On the Pauillac waterfront

It is nearly a month since the climactic time trial stage of 2010 Le Tour de France finished along the waterfront at Pauillac on Saturday 24th August. There still remain some vestiges of its passage in the town mainly in shop displays. On the waterfront there is a still a trailer with a rider taking a reviving swig of red along with a barrel, a lamb and a grape picker plus a château that has echoes of Pichon-Longueville. Perhaps if Andy Schleck had grabbed a bottle of red on his way into Pauillac that Saturday he would have found the strength to overtake Alberto Contador.

Red dope - the key to victory?

Pauillac shop display

 A traditional but messy way of opening a bottle of sparkling wine

My posting this week on the Les 5 du Vin blog is about sprinter Mark Cavendish and matching him with a suitable wine, especially following Sunday's explosive charge up the Champs de l'Elysée. Clearly it has to be a sparkling wine and I've chosen an English sparkler that celebrates the man who may have invented sparkling wine – Christopher Merret. 

With an amazing turn of speed Mark Cavendish destroyed his opposition on the Champs de l'Elysée this afternoon. As soon as Mark started his sprint he left the rest for dead and won once again by several bike lengths. This brings his stage victories in this edition of Le Tour to five and a remarkable 15 stage victories in total, so 13th in the list of all time Tour stage victories. Now just one behind the great Belgian sprinter, Freddy Maertens. Two more stages and Mark Cavendish will be in 8th position – see next post.

Unfortunately his poor start to the Tour cost him the Green Jersey, which as I predicted was won by Petacchi. Contador, of course, won overall with Andy Schleck as the best young rider and Antony Charteau winning the polka dot Mountains Jersey.

Alberto Contador duly won his time trial battle with Andy Schleck but it was much closer than expected as Contador perfomed well below his best between Bordeaux and Pauillac. Initially he gained a few seconds on Schleck and then started to lose them. Around about the halfway mark Schleck was just two seconds behind Contador overall. Then Contador gradually started gaining on Schleck as the effort of riding into the wind started to tell. At the end Contador crossed the line 31 seconds better than Schleck on the day, so with an overall lead of 39 seconds, exactly the time that Schleck lost on the stage to Bagnères-de-Luchon when he slipped his chain.

Fabien Cancellara, who started early before the wind got up was the clear winner of the stage by 17 seconds from Tony Martin, who had also been second to Cancellara in the Prologue in Rotterdam three weeks ago. Contador finished 5.43 behind Fabien and Schleck@6.14. Denis Menchov (11th@3.51) did a good time trial moving himself into third place overall above Samuel Sanchez. Lance Armstrong in his final time trial finished well down – 67th and 7.05 minutes behind Cancellara.

Today's short celebratory stage runs from Longjumeau to Paris Champs-Élysées (102.5km). There will be no racing until they reach the Champs-Elysée when the sprinters will be expected to contest the last points for the Green Jersey, the only contest not yet decided. I expect Alessandro Petacchi (213 points) the current holder to win it, although the most likely winner of the stage on current form must be Mark Cavendish. As well as the points for placings at the end of the stage, there are two intermediate points sprints on the Champs-Elysée. If Mark Cavendish (197 points) could take those he might just snatch the jersey on the final day. I do expect him to overtake Thor Hushovd (202 points).

Large format bottle on the Quai Antoine Ferchaud, Pauillac

A time trial in cycling is often called the race of truth – pitting one rider against another without the support of a team. At 52 km, today's trial is quite a long test for the riders. It is widely expected that Alberto Contador will increase his slender eight second lead over Andy Schleck today on the virtually dead flat route from Bordeaux to Pauillac past some of the world's most famous wine châteaux. The only First Growth riders might catch a glimpse of will be Latour.

Part of Latour from Pichon-Lalande

The time trial has already started. Last rider – Contador will be off around 4pm French time. So far Tony Martin, who nearly won the Prologue back in Rotterdam, has set the fastest time and at the first intermediate check Fabian Cancellara was nine seconds slower than Martin. Still a long way to go, however.

