Ivanov: The Champion Of Russia

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.