- 2007 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20
These are the profiles for the individual stages in the
2007 Tour de France , with Stage 11 on19 July , and Stage 20 on29 July .tages
tage 11
;
2007-07-19 —Marseille -Montpellier , 182.5 kmThis was the first of two transition stages between the Alps and the Pyrenees, with no climbs.Robbie Hunter took the stage when he powered for the line and held off
Fabian Cancellara after a number of sprinters crashed in the final kilometre on a tight corner.French favourite
Christophe Moreau finished more than three minutes after the leaders. He was caught napping when Astana hit the front shortly after going through the feed zone inArles . Despite the best efforts of his AG2R team Moreau could not bridge the gap, which increased steadily as the leaders set a relentless pace. On a day in which no movement was expected at the top of the General Classification, Moreau, who crashed early in the stage, slipped from sixth to 14th after coming in three minutes 20 seconds back.Michael Rasmussen kept clear of danger on the 182.5km flat route from Marseille to Montpellier to maintain his hold on the yellow jersey. And it looked as ifTom Boonen would tighten his grip on the green jersey withErik Zabel off the pace, but the Belgian lost momentum on the fringes of the crash in the final kilometre and eventually came home 37th. New ZealanderJulian Dean hit the deck along withIker Camano ,Sebastien Hinault ,Marcel Sieberg andFrank Schleck .Stage 11 Result
General Classification after Stage 12
tage 14
;
2007-07-22 —Mazamet -Plateau-de-Beille , 197 kmThe race now heads into the Pyrenees. This stage starts with a category 2 climb out of
Mazamet and then follows a relatively calm route viaCarcassonne ,Limoux andQuillan before taking on thePort de Pailhères (17 km at 7.2%) and a very difficult finish atPlateau-de-Beille (16 km at 7.9%).A large breakaway early in the day put the first men over the category 2 Côte de Saraille. Among them was
Barloworld 'sMauricio Soler , second to the line for 9 points, tying him with general classification leaderMichael Rasmussen for first in the King of the Mountains classification.The breakaway, which shortly after the ascent to the Côte de Saraille contained Rasmussen himself, was whittled from its high of 27 riders down to six. The trailing 21 riders, which included Rasmussen and Soler, were quickly caught. The lead of the first six extended to a maximum advantage over the peloton of 11'30" before Rabobank and
Saunier Duval-Prodir set out at the front of the peloton to reel them in.A rather large autobus formed almost immediately as the peloton started the ascent up the Port de Pailhères. The first rider to drop was
Quick Step-Innergetic 'sGert Steegmans . He was joined by most of the surviving sprinters in the Tour within minutes. Little by little, more and more individual riders dropped off the peloton in face of the blistering pace set byDavid de la Fuente ,David Millar and the rest of the Saunier-Duval squad.When de la Fuente and Millar dropped, Rasmussen's teammates
Michael Boogerd and Thomas Dekker took over the pacemaking and brought a group clear of the peloton. Mauricio Soler sprinted to the summit well ahead of Rasmussen's group, good for sixth place on the climb and took over the outright lead on the road in the King of the Mountains. At the bottom of the descent, some of the groups consolidated into one large peloton of some 45 riders.Popovych and
George Hincapie then took over the pacemaking, right up to the bottom of the Plateau de Beille. Rasmussen attacked on the ascent, and only Discovery'sAlberto Contador could stay with him. They caught every member of the leading break. Rasmussen retook the King of the Mountains lead by beating Soler to the summit of thePlateau-de-Beille , but Contador outsprinted Rasmussen to the finish line.Stage 14 Result
General Classification after Stage 15
General Classification after Stage 16
General Classification after Stage 17
tage 19
;
2007-07-28 —Cognac -Angoulême , 55.5 km (ITT)This was the second time trial stage, with long straight stretches, some beautiful sections of unbending road and some slight inclines (with one located about 600 m to finish line). It was clear that time-trial specialists would be the center of attention. After an impressive performance during thePyrenees crossing and the capture of Yellow Jersey due toMichael Rasmussen 's dismissal,Alberto Contador expressed his concerns about being beaten in the final Time Trial of the competition. Before riders located above the 20th place started, BelgianLeif Hoste set a time of 1h 05' 32", making him the 1st ranked rider of the stage for a long period of time. Nonetheless, with the start of the favourites for the stage, he gradually went down through the standings, finishing in 9th position.Three teams dominated the time trial: Discovery Channel,
Caisse d'Epargne andPredictor-Lotto .Vladimir Karpets , current Spanish time trial championIván Gutiérrez andÓscar Pereiro secured 3rd, 6th and 8th positions respectively for Caisse d'Epargne. On the other hand, Discovery Channel and Predictor-Lotto set up a fierce fight for the overall standings, primarily involving Alberto Contador,Levi Leipheimer andCadel Evans .David Millar , who was expected to be a contender for victory, experienced mechanical trouble, needing to change bikes twice within the first kilometer.Stage 19 Result
Final General Classification
See also
*
2007 Tour de France
*2007 Tour de France, Prologue to Stage 10 References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.