Rodriguez powers to victory in Mende

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Joaquin Rodriguez (Team Katusha) out-sprinted Alberto Contador (Astana) to take a thrilling victory in Mende at the end of stage 12 of the Tour de France. The Spanish duo escaped on the steep slopes of the Montée Laurent Jalabert in the finale to an enthralling day’s racing that saw minor but potentially telling chinks exposed in the armour of yellow jersey Andy Schleck and his Saxo Bank team. The Luxembourg rider lost ten seconds to Contador, who laid down an important psychological marker ahead of the duo’s expected showdown in the Pyrenees.

At the foot of the final climb the peloton trailed the four survivors of the day’s early breakaway by 40 seconds, and the gap remained stable as Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) dropped first Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) and then Andreas Kloden (RadioShack), before finally edging clear of Vasily Kyrienka (Caisse d’Epargne).

Accelerations from Jean Gadret (Ag2r) and Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma – Lotto) made no dent in his lead, and it seemed inevitable that the Kazakh was about to win a stage in his first Tour appearance since returning a positive test for blood doping in 2007.

Two kilometres from the line, however, Rodriguez lit the blue touch paper behind with a tentative attack, and Contador responded with an explosive acceleration of his own. He immediately opened a gap of five bike lengths on Andy Schleck, who appeared caught off guard by the ferocity of the Spaniard’s move. Worse was to follow for the Luxembourger. Having attempted to counter the break, Schleck found that he didn’t have the legs to sustain such a pace. While Rodriguez managed to hold Contador’s wheel, Schleck was forced to let Van den Broeck take up the chase.

For the first time in this year’s Tour, Contador looked like the rider of 2009, and he set about making mincemeat of Vinokourov’s advantage. With Rodriguez clinging on to his wheel for dear life, Contador made up almost forty seconds on his Astana teammate in little over a kilometre, and proceeded to blow straight past him. Behind, Schleck was struggling at 15 seconds, but was joined in his pursuit by Van den Broeck, Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Denis Menchov (Rabobank), and managed to limit his losses in the slightly downhill run to the line.

Up front, there was an air of inevitability about the finish. If Rodriguez was unable to contribute to pace-setting duties with Contador on the climb itself, in the final kilometre he was simply unwilling to do so, and he timed his sprint to perfection to come around the double Tour winner on the line. Vinokourov managed to stay within sight to grab third place on the stage, while Schleck crossed the line in 5th place, ten seconds behind his rival. The time gain itself may ultimately have been relatively minimal for Contador, but the manner in which it was yielded will surely weigh heavily on the pretender Schleck’s mind ahead of the Pyrenees.

“A great victory”

Joaquin Rodriguez was thrilled to take his first Tour de France stage victory. "It was a great victory for me today. It was just a question of biding my time and then giving it a push and just avoid panicking, keeping focus," said Rodriguez at the finish.
"I was a bit worried, but in the end I managed it. It was nice for me to compete with the guys on GC and it gives me ambitions. The Pyrenees are coming, so we’ll see if I’m able to do something up there."

How it unfolded

From the drop of the flag, the pace was searing, as opportunists and overall contenders alike looked to slip into the right break on a very testing day. The first attack to yield any significant purchase came on the slopes of the day’s opening climb, the 3rd category Côte de St-Barthélémy-le-Plain, when Ryder Hesjedal shot off the front in the company of Rui Costa (Caisse d’Epargne) and Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom). The trio had 22 seconds at the summit, but the lead was quickly shorn once RadioShack came to the front on the plateau over the top of the climb.

Next to try their luck were Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step), Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Farnese Vini) and Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ). They attempted to snap the elastic on the run-in to the day’s second climb, the Col des Nonières but there was no escaping a bunch that covered a remarkable 49.3 kilometres in the first hour of racing over some quite rugged terrain.

On the climb itself, an acceleration from Sandy Casar (FDJ) stretched things out a little more, and when Alexandre Vinokourov put in a dig near the top, he brought Casar and sixteen others clear with him. They quickly established a two minute lead over the top, thanks in no small part to the presence of Thor Hushovd (Cervelo) who was keen to clock up more points in the race for the green jersey.

The men in front were Vinokourov, Andreas Klöden, Ryder Hesjedal, Vasili Kiryienka, Sandy Casar, Thor Hushovd, Mario Aerts (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Kanstantsin Sivtsov (HTC-Columbia), Mauro Santambrogio (BMC), Carlow Barredo (Quick Step), Anthony Charteau (Bouygues), M. Perget (Caisse d'Epargne), C. Kern, A. Moinard, R. Pauriol (all Cofidis), G. Verdugo (Euskaltel), Gregor Bole (Lampre)and R. Valls Ferri (Footon), and the presence of so many strongmen allied to a smattering of very solid climbers meant that this break always had a chance of going a long way on a rolling stage like this one.

At the first sprint at Mariac, Bole beat Hushovd for the points, and the group continued to collaborate smoothly, with Casar, Vinokourov and Hushovd particularly active on the front.

Back in the main bunch, Saxo Bank were forced to chase in order to keep tabs on the progress of dangermen Hesjedal, Vinokourov and Kloden, all of whom had the opportunity to move very high up in the overall rankings. Indeed, alarm bells will have been sounded about Saxo Bank’s ability to control the race in the mountains as Vinokourov and co. managed to put more time into the bunch on the 2nd category climb of the Suc de Montivernoux, where Casar out-sprinted Charteau at the summit. The gap was still over two minutes at the second sprint of the day at Langogne, where Hushovd took the full quota of points on offer to move back into green.

Soon afterwards, Andrea Kloden took the initiative and launched a sparkling attack that only Vinokourov, Hesjedal and Kyrienka could match. Behind, Sandy Casar, who had been so prominent on the front of the break, attempted to organise a chase, but it was too little too late for the Frenchman, who saw his hopes of a second stage win in this year’s Tour disappear up the road.

The quartet in front immediately worked well together, containing as it did three riders with much to gain in the overall standings. Remarkably, under the impetus of the controversial Vinokourov’s relentless pressure, Hesjedal moved close to the overall lead on the road as the break’s lead reached four minutes. Suddenly there were shades of Laurent Jalabert’s quixotic bid for yellow on the road to Mende on a similarly torrid afternoon fifteen years ago. The Canadian trailed Schleck’s yellow jersey by 5:42 this morning, and was seeking to make a bold bid to move up the overall standings. As it was, he paid a price for his aggression, and would eventually lose ground on the final push up to the finish.

Meanwhile, back in the bunch, Saxo Bank had managed to enlist the help of first Cervélo and then Lampre in attempting to reel in the break, and eventually started eating into its lead in the last 25km of the stage. Nonetheless, the quartet in front continued to put up fierce resistance on the vertiginous slopes of the Montée Laurent Jalabert in Mende. A number of big names, among them Lance Armstrong (RadioShack), were shed from the main peloton while Vinokourov and company maintained their advantage, and it would eventually take Contador’s show of strength to ultimately bring them to heel. Others to wilt under the Spaniard’s urgency in the finale were Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Doimo), Cadel Evans (BMC) and Bradley Wiggins (Sky), who each lost 31 seconds.

But when Contador repeatedly looked back after his initial acceleration, he was scanning his slipstream for one man only, Andy Schleck. The Saxo Bank rider still holds the yellow jersey tonight in Mende but will doubtless be concerned that the momentum appears to be swinging back in Contador’s favour.

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