2008 Tour de France stage 17 + 18

Stage 17 + 18 of the 2008 Tour de France

The United States FS are out there cheering the four Americans and that’s where we’re going to the Alp 131 miles it’s the second longest stage of this year set there is the beauty of the AL as we C towards the start of the big ones to called the galier 151 Riders

Have made it thus far the 180 seven of the 20 teams are still riding with all nine men that’s quite a an honor for those guys it’s a beautiful day here in France 70° fahit oh that registers at 21 C it’s sunny you can see that blue skies

And a light wind is blowing and we know in the Alps there are an awful lot of people waiting to see the Riders from the tour this is the pelaton you can see there is a Time gap of nearly 5 minutes four Riders Got Away Today 3 kilometers

In Ruben Perez Stephan schumacker Peter vit and Remy deorio and they’re leading nobody bothered to chase them yet Paul we’ve gone through through the lovely town of bonon but in the far distance now are the slopes of the C lter which you know lead on to the gallier

Absolutely we’re right in the very start of the C lot fil it’s a long drag to begin with climbs up for about 20 kilm once you get to the summit of the Lotter you take a right hand turn and then the G starts in Nest the five Riders at the

Front of the race here Perez schumak vet and de Gregorio are not really a threat in any way to the overall race that we’re witnessing there are four Riders there as you can see and a little bit further backfield at almost 5 minutes is the front end of the main field team CSC

Have gone to the front end of the mainfield they’re setting a very hard pace and the idea is to make the race tougher to try and split it up later on and it looks like shakers trying to soft them up for Bernard Cole his team leader

In second overall he was the last to join three ride took him a few kilometers but he caught them up well it’s a crosswind at the moment Paul but they will turn into a headwind it might spoil the fun in some ways because I don’t think that will spit

Them if it does become a full block head no I don’t think it will I’m not expecting any real aggression field really until we get to the C of La quadir cuz that is a beast of a climb it starts off steep levels off a fraction in the minute and then afterwards it

Goes straight on up to a height of just in excess of 2,000 M that’s where I really believe the race will start to get tough at the moment we’re just going through a softening process there’s a Luxembourg flag over on the left I think it’s actually Regional flag but it’s the

One they’re all flying 9 km to the actual top so we’re closing in on the right hand turn here as the four leaders are coming up and Peter vich who’s setting the pace at the front I mean he’s the he’s only 24 years of age and

He must be fighting to death now he’s never done the tour to France before and you see they are calling it The call D L now or they were telling us the distance up the cier but L now goes down and these boys go right and we can continue

To go up here comes the turn that’s the turn this corner now Phil indicating 9 kilm to the summit of the galib and yes they could have gone straight over the top and in about 25 kilometers they could have been at the start of the alz however we’re not taking the easy route

Here this afternoon interesting to note the speed 11.2 mph we’re heading for the snow line now that is the glacier on the opposite side of the road because pulling back that is the call doot we must be with the pelaton there they are Ste over Grady and Nikki senson still riding the hearts

Out here trying to put their leaders in the best possible position today to cross swords with the likes of Denny menof cadell Evans primarily and Bernard Cole the Austrian Rider who many of the commentators here call the man from Germany but he’s very much an Austrian

And they’re very proud of him well in fact there was a scramble at the last minute fi for the Austrian television to get themselves uh set up for the commentary positions here because they hadn’t planned to cover the tour to France at allall this year then at the

Last minute they thought uhoh we’ve got a man who may might win this bike race overall so we’d better get ourselves sorted out and as scramble got them into position for yesterday and today and they’ll be back at the weekend on Saturday and Sunday as well to cover the

Final time trial and of course the last day on the Sha well he’s had a great ride and uh he looks as though uh he’s going to finish strongly on Al doest because he rode so well yesterday did Cole well I have a feeling yesterday Phil he didn’t

Actually go out out on the attack because of the downhill to the Finish Line in josier he was just thinking well if he he took a 30C or a minute Advantage he wouldn’t be able to keep it on the downhill to the Finish but the difference is at the summit of the alz

Here there is no downhill it finishes right at the top of the climb on the finish line so if you’re a climber you can pull back a minute or a minute and a half on a climb like this but your second to the France of Berard Co he

Finished 31st unnoticed in his first tour but now he’s raing for a second place over overall by the way it’s a chimney sweep when he’s not a professional cyclist it’s worth remembering that Maurice Gan the first winner of the tour to France in 193 that was his profession as

Well look through the tunnels here as we still climb for the pelaton The Climb of the c l and they too will shortly be heading up that’s the glacia Del which Paul told you about earlier so we’re looking over at the glacia the Riders themselves will be

Feeling a bit warmer because they’re to continue their climb up the G it really is a magnificent backdrop for any kind of bite race in the world that the Alps this afternoon are magnificent there’s not a cloud in the sky and everybody is waiting for a big battle a final maybe

Important battle in the Tour of France this year to try and Define who will finally have a chance of winning this bike race overall because even last nightfill when we looked at it there was no chance of deciding who was going to win well as we look at the glassier the

Workload pretty evenly spread the man seems to be working the hardest on our computer is Stephan schumacker but 27% for him Peter deorio 26% and the other Rider Perez 22 that was the work rate of those four light but he’s he’s actually very confident his Christian vanela and

He’s still got a chance of a high finish because he’s a very good time trialist he doesn’t lose too much time today he can still dream of a big finish because on Saturday is a very hard time trial indeed I just can’t get over this magnificent

Man from Adelaide sto grad the way he Taps out these rhythms he just sits there like a metronome and just rides his bike well that’s all he does he gets fixed into his mind I’m going to set this pace he looks at his onboard computer every now and again and tries

To lock in at a specific pace and currently he’s locked in at around about 11 and 1 half miles hour you can see from the flags of all of the countries who’ve come to support the riders in the Tour of France this afternoon that there is a fairly strong wind at the it’s

Going to batter the ridersville on the slopes of the C gallier that’s the summit there of the c l but now for me this is when the climbing starts to get a little bit tougher the C duali and it’s open what a relief Riders start the

Slopes well you know four weeks ago this could well have been closed this road because the snow is very slow to clear at 2,645 M and I’m sure once we get up there we’re going to see the snow around the shoulders of the Riders see David Miller the British Rider and Garmin

Chipotle not far away from the front end of the main field so maybe he’s managed to get Christian vandela up through the outside of the confusion there to place him ideally in the front 15 to 20 Riders on the early slopes of the c g shoulder these are the four leaders

Down there they could probably can see the long Caravan of the tour to France because just over the shoulder of Schumaker was that right hand turn well it’s a long way down into the valley it really is a magnificent climb especially when you see the Tor of

France on a day like this look at that that is a mountain that is a climb in the Tour of France that is what the legends of the Tour of France are written about well we can commentate on the tour every year and you can never

Get tired of such a view as that massive crowd lining all of the last set to the C GBA and the steady progress of the tour to France on our left hand side there well if you just look to the bottom of the picture you can see the

Main Pelon if you look to the top you can see the cars moving along the top of line there and that’s the difference that separates the main field from the Breakaway group of four Riders and that’s probably around about 2 and 1/2 kilometers distance F on this climb oh 5

Minutes and 16 seconds which ever comes first now because this looks as though Roman Fu 124 is beginning to struggle he was off the back there’s €5,000 for the souvenir on day gr at the top of this climb because H de gr is the man who was responsible for the first

Tour to France in 193 and they always uh give a special memory prize in his memory 5,000 is a lot of money and uh well they’re packing them in down there aren’t they but they must uh about be the only things that aren’t interested in the passage of the

Tour the France right now well I have to say I have it’s almost in the shape of France that isn’t it it almost is and I don’t know how they managed to do that I have a friend who wrote to me the other day and said I’ve really enjoyed the

Cheeses and the wines that we’ve been going through in France he said but can’t we have a little look at the livestock well there you go there’s some sheep well that’s amazing I can’t believe they asked the Sheep to stand in the map of France that can’t be true

Surely as we look out across here now watch uh watch the Riders on the cier the sheeper responsible to keeping that grass down and uh there is the tour to France this is the baron slopes here of the gb8 there’s the toiling Pelon the pace just right for a lot of people it

Seems by at the moment and the reason being of course we’re heading to the C the quad fur which is 30 km long much deeper much narrower usually a big Crow on the AL we’re certainly going to get a decision I think on the quir and those leaders will go to the

AL well the headwind might be ruining the attacks here or any planned attacks at the moment PA was no doubt Roman faure he took the lead at n and held it for a day he’s in trouble there is 124 his teammate just in front of him there

Is Freddy bishu who’s also had a pretty good tour to France as well yes I think team Agri tubel have had an awful lot out of the tour to France they’ve been very close to getting themselves Glory especially with Roman Fu who was on a couple of occasions very close fille to

Actually winning a stage and let’s not forget he did get himself the yellow jersey in the first week of the tour which for him was extremely important it was building for him it was building for France it was what the tour needed as far as the French were concerned big

Cheers from The Spectators here even though they support a French team that’s not represented in this Breakaway bu telom they’re going to shout these Riders to the summit of the toor of the toor listen of the gold the G and there’s the Scottish flag there looking

For David Miller while he’s in there in the center of the pack right now by the way this is one of the famous passes in the Alps which for many years has been used not only by Travelers but also by armies as they traveled whether it was

From Italy into France or across up towards Austria it was first used in the tour to France on the 10th of July 191 and I’m sure you knew that no I didn’t I’m always relieved that you can know all these things to be honest but it’s the second highest pass compared with

The ceron which is over by valer when you get on to that one y that is in the great outs and it certainly is the ceron by the way is 2770 M we’re uh once we go over the summit of the climb here of the the C galib we actually drop into the

Department of the savvo one of my favorite Departments of France for sure on the borders there with Switzerland but now the pelaton you see they are riding quite quickly but they’re not breaking the peleton up which indicates that this is uh not putting too many people into difficulty

Today the galier but with what lies ahead they don’t want to commit suicide on the first Ascent because the next two are going to hurt even more than this one narrow climb on the quader and usually big crowds towards the summit as the Riders start the climb here 541 the Gap

134 and remede Gregorio the guy at the back here is doing a lot of work he’s a very good climber he rode extremely well yeserday on the Pyrenees on the C to on bastile day and when we keep getting the amount of work that’s being done Phil in

Fact strangely enough it’s de Gregorio who seems to be doing the least amount of work to the success of this Breakaway now I feel in the back of my mind what he’s probably thinking about is forward to the ca quad affair because he’s looking I think for a long raid through

The mountains he believes that France can get themselves another big mountain Victory another little interesting statistic yesterday was only the 20th stage win by the French in the last 10 years yes he was 133 km to go second on the stage do not forget of the toour to

France today they couldn’t have chosen a more harder route I don’t think as the Riders continue hand up there and that is Marcus berat of Team Columbia probably want a drink at this stage of the race and there are the baron Summits which we don’t have a road up which is

Rather thankful for the riders in the uh tour to FR little problem for Ruben Perez here tries to hold Tempo look at that flag up front there that whips across from the left I guess Schumaker stealing the points to stop anybody else getting them because of his teammate

Cole is the leader in this competition yes he also probably F once the the glory of getting 5,000 into his back pocket as well as they accelerate up towards the top the Gregorio you might have noticed him there just taking on board a newspaper that’s because he’ll

Put that up his shirt and uh that helps prevent him getting too cold on the downhill shoe marker is not letting anybody challenging him here as he goes over the top first of all to take maximum points but probably more importantly on a day like today for is

To get the souvenir H de yes he takes 5,000 for that and and uh he’s on the attack again doing exactly what he did yesterday on the ca Lombard being first over the top bit of a Counterattack here from I think it is from Juka well looks like Shuka I

Met Shuka the youngest Rider on usat and he’s trying to set himself up and Bernard Cole with Fabian Wegman alongside him now this is a very interesting move here because they’re probably allowing Bernard Co to go clear off the front end of the main field CU

They think oh well maybe he’s only going to go and get the king of them mountains points that are still left available but if he goes over the summit with a 30 or 40 second Advantage this is the kind of move that rishard Veron used to make in

The old days and keep going keep going over the top there’s Thomas voer just shocked on the inside there as he’s shot to they’re going to have to chase him down I think because he’s getting way up in the king of the mountains competition they’re Racing for fifth place which is

12 points on this climb and I think they’re not going to catch that man they weren’t expecting but vman’s decided to run at him here vole don’t forget moved up and into third place yesterday 12 points would give him 67 but that and don’t forget Cole is scoring well anyway

So he’s not going to close in on him well there’s 30 points separating Thomas vler from Bernard Cole at the start of the day somehow Phil I’m not sure that Bernard Cole is going to allow Thomas vler to get there because he’s gone straight by him there they wiped him out

He went too early and Bernard co co might get a little bit better yep he may well get a little bit better in his Also let’s not forget got a teammate to help him out there Fabian Wegman they’re opening up a little bit of a gap here

Which could cause concern for team CSC as you can see but look who’s come with them John Lee Augustine again the youngest man in the race in red not concerned at all about the fact that he had a very nasty accident yesterday there is the souvenir AI de gr for the

Main field as they go by there 1 kilometer to go to the summit a hand up there for one of the Riders here from George hpp’s Team Gerard jolik but uh John Augustine in the mountains here on the hardest days is advertising himself for a top job on a top team here because

