Tour leaders dominate stage 17
The Tour de France is down to two contenders as it leaves the Pyrenees after the 17th stage, with a summit finish on the infamous Tourmalet. Only eight seconds separate Andy Schleck from the overall leader Alberto Contador, and though Schleck took his second 2010 stage victory on Thursday the best young rider in the Tour was unable to take the yellow jersey off the Spaniard’s back.
“I’m satisfied with the stage win but I also wanted to turn white into yellow but unfortunately it wasn’t possible,” said Schleck. “I really tried hard, you have to believe me about that. I changed rhythm and I tried everything but I think we’re on the same level on the climbs. Alberto attacked and I could go with him – it was a quick response – but in the end he didn’t sprint to win the stage because I did the most work. I have a lot of respect for that, it shows that he’s a great champion.”
Contador stuck on Schleck’s wheel to the end of the race despite suffering a serious crash at the beginning of the stage. The 174km stage from Pau to the Col du Tourmalet was the scene of the showdown everybody has been waited for. With the same-time finish of the two Tour leaders, and the 52km time-trial of stage 19, it remains impossible to pick a winner.
Schleck had no choice but to attack in this stage. On paper, Contador has a better chance in the time-trial, so the runner-up has to do whatever he can to gain some kind of gap on his opponent before then. He attacked so aggressively that only one rider was able to keep up – Contador. The Spaniard never lost his cool, hugged the Luxembourg rider’s wheel for the last 10km of the day and over the finish line. Schleck was awarded the Henri Desgrange memorial trophy as the king of the Tourmalet, but Contador is still leading the race.
“I tried to find out how he was feeling,” said Schleck. “You need to look at someone to see how he was coping. I think you can find out a lot if you look someone in the eyes. He didn’t have the sunglasses on today so it was possible to see, that’s why I looked so many times. But he always looked good and that’s kind of what killed me.”
The first breakaway of stage 17 was a success, keeping ahead of the peloton until the final 15km, the climb of the Tourmalet. Carlos Barredo attacked at 10km from the finish, spurring Schleck to make his expected attack. Team Sky controlled the breakaway and Team RadioShack wouldn’t allow any other escapes out of the peloton. The leading pair flew past Barredo, and the 3rd and 4th place contenders Samuel Sanchez and Denis Menchov made a futile attempt to follow, but were left in the dust.
“El Pistolero is strong, huh?” said Schleck. “I could no drop him. He was always there. I wanted to find out if he was getting weak but he didn’t succumb. He even attacked me to show, ‘Hey, listen young boy, I’m still here! You better stop playing these games with me.’”
Within four kilometres the pair had put more than a minute between them and the chase group. With four kilometres left to go, Contador attacked but didn’t manage to take the lead from Schleck. Gesink was riding hard in the chase group to the benefit of his Rabobank teammate Menchov, but not enough to overtake the 3rd place Samuel Sanchez. 1:18 after the leading pair, Joaquim netted third place, followed by Ryder Hesjedal at 1:27 and Sanchez at 1:32.
“I’m super happy to win this stage today – it’s the Queen stage of this year’s Tour,” said Schleck. “To win on the Tourmalet is like a win on Alpe d’Huez. When I turned to talk to him, I said: ‘You pass?’ And he didn’t. I would have done the same. Why should he pass me? In the end, he let me win the stage and I’m super happy.”
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