Key moments

A True Coup For Contador

The leader of the youth classification won the stage and pushed his way up to second overall in an epic battle en route to the first mountain top finish in the Pyrenees. Alberto Contador benefited from the presence of two team-mates in an elite group that began the ascent to Plateau de Beille together. Yaroslav Popovych set the tempo for the early part of the 16km climb, before Levi Leipheimer took over momentarily before prompting attacks from those at the top of the overall rankings. Rasmussen tried what he could to eliminate his rivals and he managed a coup by dropping the likes of Andreas Kloden and Carlos Sastre and, eventually, Cadel Evans. But the yellow jersey was unable to get rid of Contador who rode a tactically clever race to win the stage and put himself into second place overall, 2’23” behind Rasmussen and 31” ahead of Evans. It was the first victory for him in the Tour, the first for Discovery Channel this year and the first for a Spaniard in 2007.

The 197km 14th stage of the 2007 Tour de France began at 11.47am. There were 165 in the race with Ventoso (SDV) not at the sign-on. The route from Mazamet to Plateau de Beille entailed three climbs: the cat-two cote de St-Sarraille (at 9km) and two ‘hors catergorie’ ascents: the 2,001m high Port de Pailheres (at 146.5km) and the 1,780m mountain top finish. The intermediate sprints were in Carcassonne (46.5km) and Campagne-sur-Aude (91.5km).

Rasmussen Part Of 27-Man Escape Group
Verdugo (EUS) prompted the first successful escape on the first climb. He was joined by team-mate Txurruka and Barredo (QSI), De La Fuente (SDV) and Colom (AST). It was caught at the first climb where Soler (BAR) added 9pts to his tally in the mountains classification for second place. At 13.5km the yellow jersey lived up to his promise of attacking in the Pyrenean stages and was part of a group of 27 who gained an advantage of 50” (at the 19km mark).
The men in the escape were: Gutierrez, Arroyo and Portal (GCE), Kirchen (TMO), Voigt (CSC), Rasmussen (RAB), Gadret (A2R), Zubeldia, Azanza, Perez, Txurruka and Verdugo (EUS), Le Mevel (C.A), Paulinho and Popovych (DSC), Fedrigo and Lefevre (BTL), Mercado (AGR), Kuschynski (LIQ), Vaugrenard (FDJ), Barredo and Garate (QSI), Colom and Navarro (AST), De La Fuente (SDV), Siutsiu and Soler (BAR). The chase was led by Predictor-Lotto. The yellow jersey’s move was reeled in at the 31.5km mark and six men persisted with the escape.

Six Break Free…
Gutierrez, Perez, Txurruka, Kuschynski, Barredo, Colom pushed on. With Rasmussen back in the peloton, the advantage of the escapees grew quickly. At the 45km mark, the six led by 5’05” and it grew quickly: 8’15” at 47.5km, 11’20” at 63km… this was the maximum gain and Rabobank was in charge of the peloton. The average speed was 46.1km/h for the first hour and 39.3km/h for the second hour. All the riders from the Saunier Duval led the peloton from the 90km mark to the base of the first climb. The average for the third hour was 39.1km/h. The effort of Mayo’s team-mates wasn’t wasted: at 91km the bunch was 10’30” behind, at 121km – 7’35” and by the start of the second ascent, the deficit was just 6’30”.

Port de Pailheres
The first rider to drop from the lead group was Kuschynski. With 7km to climb, Perez rode away from his escape companions but was caught by Gutierrez, Txurruka and Colom soon after. Saunier Duval led the peloton for the first 12km of the ascent. Dekker (RAB) then led the peloton until the top. Moreau was dropped early and, with 6km to climb, Vinokourov also lost contact. Rabobank took control with Dekker, Boogerd, Menchov and Rasmussen leading the peloton with 4.5km to climb. There were 24 riders in the yellow jersey’s peloton including all the top 10 on GC except for ‘Vino’ and Astarloza. Mayo lost contact in the final 500m when Soler attacked for points. The four led Barredo by 1’05”, Soler by 2’45” and Rasmussen’s group by 2’55” at the top… Vinokourov was at 8’16”! The winner of the time trial would eventually finish 81st in the stage, 28’50" behind the yellow jersey.

