stretch of road in the 2008 Tour de France. The climb gets steeper as it approaches the finish and after three transitional stages across the south of France, everyone knew it would be the place where the yellow jersey contenders attacked each other in an effort to create big time gaps. The aggression started early, led predictably by the CSC-Saxo Bank who have shown themselves time and again to be the strongest team in the race. Strongmen Jens Voigt and Fabian Cancellara set a vicious tempo on the lower slopes and then turned the pace-making over to teammate Andy Schleck. The younger brother of Frank Schleck, who started the day just one second out of the yellow jersey, drove the pace and surged again and again in an effort to make the climb as difficult as possible for everyone in the yellow jersey group.

 

Within the final five kilometers, the attacks and accelerations just kept coming and it was up to anyone with a hope of winning the yellow jersey to respond. It wasn’t until the final two kilometers that cracks began to appear in the armor of some of the pre-race favorites, and eventually the current yellow jersey wearer, Cadel Evans, was put into difficulty. His rivals seized on the opportunity and accelerated away from him, but the Australian leader of the Silence-Lotto team rode well to limit his losses. By the finish line he lost the yellow jersey to Frank Schleck, but only fell to third overall, just seven seconds out of the lead.

 

Perhaps more telling than Evans’ performance was the overall result of the day. At the start of the stage, the top five men in the Tour de France were separated by 50 seconds. After the stage there are six men within one minute of the yellow jersey and the top three are separated by just eight seconds. Instead of widening the gaps between the primary contenders for the yellow jersey, Stage 15 narrowed them and brought new faces into contention. Bernhard Kohl and Christian Vande Velde were not considered contenders for the yellow jersey before the race began, and Frank Schleck was only given an outsider’s chance, but with only two hard mountain stages left in the race, all three men are very serious threats to ride into Paris in yellow.  

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