Tour de France - Burghardt breaks Tour duck

Eurosport - Fri, 25 Jul 17:05:00 2008

German Marcus Burghardt beat Carlos Barredo in a two-man sprint to claim his maiden Tour de France win in stage 18 after a 196.5-km ride from Bourg d'Oisans to St Etienne.

CYCLING 2009 Tour de France Marcus Burghardt (Columbia) - 0

The 25-year-old Burghardt (Columbia), who won Gent-Wevelgem in 2007 but gained more infamy for crashing into a dog on last year's Tour, easily held off Quick Step's Barredo in the finale after a 131-km break-away.

Frenchman Romain Feillu took third place from Christophe Le Mevel and Mikel Astarloza in the first chase group, finishing at 3'33" behind the two escapees.

Czech Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) attacked on the final, category four Cote de Sorbiers climb in the last ten kilometres, but he was easily joined by white jersey rival Andy Schleck and three other riders.

The five men crossed the line at 6'39" behind the victors, with green jersey Oscar Freire leading the peloton across 11 seconds later.

Italian Damiano Cunego saw his Tour go from bad to worse when he crashed in the first 20 kilometres, and lost more than ten minutes on the peloton as he struggled to get back on the bike.

The Lampre leader, who suffered cuts and abrasions in the crash, eventually crossed the line with a group of four team-mates, 11'35" behind the peloton to slip from 14th to 20th overall.

"I hit the pavement and then I don't even remember how I got back on the bike. It was my decision to continue," said Cunego, who was taken to St Etienne's hospital after the stage.

Spain's Astarloza (Euskaltel) moved up three places to 15th overall, but there was no major movement in the rest of the top 20.

Carlos Sastre still leads the overall standings from CSC team-mate Frank Schleck by 1'24", with Gerolsteiner's Bernard Kohl in third at 1'33" back.

Australian pre-race favourite Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) is still in prime position at 1'34" behind Sastre, with Saturday's individual time trial set to decide the overall victor.

Earlier in the stage, French customs officers searched the car of Johnny Schleck, the father of Frank and Andy.

"We were looking for doping substances but the check was negative so we let [Johnny Schleck] go," a customs spokesman said.

"Why would I have banned substances?" Johnny Schleck told RTL radio. "My sons are clean. With all these tests they have been undergoing, how would they not be clean?"

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Jeremy Stahl / Eurosport

Comment 1 - 16 of 16

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  1. God forbid Evans wins the tour! The dullest cyclist in the world, and on top of that a really unsympathetic character.
    If Evans wasn't in the race NO ONE WOULD MISS HIM!!!!!
    A tour winner without a stage win? I know it's been done, but let's face it, those are not the winners we remember!
    Thank god he's too old to establish a dynasty like indurain or Armstrong...
    Imagine that, a dynasty of sucking wheels, and hooking onto other more talented (and more interesting) riders!
    I hope he chokes on Saturday!!!! Mickey Mouse-sounding dude!

    From jackofspeed25, on Fri 25 Jul 10:39AM

  2. Cadel would be a very worthy winner IMO.
    Lacking the team support and on a course suiting climbers to TT'ers, we've been treated to a different leaders' strategy by Evans, compared with Contador and Armstrong.
    Against those odds and potentially winning the TdF witout a stage win, what we're seeing is a masterclass in "conservation of energy" superior to Armstrongs' (as he had his Posties windshielding).
    Change your expectations all you Evans naysayers. This is a guy who can incredibly keep up with the world's best climbers... and then whip them on the TT.

    Awesome Evans!!!

    From Karl M, on Fri 25 Jul 10:18AM

  3. sastre will win and lets face it evans may get 1st in wheel hugging pls show some bottle............but really without contador this was always an open race thats the real champ thanks to french bull s--t he was,nt able to defend ....would it have been the same 4 a frenchman????????

    From rugbyrun, on Fri 25 Jul 8:06AM

  4. Sastre is the only mountain guy left on GC that was willing to lay it all on the line to go for time and a stage win. I have to say I will be pulling for Sastre on Saturday to have the TT ride of his life. He has 94 seconds its gonna be close. He will probably need every second it.
    When you wear yellow anything is possible.

    From chad w, on Fri 25 Jul 7:14AM

  5. I think this is Cadel's 3rd year in the Tour that I can remember. I'm sure some Cadel fan will be quick to correct me if I'm wrong.
    I don't think I have ever seen him attack. It seem's as If he is always just hanging on.
    I don't think I have ever seen him place below top 10 on a mountain stage.

    From chad w, on Fri 25 Jul 6:42AM

  6. It is Tour tradition that the winner gives all of his prize money to his team mates.

    This is the main reason why I would like to see Sastre win.

