Tour de France 2009...

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Ooops, ignore that.....

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Latests Standings are:

 

Alberto Contador (Astana) at 63:17:56

Lance Armstrong (Astana) at 01:37

Bradley Wiggins (Garmin - Slipstream) at 01:46

Andr

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Leaders in each category are:

 

Individual: Alberto Contador (Astana)

Points: Thor Hushovd (Cervelo Test Team)

Climber: Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas)

Youth: Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)

Team: Astana

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Contador claims yellow atop Verbier

 

Astana

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20th July is a rest day in the Tour

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The Tour

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The road takes a serious turn upward with the hors cat

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Another contest worth keeping an eye on is the race for the White Jersey of best young rider.

 

Last year's winner, Andy Schleck, still leads that competition, one he might win again, but he has his eye on another jersey, too:

 

 

Overall Best Young Rider, after stage 15:

1. Andy Schleck (Lux), Saxo Bank, in 63:20:22

2. Vincenzo Nibali (I), Liquigas, at 00:25

3. Tony Martin (G), Columbia-HTC, at 00:41

4. Roman Kreuziger (Cz), Liquigas, at 02:14

5. Brice Feillu (F), Agritubel, at 04:38

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There are two intermediate sprints on today's route - at Sarre, Italy (78.5km) and Pre St. Didier (106km) - offering 6, 4 and 2 points to the first three riders across the line.

 

Given that today's route is classified as a High Mountain stage, points at the finish are distributed as follows: 20, 17, 15, 13, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

 

Will any of that have an impact on the race for the green points jersey? Doubt it, but we'll see.

 

 

Overall Points, after stage 15

1. Thor Hushovd (N), Cerv

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And they're off. The remaining 162 riders are on the road and the Tour de France has resumed after its second rest day.

 

We already have two riders trying a little dig off the front.

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We have a group of 13 riders ..... maybe more. We have yet to ID them all, but Pellizotti is in there, hoping to add to his KOM lead.

 

The gaps are small. The Astana team is leading the chase.

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Jens Voigt is in there, too!

 

Still the group of 19 riders up front is just eight seconds ahead of the main field at the 5.8km mark.

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There's no way this group is going to get far. There are too many riders in there.

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At 7km, the group has grown to 21 riders and the gap is 30 seconds.

 

While that is a big group, the powerhouse teams are not represented.

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At 8.9km, the gap is up to 47 seconds.

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At 10km, the gap is up to one minute.

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We also see Martijn Maaskant (Garmin-Slipstream) in the mix. He was in the break on stage 14, as you might recall.

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Here are the names of some of the men in the break:

Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas)

Jose Gomez Marchante (Cervelo)

Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo)

Hayden Roulston (Cervelo)

Jurgen van den Broeck (Silence-Lotto)

Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank)

Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank)

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13.5km, the 21 leaders have 1:39 on the peloton ... and a big, big, climb kickin in in less than 3k.

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Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas)

Jose Gomez Marchante (Cervelo)

Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo)

Hayden Roulston (Cervelo)

Jurgen van den Broeck (Silence-Lotto)

Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank)

Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank)

Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank)

Martijn Maaskant (Garmin-Slipstream)

Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel)

Gorka Verdugo (Euskaltel)

Alexander Kuchynski (Liqigas)

Sandy Casar (Francaise des Jeux)

Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargene)

David Moncoutie (Cofidis)

Pierrick Fedrigo (BBox)

Pierre Roland (BBox)

Vladimir Karpets (Katusha)

Maxime Bouet (Agritubel)

Peter Velits (Milram)

Simon Geschke (Skil-Shimano)

 

At 17.2km, our leaders have an advantage of 2:05.

 

And they better stay out there after I typed in all those names.