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 16 - Tuesday, July 22: Cuneo - Jausiers, 157km
The tension is starting to get too much!
Stage 16 was basically two very large climbs, with a very fast decent straight to the finish line. Stefan Schumacher from Gerolsteiner had a solo lead for most of the day until he cracked near the end of the second climb over Cime de la Bonnette-Restefond. He was overtaken by a large breakaway group. This group made for some interesting team tactics, as it included team members from all the main GC teams. In the end, Team CSC seemed content to control the race and put as much pressure on Cadel and the other GC contenders as possible, rather than attacking via multiple team members. The danger of the fast and technical final descent was demonstrated by John-Lee Augustyn from Barloworld, who missed a corner and went straight over the edge and down a very slippery slope. He was able to climb back to the top, but his bike was too far down to retrieve. I wonder if some poor team helper was sent back later that night to retrieve it?
The stage was won by Cyril Dessel from AG2R. The main GC contenders came in 1'28 later. Cadel finished with Frank Schleck from Team CSC and Bernhard Kohl from Gerolsteiner, so no change in the top three results. However, Denis Menchov from Rabobank was not as brave (or as foolhardy?) as the other GC riders, and lost 0'35 on the final descent which moved Carlos Sastre up to fourth place overall. Christian Vande Velde from Team Garmin was not able to keep up on the final climb and lost 2'36 in his GC placing, dropping out of the top 5. A full report is here.
Main results:
1 Cyril Dessel (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 4.31.27 (34.70 km/h)
2 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux
3 David Arroyo Duran (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
4 Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr) Silence - Lotto 0.03
5 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia 0.24
6 Nicolas Portal (Fra) Caisse d'Epargne
7 Tadej Valjavec (Slo) AG2R La Mondiale
8 Stefan Schumacher (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1.03
9 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 1.28
10 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner
11 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto
12 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank
13 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
14 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre
15 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank
16 Johann Tschopp (Swi) Bouygues Telecom
17 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 1.32
18 Kanstantsin Siutsou (Blr) Team Columbia
19 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia 2.03
20 Sylvester Szmyd (Pol) Lampre
21 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank
22 Christian Knees (Ger) Team Milram 2.36
23 Rémi Pauriol (Fra) Crédit Agricole
24 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 3.21
25 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 4.04
26 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Chipotle p/b H30
...
(153 riders started, 152 finished but one was outside the allowed time)
Main GC results after stage 16:
1 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 68.30.16
2 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner 0.07
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 0.08
4 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 0.49
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 1.13
...
Next Stage
Stage 17 is the make-or-break stage, I think. If Cadel can stay in touch with the other top 5 riders, he should be able to reclaim the yellow jersey in the time trial on Saturday. The next best time trialler in the top 5 is Denis Menchov.
Stage 17: Embrun - L'Alpe d'Huez, 210.5km. Two cat.HC climbs en-route over the Col du Galibier and Col del la Croix de Fer, before finishing on the famous L'Alpe d'Huez. Profile.
Reproduced with permission from Geoff Schmidt who is unashamedly biased towards following Cadel Evans.