He is a brilliant young climber and he’s shown that to us he may well have won the stage yesterday had he not crashed on the way down the mountain he’s too moders to say that uh but he was right there and right with a position to do so well obviously Fabian Wegman the

National champion of Germany on the front there he was involved in an accident yesterday cuz he’s pretty well bandaged up there there’s a couple of riders coming across the Gap at this point because obviously they’re they’re somewhat concerned about allowing a man like Bernard Cole to go free like this

Phil after all he is in second place in the overall standings at 7 Seconds well there’s a dizzy sights as we come up towards the top of the C the Gia here no guard rail on the right and here are the lers who really initially

Broke away to win the points at the top but are gaining a little bit more than the pelaton usually likes to see so as we head up toward the summit it might be a good time to check in with Matt white see what he’s got to [Applause]

Say very good job everyone stay out of the wind we save it for later on guys but remember I know I sound like a broken record but it’s a long stage today fluids are very important and food as well guys always think about the next climb you’re doing for the eating for

The next climb for the next 30 minutes to the next hour yeah absolutely right Matt Matt’s always eating but he’s not even using any energy every time we go there’s always is having his lunch anyway Matt White in his first year as a team director and he’s really enjoying

That job he’s a very colorful bike rider too with mat from Australia but there’s the steepness as they all race up towards the top 3 minutes 50 since the leaders went over and this is the dash for the baron Heights of the C Gia this is the face of

Vetman the champion of Germany who’s ready to move over when he can but watch out for John Lee John Lee is beginning to enjoy these these climbs in the to to France as he starts to go up he came up into fourth place yesterday in the mountain so every little helps well it

Certainly does but this is the acceleration of the man everybody I feel is a little bit scared of filling the Tour of France this year Bernard Cole he looks over his shoulder he’s cracked on I think that well he realizes this young man from Austria has got a great

Acceleration this bod’s well for I think for The Showdown we’re going to have on the AL Duz down towards the end of this race because he’s looking so easy Cole here and I want wonder if he’s got a big attack left in him and here comes Thomas

Voer look at that he just he just took six plays voer there so fifth goes to Cole maximum points of the rest there for him so John le Augustine the little South African young ran he’s not little he’s quite tall actually who yesterday went right over the Moun on his face SLP

Through the Rocks his bite never stopped falling down a similar slope to the one on the right of our picture um but he’s right there he’s keeping himself up in front Schumaker gets the 20 though deag Goro 18 vet Perez Cole gets 12 for fifth oh and there’s been a

Crash here that might be Perez I’m not sure where the camera’s cut to it was yes oh and it was it was caused by De gloro and poor old Perez couldn’t control slipping off the edge oh dear well that wasn’t fair was it because that really wasn’t his fault but he’s up

And running again Ruban Perez is up and running the boys won’t ride away from him after cause cusing him to fall I’m sure they’ll let him get back up to them still an awful long way to go today on this stage of 130 plus miles 79 miles

And two major mountains still to come well it’s a long Chase back well let’s see if we can show you the overall standings now there they are Cole has got 97 now Augustine has moved up one place over Lang 61 points for him as a

Result of that and voer has gone up into second as a result of that King of the mountain so uh they’re all lining up behind Cole but he’s got a nice lead there of course maybe we just saw a demonstration of what might be coming

When we get to Al Duz who knows on the C theier just topping the summit and beginning their big descent now right down to the town of valoir which is halfway down the Descent and the leaders have already gone of course well we’ve seen that one crash of the leaders he’s

Up and running which is uh he should be getting back up to the leaders of course but there’s always this big danger you see that slope off to the left of the pelet on right might know well you go back yesterday 24 hours similar slope on

The left watch the second Rider that was John Lee Augustine he never looked like turning around that corner his bike just never stopped it went on and on and on as he watched it go he came back okay believe it or not this man had to wait

Though for nearly 5 minutes that’s where he finished behind there as he scrambled back up but there’s no bike of course and just moments ago this happened to Adam no we’re back with the leader here that is Ruben Perez who’s just had to correct he’s crashed at 83k he’s chasing

The leaders down now he’s okay and that was a foot on the ground there by dorio but he corrected it in time Peter vich went on the inside and nowhere to go for paor Ruben Perez and this is now Thomas voley Adam Hansen also falling on The Descent he’s

Okay as well this is now a big chase down by Thomas voer and there’s the crash again and that is Adam Hanson on the floor well they’re all going down the same corner it’s quite clearly very very acute just on that b but if as long as

They fall away from that edge it’s a rider from AG toell on the floor I think it’s Freddy bisho over on the far that’s it Freddy bisho riding away there well fortunately they’re just tumbling but they’re not hurting themselves which is what we don’t want

And this is Thomas vo he’s got away on the top of the climb we’ve seen he’s moved up in the second overall in the king of the mountains and he’s kept going and he’s absolutely flying down AIT we can’t see more of him because he really will show you how to go down

Mountains so there’s the pelaton they pulled back a little bit of time now well all these diversions Paul of riders falling off all over the place they started to bring back the leaders but this is voer being joined now and uh that says something for the descending

Skills of the two riders coming up I would think it’s cheruka because he was up to the front when they went over the summit of the C GB and probably the quickstep rider just behind will be Carlos beredo they’re looking at about 30 to 40 seconds ahead of the main field

And you saw vuka there just look across the road in the valley to try and judge and see if he could spot where the front end of the race was and he’s trying to see whether or not he can Bridge a three or four minute Gap it’s a tall ask but

He’s going to take lots of risks and he’s prepared to do it by the look of it we’re dropping down towards valoir now which brings us back from 2006 00 to 1,400 M then there’s a little uphill on the C Telegraph no prizes for that and then this drops down into the valley

Itself where we take on food and then hit the climb of the ca quadir quite clearly vo wants to get some mounting points here he’s up into second place after the result on the uh on the top of the galier and John Lee Augustine has gone up into third well that’s a good

Acceleration and moving up in the overall classification for these guys Thomas vler probably thinks that he if he can get away from the front end of the main field he may well start to challenge Bernard Co and this is the last day fi when there are big points

Available in the king of the mountains classification Yeah couple of second category climbs tomorrow as we leave them the Alps and head towards cetti in which is the old cycling Capital World good cycling Museum there by the way it’s Cen now I want to hug the left hand side

Of the road on this way down 119 km to go the Dizzy Descent of the the gier the Riders well spread out on the way down little group trying to reach the leaders contain his Tom Thomas vo he’s kept going since he came over the top of the climb but all of the

Leaders still very much in the pelaton here well just looking at the yellow Jersey here of Frank sleck um if you’ve been following the sport of professional cycling you may well remember that Frank sleck had a very nasty crash in the tour of Switzerland recently and just the

Other day he was talking to bero on the podium and and heo said to him I have a little piece of advice for you young man you need to check your tire pressures in the mountains cuz he says I have a funny feeling that your mechanics are pumping

Up the tires too hard especially on the mountain stages so he said before the start of every stage you just uh loosen your tire valve off let a little bit of air out and make sure that the tires aren’t too hard well it seems to be paying off for him at the

Moment just looking here at the king of the mountain situation 97 points for call 65 for voer and up in the third John le in these are the leaders here they split up two by two just now the one who fell got himself back into the action these are the three pursuers at

118 km led by voer who likes to see his own way down the mountain doesn’t like to be accompanied by anybody but these two Riders have caught up the leaders here one is Carlos beredo in the White and the other one is from usel usari and it looks as though it’s his

Arm jera who’s also got on the back here Juka who was voted the last last year’s most aggressive Rider overall by the journalists and writers in the tour to France and they are flying down just watch The Descent here vole they they just can’t match vo he’s out in front

There beredo is not a bad descender but Thomas voer is very good now what’s going on here this that’s Schumaker telling uh telling Perez to hang on for the other two we need them I think Perez there was being told by um by the leader Schumaker yes to wait for

The other two because we need them for the next climb no point in descending away from them well Schumaker probably remembers yesterday when he tried to ride away from the uh main field completely and utterly on his own and he’s realized today that if he needs any

Chance of success he actually needs to have these guys to accompany him through the uh the valley roads in between climes so that all of them can work together well Peter vich the under 23 Rider world champion is on the front he’s gone off to the left now deorio

Goes soon and does a little bit of work they’ve got themselves organized again now as they’re not far out of the town of valir which means they’ll soon be on the little Hill of the C Telegraph just watching down there now this is the peleton reforming on The

Descent as they drop down all is well so far the mayos JN is there and that was what happened almost shocked me that that’s what happened earlier on Adam Hansen down as well we’ll take another break rejoin there should great he had spotted it and he was warning about it

108 km to go now well these Riders on the call to Telegraph but it’s not a steep climb as you can see they’re on the way down here just at the moment they’re heading towards the valley before they start the climb of the cak Quad no change here

They’re not a friendly Bunch today these four Riders they have been counterattacking and blocking schumacker has seemed to want to go away from he’s at the back at the moment George hppy the American we’ve just seen on the road with his shorts Torn To Shred which

Means he must have just fallen and he’s coming back into the pelaton well he looked pretty cut up there just a few moments ago and the way was riding though Phil I think those injuries seem to be pretty much superficial we’re over the summit now of the cuu Telegraph and

Strangely enough it doesn’t even count as a climb on today’s stage it’s not even categorized because it’s only 2 kilm it would be categorized if they came from this side because climbing up from this side it’s around about an 11 km climb as it sets itself up for the

Final Ascent up to the C gallier I always feel that this side of the gallier FI if you were coming up is much more difficult than the side we’ve already climbed this morning it’s a second category climb the Cole I think from this direction leading on to the or

Category of the telegraph two climbs in the for the price of one there not so today of course but what we have in store for the Riders are two really tough climbs lying ahead of them and we’re going to start with the quadir which is 29 kilm continuous climbing to

Its Summit these four Riders here just all managing themselves on the way down to Telegraph which will take us down to San sanul M Den there’s the names Perez shimaka de Gregorio I think de Gregorio here has lost his bottle a little bit F Out close

About after that close call he had on the early part of the C G’s descent he’s uh going into those corners and he’s taking the wrong line every time hcpp managed to get himself back into the main field he’ll be a little bit shaken up by that accident yeah he’s ripped to

Pieces not far from the top of the telegraph fairly steady average speed for a Mountain Stage today 2133 km an hour and uh probably won’t get much quicker than that all day because of the climbs to the Finish to come and a lot of guys happy with the

Situation right now Mar Berg how dropping back there probably to ask his Captain George how he is oh look at this too that that was Adam Hansson who fell too yes yeah well it’s just goes to show it’s a dangerous day you have to pay attention all of the time Hing Cappy a

Little bit upset yesterday Phil with losing out by about 30 seconds over the summit of the climb he actually said that he felt that he had enough uh in his legs to catch up on The Descent but I don’t think he expected The Descent to be quite as fast and vicious as that

Because he was looking at possibly adding a second step Victory to his win in pla day back in 2005 and it’s amazing to look at HPP as a professional athlete Phil because he’s participating here in his 13th tour to France before lining himself up for his fifth Olympic Games

In two weeks time yes a great athlete and a great very consistent one too jenemy raw is the rider coming through the back here for f d getting back into the pellet on all these boys dropped earlier now getting back into the comfort of the field and uh always a

Difficult maneuver you’ve got to be aware of what’s going on that was Kristoff LEL in the green yep he was the man who was in the Breakaway yesterday for an awful long time there’s the summit you can just see of the cuu telegraph 108 km to go and

You can just see a group of riders making their way back in through the cars there that was a group of riders who were dropped just before the summit of the cuu galib and they had to take an awful lot of risks Phil to come back

Into the main field on The Descent got back there HPP he’s got back they’re all got back here all in time to go off the back again Danny P there’s got back as well well they now continue their descent before we get down to the valley

Then we climb up the C quadir but the nothing decided yet in today’s stage of the tour but we’re down now to 104 we’re just through the halfway mark of today’s stage for the leaders yeah this is an 11 km descent down into the town of San

Michelle de Moran and then the Riders will ride along the Moran Valley for another 10 or 12 km before they start that nasty 29 km Ascent of the CA quadir and it is actually at its steepest at the bottom and it’s a hard climb to to

Organize for because it goes up in steps and there’s two steps on the way up towards the summit I tell you what D Goro is losing ground here because he can’t descend 334 and Remy is being dropped going downhill that’s a real shame but the boys can’t wait for him if he can’t

Chase them he’s really just got to get his line right into those Corners get some confidence and get his so he’s just keeping them in his sights those two leaders St o Grady he’s just guiding them down rather than racing down this descent he just wants to get his leader

To the bottom of the quadir and then what he’ll do is once they get into the town of s Michel de Moran they’ve got around about 12 kilm of fairly fast Valley Road to get themselves to the bottom of the quadir then I would think he and the other Riders from Team CSC

Will give it absolutely everything fill over the first 5 to 10 kilm of the quadir then they’ll hand it over to the leaders and say right we’ve done our turn it’s up to you now these are the three leaders Perez is the one in the orange vet is the one at the

Back and Shoemaker is the one at the front Shak 60.8 mil to go inside 100 km to the Finish now as these three boys racing ahead of hordo I don’t think he’ll be back up with these leaders today vet Hanging On by the seat of his racing

Shorts as we continue our race down to the valley here now looking for the Riders on the quader absolutely unbelievable situation normally that scene there covered in snow and the snow will be back again the next few weeks because at night believe me even in July the temperature gets

