thanks to www.cyclingnews.com:
13:31 CEST 19.5km/147km to go
None of these riders are remotely threatening on GC, with Mercado the
best placed in 44th at 1:12:13 down. Also Rabobank has managed to put
a man in the early move for once, so they don't have to close the gap.
It's up to the other teams to react if they so desire, because US
Postal will have no interest in hauling these riders back.
Jalabert and Scholz have been passed by the peloton.
13:35 CEST 24km/142.5km to go
Phonak has decided that they don't want to miss the party and the team
is chasing on the front of the peloton, with the six man break 40
seconds up the road. Jalabert was in the break at the beginning, but
succumbed to a puncture.
13:41 CEST 29.5km/137km to go
By the way, the race organisers have changed the mountain points
standings of yesterday's final climb, the Col de la Croix Fry. Lance
Armstrong was in fact first to the top, closely followed by Floyd
Landis. The adjustments mean that Lance has four more points in the
KOM clasification and Floyd has four fewer points. But Richard
Virenque has clinched the climbers' jersey anyway, with 226 points to
Armstrong's 172.
Still 40 seconds between the front six and the Phonak led peloton.
They're going to have to work a bit harder behind.
13:46 CEST 33km/133.5km to go
The breakaways cross the Rhône with a 45 second gap to the pursuing
peloton, which is not making any inroads into the deficit. Right after
the river crossing, the Cat. 4 climb of the Côte de Collonges
commences (2.5 km at 4.2%).
13:49 CEST 35km/131.5km to go
Sebastien Joly (CA) is doing his lanterne rouge chances a bit of
damage today by being in the break. Joly is in 146th on GC, 1'25 ahead
of current lanterne rouge Jimmy "Ghost" Casper. But maybe Joly plans
to bury himself in the break and if they are caught, soft pedal to the
finish. But Casper might be onto his tricks... There's no real
'prestige' for being the second last rider on GC in the Tour.
13:51 CEST 36km/130.5km to go
The pace is still pretty furious behind the break, and there are
already riders being dropped from the peloton. Phonak is riding hard
on the front and have pulled back the leaders to 30 seconds.
The six in front: Juan Antonio Flecha (Fassa Bortolo), Sébastien Joly
(Crédit Agricole), José V. Garcia Acosta (Illes Balears), Dmitri
Fofonov (Cofidis), Juan Miguel Mercado (Quick Step) and Marc Lotz
(Rabobank).
Lance Armstrong and Filippo Simeoni (now there's an unlikely combo!)
are 10 seconds behind the break after the climb, with the peloton
another 15 seconds back.
13:53 CEST 38km/128.5km to go
Fofonov won the 3 points on the climb, followed by Flecha and Lotz.
Armstrong and Simeoni have closed the gap to the leaders. Simeoni was
the first to try to bridge, with Armstrong getting on his wheel.
Better to be safe in a stage like this.
The peloton is at 45 seconds. Surely there'll be a reaction...
13:55 CEST 39km/127.5km to go
The leading eight riders now have 55 seconds lead on the bunch, which
is in disarray after seeing the maillot jaune go up the road!
<commentator throws script in waste bin>
13:57 CEST 41km/125.5km to go
The leaders are now approaching the day's first sprint at
Saint-Jean-de-Gonville with a 1'50 lead on the US Postal controlled
peloton. Quite a bizarre situation. Maybe Lance wants five stage wins
in a row (presuming he'll win tomorrow)?
13:59 CEST
14 Riders were blood tested this morning before the start of stage 18
from the following teams: T-Mobile, Lotto-Domo, CSC, US Postal,
Gerolsteiner, Alessio-Bianchi and Illes Balears. All riders were
declared fit to start the stage.
14:00 CEST 45km/121.5km to go
Finally, T-Mobile mosey on up to the front of the peloton to see
what's happening, and have pegged the gap at 1'50. "Lance is up the
road? No-one told us!"
