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Moncoutie takes tough stage at Dauphiné, Valverde defends lead
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For the second day in a row, a Frenchman won in a breakaway at the Dauphiné Libéré, this time with veteran head-banger David Moncoutie snagging an impressive victory in the week’s hardest stage over the French Alps.
And for the third year in a row, it appears that Cadel Evans will finish runner-up, but it’s not for a lack of trying.
The Silence-Lotto captain has finished second twice in a row at the Dauphiné before going on to second at the Tour de France in 2007 and in 2008.
Evans looked to be in the driver’s seat after taking back the leader’s jersey in Wednesday’s decisive time trial, but he let Valverde ride away on Mont Ventoux on Thursday and found no friends from other GC riders to chase.
Saturday’s three-climb stage over the Galibier, Croix de Fer and up the Madeleine was his best chance to shake off the on-form Valverde, fresh off overall victory at the Volta a Catalunya in May.
With Moncoutie clear to win the 157km seventh stage from Briancon to Saint-Francois-Longchamp ahead of Robert Gesink (Rabobank), Evans uncorked at least a dozen attacks on the final 14km climb to the finish line.
Valverde found the legs to withstand each barrage and the pair crossed the line together at 41 seconds behind Moncoutie, with Valverde defending his 16-second lead going into Sunday’s 146km final stage.
“I have nothing to regret, I did everything,” a resigned Evans said. “Maybe I’ll finish second again. I only hope that it’ll work out differently at the Tour de France.”
At least Evans knows he’s going to the Tour.
Valverde’s future is very much in doubt.
Italian officials have already banned him from racing in Italy, and because about 80km of stage 16 dips through Italy, Valverde looks likely to miss the Tour.
Valverde ─ facing a worldwide two-year doping ban if the UCI acts upon evidence yet to be delivered by the Italian sporting authorities they say links the Spanish rider to the Operación Puerto doping ring ─ he seems to making the most of the Dauphiné.
“Evans must have attacked about 15 times during the last climb. I expected it,” Valverde said. “He is very strong. It was the most important stage.”
Alberto Contador (Astana) seems to content to watch Valverde and Evans duke it out and use the Dauphiné as a high-altitude training camp to prepare for the Tour.
The 2007 Tour champion lost 14 seconds to finish fifth, but remains solidly in third, now at 1:18 back.
Gesink also tried in vain to win a stage during this Dauphiné, but couldn’t chase down Moncoutie. The Dutch climber settled for second the stage and moved up to fourth overall at 2:41 back.
Posting another encouraging result was ex-mountain bike Jacob Fuglsang, who crossed the line just ahead of Contador and climbed from 10th to sixth overall at 4:08 back.
The Saxo Bank rider was also impressive on Mont Ventoux in his first major climbs since switching full-time to the road this year.
“I am tired and happy. Before the race even began, I had hoped for a place in the top 10 in the overall standings and that I could keep up with the best riders just a few kilometers on the climbs,” Fuglsang said. “So, to attack and one day drop the best riders on the steepest mountains is of course very satisfying for me. In my own eyes, I am among the top five on the climbs in this race and with an advancement of four places today, I can only be happy to be sixth overall. At least no one can now accuse us of not trying.”
David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream) struggled to match the pace when the attacks came from the favorites to cross the line 18th after being paced up the climb by teammate Daniel Martin, but retained a spot in the top 10 with ninth at 5:28 back.
Thomas Frei is holding up well for BMC, now 16th, while Craig Lewis (Columbia-Highroad) had a good day to move into the top-20 overall.
For Moncoutie, who has two Tour de France stage wins to his name, it was his second win of the season after a stage victory in the Tour of the Mediterranean.
“This was a really prestigious stage win, with the climbs of Galibier, the Croix-de-Fer and the finish at Saint-Francois-Longchamp," said Moncoutie. “It was a difficult stage, but I like it when it's difficult.”
Sunday's final stage is a 146km hump from Faverges to Grenoble, with a first-category climb early in the stage that will likely spring stage-hunters.
Valverde just has to follow Evans’ wheel to all but wrap up his second consecutive Dauphiné. -
– AFP contributed to this report
