Phoenix from the ashes: Return of the 'Vino'

Alexander Vinokourov (Astana) (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

By Brecht Decaluwé in Albi

After an afternoon that was spoiled with rain showers, the skies opened up when the GC-favourites unleashed their forces near the beautiful city of Albi. Pre-Tour favourite Alexandre Vinokourov was one of the first to head out, and despite the fact that he still was riding on partly wet, roads he confirmed that the Astana move of stage 11 was the first sign of the Kazakh resurrection. The labourer from Petropavl plotted his way through the hilly and turning roads near Albi and at the finish he shattered the time of Bradley Wiggins, blowing the Britain's hope for an unexpected stage win.

In the shadow of St-Cecilia's cathedral in Albi la Rouge, as the city is often referred to, 'Vino' the Turquoise granted the media a few words on his time trial. "I'm happy with my performance, this is my revenge for Briançon," 'Vino' referred to the stage where he lost three minutes on his main GC-rivals. "I want to thank everybody who supported me to make it through the Alps. Now that I found my legs again, I want to attack in the Pyrénées; we have a couple of days left to do something," Vinokourov predicted firework for the upcoming stages.

About an hour later, a dismayed Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) was the last to cross the finish line; the Spanish rider was the favourite to take over the yellow jersey from Michael Rasmussen in the time trial but he found out that his TT-abilities are still not good enough to battle for the yellow jersey in Paris. On the other hand, there was Rasmussen, floating on his yellow cloud. The Dane rode the time trial of his life, keeping a minute of his overall lead against Cadel Evans (Predictor Lotto)