14:02 CEST 46km/120.5km to go
Fofonov again takes the points at the sprint, followed by Joly (4
seconds bonus. Think of the GC!) and Flecha.
Armstrong and Simeoni are off the back of the break it looks like. The
gap is 2'20.
14:06 CEST 49km/117.5km to go
Armstrong and Simeoni are still at odds off the back of the break.
Armstrong chased down Simeoni when he went after them. Simeoni is
suing Armstrong for slander after Lance called Simeoni a liar, so the
pair are not best buddies. And Lance is now behaving like a real
patron, taking charge of the situation personally. Maybe he was
talking to Hinault over a bottle of wine last night.
14:08 CEST 51km/115.5km to go
Armstrong and Simeoni have returned to the peloton, leaving the
original six in front to their own devices and a 2 minute lead after
50 km.
14:11 CEST 52.5km/114km to go
Order has been restored and we have six riders in front: Juan Antonio
Flecha (Fassa Bortolo), Sébastien Joly (Crédit Agricole), José V.
Garcia Acosta (Illes Balears), Dmitri Fofonov (Cofidis), Juan Miguel
Mercado (Quick Step) and Marc Lotz (Rabobank). They have 2'00 lead on
the peloton, which is being controlled by US Postal.
A pity we didn't have a microphone in Simeoni or Lance's helmet today.
There was probably some colourful language exchanged.
14:17 CEST
A CN reader has suggested that Armstrong and Simeoni might have been
using the time in front to discuss an out of court settlement to their
differences.
14:19 CEST 58km/108.5km to go
Things have calmed down a little after some fireworks involving
Armstrong and Simeoni. The six man breakaway that they were part of
now has 3'15 on the peloton as it approaches the second climb of the
day, the Cat. 2 Col de la Faucille (11.5 km at 6.2%). This climb takes
the riders across the Jura mountain range, according to my Livre de
Route
14:28 CEST 63km/103.5km to go
The leaders hit the foot of the climb with 5'10 on the peloton, which
has now clicked into cruise control mode. It's quite likely that these
six will stay away unless the sprinters teams wake up.
14:34 CEST 66.5km/100km to go
A recap: The leading six (Flecha, Joly, Garcia Acosta, Fofonov,
Mercado and Lotz) escaped at the 9 km mark. Phonak kept the peloton at
30-40 seconds until the first climb at 34 km. Filippo Simeoni tried to
bridge across to them, but an annoyed Lance Armstrong got on Simeoni's
wheel and although the pair made it across to the break a few km later
and started working, increasing the lead out to 1'50, Simeoni and
Lance dropped off the back and went back to the peloton.
In normal circumstances this wouldn't happen - both are good enough to
stay with this sort of break. But the off the bike issues that Simeoni
and Lance have (Simeoni is suing Lance because Lance called him a liar
after Simeoni testified against Dr Ferrari in a trial in Italy) caused
the pair to drop back after they kept arguing.
Weather update: It's not raining at the moment, but it is cloudy and
the roads are a little bit wet.
14:37 CEST 67km/99.5km to go
Armstrong is now sitting comfortably in the peloton, looking a little
fiery, behind his Blue Train®. The leaders have 5'39 as they climb the
Col de la Faucille, the highest remaining climb in this year's Tour.
14:42 CEST 69km/97.5km to go
Jan Ullrich is now chatting to Armstrong, asking him what the hell was
going on earlier. Armstrong explains.
Hincapie on the front of the peloton, riding tempo.
14:45 CEST
A correction to an earlier post: Simeoni is suing Lance for slander
after *Lance* called him a liar.
Simeoni is now lurking at the back of the peloton.
14:49 CEST 72km/94.5km to go
The leading six are rotating well on the climb, which is not too steep
and is on nice smooth roads.
The peloton is unchanged, with a host of blue riders in front
protecting the maillot jaune, who is chuckling as he shares his tale
with Paolo Bettini and Andreas Kloden. Simeoni will never hear the end
of this one.
