The first time the Tour de France has ever finished atop of the legendary Col du Galibier, today should have been a day for the favourites to come together and attack.
However today was decided by 1 man alone, the champion in waiting Andy Schleck took the race by the horns almost 60km from the finish and attacked on the 2nd HC climb of the day solo to come very close to now winning his first Tour de France.
His victory, finishing alone atop of the highest ever finish in Tour history, marks the coming of a true champion and (I would guess) future victor of many Grand Tours.
The day started with a large break getting away containing many riders from the teams of the GC contenders. The 2 Leopard riders in this break ended up helping Andy gain his huge 4 minute advantage as he rode toward the finish.
It was also his brother however who continually stalked the 3 time Tour winner Alberto Contador, shutting down any chance of an attack and intimidating the Spaniard to just stay back, that allowed Andy to get his lead and take the win. Contador ended up however falling considerably back in the final km's of the last climb to lose even more time and finally fall out of contention.
In the last 2km Cadel Evans, desperately pushing to hold on to his tour hopes, rode his way back into contention and in turn dragged Frenchman Tommy Voeckler back into the yellow jersey. Voeckler has now held the jersey for 10 days and in doing so has proven himself as one of the top French riders of the past 15 years.
It all comes down to the next 2 days where tomorrow, still in the Alps, the riders have to scale the Galibier once more and finish on the Alpe d'Huez. No doubt Andy Schleck will be very tired and will have to defend his 60 second advantage over Evans...who will look to crawl it all back the day after in the 42km ITT.
Fantasy League:
The fantasy league teams who had Schleck have all gained serious points today. His breakaway 60km from the finish gained him an extra 50 points for winning from a break, plus his award for most combative rider gained him another 40. In total he earned 198 points today, the third highest achieved by any rider in this years league, bringing his total up to 373 points for the race.
A lot of teams made up serious ground on their league competitors, with team "My Boys" who after having been in last place since Stage 1 are edging ever closer to not being in the final position. They are now only 49 points away from 13th position and if Nicholas Roche can have another strong day tomorrow they may move that important place up.
The final 4 teams in the league look pretty stable otherwise with over 100 points between 10th and 11th place.
The brother sister fight taking place between 9th and 10th is coming down to the wire. Team Grease strode ahead yesterday after the impressive showing by Bauke Mollema. However if Sylvain Chavanel can perform strongly tomorrow Team "23 days, 23 sexy days" may overtake and move into 9th.
Positions 5th-8th are all up for grabs heading into the final big day in the mountains. Exactly 100 points separate the 4 teams all lining up for a strong final day to try and secure positions heading to Paris. These teams are relying on strong showings by Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Frank Schleck, Nicholas Roche and Thomas Voeckler in tomorrows stage.
The 2nd/3rd and 4th spot are all held within 140 points so there is definitely room for movement there also, however these teams are relying on riders such as Chavanel, Voeckler and Cunego to make up their points and tomorrow probably isn't a day for them. That said Voeckler and Cunego could surprise us all.
1st spot, as it has been from the start, is still held on to by Team Heeead. After today's stage Team Heeead's lead is the narrowest it has been over the course of the tour and though the lead has been reducing steadily it looks as if they may just hold on and win in Paris. With Jose Rojas likely to do well in the final stage it looks as if luck may be on their side. After losing the 3 main GC contenders on their team roster, Horner, Van den Broeck and John Gadret they have done exceptionally well with Philippe Gilbert and in the past week have been holding on by the skin of their teeth through Voeckler and the surprise performances of Julien El Fares in the breaks.
Tomorrow will be the day to decide it all, can the league teams make up any final ground before the time trial? And can Andy Schleck make up a few more seconds on Evans before the final deciding Time Trial on Saturday.
It all kicks off tomorrow, so keep watching.
