Thomas Voeckler, coureur de la formation Europcar s’empare du maillot jaune. Une étape qui sera marquée par le terrible accident de Johnny Hoogerland et Juan Antonio Flecha, fauchée par une voiture de France Télévisions. Ullrich had more than a minute advantage at one point, but was captured with 27 kilometers/17 miles to ride.Richard Virenque and Michael Rasmussen led for much of the stage. De la Fuente may be cramping, but he's the new leader of the King of the Mountains competition, for now at least. Il termine cette Grande Boucle dans un ravin et perd tout espoir de porter un jour le maillot jaune. Thomas Voeckler retained the Tour de France yellow jersey after a dramatic 17th stage which saw the Tour move into Italy.. Cadel Evans made up 27 seconds on the overall leader but Voeckler … THOMAS VOECKLER, LE HÃ?ROS FRANÃ?AIS DU TOUR DE FRANCE (6/6) Le 31 décembre 2011 à 07h00 Un jour, Lila Voeckler connaîtra la belle histoire du … Mancebo has rejoined Leiphemer, Rasmussen, and Vino for the finish. Leipheimer and Virenque tried to make a move, but the higher tempo of Armstrong's group dropped some riders off the back, including Brochard and CSC's Jens Voigt and Postal's Floyd Landis and Jose-Luis Rubiera. Don't know about Landis. Now Merckx counters, and goes right over the top of Da Cruz. Leipheimer is 2:15 behind the leaders. Garcia-Acosta was second, while Cofidis rider Dmitry Fofonov led in 4 chasers.Sandy Casar made an attack late in the stage to try to move up in the white jersey, but Illes Balear-Banesto shut it down in support of Vladimir Karpets.An incredible field sprint today goes to Credit Agricole's Thor Hushovd, then green jersey Robbie McEwen. He talks with Swiss-American Sven Montgomery, riding for Gerolsteiner, about the effects the weather continues to have on this year's Tour, and about Montgomery's goal: to ride into Paris.More interesting is Abt's characterization of Thomas Voeckler:Only Voeckler among the five can be considered dangerous to Armstrong's hopes of winning a sixth successive Tour. Ignatiev takes the red race numbers of the “most agressive rider.”It's like a classic for the jersey today, as the Tour foregoes a prologue and gives the leader's jersey to the first man to finish a 197.5 kilometer stage in Brittany, the far west of France.To borrow from Liggett, this one's got a sting in the tail, as there's a tough climb up to the finish that would seem to preclude the field sprint experts and throw things toward the classics specialists and sprint opportunists like Zabel and Freire. With the gap at 15 minutes, Discovery has put all its riders at the head of the peloton. Hutarovich was a threat in the sprint, so Voeckler waited out two testing attacks by Ignatiev, then showed the break his back wheel with a couple kilometers to ride, quickly gaining 10 seconds as the cars were pulled from between the break and the pack.Ignatiev saw the stage going up the road, and tried to bridge to Voeckler, but it was not to be. Now Azevedo will rest for another day.Ullrich has dropped off the back of the elite group, with Leipheimer.Totschnig is only about 10-15 seconds behind Armstrong/Basso.Right now, it's Armstrong, Basso, then Totschnig, then Mancebo, then Klöden, then Ullrich.
As the best-placed rider in a breakaway (alongside stage winner Stuart O'Grady and TdFblog favorite Magnus Backstedt) that finished 12:33 ahead of the pack, he won and wore the yellow jersey for 10 days.Since then, he's been one of the Tour's most (few?) This year, Tour organizers will award an overall combativity award, but not until Paris. Erik Dekker tries a late attack, but FdJ puts Carlos da Cruz on his back wheel, and he can't make it stick.With 6 kms to ride, the breakaway is absorbed. They're about 15 seconds back. Ce lundi, il pourra se remettre de ses émotions, tout comme le reste du peloton, qui bénéficiera d'une journée de repos bien méritée.Le groupe de télévision publique français France Télévisions a présenté ses excuses après qu'une de ses voitures a provoqué la chute du Néerlandais Johnny Hoogerland et de l'Espagnol Juan Antonio Flecha, qui faisaient alors partie du groupe d'échappés. Now he's clawed his way back onto the other three! In 2011, Voeckler enjoyed his finest year as a professional. The break never got crazy gaps, and it looked like it had little chance of success, so the 6 soldiered on.With around 60 kilometers to ride, just after a hard crash by Rabobank's Robert Gesink, strong ocean winds got an assist from Fabian Cancellara, and the peloton split.
Cette journée complètement folle marquée par les abandons d'Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) et Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Lotto), et par la chute de Johnny Hoogerland et Juan Antonio Flecha, renversés par une voiture de France Télévisions. Serrano is trying to come back up. Remark…