Astana's Magnus Cort Nielsen won Stage 15 of the 2018 Tour de France on Sunday, the last stage before the final rest day.
The Dane beat a select few riders in a sprint after a lengthy breakaway. Minutes behind the leaders, the peloton had its own battle for the general classification, with Geraint Thomas maintaining the lead.
Here's a look at Sunday's stage results:
The stage profile for the ride to Carcassonne was perfectly suited for breakaway riders, with many anticipating two separate races on Sunday: One for the stage win, and one for the overall classification.
There were plenty of early attacks, with lots of riders hoping to be a part of the break that stuck. An echelon would eventually see the peloton split, and Peter Sagan managed to bridge the gap before the leaders got clear.
The race didn't open up until the first-category climb of Pic de Nore, and Rafal Majka tried his luck with a solo effort at the front. Dan Martin did the same in the peloton, with an eye on the GC.
Former professional cyclist Jens Voigt loved it:
Tricky winds complicated matters for both, and the technical descent of the Pic de Nore would be the difference-maker ahead of the city of Carcassonne.
Majka's solo bid would end shortly after the descent, leaving eight riders with a chance at a stage win. Just a few minutes later, Martin also sat up as the peloton reeled him in.
Crosswinds on the final approach made the finale a nervy one, but Nielsen was able to beat Jon Izagirre and Bauke Mollema in the sprint, despite leading out.
Part of the remaining breakaway crashed in the final straight, while in the peloton, Movistar kept the pace high. Sky also did their part and there would be no major splits.
The riders will enjoy a final rest day in Carcassonne on Monday before the race heads for the Spanish border. This year's Tour will be decided in the Pyrenees, with stages in the high mountains on Wednesday and Friday and an individual time trial on Saturday.
Currently leading the 2013 Vuelta a Espana, Vincenzo Nibali's place in cycling history was cemented the moment he won the 2010 edition—his first Grand Tour.
Winning a major stage race is worthy of such permanent recognition given the difficulty of doing so. In 2013, the Italian has gone about expanding on that legacy with some style.
Nibali's Giro d'Italia win in May proved he is more than a one-hit wonder in his sport's biggest races. It also went a long way in satisfying his compatriots he was a worthy champion to carry on the successful lineage created by Italy's greatest cyclists.
The 28-year-old has a little way to go in getting anywhere near matching the achievements of legendary predecessors Gino Bartali, Fausto Coppi and Felice Gimondi.
In the meantime, feats like his Giro-sealing attack in snowy, freezing conditions on Tre Cime di Lavaredo will endear him to contemporary fans wanting an Italian hero of their own.
As of Stage 13, this year's Vuelta has not seen any actions as comprehensive as that from Nibali (individually speaking anyway), but his Astana team did win the opening team time trial.
His fourth place in Stage 11's individual time trial saw him recapture the leader's red jersey with a ride superior to that of the other contenders—primarily previous wearer Chris Horner.
The American flexed his muscles a stage earlier, catching his fellow general classification hopefuls off guard with a tremendous attack up the concluding Alto de Hazallanas climb. It was somewhat telling Nibali alone was able to reduce the deficit in pursuit.
Coupled with his fine time-trial work, it hinted at the Shark being a class above those rivaling him for honors in Spain this year.
That notion will begin to be tested with Saturday's grueling traverse of three mountains (including the hors catégorie Port de Envalira) before they even reach the steep summit finish in Andorra.
Along with RadioShack's Horner, Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) are all within a minute of Nibali. Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha is two minutes behind—though the Spaniard showed at the Tour de France his ability to turn a race around, working his way to a commendable third place.
Between the Vuelta know-how of the Spanish pair, and the admirable resilience of the other duo, it is a formidable group. Nibali will have done extremely well if he has seen off more than one of its members by Tuesday's rest day (not to mention staying in contention himself over a mighty tough few days).
Victory in the Vuelta would not only enhance the Sicilian's increasingly prestigious palmares, it would enhance the luster of a rivalry poised to define the sport over the coming year.
Like Nibali, Tour de France winner Chris Froome has targeted this month's World Championships in Florence as the perfect conclusion to a glorious 2013. Others are in with a strong chance on the hilly route, but the performances of these two will be among the race's most captivating story lines.
Nibali has had mixed experiences riding against Froome and the Team Sky machine.
At the 2012 Tour, the latter rode to second place in support of eventual winner Bradley Wiggins. Nibali's valiant attempts to provide competition to the Sky pair proved to be no match for their numerical advantage in the mountains (and Wiggins' superior time trialing).
