Stage winner Pierrick Fedrigo and Salvatore Commesso raced into Gap as the survivors of a war of attrition against the breakaway, which at one time numbered six Tour de France cyclists.
Oscar Pereiro held onto the yellow jersey, with his Caisse d'Epargne team laboring in the heat over the climbs while American Floyd Landis' Phonak team had an easier time in the peloton.
Trouble for the breakaway started with 24 miles left in the 112-mile race from Montelimar to Gap. The peloton was chasing hard when the lead cyclist in the break, Rik Verbrugghe (Cofidis), took a turn too wide and ran into and over a roadside barrier.
The next three riders slipped past, but David Canada's (Saunier Duval) front wheel slipped and he fell, hard, onto the pavement. Trailing Matthias Kessler (T-Mobile) tried to avoid, but hit the barrier and flipped over headfirst into the ditch. Amazingly, Kessler survived to catch on to the peloton; Canada and Verbrugghe caught a ride to the hospital. (Video of the crash at OLN.)
Later, Mario Aerts (Davitamon-Lotto) couldn't survive the last climb of the day, the 2nd Category Col de la Sentinelle, and fell back to the peloton.
By then, Belgium's Tom Boonen had decided that maybe he could pull out a stage victory on Stage 14 and sent his QuickStep team to the front to quicken the pace for awhile.
Entering Gap, a group of about 30 cyclists — including George Hincapie who was being led out by teammate Yaroslav Popovych — attacked but couldn't catch the surviving two cyclists. Lampre's Commesso was caught in front of the duo, allowed French cyclist Fedrigo (Buoyges Telecom) to come around and capture the sprint.
American Christian Vandevelde (CSC) charged ahead of the attack group at the end and came within 3 seconds of beating Fedrigo.
The Top 10 overall are:
1. Oscar Pereiro Sio (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne
2. Floyd Landis (US), Phonak, 1:29 behind
3. Cyril Dessel (Fr), Ag2r Prevoyance, 1:37
4. Denis Menchov (Rus), Rabobank, 2:30
5. Cadel Evans (Aus), Davitamon-Lotto, 2:46
6. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, 3:21
7. Andréas Klöden (Ger), T-Mobile, 3:58
8. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, 4:51
9. Miguel Juan Mercado, (Sp), Agritubel, 5:02
10. Christophe Moreau (Fr), Ag2r Prevoyance, 5:13
The standings among the 6 Americans:
2. Floyd Landis, Phonak — 1:29 behind
15. Levi Leipheimer, Gerolsteiner — 7:08 behind
29. Christian Vandevelde, CSC — 14:58 behind
38. George Hincapie, Discovery — 24:28 behind
74. David Zabriskie, CSC — 51:57 behind
110. Chris Horner, Davitamon-Lotto — 1:12:28 behind
Robbie McEwen still leads the green jersey points competition ahead of Tom Boonen; David de la Fuente leads the mountain jersey contest; Marcus Fothen retains the best young rider jersey, and Salvatore Commesso was judged the most combative of the day. The decimated Team CSC squad leads the team competition.
Monday is a rest day. Tuesday, the peloton enters the Alps; expect changes. OLN begins its live telecast at 7 a.m. (ET) Tuesday.
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