Key moments

On what many considered was to be the last stage for the sprinters before a bout of mountains in the 2009 Tour de France, the fast men had to contend themselves to a race for 13th place. Ahead of them were 12 escapees who collaborated well for 110 kilometers before attacking each other in the finale. The strongest was the Russian champion, Serguei Ivanov of the Katusha team. He picked up his second stage win in the Tour de France, eight years after setting off from Pontarlier to and beating other escape companions in Aix-les-Bains. In Besançon, however, there was another prize on offer: the yellow jersey was under threat from George Hincapie. His presence in the escape meant that Mark Cavendish’s team didn’t contribute to the peloton’s chase as the American could have taken the yellow jersey… he missed out by just five second after finishing eighth in the stage.

The Progress Report
Once again cold conditions greeted the riders in the 2009 Tour de France. The forecast was for a maximum temperature of 18 degrees Celsius and rain for the 199km stage from Pontarlier to Besançon in stage 14. The official start was at 12.44pm and there were 164 riders in the race; Spilak (LAM) was outside the time limit in stage 13 but he was held up by spectators on the course so the judges allowed him to start the 14th stage.
This is the last day of the 96th edition to have three intermediate sprints. They were contested in: Pulversheim (34km), Dannemarie (67km) and Baume-les-Dames (161.5km). Also on the itinerary were two category-three climbs: the cote de Lebetain (90.5km) and cote de Blamont (111.5km).

Hincapie Becomes Virtual Leader
At the 14km mark, Maaskant (GRM) instigated an escape with 13 other riders, including Cavendish. At the 18km mark, the quadruple stage winner retreated to the peloton. The riders who remained were: Roulston (CTT), Voigt (SAX), Maaskant (GRM), Hincapie (THR), Roche (ALM), Bennati and Willems (LIQ), Le Mevel (FDJ), Minard (COF), Righi (LAM), Ivanov (KAT), Ciolek (MRM) and Timmer (SKS). Silence-Lotto, Quickstep, Rabobank and Euskaltel led the chase, not allowing the escape to gain more than 30” advantage for the first hour. The average of the opening hour was the fastest so far this year: 49.8km/h.
The road dried out and after an hour of racing the peloton eased off the pace of the chase. At 53km, the advantage was 1’00”. Voigt punctured at the 57km mark and received a new wheel from the neutral spares car but had to concede his place in the escape. He was caught by the peloton at 60km. Astana led the peloton from 55km onward. Hincapie was the best place on GC of those in the escape group and, at 78km, he became the virtual leader with the peloton at 5’30”.
The maximum gain of the escape was 8’50” at the 120km mark. At 145km, the AG2R team moved ahead of Astana at the head of the peloton and by 150km, the deficit of the peloton was 8’00”.

The Attacks Begin
Hincapie was the first to attack the lead group. He accelerated ahead with 35km to go when the peloton was 7’05” behind. The others chased him down but it sparked some action at the front. With 25km to go, the peloton was behind by 6’25”. Maaskant attacked the 12 leaders with 13km to go. He was quickly caught and at the 11km mark, Ivanov surged forward and opened up a gap to Timmer and Roulston who teamed up with a pursuit of the Russian champion.

Katusha’s Russian Champion Claims Another Stage
Under the ‘flamme rouge’, Ivanov led by 28”. He held off all others and won by 16” from Roche, who passed Roulston and Timmer inside the final kilometer. Hincapie finished eighth at the same time as Roche and, if the peloton finished 5’41” behind, he would have taken the yellow jersey… they finished 5’36” so Hincapie moved up to second overall instead of first. Cavendish led the peloton home in 13th place but Hushovd was 14th so the green jersey remains on the Cervelo rider’s shoulders. (After the stage, the race jury decided to relegate Cavendish to last of the bunch because of an ’irregular sprint’.) Nocentini finished 46th and keeps the yellow jersey for another day.

The man who started what ultimately became a successful escape was Garmin’s Dutch strongman, Martijn Maaskant. He wasn’t able to earn his team its first stage win but he’s pleased he had a go. His reward was the most votes in the combative classification.

“I felt like I had the legs to go in the break today and maybe win the stage. In the end, I attacked on the last little climb and unfortunately it was a headwind and it was pretty hard to get a gap. At least I tried. When Ivanov went on the descent of that last hill he was really strong and I’m impressed that he was able to fight the wind all the way to the finish.
“Of course if there was no Columbia rider with us, it would have been hard for an escape to stay away but we had a big group and a lot of strong guys. We had to work for quite a while to really get clear of the peloton but eventually the gap really grew.”

Another day, another stage in yellow for Rinaldo Nocentini. He admitted to his troops that he wasn’t fussed if they surrendered the lead in stage 14 but the Italian is grateful for the help he received in defending the yellow jersey…

“It was a very difficult day today because we’re getting tired from all the effort in the last week. We had a rider [Nicolas Roche] up front so we didn’t have to ride but because [George] Hincapie was in the move there was a big risk of losing the yellow jersey. Eventually, with 50 kilometers to go, our directeur sportif Vincent Lavenu said, ‘Okay, let’s go! Let’s catch the guys…’ Okay this wasn’t possible but we had to limit our losses and keep the jersey.
“I told the guys, ‘Listen, I don’t mind. If you want to go for it and defend the jersey, that’s great. But if you don’t want to, that’s okay. You’ve already worked so hard over the last few days so it doesn’t really matter.’
“Eventually I’ve kept the lead by just five seconds, so I’m really pleased with how this Tour has gone for me so far. And I’m really grateful for the commitment from my team.”

When a stage of the Tour last began in Pontarlier, Serguei Ivanov led an escape to the finish as a 26-year-old. The Russian champion has won again with Pontarlier providing the launch pad for an attack that would remain alive all the way to Besançon. The veteran from the new Katusha team can now appreciate the value of a win at the Tour…

“I have been relatively quiet in this year’s Tour because I was waiting for the right moment to show myself. Nobody would have seen me in the finish of stages until now because I’ve been saving myself a little. Today there was a good opportunity and I decided in the morning that I had to go on the attack. The weather was quite good for me but at the beginning it was very hard. We had been attacking for a long time but the peloton was always just about 20 seconds behind. We were all thinking, ‘Oh, we still have to push.’ I had nothing in my legs anymore but then suddenly the time checks started showing that our lead was going up and up.
“Everyone saw that there were 12 of us in the break and we were all waiting for the final kilometers especially because there was a headwind and no one tried an early attack. The group started to accelerate about 15km from the finish and I waited patiently for my moment. I thought it would be a very hard final because of the wind and a little hill but I timed the move well.
“This is the first Tour de France stage victory for Katusha and it’s a great one and it makes me very happy to deliver a win for the team. This is not the same feeling as the first time I won a stage of the Tour; back then [2001] I was young and I didn’t understand what it was all about… I was just flying. Today I can appreciate it. It’s incredible.”