HomeDiariesLe Tour de France 2009 - Stage 8: Andorre-la-Vieille > Saint-Girons, 176.5km
Clever and strong, Luis Leon Sánchez won this afternoon in Stage 8 from Andorre-la-Vieille into Saint-Girons, adding this to his win at Paris-Nice earlier this year.
The stage today had three climbs, and began almost right away with the Port d’Envalira. Here, we saw lots of riders willing to give the race a shake, none more so than Sandy Casar, who jumped across to an earlier group of escapees then continued on ahead by himself to cross its crest first.
With groups forming and reforming until the third climb, the Col d’Agnès (12.4 km at 6.5 percent) some 40km before the finish in the valley, we saw a group of three riders, Sánchez (Caisse d’Epargne), Efimkin (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi) crest the summit first, and Casar getting back on to make four.
Luis Leon Sanchez wins stage 8.
Around four kilometres from the line, Efimkin attacked and looked very much like he’d stay clear and win the stage, but with 500 metres to go, the Russian (who never really got more than 100 metres in front) was caught by Sandy Casar.
Sánchez played it as if he was spent, and Casar went past, not realising that Sánchez had slotted onto his wheel, able to get a quick breather, before sprinting past him. Astarloza did enough for third place, a few seconds later.
Sánchez said afterwards;
“I knew Efimkin had no choice but to attack. I know him quite well because he used to be one of my teammates.
“He isn’t that fast a sprinter though, so I knew he was going to attack from a fair distance.
“I said to Astarloza and Casar that we had to work together to get him back, and once we had I needed a bit of luck. I know I have a decent sprint, so I was able to win.”
Sánchez also took over the role of leader of Caisse d’Epargne after team-mate Oscar Pereiro, citing poor form, and is now quite well positioned on the overall classification. He started the day at 4:10 down on race leader Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale), and was for a time the yellow jersey on the road, finishing today 11th overall on GC.
Meanwhile, Cervélo’s Thor Hushovd used his racing savvy and strong legs to move into the lead in the green points jersey competition by getting into the break and winning two intermediate sprints in front of George Hincapie, who was trying to take the points to protect Mark Cavendish’s lead.
Getting green was Thor’s mission for the day.
As soon as he won the second intermediate sprint, Hushovd sat up and waited for the peloton to catch him, job done for the day.
Tour 09 Stage 8 Map.
Tour 09 Stage 8 Profile
Tomorrow…
The Tour will wave goodbye to the Pyrénées tomorrow, in the ninth stage from Saint-Gaudens to Tarbes. The relative lack of distance will be compensated for with two of the most difficult climbs during three days of racing across the Pyrenees; the first-category Col d’Aspin before approaching the eastern side of the famous hors-category Col du Tourmalet at 90km.
After a long descent, the final 45km are down a long, wide-open valley to the finish in Tarbes.
* * *
Ed Hood
“Nocentini should savour his day in yellow,” said me — I got that one wrong, and now it’s looking like the “I-tal-an” (as Sean calls them) could be heading for quite a few days en jaune.
In fairness to myself, I don’t think the Pyrenees have been as hard as perhaps we expected; the ‘heads’ minds are very much on the last week, and that Saturday on the Ventoux, in particular.
I managed to get the work, driving and hospital visits completed in time to see the last hour of the stage.
Viktor doesn’t like him, but I have a soft spot for Sandy Casar, two years ago he saved the Tour for the French with a great stage win — the man wants to win so badly, and you have to admire that.
One of the main animators of the stage, Sandy Casar.
But he was up against Sanchez on top ‘Al Pacino method acting’ form; “I’m finished, I can’t come through!” the Spaniard pleaded as he shook his head, in best Belgian style – but like Brian Smith says; “he won’t get away with that again!”
Brice Feillu’s stage win on Friday was a good one and it was nice to see a young French rider in the climber’s jersey; but socks and shorts too? — when I first saw him and all those dots, I thought, “jeez, my eyesight is getting even worse!”
Talking about jerseys, ‘nice one’ by Hushovd to nick the green one from Cav — the wee Manxman won’t like that, and that can only be a good thing for those of us watching the race.
Wiggins is very impressive; but why ride on the front, yesterday? It’s down to AG2R and the Kazakh Happy Gang to do that — best save that energy for the Alps, Brad.
Again, to quote Brian Smith; “A lot of guys get carried away because it’s the Tour.”
The Observer does us proud again, today – as has the Guardian, all week; there are colour pics, race report, diary, stage analysis; it’s not L’Equipe, but it’s a world better than we used to get.
I’ve never been a Daily Record reader, but I well remember how they did Robert Millar proud, back in those heady Vuelta-leading days of the 80’s.
OK, I’m getting nostalgic, best go and write up those Scottish 50 championship interviews. Ciao, ciao.
