Key moments

Hunter Wins While Astana Claims Its Prey...

Robert Hunter created a bit of history by becoming the first rider from South Africa to win a stage of the Tour de France. He bolted into the lead in the final turn of the 182.5km stage to Montpellier and held off a fast finishing Fabian Cancellara to give Barloworld its second stage success in its maiden Tour. This was how an extremely rapid, tension filled day ended. But it was at the 115km mark that the real story of the stage began: the Astana squad raced to the lead of a peloton that was over seven minutes behind quintet of escapees and hit the turbo button. Within moments what had been a tranquil peloton was split into three. Christophe Moreau was caught in the second group while Erik Zabel and Thor Hushovd were well behind in group three. The French champion began the day in sixth overall and ended it 12th place in the general classification.

The 182.5km 11th stage from Marseille to Montpellier began at 1.12pm. There were 171 riders at the sign on with no overnight retirements. The transitional stage was contested in hot conditions with temperatures in the high 30s. There was just one small climb – the cat-4 cote de Calissanne (at 38km). The two intermediate sprints were in La-Fare-les-Oliveirs (at 31.5km) and Arles (at 96.5km).

Trying & Failing To Establish An Escape
Bichot of the Agritubel team attacked immediately and was caught after 2km. At 6km a group of 20 escaped; 11 were caught after one kilometre. The men in the escape were: Arroyo (GCE), Voigt (CSC), Bennati (LAM), Haussler (GST), Fedrigo (BTL), Chavanel and Nuyens (COF), Vaugrenard (FDJ) and Siutsou (BAR). By 25km, the advantage had grown to 1’00”. At the first climb the peloton was at 1’40”.
Rabobank was joined at the front of the pack by Milram, Predictor-Lotto and Euskaltel and the maximum gain of the escape was 1’55” at the 25km mark. Moreau (A2R) was involved in a crash at the 31km mark. The average speed for the first hour was 50.8km/h. Six of the escapees dropped back at 64km and only Chavanel, Vaugrenard and Bennati remained in the lead. They were chased by several others but the peloton insisted on reeling in every move. Chavanel was the last of the escapees to be caught and that happened at 83km. Vinokourov and another Astana rider came to the front of the pack to try and quell the action.

Wegmann Institages The Break
Wegmann (GST) was intent on escaping and he nudged ahead at the 85km mark and was soon joined by Gilbert (FDJ), Fofonov (C.A) and Florencio. Millar (SDV) also wanted to be part of the move. He attacked at 87km. At the 93km mark, Millar was 30” behind the leading four which was 3’00” ahead of the peloton. Boonen (QSI) also came to the head of the bunch and seemed to hint that the escape should be allowed to succeed. Florencio led the quartet over the line in Arles (at 96.5km) and Millar caught up at the 97km mark. When the bunch reached the second sprint, it was 4’50” behind. The average speed of the 2nd hour was 48.0km/h.

Astana Split Peloton
At the 115km mark, the escapees reached their maximum gain of 7’30” and then Astana came to the front and split the peloton into three groups. Most of the leaders of the general classification were in the first group but Moreau was stranded in the second lot. At 125km, the advantage of the Astana-led peloton over Moreau’s was 1’00”. With the leading quintet’s advantage down to 2’20” (at the 129km mark) ‘Vino’ signalled surrender and his Astana colleagues quit their effort. Caisse d’Epargne then swapped off at the front before Barloworld also joined in with attacking antics.

Five Caught With 38km To Go
Wegmann, Florencio, Gilbert, Millar and Fofonov were caught 38km from the finish. The lead group contained most of the leaders of the general classification except for Moreau (6th at the start of the day). The second group that contained Moreau, Boogerd and about 15 other riders was caught by a larger group that included both Zabel (MRM) and Hushovd (C.A) with about 30km to go. At the 25km to go mark, the second peloton was 1’55” behind the yellow jersey’s group. The teams responsible for pushing the pace of the lead pack were Astana, Quickstep and, to a lesser extent, Barloworld.

