CYCLING:NO ONE had bothered to let Geraint Thomas know there is a €5,000 prize for the first man to cross the summit every time the Tour de France goes over the Col du Tourmalet. When he saw the French rider Jeremy Roy accelerate away with a few metres to go to the top of the Pyrenean pass, the Welshman did not respond.
“Five thousand euros? No wonder he went for it. You can buy a lot of beer with that,” Thomas said at the end of the 12th stage when told of what he had missed on the second of the day’s three big climbs.
But he did not go away empty-handed. He mounted the podium to accept the award for the day’s most aggressive rider, after he and Roy had been part of an early six-man break on the long, 211km stage from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden and had stayed together as the others dropped away until, having started the final climb of the day with a lead of three minutes, they were overtaken a mere 7km from the end.
It was his recovery from a double dose of misfortune, however, that won the judge’s hearts. Coming over the top of the first climb, the 1,538m Hourquette d’Ancizan, at the rear of the leading group, he had just been cheered by a woman waving a Welsh flag when he felt his rear wheel slide away as he turned into a tight right-hand bend. Losing control, he bounced on to the verge and opted to throw himself on to the grass rather than risk tumbling over the edge.
He remounted, but a couple of corners later he wobbled again and took to the grass once more, this time narrowly avoiding a parked car.
“I just slipped,” he said of the first tumble. “I’m sure there must have been something on the road. The second one was just stupid. I think I had a bit of mud on my tyres and I just couldn’t slow down quickly enough.”
Undaunted, he set off to catch up with the group on the swooping descent, and was still with Roy almost two hours later when they were finally swallowed up, first by the stage winner, Samuel Sanchez of Euskaltel-Euskadi team, and his nearest challenger, Jelle Vanendert of Omega Pharma-Lotto, and then by a determined group of pursuers including all the main contenders for overall victory.
It was Bastille Day, but the Spanish invaded the Pyrenees in vast numbers and were rewarded with a first Tour stage win for Sanchez, a 33-year-old from Asturias whose dogged attack on the climb to Luz-Ardiden enabled him to end the day with the king of the mountains jersey.
To balance that success, however, there was a worrying performance from Alberto Contador, the day’s only loser among the grands fromages of the general classification. Like the Schleck brothers, Cadel Evans and Ivan Basso, he spent the day in the company of Thomas Voeckler, the overall leader, as part of a yellow jersey group which had been whittled down to fewer than 20 riders by the time the real action began.
The game of cat and mouse within the group started with 4km of the final ascent to go, when first Frank Schleck and then Andy made teasing and attacks.
Basso and Evans also went to the front, but none of the riders really forced the pace until the elder Schleck jumped away with just over 2km to go.
While he quickly established a gap and started closing on Sanchez, the others were content to accelerate only moderately – but enough to leave Contador in their wake, the three-times winner finishing in eighth place, behind Damiano Cunego.
So Voeckler remains in charge. Contador is now four minutes down, with deficits of around two minutes on his most likely rivals.
Voeckler has a new title, coined by a French television presenter: “Monsieur Panache”. No one expects him to be in the lead when the race reaches Paris, although he may now carry the yellow jersey from Pau across the Col d’Aubisque to Lourdes today.
But on the quatorze juillet he defended it with pride and spirit, and no one could ask for more.
GuardianService
