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Tour de France Stage 15: Voeckler wins on day of drama for Contador and Schleck

Dropped chain gives Contador his chance as Schleck loses yellow

Thomas Voeckler secured a fine solo win in Stage 15 of the Tour de France in Bagnères de Luchon this afternoon, but there was huge drama, not to mention controversy, behind him with defending champion Alberto Contador taking the race leader’s yellow jersey from Andy Schleck after the Spaniard apparently broke the unwritten rule of not attacking the maillot jaune when he is in trouble - although there is some debate as to whether that unwritten rule includes trouble of self-inflicted nature.

The 39 seconds Contador gained after racing past Schleck, who was clearly suffering a mechanical problem, and accelerating away puts the Astana man 8 seconds ahead of the Team Saxo Bank rider in the overall standings. 

Contador, roundly booed on the podium as he was presented with the yellow jersey, will no doubt point to the fact that seconds before Schleck’s mishap, which took place as the pair approached the summit of the day’s final climb, the Port de Balès, the Team Saxo Bank rider had launched an attack, only for his chain to slip as he appeared to try and shift into the big ring. 

Opinion among fans and pundits alike is split on whether Contador did the right thing – Sean Kelly, four times points champion in the Tour de France, said on Eurosport’s live commentary that he should have waited, while his contemporary and fellow Irishman Stephen Roche, winner of the overall title in 1987, said it was rider error on Schleck’s part and the Spaniard was therefore justified in attacking. In the after Tour show on France-2 former Tour de France champions apparently queued up to give the opinion that "that's racing" including Schleck's directeur sportif, Bjarne Riis.One thing’s for certain – we haven’t heard the last of this.

Whether Schleck’s attack would have resulted in him putting time into Contador to consolidate the 31-second lead he had held this morning is debatable. True, the Spaniard was slow to respond, but his team mate Alexander Vinokourov, seemingly indefatigable these past few days, was quickly onto the Luxembourg rider’s wheel.

Indeed, it’s possible, given Schleck is by no means the best descender in the peloton, that he was trying to build some insurance ahead of the long, fast and technical downhill run to the finish, particularly since the group he was in contained Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Samuel Sanchez, third in the GC, and probably the quickest man in the race when it comes to getting a bike from the top of a mountain to the bottom.

As it turned out, Schleck, who had crested the summit 16 seconds or so behind Contador, put in what must be one of the best descents of his life to limit his losses to a second a kilometre on the way down, but with the Astana rider following Sanchez’s line all the way down to the finish, it was to now avail as he lost the maillot jaune.

Sanchez himself now lies precisely two minutes off the race lead, and may well go hell for leather tomorrow with a 61km descent off the Aubisque into Pau, punctuate by a couple of small, uncategorised climbs. Denis Menchov, who stuck with the Sanchez and Contador group on the way down from the Port de Balès, is a further 13 seconds back.

The drama unfolding behind him did little to spoil Voeckler’s enjoyment of winning a Tour de France stage for the second year running, although the fact he nearly straight into the side of a barn on the lightning fast descent from the Port de Balès almost did.Luckily, the Bbox Bouygues Telecom rider, who had proved the strongest of a 10-man breakaway that got away halfway through today's 187km stage from Pamiers, avoided that obstacle, and rode into Bagnères de Luchon more than a minute ahead of fellow escapees Alessandro Ballan of BMC Racing and Aitor Perez Arrieta of Footon Servetto.

Voeckler, nicknamed ‘le chouchou’ – a rough translation would be ‘France’s darling’ – and wearing the national champion's tricouleur jersey, his Colnago painted to match, had time to whip up and then savour the crowd’s applause - a very different reception to the one that Contador would receive on the podium a few minutes later.

 
Top 20 Tour de France 2010 Stage 15

1.  VOECKLER Thomas          BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM        4h 44' 51"
2.  BALLAN Alessandro        BMC RACING TEAM               + 01' 20"
3.  PEREZ ARRIETA Aitor      FOOTON-SERVETTO               + 01' 20"
4.  MONDORY Lloyd            AG2R LA MONDIALE              + 02' 50"
5.  ROBERTS Luke             TEAM MILRAM                   + 02' 50"
6.  REDA Francesco           QUICK STEP                    + 02' 50"
7.  CONTADOR Alberto         ASTANA                        + 02' 50"
8.  SANCHEZ Samuel           EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI           + 02' 50"
9.  MENCHOV Denis            RABOBANK                      + 02' 50"
10. VANDBORG Brian           LIQUIGAS-DOIMO                + 02' 50"
11. VAN SUMMEREN Johan       GARMIN - TRANSITIONS          + 02' 50"
12. SCHLECK Andy             TEAM SAXO BANK                + 03' 29"
13. VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen    OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO          + 03' 29"
14. VINOKOUROV Alexandre     ASTANA                        + 03' 29"
15. GESINK Robert            RABOBANK                      + 03' 55"
16. HESJEDAL Ryder           GARMIN - TRANSITIONS          + 03' 55"
17. LEIPHEIMER Levi          TEAM RADIOSHACK               + 03' 55"
18. GADRET John AG2R LA MONDIALE + 03' 55"
19. KREUZIGER Roman LIQUIGAS-DOIMO + 04' 08"
20. DE WEERT Kevin QUICK STEP + 04' 08"

