Andy Schleck: King of the Col du Tourmalet

The Progress Report
The heavens opened up on the eve of the final day in the mountains for the 2010 Tour de France. Rain fell heavily overnight and early in the day and the peloton started on wet roads and drizzle and temperatures around 17 degrees. The official start was at 12.30pm with 172 riders at the sign on. The stage included four climbs – the cote de Renoir (cat-4 at 13.5km), the col de Marie-Blanque (cat-1 at 56.5km), the col du Souler (cat-1 at 117.5km) and the final high pass of the 97th Tour, the ‘Hors Category’ col du Tourmalet.

Seven Escape Early
Team Sky put two men in the first breakaway of the 17th stage and five others joined them at the 3km mark. The riders involved were: Boasson Hagen and Flecha (SKY), Koren (LIQ), Burghardt (BMC), Perez Moreno (EUS), Pauriol (COF) and Kolobnev (KAT). At 12km Konovalovas (CTT) launched a counter-attack. After 20km Spilak (LAM) abandoned. The rider in third overall, Sanchez (EUS) crashed at 23km and spent considerable time on the road before remounting his bike and resuming the race. Contador insisted that the peloton wait for the fallen rider but Sastre (CTT) ignored the request and set off in pursuit of his team-mate. At 30km the counter-attack was 3’10” behind the leaders and the peloton was at 5’10”. Sanchez returned to the peloton at 32km. The average speed for the first hour was 43.8km/h.

Col de Marie-Blanque & Soulor
At 40km, Konovalovas stopped his effort with Sastre and the Spaniard continued his pursuit of the stage leaders on his own. At the base of the Marie-Blanque, the seven led Sastre by 3’45” and the peloton by 9’15”. At the top, first place points were taken by Flecha, and Sastre was 1’20” behind. The peloton was at 7’50”.
There were no attacks between the second and third climbs but Sastre dropped back to being 4’55” behind at the 11.9km to climb sign, and the peloton – led by riders from Astana, Saxo Bank and Omega Pharma-Lotto – was 7’25” behind at the start of the Soulor. There were no attacks from either the front group or peloton on the third climb. The seven led Sastre by 2’55” at the top and the peloton by 4’25”. Sastre was caught by the bunch at 140km when the escapees had a lead of 5’00”.

Andy Leads Alberto To The Line…
Rabobank, Saxo Bank and Astana shared the work at the front of the bunch on the approach to the final climb. The seven escapees had a lead of 3’05”. Sastre was dropped with 20km to go. Schleck attacked a rapidly thinning yellow jersey group of 20-odd riders 10.5km from the finish. Only Contador could respond. Andy led the yellow jersey from that point on until 3.8km to go when Alberto tested his rival with a quick acceleration. Schleck was able to respond and Contador promptly went back to following his wheel. The pair rode this way all the way to the summit and Andy crossed the line just ahead of Alberto to take his second stage victory in the 2010 Tour but gain no advantage on his main rival and the leader of the general classification who will wear the yellow jersey in stage 18. This pair gained time on all their rivals and confirmed that they are a class above the rest of the peloton in the 97th Tour de France.