PS The second time check has just come up with Cancellara now nine seconds up on Martin.

Barbier's Restaurant Le Lion d'Or

Artisanal bakery in Bordeaux 

 Mark Cavendish duly notched up his fourth stage in this year's Tour de France at Bordeaux yesterday. This brings his total number of stage victories to 14 and puts him 13th in the list of riders who have amassed the most stages. Mark has achieved this in just three seasons – a remarkable achievement.  Given that he won easily yesterday without his brilliant lead-out man, Mark Renshaw, makes it very likely that he will also win on Sunday in Paris on the Champs de l'Eylsée. He retains an outside chance of winning the Green Jersey but realistically that looks to be going to Petacchi, who took the Green off Thor Hushovd yesterday. Petacchi now has 215 points, Hushovd, who finished a poor 14th yesterday, has 202 points with Mark Cavendish just behind on 197 points.    

Fish shop in the market in Bordeaux

Watching Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador race up the last 10 kms of the Col du Tourmalet together was certainly gripping, although it was increasingly apparent that they were so equally matched in the mountains that neither could gain an advantage. Inevitably it ended in a draw with Alberto allowing Andy to take the stage victory – his second in this Tour. However it is clearly an advantage for Alberto before the time trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac unless he stops for one too many glasses of cru classé!

Today's flat stage from Salies-de-Béarn to Bordeaux through the pine forests of les Landes will be a nice change after the last four stages in the mountains. Although there will doubtless be a breakaway it is expected that it will end in a bunch sprint in Bordeaux, especially as the Green jersey competition is still so tight. I expect that Petacchi will reclaim the Green from Thor Hushovd. Perhaps another stage win for Mark Cavendish?

Today's last stage in the Pyrénées is billed as the final crunch – the day that Alberto and Andy have to stop their cat and mouse tactics and really try and put as much time into each other as possible. In reality it is Andy Schleck who has to attack if he is to win the 2010 Tour. If Alberto still has just eight seconds of a lead when they reach the top of the Tourmalet this afternoon then, barring a crash or major problems in Saturday's time trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac, he will have won the Tour.

Can Andy Schleck gain enough time on this stage to provide enough of a cushion against the time he is likely to lose in the time trial? I doubt it. The two have seemed to be very evenly matched in the mountains and I can't see either gaining a big chunk of time today.

This 17th stage runs from Pau to the top of the Tourmalet – 174 kms with four climbs, which starts with the short Côte du Renoir (4th category), followed by the steep and difficult Col de Marie-Blanque (1st category with 9.3 kms at an average of 7.6%), then the Col du Soulor (1st category with 11.9 kms at 7.8%) and finally the Tourmalet (hors categorie with 18.6 kms at 7.5%).

Although it is a long way from the finish I fancy that there could be an initial selection up the Marie-Blanque and then up the Soulor, so that by the bottom of the Tourmalet there with only be a small group of top riders still together. There seems to be some dispute over which is the harder side of the Tourmalet. Schleck going for this western ascension, while Sean Kelly* on Eurosport on Tuesday going for the eastern side up through La Mongie, the ski resort. I've ridden up the Tourmalet from both sides, admittedly a long time ago and I wasn't racing, and I found the eastern side tougher.

Today could be a really exciting stage or it could be a damp squib – last year the Ventoux didn't fully live up to its billing as the decisive moment. Hopefully Tourmalet will be different as last year it was already clear that Contador had won. Let's hope so.

* Sean is now saying the opposite that the western side is the tougher.

Lance Armstrong featured throughout yesterday's classic stage through the Pyrénées. He was out front in the breakaway over all four climbs – Col de Peyresourde, d'Aspin, Tourmalet and the Aubisque. Had he won the bunch sprint into Pau, it would have been a fine way to end his career. But as Lance was well aware his chances of winning a bunch sprint were slim and so it proved. His best hope for a stage victory would have been if he had been able to break away on the last climb of the day and gain sufficient time to see him stay ahead on the remaining 60 km down from the top of the Aubisque into Pau. At nearly 39 Lance no longer has that sort of strength, even though yesterday's ride was impressive. With four stages left it is very hard to see Armstrong getting any further chances of winning one last stage.

