Astarloza: A Victory For Euskadi!

The Progress Report
From Switzerland to Italy and then back to France: the 16th stage of the 2009 Tour de France – starting in Matigny and concluding in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, via the Val d’Aoste – was a 159km journey that began at 1.03pm. There were 162 riders at the sign on. The itinerary included two high passes: the ‘hors category’ col du Grand-Saint-Bernard (riding to 2,473m at the 40.5km mark) and the col du Petit-Saint-Bernard (2,188m high at the 128km mark). The intermediate sprints were in Sarre (78.5km) and Pre-Saint-Didier (106km).


Establishing An Escape On First Climb
Bouet (AGR) attacked 200m into the stage. He was joined by Roulston (CTT) and then another 19 riders bridged the gap. By the 10km mark, the 21 escapees –Roulston, Gomez Marchante and Haussler (CTT), Van Den Broeck (SIL), Ten Dam (RAB), Martinez and Verdugo (EUS), Pellizotti and Kuschynski (LIQ), Moncoutie (COF), Fedrigo and Rolland (BBO), Gutierrez (GCE), Karpets (KAT), Bouet (AGR), Velits (MRM), Geschke (SKS), Cancellara (SAX) and Maaskant (GRM) – had a lead of 1’30”. Astana led the peloton to the first climb two minutes behind the escapees. After 2km of climbing Pellizotti attacked the front group and was joined by Karpets (the best placed on GC of the escape, 20th overall at 5’56”) and Martinez.
Martinez didn’t last long in the lead and was caught by 15 others. Haussler, Roulston and Geschke dropped out of the escape early on the climb. With 10km to climb, the peloton was 3’15” behind the King of the Mountains and Karpets.
There were other attacks including a group of 15 but they could not escape the Astana-led peloton for long. At the top, Pellizotti won 20 points (and 5,000 euros for the ‘Souvenir Henri Desgrange, for first over the highest pass of the 2009 race) and Karpets was still with the Italian. They were 1’15” ahead of a group of 24 that included: Fedrigo, Casar, Anton, Voigt, Astarloza, Velits, Ten Dam and Goubert. The yellow jersey’s peloton was at the summit 2’05” behind.

Evans Loses Time On Final Climb
On the descent, Karpets and Pellizotti pushed their advantage up to 2’00” on the 16 chasers and 5’10” on the peloton (at 78.5km). The two leaders were caught by the 16 with 60km to go in the stage. The peloton was 4’10” behind. At the base of the peloton was 4’20”. Lefevre was the first to attack the lead group but Van Den Broeck was the most aggressive of the lead groupo. The Belgian surged regularly and thinned the lead group with 10km to go but all but Verdugo remained up front. Saxo Bank put two riders on the front of the yellow jersey’s group with 18km to climb.
With 6km to climb, Van Den Broeck surged and only Pellizotti responded. By then the yellow jersey’s peloton was down to 31. Andy Schleck mounted an attack (with about 7km to climb) that only Contador, Wiggins, Nibali, Kloden and Frank Schleck could follow. This split the yellow jersey’s group and the biggest casualties were Evans and Sastre. Armstrong was dropped momentarily but then he surged forward until he was back with the yellow jersey about 2km from the summit.
At the top, the yellow jersey’s group was 2’15” behind the stage leaders. Evans and Sastre crested the second climb, 4’00” behind. By then the yellow jersey’s group was about 16 riders strong. Voigt crashed heavily early on the descent.

Astarloza Takes His First Victory
On the descent, four worked together at the front: Pellizotti, Astarloza, Van Den Broeck had a lead of 15” on Roche, Goubert, Casar and Fedrigo. Moinard was the first to attack the lead group with 2,800m to go. He was reeled in by the three others but then Astarloza launched a sensational surge down the left side of the road and was never seen again. He claimed his first victory in the Tour de France, six second ahead of Sandy Casar who picked up his sixth second place in a stage of the race.
Pellizotti increased his lead in the climbing classification and was voted the most aggressive rider in the stage. Contador finished 10th in the stage, 59” behind the winner and he will wear the yellow jersey in stage 17.