Thomas Voeckler (in white) is a fair way down the peloton now, but in
no danger of being dropped.
Halgand (CA) is off the back a little way.
14:55 CEST
There have been many emails about the Armstrong/Simeoni dynamic.
Consider this: Armstrong clearly didn't want Simeoni in the break or
to win the stage, hence he chased him down. If Armstrong had stayed in
the break, he could have sat on all day and just watched Simeoni.
Simeoni's chances of winning would have been remote because Armstrong
was marking him so closely. Hence there was no alternative but for
them both to drop back to the bunch.
Armstrong has never considered himself a "patron" of the peloton, but
today he has really shown that he is. No-one gets away without his
team's permission.
14:56 CEST 73km/93.5km to go
Flecha is not a little off the back of the break chatting to his DS
Feretti in the car.
The peloton is rolling along 6'16 behind. Euskaltel riders Unai
Etxebarria and Iker Flores are getting bottles for their teammates.
14:59 CEST 74km/92.5km to go
Joly is hanging off the back of the break. He hasn't earned his
near-lanterne rouge position by being a good hill climber.
Mercado, Fofonov and Garcia Acosta have opened up a small gap on Joly,
Flecha and Lotz as they ride towards the top.
15:01 CEST 76km/90.5km to go
Mercado takes the points on the Faucille ahead of Garcia Acosta,
Fofonov and Lotz. Joly and Flecha follow at five seconds, and bridge
back on on the descent.
Nicolas Jalabert, who was in this break very early on before he
punctured, is now off the back of the peloton with his teammate Jose
Enrique Gutierrez.
15:05 CEST 78km/88.5km to go
Fred Finot and Christophe Laurent (RAGT) are losing the peloton slowly
on the climb. Voeckler is in trouble too, and he's sitting next to
Simeoni. But the white jersey should be safe today.
15:07 CEST 83km/83.5km to go
Dekker attacks a few hundred metres from the top with Rasmussen on his
wheel, and Rasmussen takes the zero points for seventh. That was a bit
of a waste of energy. Cat. 2 climbs only go down to six places, and
there are already six riders up the road.
The gap is 6'19 at the top.
15:09 CEST
We've been informed that Blue Train® is a trademark in South Africa.
<Foghorn Leghorn>
Quoted message said:
I say boy, it's a joke
Quoted message said:
</Foghorn Leghorn>
15:18 CEST 86km/80.5km to go
The leaders are now on the Cat. 3 Cote de Lajoux, having covered 86 km
of today's 166 km stage. Their gap is 7'11 and US Postal's men in blue
are controlling the bunch.
Voeckler is sitting last wheel in the peloton, right behind a few
Domina/RAGT/Cofidis riders.
15:20 CEST 88km/78.5km to go
Fofonov takes the points at the top of the climb ahead of Mercado and
Lotz, the six leaders still together. The peloton doesn't look
particularly interested in the day's proceedings.
15:24 CEST 90km/76.5km to go
An update on Simeoni's lawsuit. His lawyer said that he is demanding a
"symbolic sum of €100,000" from Lance Armstrong, after Armstrong said
in a Le Monde interview that Simeoni was telling lies.
Simeoni told Cyclingnews at the start of the Tour: "Remember that I
denounced him for this defamation when he declared publicly to
newspapers that I was a liar, when I simply testified as an honest
citizen in front of a judge, telling my personal experience.
(Armstrong) publicly insulted me and took advantage of his media
power. That really bothered me and so I'm seeking legal recourse for
this."
15:27 CEST 93km/73.5km to go
According to the unofficial word in the press room, when Armstrong
reached the break earlier with Simeoni, he allegedly said to the
others in the break, "If you ride with Simeoni in this breakaway, I'll
put my team on the front to chase you down." There will no doubt be
more to come in this story today.
The peloton comes across the Cote de Lajoute at 6'58 behind the break,
led by the blue boys.
It's downhill for the next 10 km.