After fireworks on the Peyresourde and Aspin that split the field into pieces it all quietened down as the peloton let the new and less dangerous breakaway escape. Really the stage needs to be ridden in the other direction for a real chance of the overall lead being shaken up as the long ride into Pau can easily nullify short time gains made on the final climb. In the other direction the descent from the Peyresourde is straight into Bagnères-de-Luchon, so very little chance of making up time lost.

Impressive ride by Thor Hushovd to stay in the main bunch through the mountains and to pick up enough points in Pau to take the Green Jersey back by four points. However, if he is to hold off Petacchi I think Thor will need to pick up some more intermediate points. Unfortunately Petacchi is now under investigation in Italy for possible doping.

Today is a rest day before the final showdown in the mountains. Let's hope the stage lives up to its billing.

Alberto Contador grabbed the Yellow Jersey from Andy Schleck by just eight seconds but in controversial circumstances. About three kilometres from the top of the Port de Bàles Andy put in a successful attack quickly opening up a small gap. Vino was the first to take chase and was just about up on Schleck's shoulder when Andy shipped his chain – did he hit a stone causing the bike to rear up or did he just try to shift from the small chain-ring to the big too quickly? Anyway he had to stop to sort out his chain. By this time Alberto had reacted and flew past Schleck along with Denis Menchov and Samuel Sanchez.

Should Contador have waited for Schleck to sort out his chain problem – some think that an unwritten fair play rule required Alberto to wait or not attack until the Yellow Jersey had sorted his chain out. Others don't agree and say that it is all part of normal racing: it wasn't Alberto's fault that Andy messed up his gear change. Alberto has claimed that he didn't realise at the time what had happened to Andy.  This doesn't seem entirely convincing as he probably realised that Schleck had a problem as he passed him even if he didn't know exactly what this problem was.

Anyway in the furious ride to the top of the Col followed by a very rapid descent into Bagnères-de-Luchon Contador gained 39 seconds on Schleck.

Today's stage, which has already started, is a long tough one from Bagnères-de-Luchon to Pau going over the Col de Peyresourde, Col d'Aspin, Tourmalet and then finally the Aubisque.    

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/contador-apologizes-on-youtube/

The first day in the Pyrénées turned out to be a draw between Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck. Alberto did try a couple of attacks but couldn't drop Andy, so they played cat and mouse allowing Denis Menchov and Samuel Sanchez to get away. It looked like these two were going to gain a bit of time on the two leaders until Alberto and Andy started working together to limit the loss to just 14 seconds.

This leaves the top 10 in the overall classification like this:

1  SCHLECK Andy (TEAM SAXO BANK)                  68h 02' 30"
2  CONTADOR Alberto (ASTANA)                                  + 00' 31"
3  SANCHEZ Samuel (EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI)          + 02' 31"
4  MENCHOV Denis (RABOBANK)                                + 02' 44"
5  VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen (OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO)   + 03' 31"
6  GESINK Robert (RABOBANK)                                     + 04' 27"
7  LEIPHEIMER Levi (TEAM RADIOSHACK)                 + 04' 51"
8  RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin (KATUSHA TEAM)     + 04' 58"
9  SANCHEZ Luis-Leon (CAISSE D’EPARGNE)               + 05' 56"
10 BASSO Ivan (LIQUIGAS-DOIMO)                            + 06' 52"


Today's stage of 1987.5 kms from Pamiers to Bagnères-de-Luchon is another tough one with temperatures in the early 30s forecast. The main action should be on the last climb, Port de Balès – an hors catégorie. This is followed by a steep descent into Bagnères-de-Luchon. Should Alberto gain a little time on Andy on the climb it might well be difficult for Andy to make it up on the descent as he is not a very good descender. Hopefully it won't be cat and mouse time again today. The advantage remains with Contador as Schleck needs to gain more time before the time trial. Andy also has to be careful about Denis Menchov, who is also a good time triallist.