This year's Tirreno-Adriatico race saw the Italian pip Froome to first place. In a year when the Briton has won almost every other event he has entered, Nibali was able to get one over him on his home roads.
As arguably the strongest of the sport's GC contenders right now, Nibali and Froome's paths will cross again in the near future. Astana's Giuseppe Martinelli confirmed to Velo News last month that his rider was planning to challenge Froome at next year's Tour de France.
The likes of Nairo Quintana and Alberto Contador will be among those looking to ensure they do not completely have their own way.
Yet having hit their respective strides at the same time, so long as they maintain their form of the last two seasons, Froome and Nibali could be about to take their rivalry to the next level.
It could well be the one both are remembered for.
Italian cycling has longed for a legitimate competitor for the sport's biggest prizes—at least one not overshadowed by doping issues, as Ivan Basso has been and the tragic Marco Pantani was.
In the exciting and seemingly-improving Nibali, they may have found him.
Today, while some people discuss Brett Favre's "dirty old man" status (I'll consider him innocent until he's proven guilty) and others debate on the extent of Roy Halladay's dominance (I'll go as far as agreeing that he was certainly this season's most dominant, which is a tough thing for this Florida Marlins fan to admit), I’d actually like to switch gears and talk about a sport that gets a lot less coverage in the United States -- professional cycling.
Is it just me or doesn’t it seem as though, these days, you just can’t talk about this sport without mentioning three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and all the sport-wide doping allegations? For those of you nodding in agreement, read on, as that’s exactly what I’m about to discuss.
But first, for those of you who don’t watch the Tour de France because you can’t get passed those uber-tight biker shorts or for the rest of you who do follow it but tuned-out once Lance was way too far back to make a run at the yellow jersey (read: what the race leader wears), let me catch everyone up by describing the now-infamous TDF Stage 15 that took place a few months ago on Monday, July 19. The scene was a 187.5-kilometer ride into Bagnères-de-Luchon, and it was here that defending champion Alberto Contador challenged European cycling taboos by attacking then-race leader Andy Schleck’s 31-second lead just as the remaining Schleck brother had a mechanical mishap with his bike’s chain, to claim the lead which he’d ride all the way onto the winner’s podium.
This event was even further complicated by the fact that Alberto Contador upped his overall time by 39 seconds that day (the 31-second gap he closed, plus the 8-second lead he took), and five stages later, when all was said and done, exactly 39 seconds was what separated the Tour’s victor (Contador) and it’s runner-up (Schleck), leaving fans of the sport with a major “what-if” about 2010’s version of cycling’s most renown race.
Now, I’m not here to side with anybody on that – what’s in the past is ancient history, as far as I’m concerned – but rather to give the folks who were booing Alberto Contador as he accepted his yellow jersey a little peace of mind. It’s a rare thing in sports, but sometimes karma does play a factor. Now again, I’m not saying whether or not I believe Contador did or did not cheat, I’m just pointing out that since winning his third Tour, Contador’s career has been on a major downward slope.
As August began, it was revealed Contador and Team Astana would be parting ways at season’s end, and that Contador would soon be sporting Saxo Bank-SunGard colors. About two weeks after this news broke, Alberto lost a 40-mile street race in Herning, Denmark – a.k.a. the hometown of Team Saxo Bank manager Bjarne Riis – to future teammate Michael Morkov and three other cyclists by a whopping 80-second margin. Luckily for him, he’d already built his reputation with Bjarne, or this would’ve been a horrible introduction for the two. Then, on August 31, word out of Contador’s camp was of an accident during training in which he slightly injured his right knee. Not a good omen for his first post-Astana season, if you ask me. However, this isn’t the end, as the worst was yet to come!
Anybody who even remotely follows cycling knows what the “worst” thing that could happen to any of this sport’s frontrunners is, so you all know where this is headed: the failed doping test. The International Cycling Union (UCI) publicly revealed at the end of September that a urine sample Alberto submitted on July 21, during the second rest day in this year’s race, had apparently tested positive for trace amounts of clenbuterol by a lab in Cologne, Germany, and that he’d been notified of that result – and provisionally suspended for it – on August 24. To this day, Contador vehemently denies having doped, instead blaming some tainted beef he ate during that rest day for the result. If proven guilty, he faces a two-year ban from the sport, but probably more importantly, he’d lose this year’s Tour de France title to the man who many feel got robbed of it anyhow, Andy Schleck. It would be Andy’s first Tour victory and Alberto would essentially have wasted 91h 58’48” – the overall time it took for him to win the Tour de France – racing in July.
