Stage 14, July 16 -- Agde - Ax-3 Domaines
The first day in the Pyrenees, and as expected, there were plenty of fireworks. Again, there was a break clear early on, but not including anyone that was a serious threat to the overall. However, on the first serious climb, an HC rated monster (check the stage profile
here), T-Mobile finally decided to something about Lance's apparent domination of the Tour, and his team's siege tactics: they attacked. And attacked. And attacked some more. And it worked. As the pace upped suddenly, all of the Discovery was once again nowhere to be found, leaving Lance alone again to respond to all comers. Not a good thing again, and something that makes one wonder about Discovery this year--despite having the strongest team on paper, including the guy that just won the Giro d'Italia, the Italian equivalent of the Tour, Lance has been left alone twice now to fend for himself. But it was good to see T-Mobile finally do something about Discovery's gridlock on the Tour, rather than just sit there and hope they didnt get ridden off the back. Lance was left in a field that contained the best riders of the tour, guys like Ullrich, Basso, Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Kloden, and Floyd Landis, as well as mountains leader Rasmussen. Soon, Basso attacked, and Lance and Ullrich followed, along with Leipheimer and one other rider, leaving these five to crest the top of this climb together, still chasing after the remains of the morning's break, some of whom were still in front. Coming up the final climb to the finish, there were more fireworks. There were soon only three riders left--Armstrong, Basso, and Ullrich. The three at first seemed to be working together to bring back the lone rider in front, Georg Totchnig. Soon, Ullrich attempted to make a move which was quickly covered by Armstrong, who immediately counter-attacked and cranked up the pace and Ullrich once again fell off the back, leaving just Armstrong and Basso climbing to the top. Armstrong again attacked in the final 200 yards, and Basso fell of the back, leaving Lance to take second to Georg Totchnig, who took the biggest win of his career.
Notable points from the stage today--Ullrich looks to be doing better, but still can't hold on when things get hairy. Basso is increasingly looking to be Lance's biggest rival, as he was last year. And Vino... Well, Vino has some balls, and I'm not sure what T-Mobile was thinking. He was attacking all day--he'd blast of the front, be brought back and dropped, where he would then dig deep and rejoin the group... And then, without taking a break after chasing back on, would immediately launch another attack. Incredibly enough, Ullrich and Kloden, who is a close personal friend of Ullrich, were the ones that would immediately chase him down, hinting at a bit of inter-team rivalry. As such, I'd expect him to be on the Discovery squad next year--his contract is up this year, and Disco is the only place he's said he would go other than T-Mobile, and I think that after his own teammates chasing him down everytime he was clear, he won't want to be there anymore. We'll see.
I'll post today's stage after I get a chance to watch the rest of it--suffice to say, it's a good one.