Arvesen tries again

Two days after being involved in a long range breakaway to Revel which netted him a frustrating second place on the stage, Team CSC's Kurt-Asle Arvesen made another attempt at a Tour stage win when he went clear as part of a medium-sized group in Stage 19. Arvesen and the other ten riders involved were trying to bridge across to four leaders: Giuseppe Guerini (T-Mobile), Sandy Casar (Francaise Des Jeux), Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas-Bianchi) and Oscar Pereiro (Phonak), but a lack of co-operation in the chase group meant that they never closed the gap.

"I felt good today and tried to go for the victory, but unfortunately the group I was in couldn't really agree on anything," said Arvesen, who ended up sixth. "It would've been great to be up front fighting for the stage win, but it wasn't possible."

"Kurt came really close to bridging up on one of the climbs, and at one point the gap was only five seconds," said a disappointed CSC directeur Kim Andersen. "The others had a fairly calm day - especially Ivan (Basso), who is very determined to do well in the time trial tomorrow."