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 17 - Wednesday, July 23: Embrun - L'Alpe d'Huez, 210.5km
The peloton forming the main contenders hit the bottom of the final climb, L'Alpe d'Huez, in one group, despite Team CSC blistering pace for the day. Soon after the climb started, Carlos Sastre from Team CSC attacked a couple of times then went clear, to power up the climb all the way to a solo finish. Meanwhile, the remaining group was watched over by the Schleck brothers, who covered any other moves made.
Sastre's attack was decisive, and moved him into the yellow jersey, and pushed Cadel down to fourth place. This race is going to the wire! A full report is here.
Photos of Cadel: Photo 1, Photo 2, Photo 3, Photo 4, Photo 5
Main results:
1 Carlos Sastre (Spa) CSC-Saxo Bank 6.07.58 (34.32 km/h)
2 Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 2.03
3 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank
4 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 2.13
5 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank
6 Vladimir Efimkin (Rus) AG2R La Mondiale 2.15
7 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto
8 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank
...
(151 riders started and finished, but one was outside the allowed time)
Main GC results after stage 17:
1 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 74.39.03
2 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 1.24
3 Bernhard Kohl (Aut) Gerolsteiner 1.33
4 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence - Lotto 1.34
5 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 2.39
...
Next Stage
Stage 18: Bourg d'Oisans - Saint Étienne, 196.5km. Leaving the Alps, the stage is not as mountainous, but still contains three categorised climbs. Profile.
Reproduced with permission from Geoff Schmidt who is unashamedly biased towards following Cadel Evans.