Plateau de Beille
There was a significant regrouping on the descent. Hincapie led the yellow jersey’s peloton in the valley. Rabobank took charge at the foot of the final climb with a deficit of 2’35” to the stage leaders. Dekker led until the base, the Boogerd took over for a while before Popovych (DSC) moved forward and pushed the pace until 9km from the finish. Rasmussen was isolated without team support so he found himself at the front when Popovych peeled off. That was the key for the attacking to begin. The first to launch was Leipheimer but it was a surge to prompt Contador to the fore. The group of Rasmussen, Soler, Evans, Contador, Leipheimer, Kashechkin and Sastre was together until Contador’s move, then only Evans could respond. Valverde and Kloden were gone from the lead group early on the climb.

Contador & Rasmussen: 1st & 2nd
With 4.5km to go, Evans lost touch with the riders in the yellow and white jerseys. The Australian would finish with Kloden and slip from 2nd overall to 3rd. Up ahead Contador and Rasmussen attacked each other once or twice but then collaborated in gaining time on their rivals. With 2km to go they began to talk to each other. They’d passed Colom with 3km to go and were racing for the win. Rasmussen claimed double points for the mountain classification and sprinted for the line but he was past by Contador in the final meters. The Spaniard delivered a series of firsts: his maiden stage win, the first victory for his team in the 2007 Tour and the premier victory for a Spaniard this year. He moved to second overall, 2’23" behind Rasmussen who will wear the yellow jersey in stage 15.

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Alberto Contador – “I have to attack Rasmussen…”

The Discovery Channel team had three riders in an elite group of 10 that formed on the final ascent: Yaroslav Popovych set the tempo for a selection that included the rider in the yellow jersey and the man in second overall at the start of the Pyrenean stages. Levi Leipheimer was also present and strong enough to finish fourth at Plateau de Beille but it was the leader of the youth classification Alberto Contador who claimed the big prize. He won the stage near his native Spain and moved up to second in the overall rankings.

“This was a really important stage today but there are still three very important stages to come and I have to be good in each one of them if I want to win the Tour de France. I could yet have a bad day in the final and the overall champion of the race cannot afford to falter at any time. I’m aware that it’s possible for me to have a bad day, but that can happen to Rasmussen too. At the moment, however, he’s the leader and he continues to demonstrate that he’s really strong.
“Today I have made time gains on Cadel Evans. Now I have to attack Rasmussen and I will try to do just that. My team decided to take its responsibility just like what Saunier Duval tried to do [in the lead-up to the first mountain pass] but it didn’t work out for them. We sent Hincapie and Popovych to the front leading to the final climb to take charge and then I chose the moment to attack when my legs were good.”

Michael Rasmussen – “We still have more than 400km in the Pyrenees…”

Plateau de Beille has hosted a stage finish of the Tour three times before this year and each time the winner became the overall champion. Michael Rasmussen managed to put time into all his rivals except for one: Alberto Contador won the sprint to the line ahead of the rider in the yellow jersey but is the 24-year-old Spanish debutant strong enough to challenge the Danish veteran for the title? Rasmussen believes Contador, and five or six others, are still in contention but the Rabobank rider is content with his achievements on day one in the Pyrenees.

“That is probably the most difficult climb and stage finish of the entire race. The Tour has been up here a few times before and the likes of Pantani and Armstrong have won here so it would have been nice to put my name to that list but I didn’t succeed in that but it was a good victory for Alberto. I’m still happy, however, with the outcome of today.
“My team was riding very strongly today, that’s for sure. I was trying to hold them back a little bit because we still have more than 400 kilometers of riding in the Pyrenees ahead of us and the battle is far from over. I didn’t want them to ride too hard but it was difficult to hold them back today.
“I got to a point where I realized, ‘Okay, I might not win the stage but I will be able to thin out the field of rivals quite significantly.’ So I worked all the way to the line and, obviously, Contador had the better position for the sprint. But it’s not over with you, there’s a long way to go and, with the time trial on the final Saturday, I think we need to accept that a lot can change. Anyone within six or seven minutes of me can win at this point.”

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