Update: “What's next? Rasmussen booted from Tour de France by his own team”)
Tour de France bike race fans witnessed another serious skake-up of the overall standings over the 102-mile route through the Alps on Sunday.
One cyclist rode away to a solo victory, another went from the virtual yellow jersey to abandonment in the course of a few miles, and a chase group's infighting prevented them from putting away some pre-race favorites.
Danish climbing specialist Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank), left, must have been licking his chops when he saw the three Category 1 Alpine mountains on Sunday's route of the Tour de France bike race. He attacked on the first and rode away by himself on the second and third climbs to win the stage and yellow jersey at Tignes.
Rabobank's Rasmussen is no stranger to the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey, but this was the first time he has won the yellow jersey.
T-Mobile's Michael Rogers experienced success and failure in the stage. Riding with Rasmussen on the Cormet de Roselend, he became the race's virtual yellow jersey on the road, then crashed on the way down the Roselend.
As fellow accident victim David Arroyo (Caisse d'Epargne) clambered back up the hillside hand over hand, remounted his bike and took off, Rogers had to change bikes and tried to get back in the race. The Australian was suffering, however, and dropped out before the summit of the second summit, Montée d'Hauteville.
On the slopes of the third climb, the Montée de Tignes, a group led by Christophe Moreau (AG2R) attacked a chase group that contained Alexander Vinokourov, Andreas Kloden (both Astana) and Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel). But the Moreau group that included Iban Mayo (Saunier Duval), Alessandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) and Cadel Evans (Predictor-Lotto) couldn't work together and didn't put up a big margin over injured pre-race favorite Vinokourov.
Mayo eventually took off on his own to finish second at 2:47 behind Rasmussen. Denis Menchov (Rabobank), Carlos Sastre (Team CSC) and Leipheimer finished between 3 1/2 to 4 minutes later, and Kloden and Vinokourov came in at the 4 1/2-minute mark.
Saturday's winner, Linus Gerdemann (T-Mobile), finished 5 minutes behind Rasmussen to lose his yellow jersey.
The top 10 overall are:
1. Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank
2. Linus Gerdemann (Ger) T-Mobile Team — :43
3. Iban Mayo (Spa) Saunier Duval – Prodir — 2:39
4. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne — 2:51
5. Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Astana — 2:52
6. Cadel Evans (Aus) Predictor – Lotto — 2:53
7. Christophe Moreau (Fra) AG2r Prévoyance — 3:06
8. Alberto Contador (Spa) Discovery — 3:10
9. Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC — 3:14
10. Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank — 3:19
So by the second day in the Alps, the Top 10 is beginning to have some pre-race favorites in it. Among them are Valverde (4th), Evans (6th), Moreau (7th), Schleck (9th) and Menchov (10th). Mayo, in third place, was also on some lists of favorites.
Looking slightly further down, you'll find Carlos Sastre (Team CSC) in 11th at 3:35 and Leipheimer in 12th at 3:43 behind. Kloden, who has been in the Top 10 from the beginning, dropped to 13th at 3:46 and Vinokourov is in 22nd, 5:23 behind.
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