It was so nearly stage win number four in this year's Tour for Mark Cavendish. Unfortunately for him it was spoilt by Alexandre Vinokourov's successful attack at the top of the short steep hill at Revel some five kilometres from the finish. Vino held on during the descent and the the flat section leading to the finish with the sprinters' teams unable to get organised in time to get him back. 

I did predict a breakaway win yesterday but I had expected a long break to be successful, so Vino's win wasn't what I had in mind. However, the sprinters' teams thought otherwise and chased down the day's long break. 

Vino's victory made up for missing out the day before at Mende when Alberto Contador, his team-mate and Joaquin Rodriguez swept past him near the top of the Mende climb. Alberto has been criticised for attacking when his team-mate was in a position to win the stage. However, it was Rodriguez who made the initial attack. Also Astana's main goal is to win the Tour and Contador's 10 second gain was psychologically important. 

Mark Cavendish easily won the sprint for second place showing that even without his great lead-out man, Mark Renshaw, he has the potential to win further stages. The finishes in Bordeaux and Paris should be down to a bunch sprint. Yesterday Alessandro Petacchi was third with Thor Hushovd only eighth, so Thor lost his Green Jersey to Alessandro with Mark Cavendish some 25 points behind. The competition for Green is hotting up with Mark still having an outside chance of winning.

Today sees the first of four tough stages in the Pyrénées to celebrate the 100 years of including these mountains in the race. Versus has a good four part video of the 100 years of the Tour in the Pyrénées here.   

The route for today runs from Revel to Ax 3 Domaines climbing the hors category Port de Pailhères (2001 metres) before flying down into the valley for the final shorter climb up to Ax 3 Domaines (1360 metres). Will today prove to be an opportunity for Alberto to take time out of Andy? We will see but at the moment it is Andy who needs to take time out of Alberto if he is to win in Paris. Potentially a crunch stage today!

Alberto Contador gained an important 10 seconds on Andy Schleck yesterday reduceng his lead to 31 seconds when he broke away on the Montée Laurent Jalabert (a famous French cyclist now retired when won the first Tour stage run up this short, steep hill to the airport of Mende). This is the first attack Contador has made during this year's Tour and on this occasion Schleck couldn't stay with him. Whether it will be the same in Pyrénées we will know over the next few days – starting on tomorrow. The forecast for Sunday and Monday shows temperatures around 30˚C.

Ten seconds isn't all that much and Schleck did well to limit his losses but it gives Contador the advantage for the moment. and yesterday he looked back to his best. Alberto is a way better time triallist than Andy. Alberto won the Annecy TT in last year's Tour and took 1.45  min out of Andy in 40K. This year's time trial, the penultimate stage,  from Bordeaux to Pauillac is 52K and is essentially dead flat for these top riders. It should suit the powerful Contador more than it does Schleck, unless his time trialling has improved greatly. This looks unlikely as he rode a poor Prologue in Rotterdam.  

Going into next Saturday's TT I reckon Schleck needs to have at least at least two minutes advantage on Contador. Anything less and Alberto is likely to take the Yellow Jersey and win the race. 

Tyler Farrar, one of Mark Cavendish's sprint rival, dropped out of the race yesterday suffering from a wrist injury that happened in a crash on Stage 2 in the Ardennes.

From the forecast it looks like today's stage may be a bit cooler with temperatures around the mid to upper 20s. The 196K stage from Rodez to Revel is quite lumpy, although less than yesterday. It four 4th Category climbs and two 3rd Category. The second of the 3rds comes very close to the end – 1.9K at 6%, so it's short and pretty steep. It might be a sprinters' stage as it is the last chance before Bordeaux, next Friday. The climb right at the end makes it difficult, however, and I'm not sure the sprinters' teams will want to ride hard all day with four very tough stages in the Pyrénées looming. My guess is that a breakaway will be successful today.

