Recently on Cyclingnews.com |
 Mont Ventoux Photo ©: Sirotti |
59th Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré - PT
France, June 10-17, 2007
Main Page Results & report Stage Details Previous Stage Next Stage
Stage 6 - June 16: Gap - Valloire, 198km
Live commentary by Bjorn Haake
Live coverage starts: 15:15 CEST
Estimated finish: 17:30 CEST
Complete live report
15:16 CEST 128km/70km to go
Bienvenue and thanks
for joining Cyclingnews on another day of live coverage from the Dauphiné
Libéré.
Today is another fun day in the mountains for the riders,
who had to climb right from the start to the Col Bayard. The action started
right away and eventually a group of eleven got away, including Mikel Astarloza,
who is 4'22" behind in the overall and therefore maillot jaune virtuelle in
this moment.
There is a total of five categorized climbs today.
15:20 CEST
It is one kilometre to the top of
the Col de la Croix de Fer for the front group.
15:22 CEST
Rémy Di Gregorio puts in a vicious
attack just before the group is at the top of the climb. He is taking the mountain
points.
15:24 CEST 130km/68km to go
The order across
the top of the Col de la Croix de Fer:
1 Di Gregorio (Française Des
Jeux)
2 Possoni (Lampre-Fondital)
3 Bernhard Kohl (Gerolsteiner)
15:27 CEST
The descent is treacherous - a narrow
road with lots of tight switch backs. But at least it is dry and a very nice
day here in France.
The main field rides up with Astana leading the
bunch. Christophe Moreau is also riding up front as well Sylvester Szmyd from
the Lampre team, who is wearing the polka dot jersey - in this for the second
best climber as Moreau is leading this classification also. It is too warm,
however, to wear two jerseys.
15:28 CEST
Bernhard Kohl almost wipes out on
the descent. Treacherous indeed.
The main field has now crossed the
top as well.
15:30 CEST
The mountain tops that are visible
in the distance are snow-covered. A pretty sight, if you weren't racing and
needing to pay attention to the road all the time.
15:33 CEST 139km/59km to go
Christophe Moreau
said before the start that the race will start in earnest on the Croix de Fer.
But so far the main favourites haven't done too much damage to each other.
They are slowly starting to take back the advantage from the front group of
eleven.
15:36 CEST
The front group is still on the descent,
going through a small village. A dog is walking alongside the road. That could
have been disastrous, but the dog seems to be fairly oblivious to the racers.
It is a relaxed Saturday after all.
15:37 CEST
There are some big longitudinal cracks
in the road that the main field is just passing. Lots of dangers on France's
roads.
15:39 CEST 151km/47km to go
The front group is
hitting the next climb - the Col du Mollard, with 47km to go.
15:40 CEST
The Mollard is six kilometres long
and is a difficult climb. Kuschynski got immediately dropped off the front group.
15:41 CEST
After the tree-less Croix de Fer
the riders can now enjoy a forest again, but it's not thick enough to provide
any shade.
15:42 CEST
Kohl is leading the front group up
the climb, with Martínez on his wheel.
15:43 CEST
Bernhard Kohl is leading the group
up the climb with Discovery Channel's Egoi Martínez on his wheel.
15:44 CEST 151km/47km to go
Dominique Cornu of
Belgian is at the back of the field and zips open his jersey for the climb.
15:45 CEST
Astana is still controlling the pace
and the peloton is still a good size, indicating that the pace isn't too hard
right now.
15:48 CEST
Andrey Kashechkin is in yellow, leading
the race. That didn't prevent him to go to the team car himself before the climb
up the Croix de Fer and get some bottles.
15:49 CEST
Charteau just flatted on the climb,
but he's quickly back with the main field.
15:50 CEST
Kohl is still on the front, with
Martínez in second. They are really strong and are responsible that the lead
is increasing again.
15:51 CEST
Albiez-le-Vieux is now visible. That's
the town where the next mountain top of the Mollard is located.
15:52 CEST 149km/49km to go
It is one kilometre
to the top of the climb for the front group. Kohl still in front.
15:53 CEST
Di Gregorio sprints again out of
the group to get the points for the polka dot jersey. Nobody else is challenging
him.
15:54 CEST
Di Gregorio has now the polka dot
jersey.
15:57 CEST
The Astana-led peloton is still on
the climb. One of their riders just went to the team car and is now getting
back to the front by riding through the dirt in some of the switch backs to
get past the peloton, which is still quite big.
15:59 CEST
The rugged, snow-covered mountains
are now behind the peloton. And they are still on the uphill part, while the
front group is again in the process of mastering the dangerous descents on those
narrow roads that don't have the best of pavement.
16:02 CEST
The field crosses the Mollard all
together. There still have been no attacks out of the peloton.
