A Flying Chicken: A Yellow Spaniard & Floyd's Day To Forget!

Stage Details _ Four climbs: Col du Galibier (‘Souvenir Henri Desgrange’ for the highest pass of the 93rd Tour: ‘Hors Category’ 2,646m high, 42.8km long with an average gradient of 4.5% with the summit at the 45.5km mark); Col de la Croix-de-Fer (‘Hors Category’, 2,067m high, 22.7km long, 6.9% at 126.5km), Col du Mollard (category-two, 5.8km long, 6.8% at 146.5km) and La Toussuire (category-one, 1,705m high, 18.7km long, 5.9% at the end of stage 16). _ Intermediate sprints: La Grave (at 26.5km) and St-Etienne-de-Cuines (103.0km). _ Weather conditions: fine and hot with temperatures at the start of 30 degrees Celsius in the air and 37 degrees at road level. _ Number of starters: 152 (no overnight retirements). Official start time: 11.47am. _ _ The Progress Report _ _ Col du Galibier _ Rasmussen accelerated at the 6km mark he was chased down by Valjavec and Casar. A counter-attack came from Verdugo who was followed by Garcia Acosta, Gomez Marchante, Commesso and Astarloza. They were later caught by Popovych, Sinkewitz, Arroyo, Parra and Simoni. At the 26.5km sprint the points were won by Valjavec. The first chase group was at 1’20”, the next 1’50” and the peloton, led by Phonak, was at 2’30”. The two chase groups merged at 28km, two kilometres later, the 13 were at 1’40” and the peloton at 2’30”. Calzati joined the 13-man chase group at 32km. The average speed for the 1st hour was 32.2km/h. Cunego, Vila accelerated with 2km to climb. This move was followed by a surge from Leipheimer. At the top, the situation was: Rasmussen led Casar, Valjavec by 5”; Calzati, Bruseghin, Sinkewitz, Astarloza, Rubiera, Popovych… the 14-man chase group was at 3’00”. The peloton was at 4’40”. Valjavec attacked hard on the descent and led by 10”. Popovych also took plenty of chances on the descent and dropped his escape companions. _ The average speed for the 2nd hour was 34.0km/h. At the 65km mark, Popovych was at 3’00”, the other 13 escapees were at 3’30” and the peloton was at 5’50”. Popovych was caught at the 68km mark. Bennati crashed at the 75km mark and abandoned. Chavanel also crashed badly but remounted a bike and set off in pursuit of the peloton. At the 80km mark, the 14 chasers were at 4’20” and the peloton at 6’35”. The points at the 2nd sprint at the 103km mark were won by Valjavec. The 14-man chase was at 6’20” and the peloton was at 7’05”. _ _ Col de la Croix de Fer & Col du Mollard… _ Kopp and De Jongh abandoned before the Col de la Croix de Fer. The chase group split on the 2nd climb. Popovych, Marchante, Garcia Acosta and Verdugo were caught by the peloton with 75km to go. Casar was also dropped during the first kilometre of the 2nd climb. Rasmussen surged ahead of Valjavec with 70km to go. The last of the 14-man chase group to succumb to the peloton’s pursuit was Astarloza. Three CSC riders – Vandevelde, Schleck and Sastre – came to the front of the peloton with 14km to climb, Astarloza was caught and Leipheimer attacked. Five kilometers from the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer Rasmussen’s advantage was: 3’25" - Valjavec (LAM); 4’20" - Casar (FDJ); 5’35" - Leipheimer (GST); 8’10" - The yellow jersey’s peloton: Azevedo, Sastre, Schleck, Vandevelde, Kloden, Guerini, Kessler, Mazzoleni, Rogers, Moreau, Calzati, Dessel, Astarloza, Goubert, Fothen, Menchov, Boogerd, Evans, Horner, Moncoutie, Landis, Merckx, Cunego, Vila,, Arroyo, Karpets, Pereiro, Zandio, Caucchioli, Camano and Zubeldia. _ At the top Rasmussen led Valjevec by 4’55”, Leipheimer and Casar by 5’31”, Moncoutie by 7’51” and the peloton by 8’25”. On the Col du Mollard there was little change to the order except that Leipheimer dropped Casar and caught Valjavec. _ _ Rasmussen Wins: Landis Loses & Pereiro Reclaims Yellow…! _ Rasmussen led Valjavec and Leipheimer by 4’10” at the start of the final climb. The peloton was at 6’20”. Valjavec dropped out of the lead group. With 15km to go Menchov attacked and only eight riders could respond. It was when Sastre surged 12km from the finish that Landis could not follow. Sastre raced past all the escapees including Leipheimer. The yellow jersey crumbled completely after Sastre’s attack and would eventually finish 24th over 10’04” behind the stage winner. Kloden had the support of Mazzoleni and Rogers for several kilometres but when Menchov attacked with 4.5km to go only Pereiro, Evans and Kloden to react. This trio accelerated, dropped Menchov and set off in pursuit of Sastre. Rasmussen held on to his advantage and won his second Tour stage in two years, finishing 1’41” ahead of Sastre and 1’54” ahead of Pereiro who was third in the stage. It was enough to put the Spaniard back in the overall lead of the Tour de France with an advantage of 1’41” to Sastre.