Casar The Star In Angouleme

The 211km 18th stage, from Cahors to Angouleme, began at 12.31pm. There were 141 riders at the sign on with no one abandoning overnight. The sun was shining on the Tour de France for what is regarded as a transitional stage on the eve of the final major test – the time trial on Saturday. The 18th stage featured four small hills – all ranked category-four. The points for the climbing classification will be contested at: Salvezou (15km), Lavercantiere (24km), Saint-Martial-de-Nabirat (39.5km) and Saint-Cyprien (70.5km). The two intermediate sprints were in Saint-Cyrprien (at 66km) and Dignac (192km). _ _ Attack Interrupted By A Canine… _ Willems (LIQ), Casar (FDJ), Boogerd (RAB) and Lefevre (BTL) attacked at the 13km mark and contested the first climb together. The peloton was 20” behind. At the top of the cote de Salvezou, Merckx (TMO) set off in pursuit of the quartet. At 27km a dog ran onto the road and was hit by Willems who crashed and brought down Casar. Willems was caught by the peloton at 31km, Casar changed his bike and was caught by Merckx soon afterwards. The peloton was 5’20” behind and led by the Discovery Channel team. Boogerd realized that the bunch wasn’t chasing so he answered the call of nature at 36km and then waited for Casar and Merckx. At the 38km mark, the peloton was 7’20” behind the four escapees. The average speed for the first hour was 42.6km/h. _ _ Building The Lead _ The best placed of the escape group on GC at the start of the stage was Boogerd (16th at 27’50”). The peloton allowed his quartet to gain a significant lead as Discovery Channel continued to set the tempo. At the fourth climb the peloton was 12’25” behind; at 103km – 14’30”; at 124km – 16’20”; at 135km – 17’10”. The maximum gain of the escape was 17’30” when the peloton was at the 152km mark. _ _ Euskaltel Lead Pursuit… _ With 40km to go the Euskaltel team moved to the front of the peloton and the advantage of the escapees began to drop immediately. With 25km to go Boogerd, Casar, Lefevre and Merckx led the peloton by 12’05”; at 20km to go – 11’00”; at 15km to go – 10’20”. _ _ Casar Claims His Maiden Tour Victory _ Boogerd was the first of the lead group to attack; he did so at the 10km to go mark but was matched by his fellow escapees. Lefevre then surged at the 6km to go mark and Boogerd led the chase and it was rendered void before the 4km to go banner. Then, with 2,800m to go, Casar launched the most decisive attack, quicking gaining an advantage of about 100m. He held this until about 1,500m to go when Boogerd led the other two to the back wheel of Casar. The four escapees raced under the ‘flamme rouge’ together. Casar remained in the lead position all the way to the line. He hit out again just 200m from the finish and claimed a convincing win ahead of Merckx, Lefevre and Boogerd. It is the Frenchman’s first victory in the Tour de France and makes up for the 7.3cm loss to Vasseur in Marseille in stage 10. _ Boonen, Hunter, Zabel and Chavanel led the peloton home in a tight sprint, 8’34” behind Casar. Evans was 14th in the stage and gained three seconds on Contador who was 16th, 8’37” behind the stage winner. The Discovery Channel rider leads the Predictor-Lotto rider by 1’50” going into the final time trial. Contador will wear the yellow jersey in the penultimate stage of the 94th Tour de France.