The Brothers Schleck Race Into Podium Position

The Progress Report
Arguably the toughest stage of the 2009 Tour de France – the 169.5km journey from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand Bornand began at 12.25pm. There were 161 riders at the sign on. Jens Voigt (SAX) had to abandon his 12th Tour de France because of a fall on the descent of the final climb in stage 16. On the menu were five mountain passes, four of them ranked category-one. The climbs were: Cormet de Roseland (cat-1, at 18km), Col des Saissies (cat-1, 56km), Cote de Arâches (cat-2, 111.5km), Col de Romme (cat-1, 140.5km) and the Col de la Colombière (cat-1, 154.5km). The two sprints were in Praz-sur-Arly (75.5km) and Cluses (126km). It was a stage that the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy opted to attend; he joined the race director Christian Prudhomme in the car for the day.

Gerdemann (MRM), who was the last winner of a stage to Le Grand Bornand (in 2007) tried a move in the first kilometer but the first successful attack came from Chavanel (QST) at 5km. He was joined by nine others - van den Broeck (SIL), Menchov (RAB), Zabriskie (GRM), Pellizotti (LIQ), Casar (FDJ), Uran (GCE), Perez Moreno (EUS), Pauriol (COF), Chavanel (QST) and Lequatre (AGR) at 8km. Cadel Evans had a slow start to the stage and was dropped momentarily on the first climb.
The leaders were joined by Arrieta (ALM) and Verdugo (EUS) at 10km. Bruseghin (LAM), Monfort (THR) and Rolland (BBO) counter attacked on the climb. Hushovd (CTT) and Voeckler (BBO) attacked the peloton in the last 300m of the climb. It was wet and windy at the top but the roads dried out on the way to Beaufort (38km). Dessel (ALM) was the first rider to quit the 17th stage.

Hushovd Into The Lead
On the first descent, Hushovd caught the front group and raced into the lead of the stage. With 10km to climb on the Col des Saissies the 20 were 1’45” behind Hushovd and the peloton was at 5’55”. Then Saxo Bank arrived at the front of the bunch. At the top, Hushovd led Pellizotti, Kern and Martinez by 45”, Txurruka, Menchov and the other escapees by 55”. The peloton was over the top 5’05” behind the green jersey.
Hushovd collected the six points for first at Praz-sur-Arly and led the escapees by 1’30” and the peloton by 5’30” at the 75.5km mark.
Menchov and Txurruka crashed around 85km. The Spaniard was caught by the peloton at 92km and the Russian fell again just as he was about to rejoin the counter-attacking group that was 1’45” behind Hushovd. At the top of the third climb, the counter-attack was at 1’10” and the peloton (led exclusively by Astana) was at 3’10”. Kenny van Hummel (SKS) crashed and had to abandon the race.
The chase group of 20 riders were 1’10” behind at the second intermediate sprint. The peloton was at 3’10”.

Real Race On The ‘Romme’
Barredo caught Hushovd with 38km to go and the counter-attackers were at 20”; while the peloton was at 1’55” as they began the Romme climb. Sastre attacked with 8km to climb but failed to gain much of a lead. A. Schleck was the next to attack (with 5km to climb) and he opened up a good lead but could not drop Contador. Eventually Frank Schleck jumped ahead of the elite group of about 11 riders, dropped Sastre and soon caught up with his brother. Kloden was also able to follow. Contador, Kloden, Schleck and Schleck caught the last of the escapees (Van Den Broeck) with 4.5km to climb. At the top the four stage leaders were 1’05” ahead of Nibali, Wiggins, Vande Velde and Armstrong.

Frank Schleck Wins After Frantic Race Up Col de la Colombiere
Sastre punctured between the fourth and fifth climbs he would suffer big losses in the 17th stage (one year on from his victory at Alpe d’Huez). The front quartet became three when Contador attacked the Schleck brothers but the only casualty was Kloden who was caught by Armstrong and Nibali just before the ‘flamme rouge’. Armstrong attacked a group containing Wiggins, Nibali and Vande Velde; this caused losses for the Garmin team but he could not catch the leading trio who contested the sprint for stage honors. Contador followed the brothers to the line but did not come around Frank at the finish. It was the elder brother’s second stage win (after Alpe d’Huez in 2006). Alberto finished second in the stage and retains the yellow jersey. Andy and Frank are now ranked third overall while Armstrong – who finished fifth – is now ranked fourth on GC.