Jodie is the current Victorian Vets Criterium and Road champion in her age group. She has been racing for several years now and likes any event that involves sprinting and not too many hills. She initially used cycling as an important part of her rehabilitation from a mountaineering accident in New Zealand. She then got into racing as a replacement for martial arts in which she represented Australia and won Gold, Silver & Bronze medals in the Martial Arts World Games in 2000. 95th Tour de France
Location: France
UCI Classification: Grand Tour
Dates: 5-27 July, 2008
Starting field: 180 riders, 20 teams
Stage 15 - Sunday, July 20: Embrun - Prato Nevoso, 183km
Three riders broke clear at the 12km mark, and were joined later by Australian Simon Gerrans from Credit Agricole. They kept the lead for the rest of the stage, over 17 minutes at one point, to the very end when Simon Gerrans sprinted past to win the stage.
Behind this break-away group, the battle for yellow was waged on the final climb. With all the main contenders in the main lead group, Cadel lost some time to most of them. Frank Schleck from Team CSC finished 0'09 in front of Cadel to take the yellow jersey, and Bernhard Kohl from Gerolsteiner is now second overall. Cadel now sits in third place overall. However, many of the commentators (and I tend to agree) say that this is likely a good thing, as it puts the pressure of defending the yellow onto Team CSC. A full report is here.
Main results:
1 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Crédit Agricole 4.50.44 (37.77 km/h)
2 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0.03
3 Danny Pate (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 0.10
...
5 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner 4.03
...
8 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 4.23
9 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 4.41
10 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 4.43
...
13 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 4.50
...
Main GC results after stage 15:
1 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 63.57.21
2 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner 0.07
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0.08
4 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0.38
5 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30 0.39
...
Next Stage
The second rest day is tomorrow. Yah!
Stage 16: Cuneo - Jausiers, 157km. Another killer stage with two cat.HC climbs - the Col de la Lombarde and the Cime de la Bonnette-Restefond. Profile.
Reproduced with permission from Geoff Schmidt who is unashamedly biased towards following Cadel Evans.