I’m not really sure how I feel about all this myself, as I’m a big fan of both riders’ mountain climbing and occasional sprinting abilities. If it turns out to be true, then the UCI really has no choice but to hand the default victory to Andy Schleck. However, knowing the younger Schleck brother and his competitive streak, no matter how tainted Alberto’s victory might’ve been, one would have to believe that Andy wouldn’t want to win the tour in this fashion. So either way, whether or not karma comes back to right it’s wrongs (if it was, in fact, a “wrong”), still nobody really wins in the end. Not only does Andy not get to experience the entirety of his first Tour victory, but for the next two years, the Tour would be deprived of arguably its biggest name now that Lance Armstrong has officially ridden off into the sunset.
So though I’m neither siding with Contador nor Schleck, as cycling fans, I think the one thing we can all agree upon is the fact that doping is now totally out of control, as it may yet again decide a TDF victor. (Floyd Landis being the other most recent case of this, in 2006.) And as someone watching from the outside, seeing what’s happened now with Contador, as well as what’s recently occurred with Tour of Spain runner-up Ezequiel Mosquera and teammate David Garcia da Pena, both of whom were also suspended after positive tests for hydroxyethyl starch, one of the nation’s with the biggest doping cloud hanging over it right now is certainly Alberto Contador’s homeland, Spain. Why this is the case is anybody’s guess, but to the UCI, if there’s any way of regulating this, may I suggest you do so now, rather than later?
Frankly, I’m tired of seeing so many yellow jersey conspiracies. I like Andy Schleck a lot, and I’d hate for him to later in his career have to fend off “did he really earn it?”-type questions. In this case, given the 39-second controversy that led to Alberto’s win in the first place, if Contador gets stripped of his third Tour victory, it’d be a little more cut and dry than usual and I doubt too many folks would question the validity of Schleck’s victory, but that may not be the case down the road. So please, lets do whatever we’ve got to do to fix this problem moving forward. I’m sure measures are already being taken, but somehow we need to ensure that there are nothing but clean races from 2011 onward, because frankly, I’m not sure how many more doping conspiracies the sport of cycling can withstand.
So to Contador, if you did in fact cheat, then shame on you - you should have known better. To Schleck, if you do in fact end up the official 2010 TDF winner, then congrats, you undoubtedly earned that honor because you raced your heart out during that race and acted with nothing but class during it. And in closing, to the UCI, you know what you’ve got to do. Your job now is to figure out how exactly to do it. From me and all the other cycling fans, we wish you the best of luck. Here’s to cleaning this sport up!!
Alberto Contador has been the world’s best cyclist for the past four years. He has won the Tour de France in his last three attempts, only missing out when his team, Astana, were refused entry to the Tour in 2008. He has taken on the best and left them in his wake.
His battles over the last two years with Andy and Frank Schleck, as well as last year’s teammate, Lance Armstrong were quite brilliant.
This year, his battle with Andy Schleck up the Col du Tourmalet, the heartbreaking Hors Categorie climb at the conclusion of the Tour’s stage 17, underlined his absolute dominance. Schleck threw everything that he had at the Spaniard and Contador absorbed it all, only allowing his friend and rival to cross the line a half bike length ahead to win the stage as a consolation prize.
That stage was after the rest day in Pau.
Today, it has come to light that Contador returned a positive result for the banned substance, clenbuterol in a sample taken on that rest day. Clenbuterol is a bronchodilator with helps in a number of ways but, most importantly for cyclists, is used to increase aerobic capacity and oxygen transportation.
In the tried and tested manner of people caught with their hands in the cookie jar, Contador has blamed mysterious other people for the result. The first explanation: contaminated food.
There have been two cases of food contaminated by clenbuterol, both in China and both pork products. It is difficult to imagine that in France, the spiritual home of gastronomy, that there would be much Chinese pork on the menu to some of the world’s finest athletes.
The second explanation put forward is that Contador’s food was spiked. Again, these athletes have such tightly controlled diets and food that is all vetted by the teams, so it seems extremely unlikely that this would be the case.
The UCI has provisionally banned Contador. They go to great lengths to point out that the result was a very low concentration, but it was confirmed by the 'B' sample.
Of course, Contador deserves the right to a presumption of innocence until proven otherwise, just as he did in the Operacion Puerto case in 2006. He was cleared in that case, but had never tested positive.
This time, innocence will be much harder to prove.
The Tour de France does not need another high profile athlete and Tour winner being stripped of his title. We had four years of listening to Floyd Landis’ carping about his innocence when the whole world, Landis excepted, apparently knew he was guilty.
