Le Tour 2010 - Vino: you lose one and then you win one! : Stages 12 and 13

Well, Stages 12 and 13 of Le Tour were basically the Alexandre Vinokourov show, with the Kazakh rider making powerful attempts to take a stage win: failing at the first on stage 12 but hitting the podium heights on stage 13.

Stage 12 was a 210 km journey from Bourg-de-Peage to Mende, a 'lumpy' traverse, with four categorised climbs from the start to the finish at Mende’s aerodrome on Montée Laurent Jalabert. The up and down nature of the course, plus the nasty little Jalabert climb (around 3 km at between 11-13% adding a real sting in the tail) served up an interesting stage.

With a few initial breaks attempted and failed, and a sizzling pace set by the peloton, a real break only formed about 50km into the race on the Col des Nonières. But it was a large break of some sixteen riders, and featuring relative heavyweights Alexandre Vinokourov, high placed GC contender Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin - Transitions), Andreas Klöden (Team Radio Shack) and the Green Jersey holder Thor Hushovd (Cervelo).
 
The presence of this break at the front saw team Saxo Bank of the yellow jersey leader Andy Schleck forced to do some hard work to keep this strong bunch within shooting range, a task they were only initially partly successful at, as the leading Hushovd engaged in some strong riding and battles for the sprint points on offer.

The task for Saxo Bank became even more intense when a split in the lead group, initiated by Andreas Kloden, saw Vinokourov, Kyrienka and significant GC contender Hesjedal go with him. With the gap getting upwards of 4 minutes at one point late in the race, Hesjedal was getting a little closer to maillot jaune virtual than anyone an Saxo Bank would've liked.

So, Saxo Bank dug in, and with the help of Cervelo and Lampre, slowly pegged back this group, and had wound it back to 45 seconds when the leaders hit the nasty Jalabert slopes.  Vinokourov then wound up the pressure and, one by one, dropped his 3 followers, and set off for victory.

Alas for Vino, Joaquin Rodriguez of Team Katusha set off in pursuit with 2 km left on the climb and Alberto Contador, seeing his main rival Andy Schleck a little inattentive, also blasted off, quickly leaving Schleck 10 seconds behind and unable to bridge the gap. Rodriquez and Contador kept the pressure on, and wound in and then swept past the Kazakh rider, who attempted to stay on the wheel, but never quite made it back.

Atop the climb, Contador lead the longish sprint to the line with Rodriquez poised on his wheel. The Katusha rider sat, and then with 150 m to go passed Alberto and sprinted in for the stage victory, Contador right on his heels.  Vino had struggled manfully in dogged pursuit and came in only 4 seconds down, with maillot jaune Schleck arriving in a group containing Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Denis Menchov of Rabobank and Jurgen Van Den Broeck  of Omega Pharma-Lotto (3rd, 4th and 5th respectively in GC) at ten seconds down.

So, close but no cigar Vino!

With this in mind, and potential stage glory burning a hole in his gut, Stage 13 (from Rodez to Revel over a continually undulating but trending-downhill 196km) saw act 2 of the Vino show unveiled. On this occasion, sensing perhaps that his heroics of yesterday from a long way out might have tweaked the interests of many GC riders (and possibly even Contador's) too early, Vino bided his time.

The early break of Juan Antonio Flecha (Team Sky), former yellow jersey Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step) and Pierrick Fedrigo (Bbox Bouygues Telecom) was a strong one, but these three never really got let off the leash, even despite their co-operation and very brave efforts: the peloton had adjudged them too tough a break to let slip.

So, after battling manfully all day up and down energy-sapping rises, never being afforded much latitude by peloton chases spread around amongst the chief GC and sprint teams, they were reeled in to within a minute in the last 45 minutes of the stage.

HTC-Columbia had signaled their intentions to attempt to make this a sprint stage for their main man Mark Cavendish, despite the presence of a climb of some significance (the Côte de St-Ferréol at around 2 km in length and 5-6% gradient topping out only 8km from the line) suggesting it wasn't likely, and it was their efforts that saw the breakaway absorbed on its base and early slopes.

Heading up the climb, Alessandro Ballan (BMC) made a powerful dig to break clear, and hovered on the brink of success for some minutes, before finally redlining. Vinokourov, who'd followed Ballan out from the pack a little in arrears, didn't crack, passed the BMC rider, and put 15 seconds into the hard-chasing but disorganised looking peloton, a brief period of hesitation amongst them ultimately insuring a Vino victory.

So, Vino powered down the long final straight to the line, ending up with the win by 13 seconds over a fast finishing Mark Cavendish (with a great individual effort to make it over the climb in contention and set himself up for the sprint) and a strong Alessandro Petacchi of Lampre-Farnese Vini (another great climb and sprint which rewarded him with the reclaiming of the points jersey over a fading Hushovd).  The top GC contenders all cruised in right behind this sprint, claiming the same time as Cavendish and hence no change in GC fortunes.

Tomorrow - the Pyrenees!

Ride Safe!