The 18th stage of the Tour de France 2011 on July 21 led over 200.5 kilometers from the Italian Pinerolo back to France on the Col du Galibier in the Serre Chevalier region . On this high mountain stage there were three mountain ratings of the Hors Catégorie after the sprint rating . First the roof of this Tour de France was reached on the Col Agnel with 2744 m , then the Col d'Izoard ( 2360 m ) was crossed. The stage ended on the Col du Galibier, which was approached via the Col du Lautaret , where the third mountain finish of this Tour de France took place at 2645 m . This was also the highest mountain finish in the history of the Tour de France. The winner of this mountain classification received the special souvenir Henri Desgrange prize . 169 of the registered 198 drivers started.
Race course
At the beginning of the stage, the Europcar and HTC-Highroad teams set a high pace, which initially ruined all attempts to break away. A group of 20 as well as Gianni Meersman and Marco Marcato were caught up again after a short tour. Shortly before the intermediate sprint, a group of seven pulled away, from which Leonardo Duque won the sprint classification. This was followed by a 16-strong top group, which included Maxime Monfort , Joost Posthuma , Rubén Pérez , Maarten Tjallingii , Maxim Iglinski , Imanol Erviti , Nicolas Roche , Dries Devenyns , Leonardo Duque, Danilo Hondo and Johnny Hoogerland . At 50.3 km / h, the average speed of the first hour was again very high. While the outliers increased their distance, a group of pursuers made up of Mickaël Delage , Marcus Burghardt and Jegor Silin approached them and finally reached them at the foot of the Col Agnel. It was around this time that they achieved their greatest lead of over nine minutes over the field. Delage fell, but was able to catch up with the leading group again. In the ascent, the lead of the group decreased again, in which various drivers took the lead and a seven-man chasing group consisting of Christophe Riblon , Levi Leipheimer , Carlos Barredo , Kristijan Koren , Andrei Seiz , Rémy Di Gregorio and Philippe Gilbert emerged. As the climb continued, seven drivers dropped out of the top group, which then consisted of only twelve drivers. From the chasing group, only Leipheimer and Riblon remained in front, and Lieuwe Westra kept them company . Even Robert Gesink and David Moncoutie showed up the field. Later, a chase group formed from Gesink, Seiz, Leipheimer, David Arroyo , Arnold Jeannesson , Moncoutié and Westra. The mountain classification finally won Iglinski, who attacked shortly before the mountain classification, but then waited.
While another driver of the top group briefly lost connection on the climb, the group increased again to 14 drivers on the descent. Tony Martin fell in the field but was also able to continue the race. In the descent, Philippe Gilbert tried to push with a group, but was caught again by the field. The top group decreased again to nine, then to eight drivers, so Rubén Pérez lost the connection early on. Markel Irízar had a flat tire. Meanwhile, Leonardo Bertagnolli gave up the race. Behind the front, Mickaël Delage and Maxime Bouet took up chase. In the group of the front runners, Leopard Trek took over the pace work. It started to catch up with the runaways, with some riders like Rigoberto Urán falling behind. This fell later on the descent, but was able to continue and fight back. On the way to the mountain classification at Col d'Izoard, Iglinski attacked again at the front and pulled out a lead over Roche, Monfort, Devenyns and Silin. In the group of favorites, Andy Schleck , whom none of the favorites followed. Both were able to gradually expand their lead over their respective groups. Posthuma took over the tempo work for Schleck for a short time. At the summit, he was just over two minutes apart from the leader. Up until then he had achieved a similarly large lead over the favorites.
On the descent from Col d'Izoard, Schleck first caught up with Silin and Devenyns, then Roche and Montfort, who was now able to do some leadership work for Schleck. Alberto Contador changed wheels behind the favorites and then came back up. Meanwhile, Andy Schleck's group drove closer and closer to Iglinski and caught up with him about 29 km from the finish. Schleck had a lead of more than three minutes compared to the group in which the other drivers of the top ten overall were, and only briefly fell below this mark. At the beginning of the ascent to Col du Galibier, Andy Schleck, who was only accompanied by Roche and Iglinski, increased again and reached more than four minutes after the pursuers disagreed about how to proceed. Yet this group continued to thin out. Like Contador before, Samuel Sánchez had a new bike. In the lead, Schleck left Iglinski behind after Roche, while the lead over the other favorites narrowed again when Cadel Evans took up the chase. Tom Danielson and later Contador lost touch . Andy Schleck, who also received the award for the most combative driver, finally saved a lead of a little more than two minutes at the finish. Voeckler and Pierre Rolland had previously increased the pace once again, allowing the former to defend his yellow jersey by 15 seconds. Before the finish, however, Fränk Schleck competed again and thus secured the brothers' double victory. Evans and Ivan Basso also reached the finish a few seconds before Voeckler.
Although a Gruppetto crossed the finish line outside of the waiting period, the drivers were not excluded from the race. This was due to the large number of 88 drivers who would otherwise have been eliminated. However, all drivers who arrived late received a deduction in the points evaluation.
Mountain ratings
Scoring
Cavendish, Gilbert and a further 86 riders were deducted 20 points in the points assessment because they had exceeded the waiting period , but were left in the race by jury decision according to the special regulations of the tour.
tasks
Web links
Individual evidence
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^ Diary of the stage. (No longer available online.) July 21, 2011, archived from the original on July 19, 2011 ; Retrieved July 21, 2011 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
@1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.letour.fr
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↑ Regulations of the Tour de France 2011 ( Memento of the original from September 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 8.3 MB), there Art. 22 aE (French / English), accessed on June 26, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.letour.fr
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↑ radsport-news.com of July 21, 2011: Point deduction for Cavendish brings Rojas back into play
