Rasmussen... Again

The 218.5km 16th stage of the 2007 Tour de France, from Orthez to Col d’Aubisque, began at 10.58am. There were 151 riders at the sign-on. The Astana team forfeited its place in the race at the request of the organizers following the positive doping control of Alexandre Vinokourov for a homogulous blood transfusion on the day of his time trial “win” in Albi. There were five climbs on the itinerary: the ‘hors categorie’ ascent of the Port de Larrau (at 79km), the cat-3 Alto Laza (at 93km), the cat-1 Col de la Pierre St-Martin (at 131km), the cat-1 Col de Marie-Blanque (at 180.5km) and the final ascent to the Col d’Aubisque. The two intermediate sprints were in Mauleon-Licharre (36km) and Laruns (200km). _ _ Four Escape After Brief Protest _ Riders from seven teams staged a small protest at the site of the ‘depart fictif’: the representatives from C.A, FDJ, COF, A2R, BTL and GST remained idle on the line while other squads rolled away at 10.40am. It was a gesture of solidarity from the riders who are part of MPCC (Mouvement pour un cyclisme crédible). _ At the 8km mark an escape group formed: Auge (COF) attacked and was joined by Verdugo (EUS), Rinero (SDV) and Garcia-Acosta (GCE) at 9km. By the 15km mark, the peloton was 2’00” behind and the advantage grew rapidly: 19km – 4’20”; 21km – 6’40”; and, 30km 8’50”. The average speed for the first hour was 40.4km/h. Barloworld came to the front of the peloton. _ _ Port de Larrau & Alto Laza _ Barloworld led the peloton to the base of the first climb. The deficit at the foot of the Port de Larrau was 8’55”. Cardenas led Soler for the first kilometer and then the rider wearing the polka-dot jersey accelerated ahead of the peloton. He was chased down by Sastre (CSC) and shortly afterwards by Mayo (SDV). With 4km to climb, Verdugo and Garcia-Acosta dropped Auge and Rinero. There were no attacks in the peloton and four Rabobank riders – including Rasmussen – led the main pack to the summit. At the top Sastre’s trio was 3’05” behind and Rasmussen’s group (of 28 riders) was at 4’35”. _ At the top of the second climb Garcia-Acosta again claimed 1st place by outsprinting Verdugo. Auge was at 2’00”, Rinero at 2’10”, Sastre’s group at 2’35” and the yellow jersey’s peloton at 5’40”. _ _ Col de la Pierre St-Martin _ Sastre, Soler, Mayo, Rinero and Auge - has caught Verdugo and Garcia-Acosta at the 110km mark. The peloton was 4’10” behind. With 14km to go to the third summit, Rinero swung over and let the six others go ahead without him. Auge also got dropped early. With 5km to climb the five led Auge by 2’45”, Rinero by 3’00” and the peloton by 4’10”. The two Frenchmen were caught by the peloton at the 150km mark (the peloton was 4’50” behind). _ _ Col de Marie-Blanque _ Dekker rode from the top of the 3rd climb to the base the Col de Marie-Blanque. The deficit for the peloton to the five escapees dropped to 3’15” when he pulled over to let Menchov and Boogerd take over the pace-setting duties. The first to drop from the lead group was Garcia-Acosta with 4km to climb. The peloton was 3’00” behind with 3km to climb. Sastre was at the front of the lead group for the majority of the climb while Soler marked him closely. With 1km to climb, Verdugo was dropped from the lead group and the peloton, reduced to Periero, Arroyo, Valverde, Schleck, Evans, Horner, Menchov, Boogerd, Rasmussen, Zubeldia, Halgand, Leipheimer, Contador, Popovych and Cobo… who were 2’40” behind. At the top Soler took first place points, Garcia-Acosta was at 1’25” and the peloton was led by Rasmussen 2’25” behind the rider in the virtual lead of the mountains classification. _ _ Approaching The Aubisque _ With 25km to go in the stage, the escape group’s advantage on the yellow jersey was 1’25”. Garcia-Acosta dropped out of the lead group and helped set the pace until the base of the final ascent when the advantage of the four escapees was just 45”. Verdugo was caught and passed by Rasmussen’s group at the foot of the Aubisque. _ _ Rasmussen Races Onward A Salute In Yellow… _ Soler and Sastre tried to maintain their advantage but a powerful turn of pace by Popovych in the first 5km of the final ascent would be the beginning of the end for the escapees. They were caught with 9.5km to go and dropped immediately by an elite selection that had been whittled down to just Rasmussen, Contador, Leipheimer and Evans. The Spaniard attacked three times but he was chased down each time. The decisive blow for Evans would come from the American. With 4.5km to go, the Australian was out of contention. In the last kilometer Rasmussen raced into the lead and onward to victory. He increased his advantage in the general classification but lost the lead of the mountains classification to Soler. Rasmussen will wear the yellow jersey in stage 17.