Very close to freezing at this altitude the toour to France itself slightly changed in as much a lot of riders just came back in the pelaton on the flatter sections of the quair so there still a big bunch down there enjoying the sun with the parasol

As we’re looking here at the two leaders 3 minutes 40 Schumaker and Peter vet vet are from Slovakia and riding all the time now on the front schumacker contributing nothing well I think he’s contributing nothing Phil because he can contribute nothing I think he’s just

Once again hit the wall and it was about the same time that he hit the wall yesterday after around about 150 km 10 km to go to the summit of the CU LA quadir and in about 2 km time they will start to get to the very grippy part of

This climb and for Stephan Schumaker I wonder if he’s got enough in those legs to actually stay with Peter vetz there’s the Riders crossing a bridge you can get some idea from this shot how many riders have come back onto the back of the pel it’s quite a big bunch

Now still all CSC doing all of the work looking down there I think we’ve got po votes back in this pack well no he’s here he’s just about’s coming back now I’m hoping he’s just about to get himself back onto the tail end of that group there because it is very important

For cadel Evans to have a man like Yaris popovic alongside him but it just gives you an indication of how tough the paces that’s being set at the front there by of course kaban canelar and this is rather sad to see I was going to say he is having a hard

Time F because of that pressure you can’t blame him really because at 21 years of age he doesn’t have the strength that you get from riding two or three grand Tours in your legs there’s one of the local Bears clapping on the way here for the two leaders at

3:26 still it is just vich doing the PAC making well John Lee there just needs to hang in it’s a tough day for him and he’s still got to climb out Duz looks like a nasty nasty case of meas there for the local cow but um vet calling for

A drink I should think here yeah so cruel we’re still a long way to climb to the top of the quader we top out at 156 we’ve done 145 and a half end of Ruben Perez either fil because he’s only about 10 or 15 seconds ahead of Fabian kelara on the

Road but Schumaker there he did well he did well to pull himself back up and I’m pretty certainly probably got the professional bottle there the bottle that accelerates you up to about 60 km an hour for 10 seconds there is Ruben Perez job done day over yes watch over

The shoulder R cuz about there we are that’s it he’s back in the fold two versus the rest now two of the original four and uh celor doesn’t look at him he just puts his head down thinks of the Rhythm in those big legs and concentrat on just riding a pace that hurts

Everybody look at the Riders further down the line they’re gring to grab Wheels here he’s got them under pressure there’s a lot of riders Under Pressure Phil in this group here this afternoon the men who are looking to do something later on there you can just see the

White and the yellow Jersey locked together two brothers in arms this afternoon Andy and Frank schle they are thinking about trying to win this bike race for Luxembourg and behind the man who might spoil the party Bernard Cole a lot of people are concerned about Bernard Cole the Austrian rder field

Because they have no idea how good his climbing a is going to be on the slopes of the alz yes it’s going to be a very intriguing Ascent on the slopes of alz that’s for sure the gap down to 3 minutes and 2 seconds now these two are all that’s left in

Front in that back group we’ve got cadell Evans of course we’ve got car sastra canel Andy and Frank schle Ruben Perez is there Bernard Cole Denny menof all the heads are in that group we’ve seen no weaknesses from the men who have dominated this tour to France yet

Another Rider cracks Perez goes out of the back now can’t keep up neither will he try to he’s got to get to the Finish he’s had his moments in front of the cameras now he has to beat the time limit but there’s a lot of riders behind

So thing I can hope for team CSC is they know what they’re doing here this afternoon because this group Phil is starting to get reduced in numbers menv looks to be suffering a little bit down towards the back of that group and finally Fabian canelar has disappeared

From the grp Damiano Kuno is about to go is he’s hurt Damiano and that uh has to be expected he fall a little bit below what we expected from duno Johan van sum is going to be the next man to go that’s one man less for cadell Evans it’s destroying almost

Everybody and now the only reason they can set a pace like this and the only good reason to do it is if their climbers Frank schlick Andy schlick and Carlos sastra are going to do something a little bit later on they’ve still got two men left in the F who can work for

Them Kurt atler harverson now now has to commit suicide for the team he’s got to throw himself into this pace but the only reason they can do this fil is if the climbers have got the acceleration to go away later on otherwise it’s a waste of energy it is going to be every

Man for himself on out do it now these boys are looking for the 5 km to go to the summit that Bunch now has really thinned out but and there is the 5 km to go that probably is for Peter vich is it or is it for the group here it’s for

Vich yeah he gets the five to go he is riding to a wonderful climb here to take the points at the top that the battle for the tour is still here Christian vanela looking extremely strong now so to cadell Evans question mark according to Paul on Denny menof sastra is looking

Good they could be just left together on this mountain when we go to the Finish Well in fact Denny mov has moved right up to the front end of the group there along the side of cadell Evans while while Fabian celar and not surprisingly Phil disappearing from the front end of

This group he has ridden an unbelievably solid race here botur off disappearing there Nicola vondi is doing I would have to say probably one of the light rides of his lives here to try and stay in contact here his big Yen hanging only just hanging though

Well he’s still hanging he can can he’s about 6 kilometers from the top of this group now still a hard section of the road to come as they all start to shed now we’re getting to a very select group of riders you if you look at those

Orange jerseys by the way the man we’re not expecting to see is 131 Denny menof there goes no no Noof what it’s doing now Paul are going to be left with the two slex and Carla sastra uh cadel Evans Denny menof Christian Velda just the men who are been the challenges of this year’s tour to France Samy Sanchez the team of said this morning it’s all for Samy Sanchez

But Sammy if you want to go for it on the outz you better just get onto the back step of the bus there this afternoon cuz it’s looks like the train is leaving the station Kur Adler harverson now at 5 kilm to go as well Phil just stamping out the pace they

Really don’t have too many men left and certainly they’ve got to start to think about when they go to launch the attack stepan Shu marker is at a minute 21 so he’s only around about 18 seconds ahead of this very select group well you know we’re seeing here an

Elimination of all bar the favor to the Tour of France now normally in the past we’ve headed to the Alp with a group and the teammates still driving that group this time it’s going to be a very different tour to France you look down now on a very

Select pelaton at a minute 39 behind the lone leader up front Schumaker still in between Peter vet leading he’s about 3 and 1 half km from the summit these guys are approaching 4 km and he’s about and well he’s just in front of them he’s cracked big time very fast well he

Really has cracked a huge time here Phil this afternoon and he’s slipping backwards he’ll get picked up SL shortly I’m waiting to see here whether or not there’s going to be any move at all that’s going to come from Team CSC they’ve think it’s going to come on

Theine they’ve done what they expected to do they’ve isolated almost everybody in the group here this afternoon but they’re leaving it a little bit late if they want to get big time on cadell Evans and Denny menof because if they don’t do something now they’ll all go

Over the summit of this climb together and that’ll leave just one solution left Phil Showdown on the outdo of course and you’ve got to get three minutes a lovely congratulations there from Bernard Cole the teammate of uh Schumaker there just thanked him for making the pace because he’s diverted attention from Bernard

Cole Cole is right there and I think a serious danger now to everybody in this tour of the France he could win it and he knows it as he climbs so well and they’re using now CSC their last Workhorse in arson on the front then they isolated two schle and sastra

Against the rest well the thing is Phil they’ve also then got the 10 kilometers ride along the Valley Road it’s from the top of the C La quadir it’s pretty much all the way downhill until they get into the valley of wazon and then it’s a big

Charge along the valley road to the start of the C the final climb of the day L Duz I have a feeling I’ve just noticed in that group The Very select group that we’re looking at a young Rider from Kenya number 57 Chris FR seems to be still in contact with the

Leaders on this day we’ll have a look at that because Chris was the one dropped yesterday it was John Lee his teammate who made it John Lee’s gone now and Chris may be there well that’ll be a great ride by him but this there another young man here this man knows Chris FL

Used to race in Africa with him Peter Vell as he comes up towards the summit he’s still a little way to go and this is where the crowd is now have a feeling they raced on the same team for a short while three point .3 km to the summit of

The C La quadir we’re getting now out into the open part of this climb fil and this is the part of the clim where it really starts to get hot because there’s hardly any Breeze in this part of the world here you can just see on the left

Hand side there a red and white jersey and that’s a rider from Team Bara world and I think I would bet my bottom dollar now that that is pedaling Phil he wants to go over this climb in first place he knows he’s got a great chance of doing

It because he doesn’t want to get caught before the summit he’s still got himself a minute and 8 seconds advantage over those Chasers and he’s only about 200 M to go before he Summits this massive big climb and that’s something he can put down on his resume for many years to

Come that he led the tour to France on a massive day the queen of stages we’re looking at here this afternoon after the galib the quadir we’ve still got on the menu to finish off with the aldz no sporting event in the world attracts a crowd like this no what the

Natural Grand stands of the Countryside of the world and now we have Peter vellet he’s 1 hour and 31 minutes behind the race leader of the toour of France but for him he’s now on top of the Quad F that’s it he’s over the top and now he

Can line up for the Descent down towards the finish and Phil it is a long way down there he picks up a newspaper very rapidly probably one of the best and cheapest insulators you can get he puts that right in there to keep himself nice and cool to make sure that he doesn’t

Get too much of a chill coming in from the fast air that’s going to rush past his body at 60 MPH on The Descent the flags of Britany let’s not forget that’s where the race started three weeks ago and now he is still he’s on the way down

These boys are going to grab those newspapers put them up underneath their racing jge keep the wind out off the chest they always fear Bron kiters at this stage of the toy to France they wrap up for warmth on The Descent they don’t need it once they get to the

AL because it’s going to be the hottest day on the Tour of France on the AL for sure Bard Cole is out of hunting for those King of the mountain points he’ll spint for second place and that will consolidate his lead in that competition well it’s important I think for Bernard

Kield not only does he want to try and win this bike race overall which he’ll have to do with time when he goes towards the alz but winning the king of the mountains classification for him was in fact one of his childhood dreams and there there he’s got a few more points

In the bag so Bernard Cole goes over in second place he still keeps his options open doesn’t he as now we start the journey down from the quader there’s only one real mountain left in the Tour of France this year and all of the favorites and

We should have known this are going to go to the for Fabian but certainly his teammate Bernard Cole could well be changing his polka dot for yellow if things go well today on the clim of Al Duz we’re looking down at the group Mayo here which contains Frank schle at the

Moment in yellow and all of the favorites including it seems to me an inspired christian Velda in there today well another man rejoins here Paul and this is the case we’ve been getting them coming back one after another celara is here now that’s Nicolai vondi the national champion of France wearing

The trior a title that he won just before the start of the tour to France in fact on the Sunday before the the tour tour to France started and he’s riding an excellent race here this afternoon as far as I’m concerned he’s riding above and beyond his normal

Capabilities and he’s made the junction here at the back the race situation is still off the front end of the main field Peter vet is leading and here he is he’s got around about a 50c advantage over Gerome Pino and then a minute and 29 seconds back to the front end of the

Main field and the yellow Jersey group fil with basically all of the overall leaders all of the top 10 are in that leading group in fact uh I think probably all of the top 15 are in the leading group the only person who might be missing is the 15th Place rider r

That of course is vichenzo nibali but he may well have been able to come back on The Descent I’m not sure he’s got back I think he had a real bad packet towards the top of the C quare but we’ll find out as we get towards the bottom of this

Climb that’ll be a general regrouping I think as we head into the valley good chase this by Jeron Pino he’s making progress on vage and vage could do with a hand right now he’s getting away from the pelan at least for the moment and an extra pair of legs as they get towards

It the situation we’ve got 59 he’s a minute behind now Jerome Pino and he’s about 26 seconds ahead of the pelaton there’s uh just sitting on the back there is the champion of France vondi you can see Phil I think they’re having a bit of time out here because

It’s been a tough ride for everybody this afternoon especially team CSC who really been dishing out the pain to the whole of the main field and I think they want a little bit of respite before they start the climb in Earnest once they get to the bottom of this uh descent they’ve

Got around about 11 km along a flat Valley Road which takes them from the town of alamon up to the town of borison and when you go around that left hand Bend to start the summit to start to climb alz it looks like a wall right in

Front of you to climb up to the first corner and that corner is Corner 21 and that is not a good thing to see if especially if you’re having a hard day the elevation written on every board on the corner every corner is named after a famous cyclist who’s been on the Alp

Well 38 km isn’t very far but unfortunately the AL is horrible and it’s about 24 km from reaching the start of the final climb of the has come back into the group and he’s gone straight back to the front so as we speak and as we look at

These guys now I can tell you up front Jerome Pino has crossed the Gap has joined the leader dep Peter vellet and between them they trying to open a gap of just under 2 minutes so two Riders up front now as we race down the side of this

Beautiful uh Dam here Fabian canelar back into his familiar role of pacemaker until he can do it no more he’ll probably stay there till the start of the AL now well this casts my mind back to uh the team Discovery Channel US Postal Service when they used to sit on

The front end of the main field like this and lead up to the foot of Al Duz in this afternoon it’s any one of three for victory I think from Team CSC because three Riders from Team CSC have not done any work in the paac making at all and that’s Carlos sastra who’s

Looking for the big move here this afternoon Frank schle is looking to try and win as he did a couple of years ago on the slopes of Al Duz and Andy schle proving to be the far superior climate to his brother but I think he will dedicate himself to the cause here this

Afternoon and if they f watch out for a move by Bernard Cole the man who leads the king of the mountains classification from Austria everything is possible now as we all arrive in the out together just looking down there at the moment isn’t this a beautiful part of

