THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Contador dons yellow as Bennati wins Stage 17
At 12:40 p.m. local time Thursday, organizers of the Tour de France officially accepted the withdrawal of Michael Rasmussen, thus closing the book on one of the most controversial yellow-jersey runs in race history. In the wake of the Rasmussen affair came stage 17, a mostly flat run from Pau to Castelsarrasin. No one wore the maillot jaune.
For the record, Daniele Bennati (Lampre-Fondital) won the 188.5km stage, while Discovery Channel's Alberto Contador took over the race lead. The 24-year-old Spaniard now owns a 1:53 lead over Aussie Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto), with American Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel) third at 2:49.
How history will treat the Tour and its eventual winner remains to be seen. Regardless of who eventually stands on the top step of the podium in Paris, the 2007 Tour will forever be colored by its controversies, not just its competition.
Rasmussen was removed from the race Wednesday night after the Dane was, according to Rabobank team manager Theo de Rooy, caught in a lie. De Rooy explained that his star rider had told the team he would be training in Mexico during the lead up to the Tour, but instead they discovered he was actually in Italy.
The indiscretion was brought to light by former pro-turned-TV-commentator Davide Cassani, who claimed he'd spotted "Chicken" training in the Dolomites when he was supposed to be on the other side of the Atlantic. Rasmussen denied misleading his team.
Nonetheless, it was the final straw in a string of indiscretions and allegations that included four missed out-of-competition tests in the last 18 months, and charges that Rasmussen tried to trick a training partner into smuggling illegal doping products from the U.S. to Italy five years ago.
"[Rasmussen] should never have been at the start," said Tour race director Christian Prudhomme, who was joined by ASO president Patrice Clerc at a morning press conference at the start village in Pau. "The UCI was aware of the matters [surrounding Rasmussen] as they had issued a warning letter on 29 June to Rasmussen. They should have allowed us to avoid this crisis."
But Prudhomme did his best to find a silver lining in all the ugliness, calling the revamped GC standings more credible.
"The departure of Rasmussen is the best thing that has happened to us these past few days," said the embattled Frenchman, who in two years on the job has seen two race leaders, Floyd Landis and now Rasmussen, disgraced by doping allegations.
"The most important thing now is that we give the Tour back to the hundreds of thousands of people who follow the race and love it. Now the Tour continues with riders who love their sport and are prepared to practice it with respect to the rules."
It's impossible to say who among the race's remaining riders actually live up to that billing, but 142 riders took the start Thursday. The eight missing from Wednesday's finish included Rasmussen and the remaining members of the Cofidis squad - Sylvain Chavanel, Stephane Auge, Nick Nuyens, Staf Scheirlinckx, Rik Verbrugghe, Bradley Wiggins and Cristian Moreni. Moreni tested positive for synthetic testosterone after stage 11, leading to the ejection of the entire team six days later.
One day earlier, Astana was kicked out of the race after team leader Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for homologous blood doping. He too has denied wrongdoing.
The Tour field was further reduced in Thursday's feed zone, when Rabobank's Denis Menchov decided he'd had enough, climbing off his bike and into the team car. The Russian had come to France as his team's designated leader, but after faltering in the Alps - a fact Rasmussen callously pointed out, chiding his teammate for not "getting his ass over the Galibier" - Menchov faithfully slipped into what turned out to be an utterly wasted supporting role.
This wasn't Menchov's first brush with doping disappointment. In 2005, he was awarded the Vuelta a España title only after Liberty Seguros rider Roberto Heras tested positive for EPO.
Somebody has to win
With riders in the peloton interested in putting one of the Tour's darkest days behind them, it seemed almost a welcome relief to finally hit the road. The day's break formed just 5km into the race with Bennati, Jens Voigt (CSC), Martin Elmiger (Ag2r), Daniele Righi (Lampre-Fondital), David Millar (Saunier Duval-Prodir), Markus Fothen (Gerolsteiner), Manuel Quinziato (Liquigas) and Matteo Tosatto (Quick Step-Innergetic) moving away.