16:03 CEST
The peloton is now 5'45" behind the
front group, which has shrunk to ten as Kushynski couldn't keep up and is now
40" behind.
16:04 CEST
The ten in the front are:
Egoi Martínez (Discovery Channel), Stéphane Goubert (Ag2r Prévoyance), Bernhard
Kohl (Gerolsteiner), Xabier Zandio (Caisse d'Epargne), Alexandre Botcharov (Crédit
Agricole), Maxim Iglinsky (Astana), Rémy Di Gregorio (Française Des Jeux), Mikel
Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Pierrick Fédrigo (Bouygues Telecom), Morris Possoni
(Lampre-Fondital)
16:05 CEST
Kashechkin is again back to the team
cars. He seems to enjoy this more than just riding on the front.
16:07 CEST
Now two Astana boys have dropped
back to their team leader and bring him back to the group.
16:08 CEST
Ag2r has taken over the work on the
front.
The road is not just downhill, there are actually a few dips
here and there.
16:10 CEST 157km/41km to go
Over the Mollard
the mountain points were taken by:
1 Di Gregorio
2 Possoni
3 Martínez
16:13 CEST
The lead group of ten has extended
their lead to 7 minutes. This means that Astarloza is still in yellow on the
road.
The lead group is back to eleven riders as Kuschynski managed
to get back up on the descent.
16:16 CEST
Astana is back to the front after
the little stunt on the back of Kashechkin. They are careful on this descent
as the roads are still narrow and in poor quality. There are also a lot of switch
backs.
16:17 CEST 166km/32km to go
Moreau is in third
position in the field, not letting Kashechkin out of sight. The field is now
one very long single file line going down those switch backs.
16:19 CEST 167km/31km to go
The front group only
has 31km to go. They just mastered a round about. They are back down in the
valley. After a few flat kilometres they will hit the Télégraphe climb.
16:21 CEST
On the flat parts attacks out of
the front group have dismantled the eleven in the front. It is now Zandio in
front, with Kohl and Iglinsky chasing.
Martínez is also trying to
get up.
16:21 CEST
Martínez has managed to join Kohl
and Iglinsky
16:22 CEST
And the three are strong enough to
get back up to the leader, Xabier Zandio from Caisse d'Epargne.
16:23 CEST 168km/30km to go
The four in the front
are less than one kilometre from the next climb.
16:24 CEST
The many switch backs on the downhill
have resulted that the main field has been cut into two.
16:25 CEST
Martínez leads the front group over
the Bouchet, a cat 4 climb.
16:26 CEST
Iglinsky is in a good position -
he just can sit on and let the other three drag him to the finish.
16:28 CEST
The split in main field has resulted
that the group around Kashechkin is fairly small.
Behind Cadel Evans
is trying to get back. He is riding on the front of the chasing second main
field.
16:30 CEST
The group around Kashechkin is only
eleven man-strong!
Moreau is there, but many of the others in the
overall have missed this. Astana is still strong with five riders in the break.
Moreau also has a couple f teammates.
16:32 CEST
The group around Kashechkin is 6'19"
behind the lead group. The field is back 6'45", so the Astana's are ahead of
the other favourites by 26".
16:33 CEST
Thomas Voeckler is also in the small
front group.
16:34 CEST 178km/20km to go
Botcharov catches
up with the front group, so it is five now in the lead.
16:36 CEST
It does look like the Kashechkin
group is slowly being reeled in again.
16:37 CEST 180km/18km to go
Pierrick Fédrigo
joins the front group. There are six now.
The second group is still
20" behind the yellow jersey.
16:39 CEST
The two main fields are riding along
the reservoir on flat, open roads. The climb to the Col du Télégraphe will start
soon.
16:41 CEST
Astana and Ag2r are desperately trying
to hit the climb with a small advantage. But they also sacrifice all their riders
in the valley.
We will see if this is going to work out in the end.
16:42 CEST
While in the front the group of eleven
is all together again, the two groups in the front also have joined again. So
the attack from Astana and Ag2r was not successful.
16:43 CEST 181km/17km to go
In the front there
has been an attack again.
16:44 CEST
David Millar has done a lot of work
on the valley to get the second group back up to the group with the yellow jersey.
Now that the climb has started he is dropping back.
16:45 CEST
Ag2r is now making the pace. An Astana
is in second spot, Moreau in third.. Kashechkin is a little further back.
16:46 CEST
The attacks in the front group are
now coming one after the other. Astarloza tries, but is brought back.
16:47 CEST
Oscar Pereiro is dropped.
Kashechkin is back up next to Moreau.
16:47 CEST 186km/12km to go
Botcharov attacks!
He is getting a gap.
16:48 CEST
Iglinsky is chasing and joins Botcharov.
Two Russians at the front.