France well I must say I don’t remember this stretch before we go down on the side of the lake 25 km to go as they race along the Valley Road there’s 36 Riders come together in that chase group with the yellow Jersey and the ch facing just two

Men who are 2 minutes in front little switch across the river here as we now head down towards the last uh 8 kilomet or so before we head into Bor glazon cheers all around for a massive crowd waiting there as here in fact if you turn right here you go to

Groby that’s the way most will travel to tonight to the stage finish here tomorrow in stien and if you turn left the way we’re going to uh you go to B but on the way there’s a small town called the borison which everybody knows is the gateway to the alz and once the

Riders go through borone there’s a left hand turn and there’s a massive big wall in front of you up to turn number 21 after that there’s 20 more climbing up to a massive altitude of 184 well as the AL continues along now we’re already ready as we get into the

Town of Bor dwon now 66 seconds the two leaders have as they start and will shortly turn onto the climb of the Alp 15 km we start the Alp in a minute Paul that we get a lead with two Riders of only 63 seconds it’s all going to happen in the next couple

Of kilometers well it certainly is and look at the job of work that team CSC are still doing on the front end of the main field those Riders who are dropped on the quad aair they came down on The Descent and now once again Phil as they

Go through the Sprint Point here they are sacrificing themselves for the three leaders the three leaders are Frank Schleck Andy Schleck and Carlos sastra but they haven’t done anything to get rid of The Men Who challenged them like menop like Evans like vaner Kim kirken valver Sammy Sanchez they are all still

In this group but I don’t think after the first kilometer we’ll have a big group left well this is the start of the climb just here now there’s a massive massive crowd and lines all the way to the first start of the 21 Corners to Heaven 14.4 km can you imagine how those

Riders feel in the chase now knowing that if their body responds in the way they hope they could win the Tour to France by the end of this day that’s the Sprint Point nobody really cares it means absolutely nothing at this stage of the race well just uh swinging around

Very shortly they’re going to make the left hand turn and when you make that left hand turn fill you see this horrible black w of tarmac in front of you and that is the first incline of the outz everybody is here there’s the indication 13.8 km to go to the summit

And very shortly they’ll make that left hand sweep which will show them that black wall in front of them and they’ll probably go oh my gosh these people have camped here for a week it used to be a day them and the Alp caught on it was

Two days now if you’re not here for a week you won’t get the spots because they will not give them to you they have come down here they’ve waited patiently all the signs are in English here now because so many nations are watching this race who speaks that language

There’s the peleton they’re about to swing on to the AL now and how much longer can CSC keep their domestics on the front scuttling up the outside there I noticed Denny menof and his team trying to place him in the ideal position for the start of the climb you

Can see the big tall figure as well of Johan van Sumer and he has reported present and correct for cadell Evans swinging off there Kurt Adler harverson says goodbye friends as Jerome Pino leaves Peter vich behind but behind them Phil it only 51 seconds is the front end

Of the main field well this is all for everyone now the man that can knock do the one out will win the toour to France cadel Evans knows his best chance is to concede no time but he can afford to concede a little bit Christian vanela he

Looks good today but he needs to gain time Jerome Pino has cracked here 50 seconds and 13.4 km there’s no little ease into to the Alp it bites you straight away it’s steep it’s hard and there is no pardoning either because the Alp never gets easy there’s no flat part

To the Alp as we can see now the face here of Vladimir Gusto he’s going to give everything he can finally to try and set his men up I have to say that Andy schle looks very comfortable there Carlos SRA knows has to go and sra’s got

Menof on his back wheel here comes the the kicks from the stars now this is the Moment of Truth as the others drop away Lawrence tendam drops off but his team leader is there menof is marking sastra sastra needs big time he’s gone from the

Bottom well he knew he had to do this that was the only thing that Carlos sastra could do but look Phil how calm Denny menop looks here this afternoon and behind it’s a little bit of tactical work going on for team CSC cuz they’re saying if you want to move you’ve got to

Chase him down and cadell Evans knows that moving up inside the outside Yan van Sufi all of a sudden has found something special to go up there and help his leader well sastra needs time he’s got to go he’s gone early Denny menot had him marked well he’s gone with

Him but cadel Evans held by a teammate who Cann not stay with him very long damiano’s had enough he’s gone off the back seral DL the winner yesterday he’s just been blown away George hppy Kim kirkin rather is struggling under the pressure they must have known the pace

Would go as immediately this climb started they’ve caught SRA back first attack has failed well again he goes Carlos sra’s got something in his legs here this afternoon he wants to go alone Phil he does not want anyone on his back wheel and menof is looking with a much

Bigger gear to try and pull Carlos sastra back in well menof read the first one but when you are a pure pure climber you can do what others can’t do you can relax and accelerate for a second time you can go and you can go again and that’s exactly what Carlos sastra has

Done this is Roman cig he’s getting left out of the back end of the main field but he’s a young star too and now alone at the front going over and the past Gerome Pino is Carlos SRA who is climbing Phil like a real pure climber

This afternoon well he is the man with the stamina he’s had a third place finish in the tour to France the year that Floyd Lis was disqualified he’s had a fourth place finish sastra now needs 49 seconds to to pull on the Jersey of his teammate Frank schle there’s no

Reaction from schle now Mario SS is the rider on the front doing what he can for Evans as long as he can well Carlos sastra knows Phil that if he wants to get his one chance and a shot at winning the Tour of France here this afternoon

He’s got to get time but he doesn’t have to get seconds he has to get minutes and Mario s there is doing the greatest job I’ve seen him do in the tour to France for some time as he sets the tempo on the front but they’re all now leaving it

Up to the man who they’re a bit concerned about the man who was scary on PR noo the man who leads the king of the mountains classification Bernard Cole but he doesn’t have it here this afternoon he swings off and says to Frank schlick you do it schlick says I’m

Not chasing that’s my man in front well this is around the point where Lance arong said goodbye to Yan U and then continue to the top but look at this now is this David Monier is number 188 at the back to the front here as the Riders

Cracked your own penino is now been dropped here SAS knows he’s made his move now can he hold it it’s an awful Long Way to the Top and it never ever levels out well a lot of riders getting help here from moves like this move by David Monier he’s on his last warning

With his team if he doesn’t do something in this T France his contract will not be renewed now he’s trying to ride himself into the bike race here’s Young Chris vro going backwards but I tell you what he’s learned an awful lot today Phil about himself as Mario SS

Disappears from the fr to the race menof this no it’s not is menof yes I it was well that’s caught any menof the man we thought might be holding something back is holding nothing back he has blown on the Alp now the battle is strengthening Christian Velda is still in that group

There while sastra makes his bid yes he is only 49 seconds off yellow but he needs much more than that for cadell Evans not to win the Tour because cadell will annihilate him in the time so are by anything up to 90 seconds well you can see now Bernard Cole looking over

His shoulder come on come and help me but on his shoulders he’s got the two shle brothers they’re just sitting Phil in the wings and waiting they are hoping that their man Carlos SRA has got the ability today to pull out minutes not seconds over cadel Evans and the other

Favorites David mon cuch is back in the group but this now is a group of the heads of state still Christian vanera is there still cadell Evans is there and Evansville I think now is looking to make the move well Evans looks across here now because Bernard Cole his head

Always nodding in this straight side motion has got to the front here SEL looks as he’s back in this race at the moment and cadel Evans looking to climb now locked in he’s marking the yellow Jersey of Frank schle he better watch out where Bernard Cole goes as well well

Bernard Cole is being put into a position today that if he wants to win this bike race fil he’s going to have to do something special he dreamed about getting himself the yellow Jersey on PR noo now he’s got the polka dot Jersey on his shoulders setting a false Tempo now

And it looks yeah that’s ag2r going off the front of the group well ag2 is thisel or eff I can never recognize these two as they start the attack here for ag2r they’ll have to be a reaction but not quite so Sinister as they must Chase back the race leader

Well I tell you one thing the Schleck brothers are all over the front end of this group field and they are controlling it somewhat dangerous ly and I have a feeling if anyone was to come back to Carlo sastra the schle brothers are going to whack this group very hard

Indeed and look at Christian vanela the American who came here really as leader of his team but nobody really thought he would challenge for a Podium finish he’s been challenging ever since the race started it’s Vladimir eim yes who’s in that group the group consists of cadel

Evans Andy schle Frank Schleck valde eim Bernard Cole Christian Velda the heads of this year’s tour to France are now fighting it out on the Alp and it could be the winner tonight will be the winner in Paris and the yellow’s gone and cadell Evans immediately reacts well

Cadel Evans he knows he has to keep a very close eye on Frank s here this afternoon because this man although he leads cadell Evans by 8 seconds if he gives him any more time he knows he’s got a very close CH look at this Evans

Has finally taken the race by the horns here Phil he’s decided right guys I’m going to show you what I am the number one favorite before the start of the Tour of France cuz I will dominate the pace here but immediately it’s Bernard Cole comes to the front again for me the

Danger is Cole I think schle is in difficulty that should have worked for Frank and he didn’t do so I’d be very worried now and Andy SLE is also at the back is he planning to launch an attack as well a great move by sastra he had no

Choice he had to go at the bottom he needs a win by 2 minutes if he’s got a chance of winning the tour that’s what we think that’s what we think and I’m sure that’s what cadell Evans thinks as well the great thing about Carlos sril

Is he is a magical climber sitting at the back here though is the coming back up here he’s coming back with Denny menof he’s pulling himself back into the bike race here this afternoon well just looking here at Carla sastra the clock is saying he’s nudged out 22 seconds he’s 49 seconds so

He’s 27 seconds off yellow make that 25 seconds off yellow this is Bernard Cole they’ve never had an Austrian Rider like this and he’s going Andy’s turn cadel has spotted him and he’s on him straight away but anley just wanted the back wheel of Co he’s just watching making sure that nobody

Goes they’re trying to protect the position of Carlos sastra here this after they looking pretty comfortable in this group team CSC have laid the foundations here this afternoon what they need to know is how much energy have the other guys got the group and

Effen kin is about to make a move a one minute 13 span of the top five in the toy to France as Vladimir epim goes he may not be quite so heavily marked by cadel but Andy has decided to shoot across that Gap and join em on the

Attack now Andy schle himself is 9 minutes behind there’s no reason for cadel Evans to chase him down yeah but I tell you one thing one man who was responding to that was a certain Rider from the United States Christian Velda has gone right across that Gap and I

Think van that decided to go straight over the top of them vaner said this morning if he arrives at the Alp and feels good he will attack he needs a little bit of time and then in the time sh he knows he will have the advantage

Along with Evans and Andy sleck is up there with him right now I think Frank Schleck is in trouble well Frank Schleck is sitting there back on the wheel of cadell Evans as he was on the climb a couple of days ago to Pratt Noosa when

He gave the advantage to his brother and he gave his advantage to Carlos asra trying to keep himself in the bike rakes though number 131 Denny menof Phil he looked so strong at the bottom of the climb but that’s the amazing thing about Al Duz It is an unforgiving climb you

Make one effort too many and then you have to pay for it Frank his face never ever looks as though he’s in trouble I’ve never seen him appear to suffer and yet I’m not so sure he can lift his Pace here Evans is marking valde at the

Moment and he’s come back and had a chat with brother Frank and probably said what do you feel like because they need to know the answers here cadela has his hands full they’re hitting him at every side this is the rider I would worry about Paul Bernard Cole cadel knows he

Can beat him in the time are but he won’t want to give him much he doesn’t want to give him too much at all and the amazing thing about Bernard Cole is he’ll keep going and going and as soon as he saw the impetus going out of that

Group he decided to accelerate but look at the way this man is pedling here Carlos sastra is now inside of 10 km to go 6 miles of climbing again he’s riding a long solo effort he needs more than 28 seconds for I’ve got to tell you that he

Needs an awful lot more maybe two minutes and to get two minutes on the final climb is not an easy call I’ve never ever ever seen caros s race as well as this let me quickly tell you his finishes in the tour to France in 2011 20th 2002 10th 2003 9th

20048 he dropped out a little bit in 05 21 2006 he was third last year he finished fourth there’s only one place he wants it is the win and this is his last chance he needs two minutes to win the Tour he’s got to get that but it’s

Awfully difficult on the final climb of the day to do that and only time the only chance he’ll get that is if the other guys fil start to crack or start to watch each other and still Bernard Cole knows that he’s not letting anybody get off the front end because if he

Loses time today on somebody like Carlos sanche he could be losing a Podium position there’s so many riders now being hit from all sides but I have to say what a wonderful tour to France Frank schle here has gone to the front I do not believe he’s got it he’s lassu

Christian vanel and put him back Evans has climbed through now he’s got burner Cole at the moment things are good for the Australian I think because sra’s only got 34 seconds but by the same token Paul he and an attack by sleck well sleck killed kidding is all here

There’s a reaction from Cole this is a huge effort by schle he looks back you know I’m not sure he can Ram this one home cadell Evans doesn’t look like a man in trouble neither does Bernard Cole who keeps dragging himself back but I think the schlake brothers Phil are

Playing with this group a little bit they were launching these attacks to take the impetus out of the organization of any Chase behind caros sastra and when they slow down it’s going to give advantage to SRA and look at that 40 seconds Val now says okay he’s looking

For 3 minutes and 23 seconds and we thought he’d written himself out in the Pyrenees the champion of Spain has got the slex on his wheel and they split him away from cadell Evans and Bernard Cole well that was a big move and now they’re going to put to cadell Evans on the