    The Tour is all about teamwork and if Evans winning is a kick in the teeth for those riders who have ridden out of their skin for others.

    From dave p, on Fri 25 Jul 5:41AM

  7. I definitely agree with "heshaaamchess", Evans did a really great job by limiting time loss, as less as he could, against three CSC leaders, in the last three moutain stages . Congratulations Evans. I believe he has great chances to come back in time in saturday's time-trial stage. Good luck Evans.

    From Triathlon, on Fri 25 Jul 1:35AM

  8. My opinion is that Cadel Evans deserves to win the tour, I wish. Remember that he was alone against a whole team. For those who say that he is boring because he does not attack in the mountain, I say that it's better to be boring than to be pittyful at time trial like many. Besides when you have a team against you, you can only sit and wait, nothing more. Cadel lost 1:34, not against Sastre but against ScS team because ScS used all their riders altogether to obtain that advantage against one super rider Cadel Evans. Cadel still has a great chance to catch up Sastre in time trial and win the tour. That's my wish. God bless you Cadel.

    From heshaaamchess, on Thu 24 Jul 11:57PM

  9. Hey who knows maybe he wins in the next TT, Cancellara must tired

    Adeus

    VL

    From vitoramador@rocketmail.com, on Thu 24 Jul 10:55PM

  10. If Evans win's the Tour without a single stage win he better enjoy. It will not ever be possible for him to win the Tour again this way without any attacking capabilities. Given the fact that so many great climbers that can attack will be back next year.

    From chad w, on Thu 24 Jul 10:38PM

  11. Evans' Tour has been a masterclass of how not to panic or be forced into a corner. He had a gameplan at the start and has stuck to it, not easy to do for three entire weeks. CSC, great team that they are, have tried everything to break him on the slopes, knowing full well that he had zero support from his team as soon as the roads started heading upwards. I think he deserves a lot of credit for not panicking and sticking to his task, "wheelsucking" as some people call it. Usually of course he always finds one or two in the tour that are too good for him, but this year would appear to be the exception. He is not a pure climber, but an adequate one. For this reason it would have been suicide for him to launch a singlehanded attack. His strength lies in time trialling and it is Saturday that will give him probably his only chance to win this Grande Tour.

    From BoBBie G, on Thu 24 Jul 10:20PM

  12. Strange they all wont the Rico type, or in this case the Crocodile Dundee of cycling, the guy is not my friend, who cares this a the Tour not a soap opera or another stupid TV show for those 15m minutes of fame.
    climbing the Alp d?huez is dificult of course, (I never did it) but I did TT and believe me is also dificult going up more than 46km/h for more than 50KM.
    This year's Tour in my opinion was mmade more fit for the climbers, but it's not a climbing race, it´s everything, you can fall on those crazy final sprints during the first week,you must climb, and you must be good agaisnt the clock.
    The only thing in my opinon that was in favour of Cadel and Menchov was that there were no bonus for finishing first, if that had happen well ...
    Cadel is my favourite just because he started a MTB like me... the diference is that I was not world champ :-) and I stayed in MTB.
    Adeus

    VL

    From vitoramador@rocketmail.com, on Thu 24 Jul 10:17PM

  13. Cadel may well win this tour but what irritates people is the boring way he is going about it. The trouble is nowadays that the win is the only thing that the general public are interested in.

    My view (having ridden Alpe d'huez numerous times) Sastre, Andy Schleck and Menchov are the "Champions" of this Tour. If you have never been to or ridden Alpe D'huez you cannot begin to imagine quite how steep the road is and the way it ramps up immediately from the valley road. Sastre rode it alone from the bottom, Andy Schleck was covering moves without even getting out of the Saddle and Menchov blew and regrouped on roads of 10%.

    From dave p, on Thu 24 Jul 8:13PM

  14. Can any one tell me how many other riders on the Tour have won 2 world MTB events and were leading the points before a team f#ck up? At the end of the day the guy who cares about 3500 km in the least amount of time will be the winner.

    From suzukiaussietrav, on Thu 24 Jul 5:35PM

  15. But he's so . . . zzzz

    From bill.pathfinders, on Thu 24 Jul 5:12PM

  16. Lay off Cadel for Pete's sake. He pulled the chasing pack up the Alpe yesterday. Remember it is easy to attacck when you have a team to support you, Cadel might as well be alone when it comes to the big climbs. He has no choice but to sit and wait for the attacks to come. Le Tour is about consistency and he will prove that come Saturday. Go you good thing!!

    From gregfs23, on Thu 24 Jul 4:50PM
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