Schleck’s Chain Loses the Yellow Jersey
Stage 15 of the 2010 Tour de France spelled the end of Andy Schleck’s six days in the yellow jersey. Just as the race leader attacked his rival Alberto Contador 3km from the summit of the final climb, his bike chain came loose and nearly threw him from the bike. This is not an easy repair to make in the best of times, and although Schleck managed it in 28 seconds, it still won Contador an eight second lead overall.
“Now I’m really angry. I will ride on the Tourmalet until I fall from my bike and give everything to this race,” said Schleck. “I felt really good but what counted at the end of the day is the time that you have when you arrive at the finish and I was so far back even with what I did on the descent.”
Samuel Sanchez and Denis Menchov rode with Contador in the 21km descent to the stage finish in Luchon in a group of eight, finishing 2:50 behind the stage winner. The three were all that remained from an attack by the top five overall contenders, including Schleck and Jurgen Van den Broeck, who both finished 3:29 behind the leader in a trio with Alexandre Vinokourov, the Stage 14 winner. With only eight seconds between the two race leaders, the fight for the yellow jersey is not over.
“At this moment it’s a really good situation, but actually 30 seconds more or 30 seconds less could change things a bit. It’s always good to be ahead in the general classification,” said Contador. “I didn’t know anything about the problems with Andy Schleck, but when I realized it I was already ahead of him. The only things that I saw was that he was beginning to attack and then he slowed down. I didn’t realize that he had a problem with the bike.”
174 contenders made the 187.5km trek from Pamiers to Bagneres-de-Luchon. There was one more cyclist at the check-in, but Mauro Santambrogio abandoned the Tour an hour and a half into the stage. There was a crash in the peloton within 40km of the finish line. Iban Mayoz and Brett Lancaster stood up immediately, but Anthony Geslin needed a minute on the ground with the road doctor. All three victims finished the stage.
The first – and only – successful escape of the day was a ten rider lead at 93km. The escape was very quick and elusive, and it didn’t include any top contenders. The gap was over ten minutes long before it began to shrink at the final climb at the Port de Bales. Three of the weaker climbers in the escape dropped off, prompting Thomas Voeckler to attack to the summit. He jumped ahead 8km from the top and left the rest of the escape behind, not to see another rider until after he won the stage.
“I am very proud of what I have done today,” said Voeckler. “At an emotional level, what happened at the championships of France, when I came home first, was already enormous. But then win with the tricolor on the shoulders a stage of the Tour de France is extraordinary.”
Alessandro Petacchi and Thor Hushovd, close combatants for the green jersey, both won points in the green jersey competition, but Petacchi will wear it for the third consecutive day in the 16th Stage. He is still only two points ahead of Hushovd and 25 points ahead of third-place sprint Mark Cavendish. With sprinters already having won points in the first climb, second-place climber Jerome Pineau took points in the first immediate sprint. Anthony Charteau will still wear the polka-dot jersey, though he didn’t earn any points in today’s stage.
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