Defensive cadel Evans is on the wheel of Bernard Co and he knows he’s got to move this is the effort look at the face of Andy Andy sleck looks over and says bro let’s go well this is it now they’ve got the Gap they’ve broken the elastic Evans

Is on his Zone he’s got to get him up there he’s followed by Christian vanera he’s followed by Bernard Cole and this is a huge effort now one thing about cadel Evans is he’s an absolute fighter he will fight he’ll try and stay in the bike race here this afternoon Alejandro

Val set that up knock down and there it’s all down though fil by canel Evans sitting on the wheel of vanera vanera is riding a superb alz here this afternoon and Bernard Cole is the man now put into difficulty well I have to say that’s his own fault

It is every man for himself here I’m not sure and you can never prove it but I reckon Val’s got a little deal going with the boys from uh Luxembourg now they’re still talking and that’s not allowed but of course who cares this is the tour to France we’re talking about

The race win today 9.1 kilomet to go SLE is trying Andy that is trying to get the spectators out the middle of the Breakaway here now valverdi carries on Andy sleck has not got it I’ll tell you right now and cadell is a little bit slow to respond but still looks good

Well cadell doesn’t have that acceleration on the slopes of a climb like this fi what he does is he allows somebody to accelerate like a climber then he slowly drags himself back up to make the contact because it’s like the other guys have got petrol engines and

He’s got a massive great big diesel engine but once he gets it up to speed it’s very difficult to slow him down we’re about 17 minutes away from the end of the stage how much time can you lose and that’s what cadel Evans will be Reckoning now caros sasra they stopped

Giving us a time check there he must be close to his race lead though over 49 seconds he’s got 23 of them just now those counterattacks by his own teammates is damaging sra’s lead yes but it may well pay into his Advantage down towards the end because what these

Accelerations and decelerations will do will take the will of the other guys in this group away from chasing down look at Bernard Cole he was the man who was doing of the pacemaking on the front before to try and pull back the breakaways now he’s been put onto the

Defensive and where is the select group and Stephan guar has somehow got himself in there the oldest man in the race at 38 Riding with the elite of the toy to France and there goes another attack there that’s eim who’s just launched the attack it’s counted it’s Cole who comes

Up alongside Andy and fim well they’re all together I can’t imagine how Matt white is getting on let’s find out I’m back this is all for everybody now well we still see here the man who’s the oldest rider in the race here Stephan G this is valich on the on the

Back so he’s now lost ground Denny menof just trying to hold those yellow cars up ahead in sight but he’s losing yet to gain more time as Andy schle tried to again put a nail in the coffin of cadell Evans and Bernard Cole well I’m not really sure why Cole keeps chasing

Across after these groups Phil but he’s got himself the Gap this afternoon Andy Schleck looks the most comfortable to me of all of the riders in this group because he is doing the work he’s marking all of the moves again vander’s got the legs to come across this Gap and

He knows Frank sleck very well let’s not forget they used to be teammates on CSC together well they text each other after Frank got the yellow Jersey but they both want the other Jersey they’re not friends now Cole has struggled up behind Andy these boys are all on the limit of

Their ability and they’re almost eal it’s all a question as to who could put the attack in when the others are just feeling a bit rough team manager of CSC charging across the Gap have a quick look at that time Gap there Phil 55 seconds the fact that these guys keep

Attacking and slowing down attacking and slowing down means they’re actually playing into the hands of Carlos who’s riding at his own sensible Pace all of the time every time they attack in this group they each into his lead but then they slow down too much and they give

The advantage to Carlos sastra caros sastra is now the race leader of the tour to France on the low on the road if he gets the top he’d be the seventh leader of this extraordinary event the record by the way is eight different leaders and there he is now being

Cheered all the way to the mayoor but even if he pulls it on tonight he won’t have enough time to keep it if he stays at 57 seconds no it’s going to be a little bit too short for him he’s looking for at least another 1 and a half minutes on today’s

Stage fi because let’s not forget he starts the day 49 seconds behind his teammate but he’s also 41 seconds behind cadell Evans in the overall classification so he needs to start the time trial with at least 2 minutes lead and again there’s another move coming from ag2 well this is incredible the way

These guys push it home I really don’t know I think this is value U’s gone now and as again he just create a Ricochet reaction from these boys but Andy schle every time Phil is the policeman and I tell you what Denny menof is slowly but surely pulling himself back into this

Group and that’s an indication that with these accelerations and decelerations their average speed is not as great as that of Carlos sastra there you can just spot Christian randel is going to give it a go he’s going to go he needs a little bit of time to have fight back

Into a Podium position here he lost time yesterday when when he crashed on the way off the Bonnet and that’s why Andy schle has marked Christian vanela and taken brother Frank back to the front well cadel Evans on the wheel there of Alejandro Val the sleck brothers I have

To say for I don’t think they’re in difficulty today they’re chasing all of the moves giving the advantage to their man Carlos sastra dragging his way back into this race as Bernard Cole he spent a lot of energy in the early part of the climb I think wasting energy chasing

Down these little accelerations now he’s seriously been put on the defensive Samy Sanchez comes back Stephan guar comes back and I think very surely Denny meno will come back well he’ll do a Dar good ride if he gets back here the way they’re hitting each other look at the

Face of vell’s almost licking his lips on out Duz as he drags Frank I don’t agree with you Paul I think Frank Sheek scks on the limit of his ability today and you’re right Denny menop is going to get in amongst it here they’ll have to

Make room for him the Russian Rider is still a threat one gets the feeling this T to France by the time we get to Paris we’ll still be talking seconds I think you’re absolutely right there but Carlos sastra is doing a phenomenal ride you know he’s sat in the wings he’s waited

And breathed this particular stage here this afternoon he’s he’s known that this was important slack slack is going again well they’re going to have to keep on answering it as best they can because Frank schle has got no acceleration there he really hasn’t and cadel EV is

Just marking them he’s not putting in any attacks I tell you what Phil these little accelerations and decelerations by the schle brothers are taking the impetus away from the group they’re disorganizing it in a very clever manner because everyone has to chase them that you can’t let schle go cuz he’s the

Yellow Jersey you D let Andy let go because he’s got incredible legs on the slopes of this climb Evans Now is slowing down and that’s going to give you the next time we get a time check possibly one and a half minutes caros S7 seconds 1 minute 17 seconds advanage SRA

I take my hat off to him he had to attack at the bottom and he didn’t waste any time in doing it he hit him hard and he’s got clear he took menof remember went back then went alone menof rejoins these 10 boys that tells me that there’s

No chase organized in this group for these guys are all over the road and if they should have on the SEL stop that business of attacking let the leader go that is why they attacked to break down the Rhythm to break the will of the riders in this group and that’s why

Nobody wants to chase cadel Evans really now should think about getting to the front and taking the strangle hold it’s tadek valc there on the front who’s doing the paac making but I’m not sure he’s got the big engine to taste down Carlos sastra well Cole has got to

Remember too he can’t time trial either so well and he needs time on Cel Evans and he’s still in this group he’s also seeing a man Leap Frog him in the overall classification there’s 11 Riders here now at the chase as we go to to the

Front the Gap is shot up 1 minute 27 now if he gets 2 minutes he could win the Tour to France and that’s what he’s looking for he won’t win it today of course he’s got to go to the time trial 6.4 km to the Finish 6.3 saster could be

Pulling off the ride of the tour here well I’m surprised that there’s no organized chase behind but I’m pretty certain that it’s a fact that there two select Brothers Phil have been going left and right after all of these moves has discouraged the riders in this group

It’s taken the will to Chase away from them let’s not forget team CSC assassinated all of these Riders this afternoon menv will be happy with the fact that the pace has come down a fraction because he’s pulled himself back into the fold well Sanchez has got

Him back himself back in here as well as menof they’ve clawed the way back an indication that the pace has slowed a little bit as we’re heading towards 6 km to go now they’re saying it’s 1 and 1 half minutes the lead of Carlos srus and

They there will have to be a re action here probably in the last 2 or 3 kilomet Evans has got to try and go so to his cold well it’s interesting to know that the man who’s doing the pacemaking on the front is the oldest man in the bike

Race it’s Stephan guar from ag2r and he’s brought it down to a minute and 25 seconds ag2r are riding a phenomenal race here this afternoon but I wonder if the pace is not going to be high enough we’re inside now of 6 km to go to the

Front and the main heads of Stateville are not doing the chasing it’s one of the Lesser teams in the tour who are doing the chasing it’s ag2r they’re trying to pull their man tedic valc back but he’s only in 10th place in the overall classification well that’s the

Strange thing about the tour to France now because the leaders are so close here this man he’s shortly going to see The Summit it’ll still be a long way away but at least he’ll see it as he comes around the village of around the corner we always call the Dutch Corner

Where so many Dutchmen have ridden to Victory on the tour to France but disaster today really has shown us he deserves to win the Tour to France well he wants to pH he’s dreamed about it he’s one of the most consistent tour to France performers over the last few

Years in fact he’s one of the most consistent Grand Tour performers but he’s never got the big win that he’s looked for he’s never got the big win that he’s promised and he stretched it out once again to a minute and 35 seconds you know if they don’t organize

The chase they’re going to lose huge chunks of time and if he goes to the summit with 2 and 1/2 minutes Advantage he could be leading cadell Evans by 2 minutes well these boys those attacks have not the absolutely not the stuffing out them just now they need time to

Recover because there’s no wrestling place on this climb it is a vicious climb the top Riders will climb it in 36 37 minutes the rest will take an hour to an hour and a quarter today there’s plenty of Australian flags here there’s even a British flag here well the

British Riders have had their moment four stage wins by Mark Cavendish he mark would be the first to tell you he wouldn’t win up here this is now a battle for final honors well cadel Evans at the back pretty much on the defensive it’s ag2r is on the front end Stephan

Guar 38 years of old is setting the pace ahead of Bernard Cole rocking his head a bit but I tell you what valde looks pretty dangerous as well there moving up valve is having a quick chat with the team management there deciding what he needs to do the two select brothers are

Waiting in the fold to see what they can do a minute 7 it’s going up all of the time he’s going to hit the 2 minutes he’s got 5 km to do it well I think he will hit the 2 minutes and the fact is f

That none of the big heads of state are chasing him Evans isn’t chasing menop isn’t chasing and they’re not going to get any help at all from the two schle brothers who are just sitting there waiting three miles from the summit and sastra is heading for

Gold this is the crowd here 5 km to go from the summit of Al Duz well let’s go back into the Garmin team Car Matt white must be beside himself they’re cheering him chapping him on the back they know this man they’ve seen him for many years

In the Tour of France cuz he’s always been a steady performer well now he’s shown us shown us to be a very exciting bike rider 2 minutes is hit and sasu has only everyone one stage of the tour to France and it was in Bonas in the

Pyrenees he’s now having the moment of his life here on the Alp itself and this group behind they’ve got to attack they’ve all got to go for it shortly they cannot they’ve got nothing left and every time they move on their wheel is a Schleck brother whether it be Andy or

Whether it be frank they cover every move they’re not going to get any assistance there from Denny menof cuz he’s just happy to be in this group cadell Evans is just sitting at the back there on the shoulder of Frank sleck 204 there’s still 4 kilm to go I have a

Funny feeling today Carlos sastra could be laying down the foundations of victory in the the Tour of France this year he’s banged everything on this one month of the year history has shown us that the man that pulls the yellow Jersey on at Al Duz wins in Paris he’s

Building that sort of time Gap to maintain the tradition of the tour to France at 5 km to go this is the first attack it looks to me as though it Valu it’s going now FM kin is the one who’s moving this time I think pH there cadel

Evans had said right enough is enough I’m going to chase you guys down you can see also Andy schle coming across here he’ll come to the wheel of this young man and he’ll just sit there and say if you want to Chase my mate you go for it

Because we’re looking for the overall lead here this afternoon well if they’ve got the energy now they’ve got to counter this move and they’ve got to up the anti a bit and go again because the flirty of action we’ve had has gone from the impetus of this Breakaway and that

Little acceleration you see took off a second or so 158 and the return is there but that’s on these two not on the group cadel well you see see Andy SLE just sitting there he’s covering all of the moves he’s playing an incredible defensive role this afternoon the yellow

Jersey group are playing the tactics here this afternoon they’re saying cadel Evans you want to win the Tour to France you assume the responsibility and you set the pacemaking on the front end of this group it’s the only answer right now Vladimir epim looks over his shoulder and he’s realized he’s got the

Gap Andy schle has found the strength this is the younger of the schle and he’s going to be the future star of the family by the look at it fde is the man lifting the pace on the front here now he wants to pull it all back together as

Well I have to say Alejandro Val has found his legs here in the Alps this afternoon and he’s pulling himself right up to effen Kin and Andy schle well this is as big a crowd I think as we’ve ever seen I didn’t see where they’re all hiding last night when

We came up but they’re all there now enjoying the arrival of the tour to France at the mecca of this cycling event and still 15 three this counter move is shutting it down but these two Riders really don’t affect the yellow Jersey it’s still on the shoulders of

Sastra yeah but what’s going to happen now Phil they’ve caught them up cadel Evans has seen this he wants to keep the end lifting the pace he wants to lift the pace he really just needs to ride a time trial now Phil he’s seen that he’s

