Devil

Wow! Awesome ride by Vino. He deserved this win.

2Rodies

Today's top six: 1. Vinokourov, 2. Gomez-Marchante, 3. Van Huffel, 4. Armstrong, 5. Landis, 6. Kashechkin

Smoothie104

So looks like Lance will never win on Ventoux....

doctorSpoc

Top 20... looks like Botero and Pereiro blew up pretty good... Landis held tough though.

Given Vino's style he might actually have a go tomorrow too.. There will probably be a re-shuffling on Saturday again though... guess Vino WAS working on his climbing.. Lance was a little shaky on this one... Saturday may be pretty rough... guess we'll see

Results

1 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 4.07.23 (44.14 km/h)
2 Jose Gomez Marchante (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir 0.06
3 Wim Van Huffel (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 0.16
4 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 0.37
5 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 0.41
6 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Credit Agricole 0.43
7 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner 0.46
8 Inigo Landaluze (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 1.31
9 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) Saunier Duval-Prodir 1.36
10 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone 1.45
11 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 2.17
12 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 2.35
13 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 2.39
14 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 2.40
15 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 2.48
16 Santiago Botero (Col) Phonak Hearing Systems 2.59
17 Manuel Beltran (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.18
18 David Arroyo (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 4.05
19 Stephane Goubert (Fra) Ag2r Prevoyance 4.12
20 Alexandre Botcharov (Rus) Credit Agricole 4.24



General classification after stage 4

1 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner 15.19.29
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 0.21
3 Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz) T-Mobile Team 0.26
4 Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 0.47
5 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Credit Agricole 2.00
6 Santiago Botero (Col) Phonak Hearing Systems 2.25
7 Jose Gomez Marchante (Spa) Saunier Duval-Prodir 2.53
8 Marzio Bruseghin (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 3.07
9 Oscar Pereiro (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 3.16
10 David Moncoutie (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit Par Telephone 3.45
11 Inigo Landaluze (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi 4.30
12 Christophe Moreau (Fra) Credit Agricole 4.39
13 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 5.08
14 Wim Van Huffel (Bel) Davitamon-Lotto 5.25
15 Nicolas Fritsch (Fra) Saunier Duval-Prodir
16 Mikel Astarloza (Spa) Ag2r Prevoyance 6.47
17 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 7.04
18 Massimo Giunti (Ita) Fassa Bortolo 7.21
19 Ivan Gutierrez (Spa) Illes Balears-Caisse d'Epargne 8.03
20 Jose Gutierrez (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 8.09

Devil

Helmet Head

So were they all together at the base and Vino pulled away, or was he in a break at the base that never got caught? That's great for Vino. Ever since his friend Andrei Kivilev died in that tragic Paris-Nice crash a couple of years ago, he seems to have been riding for the both of them.

Levi lost time to Lance today, but only 9 seconds, so still has the overall lead by 21 seconds. Considering he's recovering from yesterday's all-out effort in the TT, that's very good.

Can Levi hold on?

Who's eating crow about Botero?

Tomorrow's stage looks tailor made for Vino:

Helmet Head

gcasillo

Were they required to wear their helmets to the finish atop Ventoux today? Or does Vino always keep his lid on?

Now I know why I love T-Mobile's kit. Very little real estate given to adverts. It just looks like pure cycling with a tip of the cap to the old school.

doctorSpoc

Well both Botero and Levi got dropped today so we both have a little bit of crow to be eating... although given the time differential I'll eat 2/3 of it

Van Huffel, Armstrong, Vinokourov, Kashechkin, Landis, Leipheimer, Jaksche, Menchov, Moncoutié, Fritsch, Gomez-Marchante, Landaluze together all catch the lone member of the break at 5k to go. Van Huffel takes off get 45 sec... Gomez-Marchante takes off with Leipheimer and Vinokourov in tow... Armstrong and Landis are yo-yoing off the back of the case group a few times... Vino and Gomez-Marchante drop Levi and pick up Van Huffel at 2.5k to go... Van Huffel loses contact with about 1k to go and at 300m Vino take off and wins...

Zaballa, Gutierrez, Jaksche were in the early break... Gutierrez and Jaksche hung on to the case for a little while but got spit out.. think it was Gutierrez who was the last hold out

doctorSpoc

just to be clear... yeah you did give a differential and you were right there, but you did also pick Leipheimer to win and he was 46 sec back... so open up wide and eat your crow.. it's good for you...

waltergodefroot

I love a gracious loser...but, but, I thought Levi was going to win? Ok, so you don't know where Popovych is racing and you don't know that Botero is much more than a time trial rider, but Botero has a bad day and your helmet hair doesn't look so bad. Good on you.

Helmet Head

Well, if wasn't for just 6 other guys, Levi would have won. I'll take it.

So what about tomorrow? A lot of climbs, but nothing over a cat 2, and a final 9km descent at the end could bring it all together for the leaders at the end.

My only prediction is that Levi will retain the lead.

Serge

cedo

Not exactly. Your prediction was that "tomorrow on Ventoux" Levi would win.

Helmet Head

Nice. Take two statements out of the contexts in which they were made in separate posts, splice them together, and correct me? Very nice.

My only prediction ABOUT TOMORROW is that Levi will retain the lead.

RiDE

I think you're the one with the bigger crow to eat since you're the one who said he will have to eat it today.

Laggard

doctorSpoc

you're a little late to the party... i already said that we'd share a crow, but i'd eat 2/3 of it and helmet head would down the other third... that was a few posts back though... Helmet Head thought we wouldn't notice that only half of his prediction was right.. the other half was DEAD WRONG!!!... think you're pretty much up to to date now... carry on..

Kris Flatlander

I'm just having fun seeing everyone jump on th e Levi bandwagon. This is where the arguements about his racing ability pay off! : P GO LEVI!

2Rodies

Axel Merckx wins today's stage going away.

2Rodies

Inigo Landaluze is now the leader on GC according to Eurosport while Cyclingnews says it's still Levi.

rygreen

Was this a miscalculation by Gerolsteiner/Discovery/T-Mobile? Judging by Landaluze's performance on the Ventoux yesterday (8th, 1:31 behind Vino, 0:45 behind Levi) he may be able to hang onto the overall classification tomorrow. He will have a lead of 2:51/3:12/3:17 over Leipheimer/Armstrong/Vino according to this: https://www.criterium.ledauphine.com/...ssement_35.pdf

doctorSpoc

I was just looking at that too... doh!! someone else in the mix now too.. unless he completly blows up tomorrow (might just happen after todays effort and tomorrows horrific stage) the race for first place may just be over. double Doh!!

JohnSFO

wow, Landaluze has yellow by 2:32 - that's quite a lead!

waltergodefroot

Gerolsteiner only had two riders finish the race according to the cyclingnews results, Rebellin and Leipheimer. Levi crashed on the final descent, but don't know if that had an impact on his position. It appears something happened to the team.

Discovery had noval up there, so they had tagged the escapees.

Landaluze could very well win this , especially if everyone is watching the tachometer.

edited to add: updated results show more than two Gerolsteiner riders finished, but the rest were well off the back...no help to Levi.

doctorSpoc

don't know what happened to the team but acording to Eurosport... the peleton waited for Levi when he crashed.