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July 15, 2006
Voigt wins Stage 13; Landis hands Pereiro yellow jersey
Floyd Landis gave his current Phonak teammates an easy day and former teammate Oscar Pereiro some time in the race leader's yellow jersey.
The move by Phonak is at once an expression of confidence in Landis and of concern at the team's strength, as Landis can now look to Pereiro's Caisse d'Epargne team to help pacing the peloton for the next few days.
Jens Voigt, who gave away a stage at the Giro in May, took his second career Tour stage win after a very long break on the Tour's longest day, 230 kilometers. Pereiro was 2nd, followed by Sylvain Chavanel and Manuel Quinziato.
Voigt also pulled off a minor miracle, being named the day's “Most Agressive Rider” after being in a break with a Frenchman, Chavanel. That's a consolation prize that usually goes to the home team, but Voigt has been agressive all week, and deserves those red bib numbers.
Robbie McEwen led in the field sprint ahead of Bernhard Eisel and Tom Boonen. He's got a 30-point lead in the green jersey competition, 252 to Boonen's 222 to Freire's 207.
The stage also catapulted CSC into the lead in the team category, 15:53 ahead of Caisse d'Epargne, and 22:05 up on previous leader T-Mobile.
Reaction around the web varied; my favorite was probably Strange days in Montélimar from Men (in tights), who suggested 4 lessons from Saturday's stage:
- Don't play poker with ex-mennenite cyclists.
- Don't let Oscar in a break when he's wearing his angry red socks.
- Don't ever pick a break with Jens.
- Don't look directly at Boogards teeth.
As for me, I'm down with it, but I was also touting Savoldelli as Discovery's GC threat after the Stage 7 time trial.
Top 10:
1) Jens Voigt, CSC, Germany
2) Oscar Pereiro, Caisse d'Epargne, Spain, same time
3) Sylvain Chavanel, Cofidis, France, at :40
4) Manuel Quinziato, Liquigas, Italy, same time
5) Andriy Grivko, Milram, Ukraine, at 6:24
6) Robbie McEwen, Davitamon-Lotto, at 29:57
7) Bernhard Eisel, Française des Jeux, same time
8) Tom Boonen, QuickStep, Belgium, s.t.
9) Carlos da Cruz, Française des Jeux, France, s.t.
10) Arnaud Coyot, Cofidis, France, s.t.
Full results
Overall:
1) Oscar Pereiro, Caisse d'Epargne, Spain
2) Floyd Landis, Phonak, USA, at 1:29
3) Cyril Dessel, AG2R, France, at 1:37
4) Denis Menchov, Rabobank, Russia, at 2:30
5) Cadel Evans, Davitamon-Lotto, Australia, at 2:46
6) Carlos Sastre, CSC, Spain, at 3:21
7) Andreas Klöden, T-Mobile, Germany, at 3:58
8) Michael Rogers, T-Mobile, Australia, at 4:51
9) Juan Miguel Mercado, Agritubel, Spain, at 5:02
10) Christophe Moreau, AG2R, France, at 5:13
Full standings
Posted by Frank Steele on July 15, 2006 in Jens Voigt, Oscar Freire, Oscar Pereiro, Stage results, Tom Boonen, Top Stories, Tour de France 2006 | Permalink
Comments
I'm surprised there isn't much talk in the blogosphere ripping Phonak for this BS. Phonak gave up the yellow jersey to avoid driving the peloton for one stage, presumably to save energy for the Alps. If you saw how well they did in the Pyrenees, why would you believe they could have any effect on the race in the Alps? They gave up the jersey because they are too weak to control the race. Floyd Landis can still win, but if he does it will be in spite of the impotence of his own team.
Posted by: Jason at Jul 16, 2006 1:30:28 AM
