Tour de France Team Talk Stage 10

The massive Tourmalet and the mountain-top finish at Hautacam dominated stage 10. Saunier Duval/Scott team mates Leonardo Piepoli and Juan Jose Cobo took first and second at the summit finish of the Hautacam climb. Cadel Evans claimed the yellow jersey .- report

After four days wearing the yellow jersey Kim Kirchen lost both the lead and the green jersey

“Kim really showed his fighting spirit today,” said Team Director Rolf Aldag. “He is not a fan of the Pyrenees but he got through in pretty good position and now we can look forward to the Alps which suit him much better.”

“He lost the jersey today but he is still in contention,” he added. “We are very happy with what the team has achieved in the first half of the Tour and we will continue with our plan to fight for the General Classification.”

It was a bad Tourmalet for Damiano Cunego, on the tough climb, he lost contact from the main riders group. Cunego give his best but he could not recover, reaching the arrival (in photo, Cunego and Valverde behind him) in 18th position at 5’51” from the winner Piepoli and at 3’34” from the group of Riccò, Sastre, Evans, Menchov, Vandevelde, Duenas. Evans is the new yellow jersey, Damiano is 16th with a gap of 5’37”.

“The race took a wrong way on Tourmalet – Cunego explained – I felt I was not very good but I hung on until I had to leave the other main riders. I felt a lack the change of pace necessary in order to be with the in the head of the race. I tried to recover in the downhill after Tourmalet, but there was wind and it was very difficult. Tonight I will relax and tomorrow I will analyze the situation”.

Leonardo Piepoli and Juanjo Cobo placed 1-2 on the stage.

Leonardo Piepoli - "I´m in heaven. This is something I´ve been waiting for all my life. Thank God, tomorrow is a rest day, for I don´t think I´ll be able to sleep tonight. It was victory, and it was a one-two with Cobo, which adds some excitement. I´ve been with him, De la Fuente and "Litu" since this team was founded. Last year he lost 20 minutes one day in the Tour; otherwise, he´d have been in the top five. Cycling is a funny sport; I wasn´t planning to come to the Tour this year. My crash and drop-out from the Giro were difficult to overcome; I´d been training since November to be in good shape for that race. Sometimes you focus on a race and the results are disappointing, but then you succeed in another without as much preparation."

Juanjo Cobo - "After the time-trial I said I was feeling great for this Tour, even when the results hadn´t been as good as expected. I´ve been working so hard for this race, and then I had a bad day. But fortunately, this bad day was the time-trial and not a mountain stage. We´d agreed with Piepoli and Frank Schleck to hit the finish line together, for the three of us were interested in this stage, but Schleck couldn´t keep the pace and Leo and I did the rest. I guided most of the race, because Leo climbs in pulls and I find that method rather harmful. My initial goal was finishing the Tour in the top ten; given our leap today, I think we can go one up on that, but let´s take it one day at a time, right?

"Today wasn’t my best day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my rhythm and had to let go on the Tourmalet,” said Christian Knees. "We weren’t part of the big escape group of the beginning and had to close the gap together with Team Garmin. That cost a lot of strength. I rode my own pace on the last climb, in front of the gruppetto. This way, I limited my losses. I’m happy that tomorrow is a rest day and that I can recuperate a bit.”

The team drove the pace on the Tourmalet and then through the valley to the Hautacamp climb resulting in a splitting the race.

Fränk Schleck placed third at the summit finish and is now one single second behind Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), who took over the leader's jersey from Kim Kirchen (Team Columbia).

"The team was fantastic today – all our guys made an absolutely brilliant effort and Fränk is now very close to the Yellow Jersey. Amazing effort by Fränk as the icing on the cake, but also Fabian, Volodymir, Jens, Andy, Kurt, Nicki and Stuart did their job to perfection each at different points in the stage, so we have every reason to be proud of ourselves today," said Carlos Sastre.

Fränk Schleck sais - "I'm happy and proud of my performance today and the fantastic team work by everyone out there. First and foremost it was my teammates who made this possible, it was incredible what they did and I would never have been able to do what I did without them. It would've been perfect if we'd managed to secure the Yellow Jersey, but let's see if we can do so at a later stage."

"We'll revise our strategy and tactics as we go along in this race and we still have a lot of good cards on our hands. Whether I'm able to reach the podium or win the Tour is far too early to speculate on, but our main goal has always been for one of us to win this year's Tour de France – and nothing's changed as far as that's concerned."

Andy Schleck lost the White Jersey - "I'm disappointed that I couldn't keep up today, but happy and proud of my brother's performance. I was following the turn of events on the radio all the way up and it gave me a boost knowing he was well on his way to leading the race. But I knew already on Tourmalet that I wasn't having a good day today. Fränk tried to encourage me and kept saying to give it time, but I just didn't have it in me today," said Andy Schleck

Cadel Evans lead the Tour by one second.

Cadrl Evans said - “I’m only in the lead by a very small margin but, tactically every second counts. It’s a long way to the finish and our goal has always been to have the yellow jersey in Paris". “I nearly got dropped on the first category-three climb today and then I just said to my team-mate, ‘Guys, stay calm, be cool and hopefully I’ll get better.’

“Yesterday I honestly thought that my Tour was over. I was scared to get up and move because I thought I’d broken a bone and to find myself in yellow now is just great. I don’t quite believe that I’ve got the yellow jersey yet."

Evans' right hand man in the mountains, Yaroslav Popovych, lost time on the Toumalet which may haunt the squad at a later stage

Bernhard Kohl was fourth on the stage - "It was like a dream. I knew that I was in good shape. But I never expected things to go so well. It was at the Tourmalet that I noticed: I have good legs today".

"There is still a long way to go, plenty that can still happen. But I at least took a step toward where I'd like to be at the end. And I hope I manage to remain at the front", said Kohl.

Team DS Christian Henn said - "Super, a sensational performance by Bernhard. We were hoping he might play a part in the action up front. After all, he gave plenty of indication as to his prowess. But this of course surpasses our expectations". "Now we need to stay on the ball".

The team wanted to take the Green Jersey with Oscar Friere and this they achieved. Dennis Menchov gave them more to be happy about by staying with lead race contenders.

Alejandro Valverde was dropped on the Tourmalet and he says that "His Tour is now over".

Remy Di Gregorio was first over the Tourmalet and held out until he was on the Hautacamp climb.

“It was a beautiful day for me. I had planned to escape and I managed to spend a good part of the day in the lead. I was also able to climb well on the Col du Tourmalet and I went over the top with a lead of two minutes."

He might have made it all the way, if the CSC/Saxo Bank) hadn't chased so hard - "I found myself in a situation that was rather dire despite the advantage I’d been able to build."

Herve Duclos Lassalle, Cofidis - stage 1 - crash
Angel Gomez, Saunier Duval - stage 3 - crash
Maurico Soler, Barloworld - stage 5 - injuries from an earlier crash
Aurelien Passeron, Saunier Duval - stage 6 - failed to start (Hit a spectator the previous day)
Magnus Backstedt, Garmin Chipotle - stage 7 - outside time limit
Lilian Jegou, FD Jeux - stage 7 - crash
Christophe Moreau, Agritubel - stage 7, bad back
John Gadret, AG2R - stage 7
Mauro Facci, Quickstep, - stage 7
Manuel Beltran, Liquigas - stage 7 - withdrawn before start after positive dope test

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