World champion catches Jérémy Roy after the descent of the Col d’Aubisque as the peloton takes the day off
Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo) took the ninth, and probably biggest, Tour de France stage victory of his career, across the Col d’Aubisque to Lourdes. The World champion was part of a ten-man breakaway that escaped the peloton after 48km. He was the first to attack on the Aubisque then caught Jérémy Roy (FDJ), the initiator of the break, inside the final three kilometres.
David Moncoutié (Cofidis) descended the Aubisque with Hushovd, also overtaking Roy, to take second place on the stage, with the FDJ rider taking third.
“I’ve been finding it hard the last few days because I went really deep in the first week and spent a lot of energy,” said the World champion at the finish. “This morning I felt much better and ended up going in the break. I did a perfect race tactically and I just managed to do everything good and I won on my own with the rainbow jersey, so it’s been an incredible day.
Following the stage two team time trial Hushovd took the yellow jersey, which he held until Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) took it from him on stage nine. That team time trial victory was Garmin-Cervélo’s first ever in the Tour, the Tyler Farrar took its second a day later Hushovd’s is a third for the American team.
“I said throughout the first week that although I had the yellow jersey, I wanted to win a stage while wearing the rainbow jersey,” he said. “Now that’s happened. Now I’m content. You’ve got to seize all chances you get to win a stage and we’ve seen Tyler Farrar win a sprint, we won the team time trial and now this.”
The second of three mountain stages could provide an easy day for the leaders
At 152.5km, the thirteenth stage between Pau and Lourdes should have provided a relatively easy day between two tough summit finishes. While it was classified as a high-mountain stage, the 42.5km descent and flat run to the finish from the top of the Col d’Aubisque – the one big climb of the day – meant that there was unlikely to be many changes in the top of the overall standings.
So long as the almost inevitable breakaway contained no threat to either the yellow jersey of Voeckler, or the overall favourites for the race, it would be highly likely to stay away to the finish.
After a host of unsuccessful attacks it's Jérémy Roy again that finally breaks the deadlock
The first hour of the stage was raced at a frenetic pace, with a mulitude of breakaways attempted, notably from French champion Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step), but nobody was able to break the elastic. Shortly after stage twelve second place Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) had led over the 3rd category Côte de Cuqueron after 43.5km though, Jérémy Roy (FDJ) managed to force a gap.
Roy had also been a breakaway hero of stage twelve, staying away with Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas until halfway up the final climb. The FDJ rider was soon joined by Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank), Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo), Dmitriy Fofonov (Astana), David Moncoutié (Cofidis), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Team Sky), Lars Bak (HTC-Highroad), Jérôme Pineau (Quick Step), Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) and Vladimir Gusev (Katusha), making a group of ten in front of the race.
This proved to be an acceptable combination for the peloton and, as Voeckler’s Europcar team settled on the front of the peloton, and by 61km it was 3’20” ahead.
The group was not entirely free of threat, with Gusev just 11’13” behind Voeckler in 28th place. The French team was eveidently not too worried about the Russian though, and allowed the break to grow further. As Roy led the group over the 4th category Côte de Belair after 65km, to take the solitary point on offer, the gap had grown to 4’20”.
The break doesn't sprint for the points but the green jersey rivals do
Although there were two sprinters in the break, in Hushovd and Petacchi, there was no competition for the points as they arrived at the intermediate sprint in Bielle after 82.5km. Boasson Hagen simply rolled over the line, by virtue of the fact that he was the rider on the front of the line at the time.
As the peloton approached though, Movistar had taken control of the peloton for José Joaquin Rojas, with the HTC-Highroad team tucked in behind it. Omega Pharma-Lotto pulled past for Philippe Gilbert, who was on the wheel of stage ten winner André Greipel. The Belgian champion seemed to misunderstand where the sprint actually was though, and launched his attack with around a kilometre and a half to go.
HTC-Highroad calmly pulled Gilbert back, and prepared to launch Mark Cavendish to the line as usual. Rojas went first though, with Francisco Ventoso alongside him, and managed to hold off Cavendish to the line; Cavendish gestured that he had been impeded in his own sprint, but the result stood.
Onto the Aubisque but the lead keeps growing
As the ten-man group arrived at the foot of the hors category Aubisque after 91km its lead had opened out to 6’03”. Gusev had taken more than half his overall classification deficit back, but with a lot of recognised non-climbers in the group, it was not expected that he would still have that time at the finish.
As the climb was just beginning, with 58km still to race and as the climb was just beginning, Hushovd attacked and managed to get a gap over the rest. Behind him in the peloton, Mickaël Delage (FDJ) jumped off the front, followed by Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale) and Bauke Mollema (Rabobank). Europcar was not worried though, and continued to set a steady tempo, many of the sprinters were now trailing off the back of the peloton.
Roy was the next rider to attack the group and made short work of joining up with Hushovd. The rest of group began to splinter, with Moncoutié and Boasson Hagen chasing the two leaders.
