Vanendert: Master of the Mountains

The Progress Report
The temperature at the start of the final stage of the 2011 Tour in the Pyrenees was 20 degrees Celsius. The official start of the race from Saint-Gaudens to Plateau de Beille was at 12.08. There were 171 riders at the sign on with no non-starters. There six climbs on the menu: the cat-2 Portet d’Aspet (26.5km), col de la Core (cat-1 at 62.5km), col de Latrape (cat-2 at 94km), col d’Agnes (cat-1 at 109km), Port de Lers (cat-3 at 118km) and the ‘hors categorie’ ascent to Plateau de Beille at the finish. The intermediate sprint was in Orgibet (36.5km). The first attack was from Chavanel. By 2.5km there were 20 men in a lead group: Gerdemann, Voigt, Izagirre, Mollema, Luis Leon Sanchez, Millar, Di Gregorio, Koren, Bouet, Riblon, Zandio, Chavanel, Casar, Delage, Vichot, Quinziato. El Fares, Charteau, Silin and Marcato. At 5km, seven counter-attackers surged ahead of the Europcar-led peloton, this group was composed of: Perez Moreno, Iglinskiy, Costa, Gutierrez, Ventoso, Pineau and Malori. At the 16km mark, the 20 led the counter-attack by 205” and the peloton by 4’00”. At the top of the first climb, the peloton was 4’45” behind. Gutierrez, Ventoso and Iglinksiy were dropped from the counter-attack. The average speed for the first hour was 36.1km/h. At the 43km mark, Pineau, Malori, Costa and Perez Moreno caught the lead group. The peloton was behind by 5’30”.

Col de la Core & Col de la Trappe
On the slopes of the second climb, there were just 24 men ahead of the peloton. Delage only dashed ahead in the final 300 meters to make sure that FDJ claimed maximum points. The peloton was led by Europcar all the way up the col de la Core. Cavendish was the first to be dropped (with about 1km to climb). The average speed for the second hour was 31.5km/h. Casar, El Fares and Millar descended faster than all other escapees and arrived at the feedzone (76.5km) with an advantage of 40” on the other escapees. The peloton was 7’00” behind. Casar was the best-placed on GC of the escape, starting the day ranked 21st (8’47” behind Voeckler).
As the leading trio began the ascent of the col de la Trappe, Casar became the virtual leader thanks to an advantage of 8’45” on the peloton. The former escape companions were at 1’35”. Leopard-Trek put five riders on the front of the peloton 2km from the top of the third climb. At that mark (92km), the peloton was 9’20” behind the leading trio. This was the maximum gain of the escape. Casar took first place on the Trappe climb, 40” ahead of Riblon and 1’35” ahead of Chavanel. The peloton was 7’45” behind at the top.

Escape Splinters On Col d’Agnes
The escape group split to pieces on the fourth climb. Nine formed in the lead with 5km to go to the top of the col d’Agnes: Voigt, Izagirre, Di Gregorio, Riblon, Zandio, Casar, El Fares, Silin and Charteau. With 5km to go, the peloton was 6’55” behind the nine stage leaders, with remnants of the first escape littered between the two groups. With 3km to climb, Gerdemann and Chavanel rejoined the lead group. Chavanel and Charteau sprinted for first place points on the col d’Agnes with the French champion winning that race. The peloton was 5’15” behind at the top of the fourth climb.
Izagirre attacked the lead group early on the descent and held on to the lead right to the foot of the final climb but 10 of his former escape companions chased him down and Casar launched an attack right at the foot of the Plateau de Beille ascent. The peloton arrived at the base of the last climb 2’02” behind Casar. With 12km to climb the FDJ rider had a lead on the yellow jersey’s group of 1’40”. Voeckler group was led by Leopard-Trek riders until the 12.5km to climb mark when Vande Velde and Danielson moved forward. By then there were about 25 men in the group.

Vanendert Exposes His Talent!
While the pace of the Leopard team – and then Garmin – thinned out the yellow jersey’s peloton to just a selection of GC specialists, a few impressive climbers and a race leader who refuses to give in, Casar ploughed on ahead with his move early on the slopes of the final ascent. Voeckler had Rolland for support in a group that also contained Contador, Andy and Frank Schleck, Evans, Peraud, Sanchez, Basso, Uran, Danielson and the surprise package of 2011, the Belgian Tour debutant Jelle Vanendert. After a volley of attacks by Andy – four in total, but not which netted any true gain on his rivals – we saw Vanendert surge ahead. No one responded to his attack 6.5km to go, and the Belgian wasted no time in reeling in Casar and racing on to what would become the biggest win of his career. He was ranked 30th overall at the start of the day, 12’54” behind Voeckler so it’s unlikely that the winner of the Plateau de Beille stage of the 2011 Tour will also win the title... even Marco Pantani was only 4’41” down on the yellow jersey before his win here in 1998. Still, he held off a late charge by Sanchez who was the only rider from the GC group to be allowed to gain any time by Evans, Contador, and the Schleck pair.
Vanendert has taken over the lead in the climbing classification and will wear the polka-dot jersey in stage 15.
Voeckler was the other surprise of the stage but we now realize that there is a lot more to this Frenchman than just an opportunistic soul who chances on a few days in yellow. He was able to respond to every acceleration and finish seventh in the stage, losing no time to his main rivals. He will wear the yellow jersey in stage 15.