Remarkably, the group made little progress for the first two hours. With the Caisse d’Epargne concerned with its spot on the team standings, the Spanish team led a chase that kept the break within 2:00 minutes for more than 100km. Up front, the eight cooperated and kept the pace high, averaging 47.3kph for the first hour. Finally, the rubberband snapped and with 85km remaining, the Spanish team eased off and the gap began to grow, slightly at first, but by the 67km-to-go mark, the gap was 5:35, and it was beginning to appear that the day's winner was going to come from the front group.
On the day's final climb, the Category 4 Côte de la Montagnere, which summited at 19km to go, Voigt attacked, attempting to trim the group to a more manageable size. Eight became six, and finally four, when Righi and Quinziato, then Millar and Tosatto were dropped under pressure from Voigt in the last 20km.
That left the end-game to the CSC man, Elmiger, Fothen and Bennati. Bennati was the lone sprinter among the leaders, and the Italian easily out-kicked Fothen at the line. Elmiger was third, with green-jersey leader Tom Boonen (Quick Step-Innergetic) leading the field home. Boonen’s ninth-place finish earned him 17 points, upping his lead over South African Robbie Hunter (Barloworld) to 212-190.
Bennati, meanwhile, scored the first Tour stage win this year for his Lampre squad.
“In the final week of a three-week tour, being in a big group is always difficult,” explained Bennati. “I decided I would risk to try to get into a breakaway. It was a good group today – we collaborated to make it stick because the first hour was very fast and we only had about a two-minute gap – we were hoping that everyone was tired after the mountains. I was looking around and I knew I had a good chance to win.
“Once we had a better gap, we were able to work together and collaborate. I knew there would be attacks on the last cat. 4 climbs. I was watching Voigt, and I knew I had good legs. If I could follow him over the climb, I knew my chances would improve a lot. With four of us coming in, it was mine to lose.”
As for the overall Tour title, it’s now a three-man battle between Contador, Evans and Leipheimer with Saturday’s stage 19 time trial set to decide things. The Discovery rider has time in hand, but Evans is considered a much better time trialist. The Aussie took 1:14 out of Contador in the first TT, and Saturday’s course is far flatter than the one in Albi, likely increasing Evans’s advantage. Evans needs 1:54 to take the yellow jersey.
“I am aware that Evans is the favorite,” admitted Contador. “He has more experience, he has better results. I can only hope things work out for me.”
Next up - The 2007 Tour de France rolls on Friday, with stage 18's 211km ride from Cahors to Angoulême. Start time is 12:15 p.m. local (6:15 a.m. U.S. EST). The route runs along the winding roads of the Dordogne area. With just four easy climbs all within the first 70km, it's likely the sprinters will get a chance to strut their stuff while the remaining GC contenders save strength ahead of Saturday's final time trial. Stage 17
1. Daniele Bennati (I), Lampre, 188.5km in 4:14:04
2. Marcus Fothen (G), Gerolsteiner
3. Martin Elmiger (G), Ag2r
4. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, same time
5. David Millar (GB), Saunier Duval-Prodir, at 2:41
6. Matteo Tosatto (I), Quick Step-Innergetic, at 2:43
7. Manuel Quinziato (I), Liquigas, at 3:20
8. Daniele Righi (I), Lampre-Fondital, s.t.
9. Tom Boonen (B), Quick Step-Innergetic, at 9:37
10. Sebastien Chavanel (F), Française des Jeux, s.t.
Overall
1. Alberto Contador (Sp), Discovery Channel, 80:42:08
2. Cadel Evans (Aus), Predictor-Lotto, at 1:53
3. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, at 2:49
4. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, at 6:02
5. Haimar Zubeldia (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 6:29
6. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse D’Epargne, at 10:18
7. Kim Kirchen (Lux), T-Mobile, at 11:36
8. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr), Discovery Channel, at 12:50
9. Juan Mauricio Soler (Col), Barloworld, at 13:31
10. Mikel Astarloza (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 13:42
Click here to open our Live Update Window.