Got 3 and A2 kilometers to go to the finish and he has to ride this final time trial he has to now ride the time trial like the one he’s going to ride on Saturday he’s got to use everything he’s got in his body now to reduce that time

Gap this is the ride we’re looking for cadell Evans the Australian has taken control he knows if he’s to win the Tour of France he must not allow sastra to get two minutes he knows that in his mind I think he fixed before the start of today’s stage how much time he could

Lose on this mountain and the time Gap is stretching out again to over the two-minute mark But for Evans he’s got to ride his heart out here at 4 km to go Phil to get himself back into a shot at winning the race in the individual time

Trial at the end cuz Carlos sasra is going to win the stage but the question will be how much time has he been able to put between himself and cadell Evans and the answer is we’re not going to know this answer till Saturday at least right now because cadell Evans is

Reacting to the situation 2 minutes 8 might just be enough saster pushes on absolutely terrific cycling by caros sastra this is a phenomenal performance by this man and it was a performance that was set up by his team as soon as they came away from the town of um Brown

This morning the front of the main field was covered by team CSC set up by Stuart ogrady set up by Nikki senson by Fabian celara this man has come out on the slopes of alz this afternoon to repay the work that was done by his teammates they laid the foundations for for this

Move Phil they assassinated everybody in the race here this afternoon and they left it up to their man to go out and finish it off on Al Duz look at that that clock though Evans now is losing a bit of impetus again he got the courage

A few moments ago and now it’s hurting him 215 is the gap Fidel Evans now knows he got no friends here now they know you want to win the Tour to France you get up front and do the PAC making CSC after a day of working for their man have

Played all of the cards and the ace is now up the road as we approach out Duz itself where the crowd are now behind the barriers here caros saster will shortly flick around that far Bend he’s riding through a noise of people here 213 the Gap it is Carla sastra versus

Cadel Evans and the way it’s looking one will win the Tour to France well cadel Evans wears number one and he has to take complete control when you are the favorite Phil and cadell Evans was before the start of this tour to France the number one favorite to win this bike

Race he now has to take responsibility and you’re right there are no more friends in this group but the two Riders from CSC Andy schlick and Frank schlick are a psychological anchor on the back wheel of cadell Evans here this afternoon cuz he knows he’s dragging the

Schle brothers up look at the flags of Luxembourg it’s an absolute tunnel of flags of Luxenberg valver is gone now and cadel won’t have an answer to that because he’s been making all of the pace Frank SLE has marked valie I have a feeling these two have had a bit of a

Discussion Alber now opens up the attack and Evans is going cross the Gap because Frank doesn’t have it I tell you what Christian vanela is putting in a great performance here this afternoon because he is chasing down all of these G Evans has got to keep the tempo going he dare

Not slow down at all because if he does that will be reflected in the time advantage of Carlos sastra at the end of the day look at the face of Denny menof Andy schle looking over his shoulder here this young kid in the white jersey

Phil one year is going to win the Tour of France he is such a phenomenal climber give him a couple of years to improve his time traling ability and the way he rides these climbs he’s going to walk away with the tour to France in the

Next 5 years and maybe even next year so cadell better win it this year as he puts in another bit here to become Australia Sportsman of the year because he’s ridden a race all by himself and he’s taken everything thrown at him 217 is the gap cadel knows he’ll have it in

His ears his manager will have told him you’ve got to limit that escape cadel because if you don’t you won’t take that time back in the time trial Carlos sastra it says on his helmet and it says in his heart here this afternoon as he digs deep he’s looking for the flam

Rouge he’s looking for the 2 kilm to go Banner he’s got to ride this time trial of his life and at 2.15 kilometers to go he’s got two at 15 seconds advantage over the group containing all of the main contenders Evans is pulling himself Phil inside out at this time he knows

He’s got to do it two kilm to go two two things we’ve shown today as the Riders here come up the barriers of the last 2 kilometers of the tour to France today saster is heading for the stage win and the yellow Jersey 2 minutes 19 the spread to the

Mayo yawn s’s proved that he will win the stage that he will take the overall lead he has not yet proved he will win the Tour to France but it’ll be jolly close by the end of this day it will be very close I tell you what Val he looks

So good he looks like he’s on the edge of his seat waiting to pounce and I wonder if he’s not pouncing today because he’s thinking about national pride he’s thinking about Spain and he’s thinking about Carlos sastra here at the back Christian vanderville has done a

Great job on the slopes of Al this afternoon Carlos Sassi is in this part of the route where it’s absolutely crazy you can hear the noise they’re absolutely shouting like crazy for this man because they know he’s doing a great performance 222 is it advantage and it

Still continues to go up well we’re looking at number 11 here the number Steven roach wor when he won the Tour to France for Ireland in 1987 now caros sastra is trying to win it for Spain I would reckon that Christian vanela might be on for second

Place today and take the best of the rest here but getting up into the plateau of outd doers it rises right to the Finishing Line cadel Evans has got to drag these boys up he’s got to keep thinking time and not position he must not think about finishing second or

Third on a stage like this pH as we now looking at almost two and a half minutes looks over his shoulder to say am I getting any help at all here this afternoon the answer is no when you are the champion when you are the man who’s

The number one favorite you have to assume the responsibility yourself the two schle brothers just sitting there the man who I think made a few mistakes in the early slopes of this climb is 115 there Bernard Cole he made so many attacks that he lost all of his power

That he could have used to the end of this climb as cadel Evans now is trying to find that last little bit to survive menof comes forward now he’s got his big engine finally warmed up it’s looking a bit worrying for the Australian at 224 take off 40 yd seconds of course because

That was his Advantage behind cadel menof is there as well haunting on the right hand side valverdi is waiting to dash to the line for the Sprint as well cadel Evans is fighting to win the Tour to France the others car he can well he’s just got to ride now as

Carlos sastra finally sees what he’s been dreaming of the flam Rouge 1,000 M to go and he he dare not pH even think about celebrating the victory at the end of this stage he’s got to ride right to the line to try and get as much time as

Possible Sam Sanchez go he sat at the back he had to rejoin with an acceleration like that because it a freshes anybody that second place just left the pack there and the sers shot out after after him now if cadel could just grab a wheel around the Schleck

Cadell’s looking for a reaction men’s launch an attack as well and now vanandel is going they’re all leaving cadell Evans well cadel Evans has got to just calm himself down here filling right to the Finish he’s make it’s all about time at this point Samy Sanchez

Now has got himself off the front and he’s looking to try and get himself a second place but he could be actually doing damage to the lead of Carlos sastra his compatriot but a man who rides on a different team well the thing is he r a carrot now for the others to

Chase it might just reduce the lead of s sastra by a little bit cadel Evans still driving here and there’s sastra dodging the barriers now as he heads for the Finish Well vanela has gone behind as well in a very fast reaction now inside of the last four or 500 meters Carlos

SEL looking around those Corners where’s the finish line but what’s important Phil is the time on the Finish Line he’s got to get himself around this corner he’s straightening up for the Finish Line one of the most famous Finish Line in the sport of professional cycling the

Summit of alz 150 M Carlo s isn’t the first Spanish winner here but he might be the most significant as he’s now laid his plan he’s waited for a week for the climb of Al Duz to prove this was his tour to France now it is time that will

Give us that answer but for the moment meet the man who wins an ald doz and becomes the seventh leader of the to yes the seventh leader of the Tour of France call saster gets the win the clock has started well that’s the clock starting there 6 seconds already have gone by he

Started the day 49 seconds behind his own teammate Phil at the last time check we had about 2 and a half minutes this is Samy Sanchez now riding to try and get himself second place but this could and he’s still got a kilometer to go to

The Finish that’s amazing he took he out climb them by a kilometer and about 300 M and they all were level at the start of the climb it’s all about about time now Evans must reduce it he is leaving himself just about enough time to take

This race in the time trial but you know once you ride in yellow you ride like 10 men Andy sleck deserves to ride away right now he’s chasing Carl is chasing Sammy Sanchez well he’s ridden so defensively throughout the whole of the afternoon here he comes up to the wheel

Of Samy Sanchez he wants to just sit there he won’t help him at all 57 it’s well it’s a minute has gone by already so there’s a change in the overall standings Carlos sastra will be the new leader tonight but Phil the important thing is how much time will he have over

Cadel Evans when we leave the Alps behind tomorrow well sastra Samy Sanchez is EAS a little bit shle has got on at 500 M schle needs a few deep breaths if he’s going to get something out of this his brother won here last year schle can finish second

Here this year and CSC would take first and second after a day in which they have worked their their hearts out that would be a result it would be a phenomenal result here look at Andy he’s just waiting look at that face of concentration as he swings around here

He knows that 12 two years ago it was brother Frank who got the victory here and he’s trying to make it a onew and look at the time Gap it’s going to be more than two minutes by the time they all around the bottom corner though as

Andy sleck races for the line Christian Velda looking for the fourth place finish but Samy Sanchez goes this time takes on sleck ching with the line is now but I would suspect that SLE lost that to Sanchez and here comes cadell Evans fighting the time they pull back a

Little bit and the clock will stop on Evans we’re looking at the back of the line there I would say at 2:15 2 minutes and 15 Evans bows his head down there he did everything he could feel to reduce that Gap Gap deficit over the final

Kilometers I tell you what there’s a lot of tired bodies in this bike race here this afternoon but one will be celebrating in in a yellow Jersey and that is Carlos sastra the question is has he got enough time now to win the Tour to France I’m still not sure well

It’s going to be touch and go it’s going to the last day we always said it would Roman kinger the winner of the tour Switzerland comes home another man like Andy sleck who one day will return and we think win the Tour of France he’s won

The Tour of Switzerland this year he is a rider of terrific Talent as well we could name probably 10 guys this year of under the age of 25 who have the ability to win the tours of the future absolutely he’s battling here and look at the time gaps and we’re

Going to have to wait a long time Phil to see the rest of Team CSC come in because Stuart o’ Grady is a long way from the finish line but St o Grady is responsible in part for this Victory with Nikki senson Fabian celara Kurt Adler arson they laid their souls out on

The road today Phil for one thing to get the Victory and to get the yellow Jersey but did they get enough time the question for me is still there it’s still there for me too Paul 1 minute 10 125 is probably the gap between sastra

And Evans and I would think in the time trial it’s a hard time trial he has a real chance to it might be even better than that actually might be about 1 minute 20 we’re waiting for the official times to come up it’s going to go down

To sat there’s the stage result we can see that in fact we have in Seventh Place cadel Evans and he is at 2 minutes looking across the road here Velda the same time he’s crossed the line ninth well what a day on out do Andy the sleck boys rode a brilliant tour today

And it was thrilling to watch as they continue to come in this is David Monier now he’s on his own this time as he races up to the line the average for the day just about 21 a half miles an hour over all of those mountains as monu mouti comes in at

Nearly 5 minutes behind we know we have a new leader in the tour but we don’t yet know if we have a tour winner it’s still close as it was Schleck same time valverdi at 2113 Frank Schleck same time that’s the top five can we show you any

More yes em was there cadel Evans giv the same time as frankli bit generous by the organizers Denny menova in Eighth valder Day ninth and Bernard Cole in 10th all timed at 2 minute kroer came in 11th at 311 valich at 336 Stephan guber 38 years of age 13th at

350 Nicholas Nicola V vundi the champion of France at 516 completes the top 15 might have a few more for you well looking down there cigo dropped away a again 5321 18th Kim kirken lost his chance today at 6 minutes one Frankie andreo is now with the winner of the day

And the new mayos Jo Carlos everyone was wondering what the strategy of CSC was going to be today you had a fantastic day and it must be a great feeling to not only win the stage but also to have the yellow Jersey I think that the the team did a

Fantastic job and we fight or we came to this to Defence for for fight and for try everything you know and the team control the race yesterday today and today we had the plan just try to win the stage and without the the H of the team and without that fantastic job

Today will be not possible just do what we did we did you know but we are really happy for for to the yellow Jersey and without the freedom of Frank and Andy Le this moment for sure will not possible you know and they sacrifice for myself

And just say only I can said thank you very much to all of them you not only have the yellow Jersey but also you also have some time to get ready for the time trial that’s coming up how do you how’s your confidence going going into the

Time trial in the next two days no I just I want to enjoy with the moment with my teammates with my team with my team uh we have still two days more before the tant and we still we have to work hard and we will see now enjoy some

Champagne tonight thank you very much well done indeed caros sasra well he admits there he relied heavily on the terrific work done by Frank and Andy schle which allowed him the springboard which tonight has given him a yellow Jersey it really was a phenomenal performance there Phil I have to say

Because that as he said it was a job of the team if they hadn’t had Kim Kirk and if they hadn’t had Andy SLE and Frank left behind him I think it might have been a completely in history his second stage win of a tour to France but that

One Phil I think was going to be a very sweet victory because you know at the end of the day it’s a double header for him because not only does he get the victory on aldz which is a Monumental climb and everybody always talks about it but he will also pull on the

Magnificent yellow Jersey in a few moments time yes but there’s the moment to take in bit of emotion there in the eyes of caros sastra as he goes and shakes hands with Bernard Eno himself a winner up here Greg came up in yellow stage 17

Then this is it ATV Honda as we see sastra leads Sanchez schle valde schle the men we’ve talked about since we left Britany epim has been a star of this race two so to cadell Evans Christian Velda has never been far away has he today he finishes with the best

Riders they turn north for CN the 330 mi from the finish in Paris there’s still no clear indication as to who will win this race another beautiful day around about 82° F and the crowd here in stien are ready for the arrival of the tour to France it’s going to be a most

