Tour de France 2009

Tonnerre

Vittel


Day 13 > Stage 12 of the Tour de France, from Tonnerre to Vittel. 212km. While not a true mountain stage, today’s ride does have 6 decent climbs in it but the peleton should be able to hunt down any breakaway groups and give us another sprint finish, assuming the teams work together

Well apparently the teams wanted to rest up for the mountains and let the breakaway go. Nicki Sörensen of Saxo Bank a made a nice mini break from the 7 that broke away with 2 miles to go and crushed them all.

No change in the top 5 overall.
Egoi Martinez took back the Polka-Dot from Brice Feillu. These guys seem determined to swap it daily.

The overall Top 5

1. Rinaldo Nocentini- AG2R-La Mondiale at 00:00
2. Alberto Contador - Astana at 00:06
3. Lance Armstrong - Astana at 00:08
4. Levi Leipheimer- Astana at 00:39
5. Bradley Wiggins- Garmmin Slipstream at 00:46

The Jersey’s are as follows

Yellow (overall leader) – Rinaldo Nocentini – Team AG2R-La Mondiale
Green (Sprinting points leader – Mark Cavendish – Team Columbia
Polka Dot (King of the Mountain) – Egoi Martinez – Euskaltel-Euskadi EUSKADI
White (best young rider) – Tony Martin - Team Columbia

Tour Fun Fact

Sign on the line, or you don't pass start
Prior to every Tour stage, riders must sign in on a pre-race staging area. The procedure is required in part as tradition, in part to appease spectators gathered near the starting line, awaiting the arrival of their favorite riders minutes before a stage start.
During road stages, riders and team managers must arrive at the signature registration area at least ten minutes prior to a start. Riders who don't sign in are fined 100 Swiss Francs, or about $85. If a rider is prevented from signing in because of traffic congestion or another unavoidable circumstance, a fine is not levied.
After the entire field registers, the race manager begins a stage in one of three ways;
• A standing start begins at the riders' sign-in or signature area.
• A deferred standing start occurs if a stage begins some distance from the sign-in area because of area restrictions.
• A rolling start or flying start occurs when a stage begins when the cyclists casually pedal from the sign-in area, and then begin at the stage where the course is designated as Kilometer 0 (Mile 0).