Roy is alone in the lead as the World champion flounders
On a steep section of the climb, with 8.5km to go to the top, Roy accelerated and dropped Hushovd. Moncoutié too, caught and dropped the World champion as he took the long mountain pass at his own pace. The rest of the group was slipping further back, although Fofonov was the only one to drift back to the peloton.
At 5km from the top Roy led Moncoutié by 31 seconds, and the peloton was now 7’10” behind as Europcar continued to give its leader an easy time. The FDJ Rider continued to climb strongly and, with one kilometre still to go, he had opened his lead over the Cofidis veteran to 46 seconds, with the peloton’s deficit now up to more than eight minutes.
Hushovd appeared to be struggling, and was now 2’04” behind Roy.
Over the top of the Col Roy was still looking strong, and had increased his lead; Moncoutié was now 54 seconds, although Hushovd had held his deficit and crossed the pass 2’04” back. As the peloton approached Vanendert attacked on the off chance that there would be some points left over the top; there were only points on offer for the first six, and they had all been taken by the remains of the break.
The peloton passed over 8’01” behind Roy, although Gusev – the danger man in the overall standings – was 2’35” back, so he was actually 5’26” ahead of the peloton.
After a short, steep descent, which included a slippery, unlit tunnel, the course climbed what was, in that direction, the small bump of the Col du Soulor with 33km to go. Over the top of this, Roy had increased his lead over the tentative descender Moncoutié to 1’20”, but the bigger Hushovd was using his superior inertia and fearless bike handling skills and was now just 1’45” back.
It's mano a mano on the way down the mountain
The World champion made short work of reeling in Moncoutié, and with a little under 30km to go they trailed Roy by 1’29”. With the peloton now cresting the Soulor, some 8’37” behind by now, Gilbert attacked. Rojas was still in the peloton, unlike Cavendish and most of the other sprinters, and the Belgian champion was out to take as many points as possible at the finish.
With 26km to go Roy led Hushovd and Moncoutié by 1’36”; by 20km to go this had reduced to 1’06”; and by the 15km banner it was down to just 31 seconds.
The peloton was now nine minutes behind and Andy Schleck (Leopard Trek) came forward to speak to Voeckler about the deficit. The yellow jersey evidently made it clear that he was not interested in putting his team to work and so the Luxembourg team put some of its riders on the front to begin to close the gap.
Roy hit the foot of the descent, and was now faced with 13km of more or less flat roads to the finish. He had just 27 seconds on Hushovd and Moncoutié though, which was down to 17 seconds by the time he reached the 10km to go banner.
Movistar had now come to the front of the peloton, with the intention of chasing Gilbert down, but the Belgian champion was now almost a minute ahead and riding with Mollema, who’d stayed clear over the top of the climb.
Hushovd shows his true colours in the Holy City
Into the closing stages it became obvious that Hushovd and Moncoutié were going to catch Roy soon. Moncoutié had stopped pulling by now though, either because he knew he’d be pulling a superior sprinter to the finish, or because he didn’t want to deny the race it’s first French stage winner.
“I understand what Moncoutie did today,” said the World champion. “When he and I came together he knew that normally I’d beat him in a sprint and that’s why I was riding a lot, to try and limit the distance to Roy, and then to jump to him at the end. When I dropped Moncoutie it was perfect.”
Roy was holding them at 16 seconds though, which was still 15 at the 5km to go banner. On a short rise with 3km to go the kilometres in front of the race began to tell on Roy’s legs and he almost seemed to grind to a halt. Hushovd saw this and jumped away from Moncoutié in an even faster pursuit of the FDJ riders.
With just under 2.5km to go the World champion caught, then flew past, the floundering FDJ rider and set off towards the finish alone. Moncoutié too managed to quickly overtake Roy, and he too left him for dead.
Hushovd sat up a long way before the line; he zipped up his rainbow jersey and crossed the line with both hands in the air. Moncoutié followed him over some ten seconds later, with Roy trailing in after 26.
“I can’t believe that I’ve won a stage of the Tour in the mountains,” said Hushovd. “I did a perfect ride over the col d’Aubisque and afterwards I was strong on the flat and then I also did a good tactical race today.
Bak led the remains of the break across the line, some five minutes behind Hushovd, then Gilbert outsprinted Mollema to take tenth place after 6’48”. Rojas led the peloton over the line, to mop up the last of the points, 7’37” back.
Having enjoyed a relatively easy day, Voeckler holds on to his yellow jersey with the same advantage over the big race favourites, since they all finished together. Gilbert leapt into ninth place though, having taken 49 seconds at the finish.
"It was not logical to see so many attacks today,” said Voeckler. “It all worked out in the end but we made sure that it unfolded this way. In the team everybody did their job perfectly now and I’m most impressed. If I ever have to surrender the yellow jersey it’s no fault of my teammates.”