Interesting day posing the question who is or who are the pretend tenders for the yellow this morning it’s some 54 km still to go 54 miles still to go this is the Pelon 150 Riders setting off down the Valley from Boraz on the Alp is over their right shoulder and early on there

Was a crash and not a a nice crash at all on the right there is Damiano kigo his face hitting that wall and he sat on the road here for a full seven minutes while the medical people patched it up and I can tell you currently escorted by

Three teammates he’s over 20 minutes behind the pelaton then came the first spint it was in granov itself with federi bisho and bjor shrouder and Stephan o slightly ahead of the field so these Riders got pulled back into the fold and there was a fresh attack this time it was Carlos

Beredo of Team quickstep very rapidly joined by Marcus berghard and they were lining themselves up fil for the first climb of the day nothing like the climbs they’ve seen so far it was a third category and a three-man chasing group formed behind of course with with

Michael astala in there as well Roman Fu and this looked like being a serious move once they got to the climb though it was Carlos Bara who was the strongest and he went over the top in first place so bered was a man that threw the

Gauntlet down he got away at 68 km into the day of 196 today aosa was in the chase group behind along with Kristoff LEL and Roman Fu in the pelaton the yellow Jersey of the race leader his first day in yellow for sastra and a traditional sight this Paul all of his

Team around him doing now for him what they’ve done for Frank schle before absolutely this to me is the best team in the tour to France this year it’s a solid block of riders if you talk about the Three Musketeers phille all for one and one for all that’s really what team

CSC is all about scking in the back here number 181 Silva chavanel has ridden for coffe this for three years but the newspapers this morning announcing that next year he will Mo move to the big Belgian Squad team quickstep well they’ve had a poor tour Quick Step so

They need to strengthen their act a little bit uh they lost didn’t possess big Tom Bon this year in the tour to France the pelet on at over 9 minutes now so this could be a good move by these Riders it’s not been easy to get a

Gap though buredo joined by Marcus beart over the top of the C pom and though so far it’s a good move by Colombia though yeah it’s a very good move by Colombia I think now that they don’t have Mark Cavendish in their in their team anymore

He pulled out of the tour before the big Alpine stages and of course Kim kirkin who’s Fallen away a little bit from the top end of the overall classification it’s kind of up to them Phil to look for these breakaways these three chases are still a long way down at 3 and A2

Minutes but uh just a little a slight correction Damiano kogo is 10 minutes behind the main field he’s 20 minutes behind the front end of the race so he’s still struggling along and I have to say it’s a very corageous thing to do that Dam what Damiano Kuno is doing at the

Moment Phil he is severely injured he’s quite hurt and he’s trying to keep himself in the bike race because more than any other bike race in the world a professional cyclist does not want to abandon the tour to France and certainly damono doesn’t quite clearly want to do

That three teammates have gone back to help him but uh the elimination time is based on the winner’s time and the winner at the moment is 20 or the leader at the moment is 20 to 21 minutes ahead elimination today on the rough calculation we don’t know until we know

The final average speed for the day will be around 33 to 35 minutes he’s already 20 behind and he’s still got a long way to go he’s got a long way to go but he’s I think he’s got to uh continue with the decided route that he’s adopted this

Afternoon and go for it and you never know that the leading group of riders could get pulled back in towards the end and that Gap could still hover around the 20 to 25 minute Mark but it’s a tough call to stay inside the tour to France and I can actually speak from

Experience there because I rode a stage of the Tour of France once like Damiano Kuno is doing here and I finished something like like 25 minutes outside the elimination time and in fact the organizers decided because of the courage that I’d shown on that occasion

They kept me in the tour to France and I’m hoping that that’s what’s going to happen to Damian auno here this afternoon well we’ll find out of course by the end of the day this is the Lotto team they’ve been to the back of the field with number one cadell Evans now

They’re bringing him safely back into the fold here no Panic there’s no big race going on here in the main field at the moment and so he’ll integrate pretty easily it’s a very good undulating road today we’re running back up now through the center of France and actually by the

Time we get up to the finishing line today it’s in De end not too far away to our left is the town of clemont f down Route in France this year with an incursion into the Pyrenees at the bottom of our journey an incursion into the Alps halfway up the journey and now

Definitely all of these Riders know they’re on their way back up to Paris but for some Riders Phil including the man there in the yellow Jersey Carlos sastra Frank Schleck Christian Vander over to the left hand side and and of course cadell Evans they’ve got to be

Thinking now they’ve got to be dreaming about what ride they’re going to do in the individual time trial and everybody including all of the journalists are trying to work out the permutations the statistics the history of the performances of all of these Riders against each other in an individual time

Trial of 50 km and Kristoff LEL has had a very active tour to France he either off the front or off the back whichever way you look at it but he’s still a very good bike rider and Fu of course has had his one big day in the first week when

He wore the leader Jersey after that stage into n and this is Marcus burkart here with Carlos burrito nice interesting uh descent down there well there’s still a lot of rides could do with winning a stage of the tour to France and so we can’t spoil their dream today which one

Will it be I wonder C chased long and hard to catch up with Carlos bedo and in so doing he had to shed himself of Roman Fu who’s gone back into the chase group but he has reached the the leader caros burito and at the moment they’re holding

Their own here but there’s still a reasonably long way we’ve known him since he was a professional bike rider and uh he knows what’s got to be done to assess the final podium in Paris and boy if he gets his way then we’re going to see Christian vanela challenging for

That third place finish be a tall ask of him but uh I still think Christian isn’t finished with this tour yet he is a very good time trial Rider as we continue our journey there are the hills are waiting for the Riders now this is mon seu the shadow of very very

Nice indeed 13th century going back originally it was a castle with four walls and Four Towers surrounding it but a couple of the towers fell down it’s been the home to seven families that rule this area F between the 14th and 18th century and uh on the walls there

Are seven different coat of arms although it was originally Beed it was later bequeathed to the town by one of the daughters of the original owners and the original families now as it go you can see just looking down there they hold a lot of function in that area and

Um it really is quite a magnificent beautiful place to stop off it’s been a lovely day for an outdoor function today because the sun is out the wind is very slight hot and sultry in central France here over to as we go North to the right

Of clemon feron which is the area we had all those beautiful volcanoes which they call P back in the opening week of the tours we Plunge out towards the Pyrenees sitting at the back of the field here number 73 there is mato Bono as we go to

The front but he’s waiting for news of his team captain Damiano kigo who continues to drag his heels but the computer still says he’s 22 minutes and 5 Seconds and they never saw him again therefore he was handicapped to chase as a teammate and take towards the leader

There sastra the likes of menof and cadel Evans so the result is we still have an open tour to France to claim that final final yellow Jersey average speed after 3 hours today 29 mph that’s a very fast average today doesn’t look like it down there but the boys up front

Are actually going quite quickly peton sitting at 10:14 it’ll be interesting to see if there is any attack I know that um Frank schle this morning Paul hopes there isn’t any attacks he says he’s pretty tired well it’s I think there will be a sorting outf because it’s a pretty tough climb

That second categ CL but the way the team CSC are riding on the front end of the mainfield they obviously realize that the race is going to split and they have to protect the position of their leaders Frank Schleck and of course Carlos sastra cadell Evans will pay a

Serious amount of attention I think to Carlos sastra he’s not too concerned really about Frank sleck because SLE is only just in front of him by a few seconds not really very much 10 in total but it’s the distance between himself and Carlos sastra he cannot now allow

The Spanish Rider to get any more time because then it will put his chances of winning the tour to France into the limit I reckon you’re right well little bit of a a drag here rather than a climb for the peleton they’re still a way away from the second category climb but the

Front Runners are virtually on the lower slopes of it now and so they’re going to start to lift the tempo here knowing that once over the top they’ve got a real chance of winning this there they are beart riding for team columber remember looking for a

Victory for them to match up with the four taken by Mark kavenish no long just rung around the corner that’s an indication that I think that they are now about to start the climb this town here is in fet as the Riders now will start what is a long second category

Climb they’re saying the official length is 13.7 km and bergart has undone his racing Jersey there it is quite a hot and humid day today it’s about to get hotter I think now beredo is a good climber you can see by by the size of Marcus he’s

Not the best of climbers but this isn’t a mountain like the Alps he’s got a chance he’ll get over this with the Spanish Rider there and if they get over this with any like the advantage they’ve got at the present they’ll start a dream of one of them winning the stage for

Sure they going on to the climb with a lead of 4 minutes and 5 Seconds over mik aosa Kristoff LEL and roma Fu and something like 10 minutes over the main field and 10:06 we’re saying and 22 17 is the last time check we’ve got on the poor old Damiano cunigan good buffer

Over everybody they’ve been steadily pulling away from the three chases that’s a good sign here they are as we cross the beautiful ran River here extremely long river but for these Riders not much time to consider what’s going on because they’re looking at four minutes to try and pull back the two

Leaders and they haven’t done anything to improve on that over the last 30 km however they have conserved their 6-minute advantage over the front end of the the mainfield that distance will change I think Phil over the next few kilometers that climb is a fairly long

Climb at 13 and 1 half kilometers of Ascension although it’s only around about a 6% climb not one of the massive climbs we’ve been up so far but I tell you what the summit being 332 km to go puts it ideally situated for an attack

From the main field to try and win the stage well in elevation there’s a little thank you for the French television there where with elevation they’re going to the best part of uh let me just have a look three 2,200 ft is the elevation so that’s quite a nice steady climb in

Just over 13 km so it is definitely a hill that could hurt one or two of the Riders quarter minutes on these two yeah very much so I think just looking at these two leaders they’re both big workhorses as well for their respective teams Carlos beredo for quickstep and

Marcus burkart Burkhart has done a lot of work for team Columbia throughout the whole of the start of this tour to France leading out the Sprints for Mark Cavendish working at the front of the main field for Kim kirkin now he’s given his own at least of life on a stage like

Today but I wonder if he’s got what it takes left to get past Carlos beredo who’s going to be a little more motivated to get the victory fi because Quick Step have not so far really got a lot to take away from the tour their man Stein dealer who was looking to finish

In the top 10 well he pulled out in the Alpine passes so for team quickstep Carlos Bera really has to save the tour yes this would be a huge result for Patrick Leever the boss of quickstep and this man can Sprint but I don’t think he can Sprint as fast as

Bard so that means the little springboard just before the Finish there is a hill a third category Hill the roads into stian often a bit torches as we drop off all these lovely Hills and forested areas around straight into the city it’s a finish I’m not sure we’ve

Ever used before here in cetti and it’s certainly not the regular approach just a quick Glimpse there at the wattage of Marcus work hard it was up to just inside of 400 now that’s not surprising cuz he’s on the slopes of a rather difficult climb and his heart rate was

Up in the middle range at around about 150 so he’s working quite hard currently these are the three chases and Kristoff Lovel seems to be working fairly hard there as well in a lot he’s doing the majority of the paac making in this group but it’s actually pH not really

Having an effect on the Gap to the two leaders cuz it’s still locked in at three and three Fallen back and the Australian flags are getting more and more by the day here in France I would think the flights are fill out of Sydney and Perth and the rest of Australia are

Pretty much full at the moment with the fingers crossed I suppose because cadel Evans hasn’t yet won this bike race he’s sitting on the verge of doing so but he’s got a big battle to pull himself back a minute and 34 seconds in the final 50 km individual time trial and I

Have to say I wouldn’t like to be in his shoes and I wouldn’t like to be trying to get his uh his sleep at night to recover because it’s still a very precarious situation ation to be so far behind the leader it’ll be nervousness

All the way to the end of the day on Saturday for sure what a marvelous crowd this is here on the m and uh it really has they they’ve managed to get in on this one from somewhere no cars there so they’ve had to walk to it and they witnessing the

Two leaders who’ve LED today since they came together from since the 68th kilometer for Carlos paredo since the 80th kilometer for the pair of them and they are now coming up to just 33 from the Finish yeah once they go over the summit they’ve got a fairly good descent

Field down into the valley and then uh it’s that little climb up to the outskirts of Santa chin and still no real sign as to which of these Riders is the strongest so beredo decides he’s going to get himself maximum points and a few extra euros into his back pocket

As he goes over the summit of the climb yes no no race for the king of the mountain points they’re not interested in for either of them and I think ber is doing a lot of work on that climb so burkart wasn’t going to do anything

About that no not at all the funny situation uh when you’re in a breakaway like this with the guy that you’re with burkard and and beredo here they have to work together almost as friends and I think we’d like to have the cameras away from that I think that’s what Marcus

Burkard was trying to say because he would need to uh have a little aret for Theo now a little bit of disappointment from our Viewpoint because it looks as though nobody is going to try to attack the yellow Jersey LGE due to the strength of CSC they’ve kept a high

Tempo there’s no opportunity here to get away from this field there may be some opportunity on the last third category climb of the day but this is why the CSC boyss are all smiles they’ve nailed this lot back in the pack today condemned to a ride to the finish in the bunch and

That’ll please Frank Schleck who was rather hoping that nobody would attack there he is in the red top with the blue bottoms yep I wonder if he were was really in good form yesterday when his teammate Carlos sastra got away at the foot of the alz the team strategy was

Supposed to be that Carlos sastra would attack first and then if he was caught by the main Fielder chasing him down or the main pack of the contenders it was then up to the turn of Frank schle to go over the top he may well have been quite

