On a day that mirrored the classic developments of a transitional stage, the Tour was subject to its second positive drugs result in 2008 with Barloworld's Moises Duenas Nevado thrown out of the race after he tested positive for EPO. As was the case with Liquigas earlier in the race, the Barloworld team will be allowed to remain in the race after suspending Nevado.
The day's stage, from Lannemezan to Foix was taken out by Norwegian national champion Kurt-Asle Arvesen. The rider with the rock star name had a little too much for his breakaway companions, edging out Switzerland's Martin Elmiger in an extremely tight photo-finish (the final margin reported as 2 cm's!). Classics specialist Alessandro Ballan filled the podium finishing third, finally getting some small piece of joy for Lampre who have had a difficult tour so far. The rest of the 12 man breakaway group were split back along the road up to 30 seconds back, with Amael Moinard the last home after his 60km solo effort at victory was reeled in with 3 km's remaining.
The main field finished just under 15 minutes behind the leading trio with all the leading contenders present. Another Norwegian, Thor Hushovd won the sprint for 13th to pare back some ground on Oscar Friere in the Green Jersey competition. There was no chanage to any of the major competitions. Cadel Evans still holds the yellow jersey by 1 second from Frank Schleck, while Riccardo Ricco holds both the white and polka dot jersies. Freire increased his lead in the points competition over Kim Kirchen, after taking minor points at the first intermediate sprint of the day and by beating him home in the final sprint. Hushovd sits in third and it looks to be down to those three to contest the competition all the way to Paris.
Yellow Jersey - Cadel Evans
Green Jersey - Oscar Freire
Polka Dot Jersey - Riccardo Ricco
White Jersey - Riccardo Ricco
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2 comments:
Great title Falcon. That's what I wanted from you.
Do you intend on trying any of Gabriel Gaté's recipes? Maybe you should try to work his name into another blog title.
I would be partial to try one of the outrageous deserts he seems to be coming up with this year.
Will try and get a Gate reference in their somehow.
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