16:49 CEST
Di Gregorio also manages to get to
the front. These efforts will hurt.
16:51 CEST
Zabriskie, Menchov, Beltrán are in
the yellow jersey group.
Vinokourov gets dropped!
16:53 CEST 188km/10km to go
Calzati and Vino
ride together.
Piepoli is also in the front group.
Maxim
Iglinsky attacks and gaps his companions.
16:55 CEST
Kashechkin still looks good. David
Zabriskie, who is in fifth overall, is also in the group. He has one teammate
(Gustov) with him.
Sylvain Chavanel is also in this group.
16:57 CEST
Cadel Evans (Lotto) and
Alberto
Contador from the Discovery Channel are also there.
But there is
no sign of Levi Leipheimer.
16:58 CEST
Iglinsky, who did have to work all
day, is now flying up the mountain, trying to give yet another stage win to
Astana. Is there any stopping this team?
16:59 CEST
Here is a complete breakdown of the
group around the yellow jersey:
Contador, Moreau, Loubet, Turpin,
Menchov, Piepoli, Kashechkin, Redondo, Evans, Zabriskie, Gustov, Beltrán, Anton,
Seeldraeyers, Valjavec
17:00 CEST
Attack by Moreau!!!
17:01 CEST
Moreau is only 14 seconds behind
in the overall. He gaps Andrey Kashechkin.
17:01 CEST
Evans and Piepoli can go with Moreau.
17:02 CEST
But Kashechkin is gapped and Zabriskie
can't hold the pace of the group with the yellow jersey.
17:03 CEST
Goubert, who was in the front all
day, is now back with Moreau and will give him a hand as long as he can.
17:03 CEST
Contador attacks out of the small
yellow jersey group!!!
It is not looking good for Kashechkin!
17:06 CEST 190km/8km to go
Iglinsky is still
in the front and will likely take the stage.
But the real drama for
Astana is behind. There *is* stopping this team.
Goubert has now
had enough, so it is up to Moreau. He will have to do all the work, while Evans
and Piepoli can sit on. But it is unlikely they will contend for the stage win.
Kashechkin is 40" behind Moreau. Contador is around 30" back from the green
jersey (Moreau).
17:07 CEST
Cadel Evans looks very comfortable
on the wheel of Moreau.
17:09 CEST 192km/6km to go
The group around Kashechkin
is 7 strong.
Iglinsky's face is now showing sign of his efforts.
He will have to pedal for another six kilometres.
17:10 CEST
Evans now helps out with the pace
making, too. Piepoli is happy to stay behind the two for the moment. This group
is now passing Bernhard Kohl, who was in the 11-man front group all day.
17:12 CEST
Lots of people out and many rode
their bicycles up. What a nice way to spend a nice, sunny Saturday!
But don't tell this to Kashechkin, who has no teammates left and is not having
a great day.
17:13 CEST 192km/6km to go
The gap looks significant.
Several hundred metres on a mountain hurts.
The yellow jersey group
is one kilometre from the summit.
17:13 CEST
From the top it is another six kilometres
down to the finish.
17:15 CEST 194km/4km to go
Evans, Moreau and
Piepoli are hitting the descent. They are 2'42" behind the leader. Kashechkin
is 4'05" back!
17:16 CEST 196km/2km to go
Iglinsky is flying
down the mountain. Only a crash can stop him now.
17:16 CEST 197km/1km to go
Iglinsky managed to
survive the downhill and has entered the last kilometre.
17:17 CEST
Iglinsky smiles down the finishing
straight and shows his Astana jersey to the spectators! Chapeau!
17:19 CEST
The sprint for second: Di Gregorio
is leading it out, but Botcharov goes past him.
17:19 CEST
Martinez wins the sprint in his three
man group.
17:20 CEST
Moreau is ahead of Evans and Piepoli.
17:23 CEST
Provisional results:
1
Maxim Iglinsky (Astana)
2 Alexandre Botcharov (Crédit Agricole),
3
Pierrick Fédrigo (Bouygues Telecom)
4 Rémy Di Gregorio (Française Des Jeux)
5 Egoi Martínez (Discovery Channel),
6t Mikel Astarloza (Euskaltel-Euskadi)
7 Aleksandr Kuschynski (Liquigas)
8 Christophe Moreau (Ag2r Prévoyance)
9 Cadel Evans (Lotto-Predictor)
10 Leonardo Piepoli (Saunier Duval-Prodir)
17:26 CEST
Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana looses
his yellow jersey by more than a minute.
Christophe Moreau is the
new leader of the overall classification.
Thanks for joining Cyclingnews
on this exciting day in the mountains of the Dauphiné Libéré. Make sure to check
the full results and report later on our website and tune back in tomorrow for
the final day of the race.