Hunter: Into The Record Books
The speed in the final 30km was so fast that only the boldest of the bold would attempt to attack. The lead peloton remained together until the 6km to go mark when Rinero (SDV) jumped ahead but it lasted a matter of seconds. With 4km to go, it was Mr Vinokourov who demonstrated that he is not yet finished with. The Astana team leader hovered ahead for one kilometre and was then swallowed up by the Quickstep, Liquigas, Barloworld and Credit Agricole teams. The bunch sprint was interrupted by a crash with 900m to go involving Dean (C.A) and several others. It also halted the progress of Boonen. But it was Robert Hunter (BAR) who, as he’d done in the opening week, started the sprint early. He led out of the final turn and held off Cancellara (CSC) to claim the first stage victory for a South African at the Tour de France.
Moreau’s group finished 3’20” behind Hunter and the French champion slipped from sixth overall to 12th. Rasmussen (RAB) was 46th at the same time of Hunter and will wear the yellow jersey in stage 12.

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Michael Rasmussen - "Everyone who loses time works in my favor..."

One of the men in the top 10 of the overall rankings was effectively eliminated from the race for overall honors today. Michael Rasmussen doesn’t cherish the misfortune of Christophe Moreau but he admits that the time lost by the French champion means there’s one less rider to consider when cruch time comes in the time trials and Pyrenean stages.

“It was very fast and warm from the beginning. The Cote d’Azur turned into a battlefield. There was a lot of attacks going all day long and eventually it came down to a bunch sprint but I think we averaged almost 49km/h so it was much more than just a transitional stage.
“I wasn’t really surprised by the actions of Astana. I saw the whole team gather together in front of the group right after the feed zone so I was relatively prepared and luckily Denis [Menchov] was also right there; he rode a really good stage today.
“Moreau lost a lot of time today and I’ve got to see it as though it’s one guy less to concentrate on in the mountains so it’s good for me. Everyone who loses time works in my favor.
“I wouldn’t say I’m looking forward to the time trial, rather the prospect of being done with it is something I’m thinking about. I’m looking forward to the Pyrenees, that’s for sure. Today was a bit stressful; there was a lot of wind and it was obviously a very fast stage. There were a lot of people on the road and not all them are too experienced at being cycling spectators, so it’s a little more dangerous riding down here in the holiday season.”

Robert Hunter - "I’ve had a successful race..."

He had been in the top 10 in four stages so far this year and although Robert Hunter confessed he’d "been hunting for a stage victory" for six years, he didn’t exactly expect it to happen in Montpellier. He is the first South African to win at the Tour de France and now he is within striking distance of Tom Boonen’s green jersey.

“For six years I’ve been hunting for a stage victory in the Tour de France and finally it’s happened. So far I’ve had a successful race, except for the first day I’ve been up there for every sprint. On a day like today, when there was no certainty I managed to get what I’ve always been after.
“It was a fast day, that’s for sure and I survived both the attacks from the Astana team near the halfway mark and escaped the crash in the final kilometer. There was a little bit of luck involved but I’m really happy. To finish the day with a win and to move to second place in the points classification behind Tom Boonen is something I wouldn’t have predicted at the start of the day. I was honestly just trying to minimize my losses in the race for the green jersey… now I’m only 16 points shy of Tom.
“I had heard a whisper that something was going to happen today. Before the feed zone a friend of mine told me that one team was planning to drive it home and split the bunch… I thought it would be Liquigas and my director warned us all to be in the front. When Astana went it was fast and it definitely animated the stage. It just proves that there’s no such thing as a dull day on the Tour de France.”

Erik Dekker - "Moreau is the major victim..."

The directeur sportif of Michael Rasmussen’s team realized that an opportunity existed in what many assumed would be just another transitional stage. But Erik Dekker admits that there are few in the peloton that would dare be as bold as what the Astana team was when it attacked with about 70km to race to Montepellier. He admits that Christophe Moreau was a victim but also believes that Astana’s action were aimed directly at the French champion.

“What Astana did today was seize and opportunity and everybody knew something could happen. It was a pretty small road and a strong crosswind at the feed zone so what that team did was not exactly remarkable but their riders did something that nobody normally dares to do. If one team would do something so bold, then I would have expected it to be Astana.
“They tried something today and they didn’t really cause a lot of damage; the only real victim is [Christophe] Moreau, but it was good for [Rabobank] also.
“Moreau is an aggressive rider and he’s in great shape so it’s not bad for us that he lost three minutes 20 seconds today.
“Of course he crashed [but] it was way before the attack happened so I don’t know if he was really hurt and couldn’t put 100 percent effort into the chase but the Tour waits for nobody.
“The attack was not against Moreau, it was against the whole field but Moreau is the major victim.”

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