Tour de France - Astarloza wins Alpine stage

Eurosport - Wed, 22 Jul 11:43:00 2009

Mikel Astarloza of Euskaltel-Euskadi won the 16th stage of the Tour de France, coming home alone in Bourg St Maurice.

CYCLING 2009 Tour de France 16e étape SLIDE Mikel Astarloza - 0

The Basque rider attacked a lead group of four with two kilometres remaining and crossed the line six seconds ahead after the 159km trek in the Alps from Martigny.

Sandy Casar was second and fellow Frenchman Pierrick Fedrigo came home third.

Alberto Contador, in a league of his own in Sunday's first Alpine stage when he took the overall leader's yellow jersey, finished in a group of 18 riders, 59 seconds back.

He still leads Astana team-mate Lance Armstrong by one minute 37 seconds and Briton Bradley Wiggins by 1:46 with the top five on general classification unchanged.

A 21-man lead group formed on the ascent to the Tour's highest point, the Col du Grand St Bernard, which King of the Mountains jersey leader Franco Pelizotti crossed in front of Vladmir Karpets after 40.5km.

The pairing were caught in the valley following the descent by 15 members of the original break plus Astarloza who made his move on the slopes of the 24.4km Hors category climb.

Pellizotti was also first over the day's other climb, the Col du Petit St Bernard after 128km, and he was closely followed by Belgian Jurgen Van den Broeck, Astarloza and Amael Moinard, the French rider from Cofidis.

But the real action was happening behind as Andy Schleck launched an aggressive attack on the 22.6km first category climb.

Only Contador, his Astana team-mate Andreas Kloden, Wiggins and young Italian Vicenzo Nibali could follow initially but Lance Armstrong regained contact near the summit as the pace dropped.

Pellizotti, Van den Broeck, Astarloza and Moinard held a slender lead over a four-man chase group of Ireland's Nicolas Roche plus the home trio of AG2R's Stephane Goubert, Casar (Francaise des Jeux) and Bouygues Telecom's Fedrigo on the 30km descent to Bourg St Maurice.

And just as the chasing quartet were poised to swallow up the leaders, Astarloza - who was ninth overall in 2007 - launched his bid for victory and as his companions hesitated, the man in orange surged away to take just the second win of his professional career.

"I'm super happy right now. I had the strength to finally win a stage of the Tour de France. I've only got a small resume of results and there's not a lot of victories on it but this goes right to the top of the list," said 29-year-old Astarloza.

"I seized the chance and went as hard as I could. I didn't want to risk it and have our group come into the finish for a sprint because that's not my strength so I wanted to give it all a few kilometers before the line."

Christophe Moreau led the main group, which had swelled to 18 riders on the decent, over the line in ninth place just under a minute behind with defending champion Carlos Sastre amongst those who managed to regain contact with the yellow jersey on the run-in.

But it was a bad day for dual runner-up Cadel Evans who finished down in 46th, 3:55 behind the stage winner, while Saxo Bank workhorse Jens Voigt suffered a nasty crash on the final descent.

STAGE 17 LIVE at 11am on Wednesday on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe

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Comment 34 - 53 of 53

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  1. Surely Canadaam is a little biased against all things­ US, including their cyclists?

    From p, on Wed 22 Jul 8:40AM

  2. Can someone please tell Paul and Phil to take a timeout­ from giving Lance a rimjob to take an unbiased approach­ to covering the Tour. Versus, you are a disgrace to­ cycling. It was apparent to anyone watching that the­ Schlecks let up after they couldn;t break Contador or­ Wiggins. The peak was just a kilo or kilo and a half­ away. And everyone caught up to them, not just­ Cheatstrong. Paul and Phil have disgraced the country­ of Britian with their completely over the top love of­ the U.S. of Aholes.

    From canadaam, on Wed 22 Jul 6:00AM

  3. Worldwide and his usual comments of "Lance will be­ down by 12 minutes after Ventoux, book it!"­ comments are conspicuously absent. lol

    Hope you­ didn't bet your house on it mate. ;)

    From Jhong_Jr., on Wed 22 Jul 5:23AM

  4. comment 36 - quote of the day!

    From spurs, on Wed 22 Jul 2:44AM

  5. It doesn`t matter if LA is doing well or not. His team­ must work leaving victory for him. Forget about­ fairplay and put this informations in buisness not in­ sport part of Website;-(

    From bogdanintheuk, on Wed 22 Jul 12:00AM

  6. Delighted for team Euskaltel and of course Astarloza on­ board his Orbea, waiting a long time for team Euskaltel­ to have a stage win in the TDF! Thanks for the­ memories.