Happy with his teammate Carlos cester going on to victory yeah he said that was the team and then as a team they raced the team so he was compromised once caros s’s attack had succeeded and even though he was wearing the yellow Jersey he couldn’t attack his own

Teammate so he had to pass his jersey over to Carlos keeping it in the family of course and continuing an outstanding tour for CSC on the way down we go now another tricky descent but not looking too bad at the moment just remind to continue to

Enjoy our saw Watch and Win sweep Stakes versus.com slf to the finish a big prizes at stake and the code word you need today when you log in is green Jersey as the peleton whip around that switch back down there and you can tell by the fact they’re all together there’s

Not a lot of action down there from the peleton plenty of work being done by the local farmers though the Insignia of the tour to France 42 is the region number we are now in the department of the lair just checking down at the live

Stock and uh nice to see them over there on the right hand side and keeping away from the hay all that food down there they must think it’s Christmas they must think it’s Christmas absolutely the two leaders probably think it’s Christmas but only one of these guys is going to

Get a present this afternoon and he’s uh it’s difficult to pick a winner from these two I have to say Phil margus burkard won himself a gate wav game last year in a very good Sprint but the question is you know how much work and

How much energy has he left on the roads of the T France so the Gap at 44 km is around about 10 minutes and they’re estimating the gap of the Finish is going to be around about 4 minutes ogrady still on the front moving forward Julian Dean champion of New

Zealand well this is a big moment for the Pelon they’ve seen one kilometer they can tick off another climb of the tour to France not a pedal turned in anger here we thought they might have tried something but they haven’t done so which means that the day near of the

Time trial and no more time gained or lost by the respectives which means that it could be coming down to the race of two 25 kilm to go for the two leaders of today’s stage of the tour it wasn’t an easy Breakaway to build this one but now

They’ve got it they’ve got a 10minute 8sec buffer and the three chases in in the lead behind them rather they’re 6 minutes ahead of the Pelon but they’re still four minutes ahead of Behind These two yeah just to explainy B it’s a very nasty Bend just to explain why I think

These Riders are going to stay clear for there after the summit of the climb the clar quad more view they’ve got a long descent going down into the the valley below which there is not a an area where they’re going to lose any of their advantage and then basically once they

Get to sash shamal they’ve only got 15 kilometers to go to the finish a small amount of that is uphill the rest is totally flat and I don’t think the mainfield have got the power this afternoon to pull them back well we saw that Dam there that was the Dy Dam which

Is uh fed by the Dy river which is a main Tri tribut of the river gear dam was built in 1973 and again probably for hydroelectric reasons the French really are the the experts in conserving water and using it to generate power but what is interesting about the uh use of uh

Water in France is whenever they build a new hydroelectric Dam or hydroelectric scheme they always have to put an evacuation water a slipway and that slipway has to be related to a um a canoe and kayak um white water white water rafting uh course as part part of their promotion of the

Sport Su desel who’s distinguished himself on the tour to France this year with a win in the Alps so they’re all happy with that French riding out giving the FR French two stage wins and by the look of it no chance today of an additional third David Miller over on

The left hand side with the blue shoulders to his jersey and that’s to look after Christian vandala who is right up behind him Velda not taking any risks at all which is why you can see him riding up at the front end of the mainfield I’ve got to say Christian

Vanal the fil yesterday was absolutely superb he rode at the front end of the mainfield but he was not scared at all of attacking either so the peleton Are Over the Top the Gap is still 10 minutes the two up front I think I’ve got this one

Today here we are with the two leaders again we’ve gone right back up to them sure what Carlos burrito is saying here as he pushed on there burkart’s come back up pretty quickly I’m not sure what caros was trying to indicate to Marcus bergart you look at the two difference

In the sizes of these guys and guess which one’s the Sprinter and burkart still indicating I don’t quite understand what it may become clear as we race towards the finish the Gap is 10:06 as they go over the top the average speed in the first hour was

55.7 km that was really quick and that was when these guys got away from the pack cuz that was creating a little bit of drag beredo looking over his shoulder shaking his head there he’s talking to B have no idea what he’s saying if he’s surprised when he brings him back what

What does it matter it’s up to this man here to beat him if he can well beredo panicking a fraction because it’s so important really Phil for beredo to try and get the victory for team quickstep I think now he needs to to give it up he’s tried his move at

The place where he probably had the advantage on the climb he didn’t break the elastic the thing to do now is to work get to the Finish Line have a drag strip racer left and right of the road and the fastest man wins well this is one of burkart’s greatest moments on a

Single stage over the tour to France the chance of a stage win and uh that would be a terrific result for him anyway and great for the team who’ve done nothing and they’re being criticized for it in the Belgian newspapers back home in their country though this is a Spanish

Element of the Belgian team meanwhile we haven’t forgotten about oh and he’s gone again the minute we put away but this time it is burkart who has gone and beredo is going to have to be put on the defensive here and now that is how you launch an attack he’s making B beredo

Work so hard here well he’s uh probably got a little bit Fed Up by the fact that the Spanish Rider had hit him hard three times in succession and now his legs are really pinging he’s looked over his shoulder he’s got a little bit of a gap

But beredo is clawing his way back to the wheel I think beredo has got this one covered Phil he’s got this one covered I think yes we’ll round that roundabout but if bero thinks he’s got it covered then he might lose the Gap but I think this time he’ll nail him

Back now there’s no friends left up here now they’re not going to trust each other so he can watch behind the time will to start to drop down that happened a good move there and a perfect way to attack raer was calling it through to do the work at the front and burkart

Decided to try one well I think we now know that there is no more onon cordial field between between these two Riders but they’ve still got seven and a bit kilometers to go they need to work together they’ve got to cover these last seven kilometers or so because otherwise

If they keep messing about like this and I’ve seen it happen in the past the group from behind can pull back the three or four minutes Gap that they’ve got very quickly indeed so excuse me boys get down to the job get to the final kilometer and then you can battle

It out any which side here and say right just keep working just keep going cuz otherwise guys you’re going to blow everything Marcus beart trying to ear we what would might be said there goodness knows what Paro is saying let’s have a look at their faces they’re just trying to reach an

Agreement to help and work to the finish and then spint it out would be my guess and that’s possibly what the manager has told uh beredo and now burkhart’s call for his team card to decide on their tactic well if they mess around like this to try and decide what they need to

Do Phil they’re going to lose huge chunks of time on the Riders behind and we may well see the three the three other guys coming back here’s a team discovering this is Michel Astros has gone clear and again Roman fil this is almost a reenactment of what was going

On 5 minutes ahead up on the road with the two leaders nobody wants to go down to the line for a Sprint finish as Thea doesn’t Sprint very well and failure spins extremely well he would clean up from these three and he knows that he would finish third on today’s stage of

The Tour of France which for him would be equal to his resting L but there’ll be no yellow Jersey this time around uh at the finishing line for him since then he’s lost over 3 and a/4 hours since he was the race leader of the tour 3 km to

Go seconds to pull it on tonight meanwhile back in the race for the Sprint here these two are just giving No Quarter now getting a bit nasty now when you start zigzagging like that if you get it wrong you can cause the other rider in the group with you to come off

And I wouldn’t like to see that after they’ve been great friends they’ve worked together to build up this lead they’ve got over the Chasers Phil and over the other r ERS in the main field so now they need to just have a safe straight drag drag strip Sprint to the

Line this group now though is actually going to move away from the front end of the main field and just getting on the back there there was a quick C of Le host now he’s thinking about just marking the Andy he’s the cadel policeman been sent

Up there to watch what’s going on in the stores 1 kilom to go and they haven’t read each other so it’s going to be a spint or somebody has got to hit the surprise button is shaking the lactic out of the big legs of Marcus burkart

This is the left hand turn where they took all the traffic furniture out just on the right there they’re riding through it now and they won’t see the Finishing Line until the very last moment there’s a left turn a left turn and a left turn or they really basically

Sweepers after a long breakway like this you’ve got to back off the Sprint and I think Berard has got to wait a fra and he’s got to lead the Sprint out he’s got the power I think but one he get once he gets the jump I don’t think bero will be

Able to come out of his wheel and that’s what beredo is banking on beredo will try and be the rider to jump first and get the surprise but probably not until 2 or 300 M to go well the American Team Colombia taking on the Belgian team of

Quickstep as they now go towards the line here anybody can make the move it is in fact Marcus Burkhart a German against the Spanish Ryder beredo they are so tense here they’re going to make this a very late dash for the line 500 M it has to be late especially when you’ve

Been at the front of the bike race for a long time 400 50 m they’re looking around the corner they haven’t yet F quite seen the finishing barrier barrier over the line now burkart decides to wind it up he’s challenging the spania to come over the top come on mate you

Start the Sprint first and I’ll respond beredo has to wait until the very last minute 400 m to go well this is the slowest Sprint we’ve had since the tour to France began they both want this stage for different reasons bero slightly the advantage of surprise here

He just keeps looking at his man we could be on the vome in a world championship track Sprint now as these two Riders are so Twitchy but they know they’ll get one shot and only one shot bero is trying to nudge him to make the attack now they’ve gone for the line

Mano on Mano side by side but I think Marcus perard he’s going to be a little bit too quick here the man who’s helped Cav this to all of his wins now gets one for himself I’m not surprised beredo is so upset but really against Bart Paul he had no

Well he tried he tried every trick in the book there and he could do nothing to outwit the German burkart getting another great win for Team Colombia well that was a great Sprint and another win for Team Colombia here that’s the fifth stage win of this year’s tour to France and Carlos beredo

Has to do with second place what a great spint it was let’s not forget the tour to France is all still to finish but at the end just in time to see the finishing spin here this is the race for third place remember it’s been a long

Time since the other two finished and Kristoff LEL is leading out Roman failure aoso TI but he’s now been putting into third place this is a good Sprint by Kristoff LEL for credy agrial but I told you that Roman Fier can Sprint and this is it as he races

Towards the line he’s hit the front at the right time that’s how you finish a Sprint third place for the young Frenchman and fifth place for liel six will be for AEL Losa that’s the order Over The Line This is another look at the winning Sprint here and that was a

Clear win in the end and I must say caros breedo is terribly annoyed but there’s no chance really he never would take on this man in a Sprint five stage wins for the American team of Colombia in this year’s Tour of France ride with the Tour of France Andy SLE leads the

Second best place young Rider Roman kisinger who won the Tour of Switzerland just before the T of France began two strong young stars of the future head home towards the finish today well sirel desel has already got himself a stage victory in the tour he’ll try and Lead

Home if he can but Samy dumah in theory in the red shorts of Team cus is the fastest finisher but it’s going to be Andy Schleck leading them to the line so Andy Schleck comes but watch out Roman kinger Dulan forcing it through a

Little bit of a kick the man the W at n in the first week of the tour to France is sweeping up for the French today and he gets home in sixth place and there’s the main field and after all of that chase over the last few kilometers it

Didn’t really feel give very many people a great advantage and across the road it’s the sprinters zarel husoft and Oscar ferera ferera got the Sprint from zarel and Hof on the line so more points in the bag against his main rivals in the green jersey competition that is

Going to be Oscars in Paris for sure all he has to do now is get through one more stage and he’s got an almost unassailable lead in that green jersey points competition and no at all in the top 10 in the overall classification because they were all pretty much locked

In that main field there’s the spint that won the day beredo well he’s a good climber but he can’t match this man in a Sprint finish this is the rider that was so helpful to Mark Cavendish winning four stages now he’s proved he can win them this the four teammates of Damiano

Kigo bring him home and Paul that is superb well Phil this is really what the spirit of the tour to France is all about that’s why this race is big bigger and more important than any other race on the calendar because nobody wants to abandon that man you can see there

Crashed at 28 km his teammates rallied him home I just hope he can get himself now on his way up to Paris and you know what he’s just over 20 minutes behind he has ridden the whole stage with his four teammates at the same speed as the pelaton today absolutely tremend Marcus

Bard a big boy isn’t he Paul but he’s had a he’s had a career really dog by injury yeah 2006 he had a serious kn problem which kept him out for almost the whole season he came back and won g wable game and then had injury again to

That knee even in the early part of this season there was suspect knee injury but finally he’s come back and good at the Tour of France and got himself a brilliant stage Victory here this afternoon making that win number five for team Columbia a brand new sponsor in

The sport they’ve got to be pretty happy with that under ATV stage results bergart getting it after 4 and 1 half hours beredo same time 3 minutes 33 seconds later FAU beat LEL and Asal Losa just tail off a little bit in that Sprint further down Samuel Dulan

Sprinting very well brings the field home at 639 ahead of Cal desel Roman kisinger Leos that wasn’t the field that was the little Chase group Andy schle making sure he finished in the same time in that white jersey at 639 and if we got any more we can show you there

That’s the top 10 further down Oscar fur brings the peleton home at 650 beating zaro Hof Leonardo duk and and filipo Pato there Paul not too far away filipo Pato a little bit further back the South African Sprinter Robbie Hunter ahead of Stephan D young alesandro Balan in there

At 18th and rounding off the top 20 Sven Krauss the award now for the yellow Jersey Carlo sastra you won’t get a much easier day in the tour to France to keep your overall lead nobody attacked him because he put his team on the front and

Set the tempo that nobody wanted to get involved in well he now knows Philly’s got one more day before he has to defend that 1 minute and 34 second advantage over cadel Evans I know that team CSC have invested an awful lot of money into individual time triing over the past and

I wonder if his time trial in on Saturday is going to shock