Top 20 on General Classification after Stage 15

1.  CONTADOR Alberto         ASTANA                      72h 50' 42"
2.  SCHLECK Andy             TEAM SAXO BANK                + 00' 08"
3.  SANCHEZ Samuel           EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI           + 02' 00"
4.  MENCHOV Denis            RABOBANK                      + 02' 13"
5.  VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen    OMEGA PHARMA - LOTTO          + 03' 39"
6.  GESINK Robert            RABOBANK                      + 05' 01"
7.  LEIPHEIMER Levi          TEAM RADIOSHACK               + 05' 25"
8.  RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Joaquin KATUSHA TEAM                  + 05' 45"
9.  VINOKOUROV Alexandre     ASTANA                        + 07' 12"
10. HESJEDAL Ryder           GARMIN - TRANSITIONS          + 07' 51"
11. KREUZIGER Roman          LIQUIGAS-DOIMO                + 07' 58"
12. SANCHEZ Luis-Leon        CAISSE D’EPARGNE              + 08' 19"
13. SASTRE Carlos            CERVELO TEST TEAM             + 09' 02"
14. BASSO Ivan               LIQUIGAS-DOIMO                + 09' 15"
15. KLÖDEN Andréas           TEAM RADIOSHACK               + 11' 14"
16. LÖVKVIST Thomas          SKY PRO CYCLING               + 12' 09"
17. ROCHE Nicolas            AG2R LA MONDIALE              + 12' 34"
18. DE WEERT Kevin QUICK STEP + 14' 07"
19. GADRET John AG2R LA MONDIALE + 14' 24"
20. PLAZA MOLINA Ruben CAISSE D’EPARGNE + 14' 47"

 

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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9 comments

Avatar
arlen | 14 years ago
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A) I also don't buy Contador's "I didn't know" story. Not only was there the behavior of Schleck as a cue, Contador's own teammate (Vino) sat up and stopped his attack, right in front of Contador. He either knew it happened or he's just plain stupid.

B) But something else on the ride confuses me. You can't take your hands off the bars in a sprint to the finish, yet during the group's final sprint Contador clearly took his hand off the bar and deflected another rider with it, and nothing was said. Am I confused about the rules?

Avatar
dave atkinson | 14 years ago
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yeah he's done himself no favours there. didn't notice that the guy he's been man-marking the whole Tour had stopped in the road? sure bertie, whatever. better to come out fighting in my opinion, cast aspersions on schleck's shifting technique, that sort of thing  1

Avatar
TheHatter | 14 years ago
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Where Contador certainly loses brownie points in my eyes is during the following interview he claimed not to have known that Schleck had a mechanical. This to me says, right or wrong, he's none to proud of his actions.

Avatar
dave atkinson | 14 years ago
0 likes

i'm with you tony and simonmb. If a dog runs into the road or you get a flat tyre, then that's beyond your control and the unwritten rule says the other riders should wait. but this is just pilot error: schleck saw a chance to make some time, pelted up off the road, mucked up his shift into the big ring and got stung. If contador had overcooked that corner voeckler nearly did and sideswiped the barn, would we have seen schleck waiting for him to pick himself up? i doubt it.

an angry schleck should make for some interesting riding in the next few days, anyway...

Avatar
simonmb | 14 years ago
0 likes

You make a mistake, and you pay for it - whatever colour jersey you're wearing. Don't get me wrong, I want to see Schleck win this one, but what satisfaction would he take in knowing that he'd won because Contador had given him a break? The Tour shouldn't be won like that.

Avatar
Tony Farrelly | 14 years ago
0 likes

Schleck didn't know what gear he was in, crossed his chain and overshifted, pilot error pure and simple

Avatar
Tony Farrelly | 14 years ago
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thanks to http://twitter.com/festinagirl for the info on the France-2 TV prog

Avatar
Martin Thomas | 14 years ago
0 likes

I don't really see what the problem is. Perhaps this makes me a charlatan of the first order...

Avatar
Jon Burrage | 14 years ago
0 likes

just seen it on french tv. i guess thats contador...schleck was attacking and dropped a chain so then contador attacked (at least thats how it looked). not the mark of a champion.

i will be cheering you on tomorrow andy schleck

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