Today's 210.5k stage through the Ardèche and into Lozère will be tough, although not as tough as the Alps nor what awaits the riders in the Pyrenées, but it will be a hard grind. Hot again but probably not as hot as yesterday on the road from Bourg-de-Péage and Mende.

There are three First Category climbs and two Seconds. The stage finishes at the top of a Second Category climb – the Côte de la Croix-Neuve Montée Laurent Jalabert. This climb is only 3.1 km but it is steep – an average gradient of 10.1%, so surely Contador and Schleck will be head to head here each trying to claw a few crucial seconds advantage. I will be surprised if one of them doesn't gain a little bit of time here.

About halfway through the stage passes Le Gerbier de Jonc, the source of La Loire, which is as you know at 1000 kms France's longest river that drains two fifths of the country. Its source is only around 100k from the Mediterranean and, as if sensing the easy option, La Loire heads south - south west for its first 15K or so before making a reluctant loop to starting heading north and then westwards to the Atlantic Ocean.

 It was a bitter-sweet victory for Mark Cavendish in Bourg-les-Valence yesterday. he got his third stage victory of this year's Tour in a toughly contested sprint. This brings his overall tally to 13 stage victories. However, Mark Renshaw, Cavendish's excellent and vital lead-out man, was disqualified and thrown out of the race because he tried several times to head butt Julian Dean (Garmin) in the charge to the finish. Dean had moved across and doubtless Renshaw was concerned that this move might block Mark Cavendish's way to get clear. Once Cavendish had departed for home, Renshaw then moved left, which blocked American Tyler Farrar (Garmin). Quite why Tyler was to the left and not behind Dean, his lead out man is not clear. Perhaps it was his famous reflective glasses over-reacting so he couldn't see where he was going. Dean received no punishment – had he kept to his line none of the tussling would have happened.

Anyway 13 stage victories is a tremendous achievement but Mark may find it difficult to add to that tally this year as Renshaw is such a vital cog in the Columbia sprint team. There remain two clear sprint finishes – Bordeaux and the final stage on the Champs d'Elysée, Paris. Tomorrow's stage from Mende to Revel might also end in a sprint. Renshaw also helps Cavendish through the mountains and there is the Pyrenées still to come.

Mark's victory moves him up in the Green Jersey competition, where Alessando Petacchi, who was second yesterday, has taken over from Thor Hushovd, who finished in seventh place and hasn't been at the top of his sprinting this year. Despite all the injuries and hard times he has suffered this Tour Robbie McEwen got third place.

Top five in the Green Jersey Competition

1.    PETACCHI Alessandro       LAMPRE - FARNESE    161 pts
2.    HUSHOVD Thor    CERVELO TEST TEAM    157 pts
3.    MC EWEN Robbie    KATUSHA TEAM    138 pts
4.    CAVENDISH Mark    TEAM HTC - COLUMBIA    132 pts
5.    ROJAS Jose Joaquin   CAISSE D’EPARGNE    122 pts   

It is possible that Thor will try to get into a breakaway at the start of today's lumpy stage to Mende to pick up some intermediate sprint points.

Most of the riders took a day off on the ride to Gap yesterday – understandable given Tuesday's very tough stage and the continuing heat. This allowed a breakaway of six riders to succeed. The break included two Frenchmen hoping to claim a victory on Bastille Day. However, the six were whittled down to two on the final climb of the day – unfortunately both Frenchmen were dropped. On the sprint to the finish 30-year-old Sergio Paulinho (RadioShack) won with barely half a bike wheel to spare. Paulinho comes from Oeiras, on the western side of Greater Lisbon beside the Tagus. It was a rare Portuguese win in the Tour – there last stage winner was Acácio Da Silva, who got the last of his three stages wins in 1989. Paulinho's win was also the first good news that Armstrong's RadioShack team has had so far this Tour.

Good ride by Nicolas Roche yesterday breaking away from the main bunch on the final hill and gaining 1.21 mins to move him a few places up overall. In contrast Armstrong dropped a further 1.28 mins overall as the bunch must have split on the descent. Still as he is over 17 minutes behind Andy Schleck this is all academic now. 

