HomeDiariesLe Tour de France 2009 - Stage 9: Saint-Gaudens > Tarbes, 160.5km
As Jean Rene Bernadeau kissed Pierrick Fedrigo after the sharp featured former French champion took the second Bbox stage of the 2009 Tour, from Saint-Gaudens to Tarbes. I think what he said was; “well done son, we’ve all got a job, next year!”
Again, I only saw the finale; maybe not a bad thing, I have a tendency to nod off during long, uninteresting breakaway stages.
I caught the last 20k or so, and it was uncertain as to whether they would stay away; if it had been a flat stage and Columbia had been in full effect, then Fedrigo and Pellizotti would have been swamped.
Pierrick Fedrigo takes Bbox’s second stage of the Tour.
But despite the best efforts of Caisse D’Epargne — with a little help from Rabobank — the two fugitives held out.
Oscar easily wins the sprint for third.
Oscar Freire must have been frustrated, he took third easily; it could perhaps have been the win if Denis Menchov had set the cruise control a little earlier — he has all day tomorrow to recover, after all — and Oscar is certainly the Orangemen’s best chance for Tour glory.
The last 10k was good bike racing, a frantic bunch, in a long, long line against the two foxes — and like Charly Wegelius says; “it’s good for the dogs not to catch them, sometimes.”
Pello did all he could, he’s no sprinter but he made the right move, diving into the right hander first and making the Frenchman come the long way round — he could have done little more.
Pello took the Combativity award as small compensation for second place.
It’s not been a bad Tour at all for the Motherland; but what I’m really hoping for is a Moncoutie win in the Alps — Viktor will just love that!
And there’s the email from Brandt, who sponsor the combativity (le coureur qui a anime la course avec panache) prize; Pello today; that’s fair and he’ll be a boy to watch on the Ventoux.
Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R La Mondiale) is rising to the challenge of riding in yellow.
Nocentini takes the yellow jersey into the rest day — shows you what I know!
Ciao, ciao!
Tour 09 Stage 9 Map.
Tour 09 Stage 9 Profile.
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Al Hamilton
“El león del Tour“.
The lion of the Tour is the headline today in AS and Luis León Sánchez makes (as you might expect) the front and the back pages.
Luis León won the stage in to Aurillac in last year’s Tour, now a year later he made the assault on Saint Girons for his home: “Va por mi hermano, mis padres y los compañeros” – For my brother, my parents and my friends, and he adds “for Alejandro Valverde”.
El león del Tour.
His brother was a famous footballer, Pedro Leon; he played for Valladolid, but tragically died in 2005 in a fatal quad bike accident. Who does he think will win the Tour? “Contador!”
Contador has been selected for more attention than just by the fans; he has been tested three times in two days. “Análisis ‘selectivos’ para el madrileño (Contador) y Armstrong.” First on Friday, then in the morning at the Novotel of Andorra la Vella and then at the finish line there was a Chaperon from the UCI.
Contador goes about the parts of his profession that are less pleasant quietly and with dignity. Lance twitters.
Armstrong sent a message on twitter saying he was at another anti-doping test too.
After 90 kilometres on the stage to Saint Girons, 2006 Tour winner, Oscar Pereiro called a halt and abandoned.
The Galician said his body had had enough; his pulse would not go over 160 when normally it would be 185 bpm. Most of last year he was recovering from his crash in the 2008 Tour and had raced 52 days before reappearing in this Tour.
“El Tourmalet es la gran esperanza ‘anti-Astana’” – Andy Schleck predicts attacks as does Evans.
AS’ front page today.
The problem is that the Tourmalet comes a long way from the finish in Tarbes, 60 kilometres to be exact, so this will make it very difficult to stay away from a chasing Astana team. Should be exciting stuff anyway!
Ed and Martin, our top team! They try to do the local Time Trials, the Grand Tours and the Classics together to get the great stories written, the quality photos taken, the driving done and the wifi wrestled with.
Not many riders throughout the History of the 52 years of the Bec CC Hill Climb event get to wear the mantle of 'Doing the Double' by winning both the Catford CC Hill & the Bec C C Hill Climbs. Dan Fleeman, Blue Sky Cycles, who until today was a 'Hill Climb Virgin', in his first attempt at this discipline, not only won both events, but also broke the 12 year old Bec C C Hill Record of 1.44.4 set in 1995 by Gary Dodd, Kingston Phoenix RC with an incredible 1.43.02.
Stage Two had been hailed as one where the cross winds could blow things apart from the off but fortunately the Weather Gods remained benign and we were treated to a high speed finale where F des J and Nacer Bouhanni demonstrated again that they know exactly how to handle fast, technical finales. The wiry Frenchman was in a class all of his own after a beautiful lead out by his boys and in particular last man in the train, Geoffrey Soupe who rode a magnificent finale for his Capo.
On one of those grey Scottish mornings where it looks like the sun might just break through - but it never does - Dooley's Iain Grant successfully defended his Scottish 25 Mile Time Trial Championship 2013 title on the rolling A90 dual carriageway east of Laurencekirk on Sunday morning with a sparkling 50:46 course record.
Four men – counting the one behind the camera – their mission, to eat as many sandwiches, scotch eggs and sausage rolls as possible in one afternoon, whilst soaking up the sun, roadside at the British Elite Road Race Championships 2018. One of the local lads had the race on his iPhone and the result was confirmed: 1) Connor Swift for Madison Genesis; 2) Adam Blythe (Aqua Blue); 3) Owain Doull (Sky).
Martin Pyne has ridden somewhere around 2,000 races, of those he’s won 820 ‘open’ and 51 ‘club’ events, He broke Sean Yates' 10 mile TT record and held the 30 mile TT record for a decade, and he was British 25 Mile Time Trial Champion in 1981, relegating ‘super tester,’ Ian Cammish to second place.
It's here. Le Tour de France 2012 Prologue. The endless analysis is finally over, there's rubber on tarmac, folks hanging over barriers and commentators getting their facts wrong, already.
We left our Tour of Britain 'catch up' with Evan Oliphant until after the British track champs, on the off chance that he might break the BC/Sky/100% ME grip on affairs - fat chance.
It's the Scottish Road Championships today - damn this Giro and it's climbs around Busto Arsizio in beautiful Lombardy! But Martin was telling me that the sun was out in Balfron and the jackets were off, so Scotland certainly had the last laugh - the weather here in Italy was grim.
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