* * *
Al Hamilton
“Roar Contador. Attack and gain 21 seconds on the group of favourites, Nocentini, leader”. That was the head lines in this morning AS.
Roar Contador!
Alberto said “Ningun favorito atacaba, asi que decide hacerlo yo” – he thought that if none of the favourites were not attacking, then he should.
After the finish he said he was pleased with how it went, but the next stages in the Pyrenees are complicated and the climbs on Saturday are harder than Arcalis.
Evans is complaining that “Astana are controlling the race, they have four of the strongest riders in the Tour”.
Contador no siguio el plan, no esperaba que lo hiciera.
Armstrong was accused of sarcasm over the attack of “compañero” Contador in AS; “Contador no siguio el plan, no esperaba que lo hiciera” – he said “Contador’s plans were no secret, he couldn’t wait to go, it was no surprise to me”. Lance’s last statement; “El equipo no sera un problema”. Well if you say so Lance!
Nocentini was pleased to take the yellow jersey as it has been nine years since the last Italian to wear it, Alberto Elli in the Tour of 2000.
One of the headlines in Marca was a quote from Astana director, Johan Bruyneel “Contador y Armstrong tienen el mismo status”. So now they have the same status in the team? This seems to change from day to day and it looks as though it will have to be the legs that do the talking and if Bert shows the same speed he left the leaders yesterday then that might stop the in-house arguments.
Should be more action today as there are three hard climbs, the first is from the gun, ouch!
Martin is our Editor and web site Designer/Manager and concentrates on photography. He's been involved in cycle racing for over four decades and raced for much of that time, having a varied career which included time trials, road and track racing, and triathlons. Martin has been the Scottish 25 Mile TT and 100 Mile TT Champion, the British Points Race League Champion on the track, and he won a few time trials in his day, particularly hilly ones like the Tour de Trossachs and the Meldons MTT.
The Bremen Six Day 2019 is done and dusted. If truth be told, it wasn't the worst final I've ever seen but I have seen better. As expected, Iljo & Jasper took the victory with the best points total AND a lap.
Friday's gig was to do a course recce for Paris - Roubaix 2007. There are 28 sectors and you can't skek them all, so we decided to do the track at Roubaix, the final four sectors, a new sector which has just been added and the two legendary sectors - Carrefour de L'Arbre & Arenberg.
Bedale was packed to the rafters to see Rick Zabel claim a stunning sprint victory on a hugely successful second day at the Tour de Yorkshire. By the time they reached Market Place it was Rick Zabel who hit top speed and romped to victory in front of some unbelievable Yorkshire support. The win was his first since 2015 and one which will live long in the memory.
Three times the cross country mountain bike event has been in the Commonwealth Games (introduced in 2002, it didn't feature on the programme in Dehli four years ago) and three times Canada have topped the womens' podium. This time it was the turn of Catharine Pendrel, who took control of the race midway round the first of five laps and wasn't challenged again, soloing to a 70 second win over her teammate Emily Batty, with Australian rider Rebecca Henderson third a further 12 seconds back, after a race-long battle with Batty.
Off no.45, Michael Nicolson (Dooleys RT) never looked like being beaten in the Scottish 50 Mile TT Championship 2009, but a but a clutch of riders fought it our for the minor placings in the mens competition, whilst Jessica Wilson -Young (Edinburgh RC) took a comfortable win in the women's race.
Scott Thwaites turned pro with Endura in 2010 on the strength of that title and exploded onto the British scene with a win in the hotly contested and highly sought after Lincoln GP in 2011. The rapid progress continued last year with a dazzling UK season; the high lights of which were the British Criterium Championship and the overall win in the Premier Calendar.
I haven't written on this blog for a while. The reason for this was that I was kind of getting tired of whining on about bad luck, hard times and other problems. No one wants to read that and no one cares. So I decided to keep calm and hang tight till good news come along. Writes Tomás Swift-Metcalfe.
It's different here; the butcher asks you how Keisse is doing in the six and the local paper has Iljo in full colour, on the cover. In the same paper - De Gentenaar - which is a local 'rag,' there's a two page guide to track racing and two pages of stats on the 2009 season.
We humbly ask for your help to support our dear friend and beloved colleague Ed Hood. Ed suffered a devastating stroke in February last year and faces an uncertain future.
As a result of the stroke, Ed has lost his ability to speak, and to read, and has lost movement on the right side of his body. He’s working with speech and physical therapists on rehabilitation but all strokes are different and each patient responds differently, so unfortunately recovery is one day at a time.
Ed ran his own business installing windows but will not be able to work again and his financial future is uncertain, so please consider joining us to make a contribution to the GoFundMe page to help stabilise and secure Ed's future. Thank you.