    From puma746, on Tue 21 Jul 11:03PM

  7. What is the hospital saying about jens.

    From iancampbell11, on Tue 21 Jul 10:54PM

  8. today was for you fergus m. Go Lance and Bradley.

    From Mark S, on Tue 21 Jul 10:52PM

  9. I think tommorow A. schleck will gain time on all of­ the big rivals despite the lost of voigt ( and help him­ feel better) especially when he knows he's not at­ their level in ITT. he's looking at this stage­ since a long time... come on andy...

    From shehdehaboassa, on Tue 21 Jul 10:06PM

  10. It is too bad that LA got his wings clipped today, it­ was his type of mountain and he didn't make the­ mistake of going too fast too early and I bet he­ could've gone right past that group (Contador­ probably the only one who could have stayed with him).­ JB clipped LA's wings on the radio (they actually­ showed it on VS coverage) which is too bad, I­ would've liked to see what can still do. May be­ we'll see it yet.

    From verkhoturovdm, on Tue 21 Jul 9:58PM
  11. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    There is something quite comical about a skinny guy on­ a bike celebrating with such enthusiasm, using up what­ little testosterone he has left in him to celebrate his­ victory.

    From someblokefromthepub, on Tue 21 Jul 9:14PM

  12. to Trouble
    Well you are little right and much wrong.
    1.­ I don't take bicycle racing seriously, but­ bicycling I do. It's healthy and ecological (and­ much more).
    2. I do watch races, but you say it like­ that's all I do, and that isn't the truth, I­ also ride bicycle.
    3. To seek help you have to admit­ you have problem first, and you don't admit it.
    4.­ I never said that I have no issues, and how do you know­ I don't seek help, but at least I dont write­ rubbish here just to enjoy myself.

    From Lucky, on Tue 21 Jul 9:00PM
  13. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Wish Lance would stay home a cut his lawn, sick of­ looking at him!

    From fergus M, on Tue 21 Jul 8:36PM

  14. nice stage,it was pleasure to see that though LA is not­ the strongest he still can limit his loses with his­ experience

    From xangtzu, on Tue 21 Jul 8:31PM
  15. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Lucky, here's the deal. I'll seek help for my­ seious issues if you promise to drink some wine which­ will, hopefully, enable you to grow a sense of humour.­ But I doubt it. I don't know why, but of all silly­ games that men play, bicycle riders are the most­ serious of all, especially those that watch it, like­ you. It's just a bicycle lucky, I think anyone who­ takes it as seriously as you do has serious issues, not­ me. At least I enjoy myself, you get all worked up over­ skinny little runts riding bicycles, now that is a­ serious problem

    From trouble, on Tue 21 Jul 8:28PM
  16. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    hey! Chrismas in July? wow ... shopforlittlecom the­ right place for lots. We Compared and there is no­ Comparison. Dont miss out!

    From wkingsley24, on Tue 21 Jul 8:14PM

  17. to Trouble - man you have some BIG issues. Seek HELP­ man. FAST!

    From Lucky, on Tue 21 Jul 8:08PM

  18. you guys must understand and i say it from the bottom­ of my heart, i so almost all the lance past races at­ the tour and how i sow him today race it was remainds­ me the real lance, this is the real lance! and i sow­ today race when he comes up to the group i swear i­ thought he would show this group some smoke, the way he­ pass schleck and how schleck look at him...like he say­ "i start this attack and put lance away, from­ where the hell this guy show?" i even see contador­ suffring, why lance come with statement like "i­ will not attack contador" or "i will not­ follow him" these words have a reason.

    From xerezx, on Tue 21 Jul 8:08PM

  19. Trouble writes too much text so it is not worth the­ trouble.

    From istoleyourbicycle, on Tue 21 Jul 7:23PM
  20. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Where I live in Spain every weekend the bicycle riders­ are out in force, slowing down the traffic and making a­ complete nuisance of themselves, with the help of the­ police I might add. But they don't wear those silly­ tall hats like in this race in France, I forget­ it's name. They wear what look like motor bike­ petrol tanks on their heads. In fact I think that is­ what they are. But they also don't have anything in­ their lunch boxes, skinny little sexless runty men. But­ there's no room on their silly little hats to­ accommodate their private parts. I guess they just get­ them removed and discarded down the toilet. Or maybe­ they sell them to companies that make animal feed.­ Guess that means more mad cow disease

    From trouble, on Tue 21 Jul 7:21PM
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