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July 22, 2005
Guerini takes the day, but Pereiro's not done yet
Oscar Pereiro has been on the attack as much as anybody in this year's Tour. He's like Vinokourov, if Vinokourov could keep his eyes on the prize.
He found another break today, alongside Giuseppe Guerini of T-Mobile, Sandy Casar of Française des Jeux, Franco Pellizotti of Liquigas, and a few other strong men, and rode it into the overall top 10.
In the day's last 2 kilometers, Guerini launched a blistering assault that none of the others could answer or counter, and rode to T-Mobile's second stage win of the Tour (Vinokourov took Stage 11).
The sprinters didn't sleep all day, as Robbie McEwen, Thor Hushovd and Stuart O'Grady led in the field for 14th, 15th and 16th on the stage. McEwen picks up 12 points for the sprint, Hushovd 11, and O'Grady 10. McEwen could take the lead with a win in Paris.
Stage Top 10:
1) Giuseppe Guerini, T-Mobile, in 3:33:04
2) Sandy Casar, Française des Jeux, at :10
3) Franco Pellizotti, Liquigas-Bianchi, same time
4) Oscar Pereiro, Phonak, at :12
5) Salvatore Commesso, Lampre-Caffita, at 2:43
6) Kurt-Asle Arvesen, CSC, at 2:48
7) Nicolas Portal, AG2R, same time
8) Bert Grabsch, Phonak, same time
9) Sylvain Chavanel, Cofidis, same time
10) Pieter Weening, Rabobank, at 3:50
General Classification:
1) Lance Armstrong, Discovery Channel, in 81:22:19
2) Ivan Basso, CSC, at 2:46
3) Michael Rasmussen, Rabobank, at 3:46
4) Jan Ullrich, T-Mobile, at 5:58
5) Francisco Mancebo, Illes Balears, at 7:08
6) Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner, at 8:12
7) Cadel Evans, Davitamon-Lotto, at 9:49
8) Alexandre Vinokourov, T-Mobile, at 10:11
9) Floyd Landis, Phonak, at 10:42
10) Oscar Pereiro, Phonak, at 12:39
Hello, Pereiro; bonjour, Moreau in the overall top 10.
Posted by Frank Steele on July 22, 2005 in Oscar Pereiro, Stage results, Top Stories | Permalink
Comments
Best lines of the day from dailypeloton.com's Locutus:
"In the peloton, Armstrong is chatting with Cedric Vasseur. A few years back, Vasseur was on U.S. Postal but was upset he didn't get chosen for the Tour team. He also said that Lance hadn't paid him his bonus money from his ride in the previous year's Tour. I guess they've patched all that up, eh? Unless they are smiling while exchanging insults because they're in front of the camera.
Vasseur: Boss, where are ze Euros you owe me?
Lance: I told you, the team paid you years ago, and I even chipped in some extra money. So Cedric, how many days did you spend in the Yellow Jersey when you had it?
Vasseur: Bite my bottom, American peeg.
Lance: Go drink some WHINE, why don't you?"
...
"1700 CEST - 9.5 km left...Bertolini is being caught by the pack. He reaches down into his shorts, starts to dig around, and... the French cameraman realizes that the Italian is going to take a whiz and turns the camera away at the last second. That was close! (Not sure the sponsors want that kind of exposure, Alessandro!)"
I was laughing my ass off when I saw that bit with Bertolini on the live feed - you'd think with all their experience covering the race the French TV folks would know better - sometimes I get the feeling they do this sort of thing on purpose. "Oh, we're off to see the whizzer/The wonderful wazzer of whiz!"
"Pardonnez-moi, monsieur Anglais-speakair, but what does eet mean, 'to drainez zee leezaird?'"
That was pretty funny at the end - Casar looking around at everbody else while letting Guerini get that huge (and winning) jump, then acting all disappointed at not winning the stage. It's called "working for it," Sandy...cf. "Salvodelli, Paolo, stage 18," once summer is over and you get time to catch up on your reading.
Great aggressive (as usual) riding from Pereiro. I hope he saved a little bit for tomorrow's time-trial, although he really only has to stay ahead of Moreau to finish in the top 10 on GC.
Really looking forward to tomorrow's time trial - for one, it's a long one and will result in some big time gaps - there's going to be some fierce battles for final GC position amongst some of the guys in the top 20. Also, it will be the last competitive racing we'll ever see Lance Armstrong do - barring utter disaster, he's going to win his 7th tour, but he's really going to want to win that ITT, which means we could see something really remarkable.
Posted by: EWM at Jul 22, 2005 2:31:05 PM