Yet again, a pall is cast over one of the world’s truly iconic sporting events. Let’s hope, for the sake of the sport, that he is innocent of the accusation. History, however, tells us that it’s not likely.
It’s over. After 22 days, 20 Stages and 3642 kilometers, the 2010 edition of the Tour de France has been run and won.
Alberto Contador secured the maillot jaune coming out of the Pyrenees after a fascinating and, at times, somewhat testy battle with Andy Schleck. He cemented his advantage in the Stage 19 individual time trial and stayed with the bunch today to win the Tour.
Andy Schleck came in second as he did in 2009, but it was a much improved performance. It is only a matter of time before he takes the step up to that last place on the podium. He again took the white jersey as best young rider.
Denis Menchov rounded out the podium in third. He decided to skip the Giro d’Italia this year to focus on the Tour and it has paid off. He never really challenged the leaders, but was not seriously outclassed by them either.
Lance Armstrong wound up his Tour de France career by crossing the line anonymously, buried deep within the peloton. Perhaps that's a fitting result, showing that despite his brilliance, the race is always bigger than the individual.
The polka dot jersey was taken out by Anthony Charteau, who is very comfortable in the mountains. However, looking at him in the peloton today, it was pretty obvious that he couldn’t wait for the race to be over.
The finish on the Champs-Elysees surely has to be one of the most remarkable venues for a sporting event and it invariably delivers a thrilling and often hair-raising finish.
Today was no exception. The green jersey was still there to be won if everything went to plan and Mark Cavendish was going to give himself every chance of winning.
There was a hectic and confused lead out as the peloton struggled to reel in a strong and well organized breakaway. They were caught on the last lap, but only after some serious scrambling. It resulted in the leading teams being unable to set up the finish as carefully as they normally would.
Not that it mattered for Cavendish. He has shown that he has so much speed that provided he’s somewhere near the front, he’s going to be unbeatable in a sprint.
He and Alessandro Petacchi—the winner of the green jersey—launched at the same time. Despite the fact that he was a bike length behind Petacchi, Cavendish passed him and continued to accelerate away to win by three or four bike lengths.
He has won a staggering 15 stages over the last three Tours and is simply the fastest sprinter in road cycling today. That he hasn’t won a green jersey is a travesty, but it’s about more than just spectacular finishes.
So that’s it for another year and my sleep patterns can return to normal. Can’t wait for 2011!
Standings at the end of the 2010 Tour de France.
General Classification
1. CONTADOR A. 89h 16' 27"
2. SCHLECK A. 00' 39"
3. MENCHOV D. 02' 01"
Points Classification
1. PETACCHI A. 243 Pts
2. CAVENDISH M. 232 Pts
3. HUSHOVD T. 222 Pts
King of the Mountains
1. CHARTEAU A. 143 Pts
2. MOREAU C. 128 Pts
3. SCHLECK A. 116 Pts
On Saturday, Alberto Contador finished 31 seconds ahead of Andy Schleck in the individual time trial of the Tour De France, expanding his overall lead to 39 seconds with one uncompetitive stage to go.
With the slim margin of victory for Contador, questions will arise about the tactics he used to claim his third career Tour De France championship.
On the second to last day in the Pyrenees, Schleck was looking to breakaway from Contador and looked to finally be getting some separation on the final climb of the day.
That's when disaster struck. Just as Schleck was kicking it into high gear, the chain on his bike came lose and he was forced to stop to repair the mechanical mishap.
Contador took this stroke of bad luck at used it to his advantage, gaining 40 seconds on Schleck that day and taking over the yellow jersey.
The controversy with the way Contador took the yellow jersey is obvious. He didn't beat Schleck that day because he was a better rider than him, but only because of a mechanical error on Schleck's end.
Now that we are only one day away from the end of the best bike race in the world, it is obvious that Contador will win the yellow jersey.
Looking back at how much time he gained on the unlucky day by Contador (39 seconds), if you subtract that time from the lead he has now, Schleck would be tied right now with Contador at the top of the leader board!
You could argue that the race would have been a little different if Schleck maintained the yellow jersey until the 19th stage that was held on Saturday, but it is clear that the time Contador gained was certainly not inconsequential.
I think as people look back at this Tour De France in the years to come, some will consider the win a little bit tainted for Alberto Contador (one of them being me).
It's a shame that he didn't want to decide the race on merit and decided to win any way that he could, even bad luck from his main contender.
Schleck certainly has more chances to win the Tour De France, seeing as how he is only 25 years old and will win the white jersey for best young rider in the race. Hopefully, this friendly rivalry will continue strong in the coming years of bike racing.
