Le Tour 2010 - Day of controversy, Day of Dreams: Stage 15

On a lumpy road from Pamiers to Bagneres-de-Luchon, topped out by the near-end-of-stage NC climb of the Port de Bales, there was drama and delight, as Alberto Contador gained the maillot jaune in a controversial move, and Thomas Voeckler (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) gambled on a longish break and came up trumps.

In a day of dodgy moves, an even worse infraction occurred between AG2R team mates Nicolas Roche (team leader) and supposed team helper John Gadret. Roche punctured his front 6km from the top of the Port de Bales and, given the distance to the following team cars, asked Gadret for his wheel. Amazingly, Gadret refused and continued on! Now there's something to be pissed off about!

At the commencement of the 187 km day, the peloton was feeling decidedly stingy about whom should be let off the hook to run, and kept up a hot pace to nullify any glory seekers. It was over half race distance before a group finally escaped, much of the peloton no doubt cooked and no longer interested in keeping things together. This was evident when the break finally got away - they built up a commanding lead up around 11 min by the foot of the Port de Bales.

The break of 10 didn't feature any renowned climbers, perhaps lulling the main bunch into a false sense of security; although equally, there were no serious GC threats therein either.  The Port de Bales soon sorted the lead bunch out, with rider after rider shelling off the increasingly small group. Thomas Voeckler was the strongest, and set off alone with 10 km left to the summit, followed by Alessandro Ballan (BMC Racing) who tried gamely, but slowly bled seconds to Voeckler. Only these two, plus Aitor Perez (Footon-Servetto) were destined to make it to the finish line before the fast finishing top GC riders.

Some time earlier, reaching the bottom of the 19 km climb, it was Saxo Bank who had taken over the running, and they set a tough pace upwards, succeeding in shelling many riders, and catching and passing many of the initial escape artists. However, Astana remained largely intact initially, and more ominously, the hard working Saxo Riders were peeling off at regular intervals. So much so that with around 4 km to go (and over the increasingly steeper sections ramping up to 11%), the maillot jaune Andy Schleck found himself sans team mates and surrounded by the top 5 GC contenders, plus two of Contador's team mates. Schleck promptly attacked and took the top 5 GCers with him.  Now in a select little group, the pace slackened momentarily while all considered what to do, allowing several other riders, including Astana's Vinokourov to rejoin.

Whilst Voeckler, Ballan, Perez and the remaining few from the escape bunch had individually slipped over the summit on their flight to freedom, Schleck went again and this time picked up some handy meters, with only Vinokourov quick on the pursuit. Then disaster for Andy: he appeared to drop his chain due to chain-suck, and was left spinning with futility whilst Vino passed him, although the Astana rider clearly slowed as he saw what had happened. No such niceties for Contador, who bombed by on Schleck's left (clearly aware that something mechanical had occurred despite his later assurances to the contrary), and took off, followed by Vino, and then Menchov and Sanchez some meters back. Meanwhile Schleck struggled to re-chain, and after several attempts, did so, but he'd lost 15-20 seconds, and precious momentum. Contador continued on, joined by Vino, and then Menchov and Sanchez, and this group clearly decided they weren't hanging around, seeting sail for the summit.

To his credit, Schleck made inroads into their gap up the climb, and arrived at the top around 12 seconds behind, with the other GC biggie Jurgen Van Den Broeck in tow.  These two could not however make further time cuts, and over the final 21 kms (chiefly downhill) slowly gave up time to the hard charging group ahead.

Up in the distance, Thomas Voeckler was motoring on and cementing his dream win: Ballan trailing and go further adrift as the km fell away and being caught by Perez. In the end Voeckler, the French national road race champion, pulled across the line for a great win, 1:20 ahead of Ballan and Perez, and with two minutes to spare over the Contador group, who picked up the remaining breakaway riders in the run home.

Schleck ran in 39 seconds after this group, having towed Van Den Broeck most of the way, and thus out of the yellow by 8 seconds in the final tally.

Contador got some boos from the crowd when he collected the maillot jaune but it will remain a debated topic I'm sure.

Ride Safe!