Today's stage from Sisteron to Bourg-lès-Valence, close to Valence, will see the sprinters come out to play again, especially as the Green Jersey competition is pretty tight between Hushvod and Petacchi. Mark Cavendish will fancy his chances for another stage win providing there isn't a successful breakaway.    

Yesterday's toughest Alpine mountain stage brutally exposed the fragility of many of the favourites for overall victory. Three days racing in the Juras and the Alps have left Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador as the only real contenders, as things stand, to win the 2010 Tour de France. Although Schleck has perhaps looked strongest in the mountains and Contador has yet to try an attack, the advantage for the moment remains with Alberto as hitherto Andy is not great at time trials. The penultimate stage is a 51 km individual time trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac and Contador should easily be able to take 41 seconds and more out of Schleck here. The Pyrenees will be decisive but something might happen on the  lumpy 16th stage (this Friday) from Bourg-de-Péage to Mende. Incidentally this stage passes by Le Gerbier de Jonc, the source of La Loire.

Two very courageous rides yesterday – Cadel Evans with a fractured elbow defending his yellow jersey in vain and David Millar's long solo ride at the back weakened by crashes the the first week and now by illness. On the bike Lance Armstrong had a better day but off the bike the news is less good: the investigation into the doping allegations made by Floyd Landis appears to be gathering pace. See here.

Today is a less difficult Alpine stage to Gap. Overall there may be a truce between the two As with the possibility of a breakaway group succeeding.    

Today should be the toughest stage in the Alps with five climbs. First there is the 4th category Côte de Châtillon (a pimple), followed by Col de la Colombière (1st), Col des Aravis (2nd) and the Col des Saisies (1st) and then the big one – Col de la Madeleine, which is hors category at 2000 metres. However, the top of this last climb is 32 kilometres from the finish, although the next 20 kilometres is straight back down but this leaves another 13 k on the flat.    

I suspect that there will only be a small number of top riders left together on the top of the Madeleine but there may not be a decisive shakeout between then as it would be possible to get a few seconds back on the run from the top of the col to the finish. Will Cadel still be in yellow tonight or will Andy Schleck have taken over?

Yesterday's stage that saw Andy Schleck win at Avoriaz and Lance Armstrong lose over 11 minutes may proved to be a devisive pointer to the final outcome. Firstly it certainly ends  any hope that Armstrong had of winning his 8th Tour – Lance, himself,  said that clearly immediately he finished his hellish stage.

Admittedly Armstrong crashed at a bad moment but age catches up with all champions who stay on too long, It happened to Eddy Merckx and to Miguel Indurain. Yesterday it looks to have been Armstrong's turn – see William Fotheringham's report in The Guardian here. I'm sure Armstrong will lose further time over the next two weeks and may find it hard to persuade his body to take further punishment. 

Andy Schleck's victory may be a pointer that he is stronger in the mountains this year than Alberto Contador. Alberto said he had problems to breathe with the heat and humidity and was unable to follow Schleck right at the very end. Maybe but he was unable to drop Janez Brajkovic in this year's Dauphine stage up the Alpe d'Huez. Tuesday's Alpine stage to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne over the Col de la Madelaine should give us further clues.

Following a fine and gutsy ride to the Station des Rousses in the Jura Sylvain Chavanel took both the stage win and recovered the Yellow Jersey from Fabien Cancellara.  So far only Chavanel and Cancellara have held the overall lead this year but I expect that to change today as I think Chavanel will lose two much time on the last two climbs to the likes of Contador, Schleck, Evans and probably Armstrong. 

My guess is that, if the favourites go for it, Contador will be the big winner today along with Andy Schleck, although I think Cadel Evans will be close enough to take the Yellow Jersey. 

One imponderable is the heat of this year's edition. Many of the riders said that yesterday's medium mountain stage was much  tougher than they had expected due to the heat.