Stage Fourteen

Warm sunny weather was the order of the day as the race began to climb towards the Alps. The temperature was sitting at 32 degrees as after five kilometres of racing, the first breakaway containing 21 riders, formed a mini peloton.

Nimes to Digne les Bains 194.5km

Warm sunny weather was the order of the day as the race began to climb towards the Alps. The temperature was sitting at 32 degrees as after five kilometres of racing, the first breakaway containing 21 riders, formed a mini peloton. Four riders then broke away from that group and sat between the five and six minute marks from the main peloton. The four riders were Iván Gutiérrez (Caisse d'Epargne), William Bonnet (Crédit Agricole), Bram Tankink (Rabobank) and Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux).

When Cadel Evans pulled on the yellow jersey back on stage 10, many people said that it may be too early. But the flat stages have proven easier than expected for Silence-Lotto as the sprinters teams have done most of the work. Cadel would have had concerns about being isolated at times and we would have to wait and see if he would be able to pull away further from Frank Schleck.

Mindful of previous breakaways that managed to stay away, teams such as Liquigas and Milram came to the front of the peloton to pull the gap back to a more manageable three minutes, 20 seconds at the 85km to go mark. Ten kilometres later it was down to 2:45.

Noticeably, CSC were absent from the front of the peloton once the roads became flat. Their plan this year was to attack in the mountains, so they were almost unseen on other days. Not so Erik Zabel, who seemed to always be in the mix whenever there was a sprint on the finish line. Given that Erik is 38 years of age and also rode the Giro, it’s pretty amazing.

Another man who rode the Giro is Mark Cavendish, who had won four stages up until this day. Columbia Sportswear would have been pleased with their investment.

The peloton maintained their ‘false tempo’. Just fast enough to make a slight inroad, but not fast enough to make the breakaway put the gas on. By 40km from the finish, the gap was down to 1:10.

With 27km to go, the gap dropped to under a minute and Gutierrez moved off the front of the break. The three time Spanish time trial champion successfully broke away from the other three riders and began to put the hammer down. Casar and Tankink were swallowed up at 18km and at this point, Gutierrez held a 41 second advantage with the Col de l’Orme ahead.

Gutierrez rode brilliantly but as soon as the peloton hit the climb the attacks began to come. Thomas Voeckler was the first to attack but the group were watchful and pulled him back. Popovych did some work but as Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner) went away Cadel Evans had to follow. Oscar Pereiro attacked and was pulled back and then more attacks came as they went over the top.

The peloton had split in half as Sylvain Chavanel led them down to the finish only to be caught with 1800 metres to go. Green jersey wearer Oscar Freire moved himself into the third wheel position. When Agritubel rider Roman Feilleau made his sprint, Freire moved out and held on for the win. This extended his lead in the sprints classification to 219 pts over Thor Hushovd who was sitting on 172. You have to feel sorry for Erik Zabel. So many times in this race he has done everything right and missed out by a length.

Cadel Evans marked all his challengers and was rewarded by holding yellow, still by only one second. Tomorrow the climbing would really begin.