The real race was behind the leaders, as Cadel Evans, Frank Schleck and Christian Vande Velde fought for the yellow jersey and standing in the general classification.
At the end of the day, Frank Schleck had the yellow jersey and overall lead, Cadel Evans dropped to third, and Christian Vande Velde dropped to fifth, with a rest day and then two more brutal mountain climbs ahead.
Two Mountains to Climb
Stage Fifteen was one for the climbers: starting in Embrun, the first fifteen km of the 183 km stage were fairly level; the next fifty-four climbed up to the huge 2744 meter Hors Categorie Col d’Agnel. The next 54 km were a steep and dangerous descent, followed by fifty km of relatively level road, with a short steep Cat Three climb and then a twisting 20 km Cat One climb to a mountaintop finish in the Alpine skiing town of Prato Nevoso.
Overall leader Cadel Evans described the end of the stage: “I know the climb to the finish in Prato Nevoso. It’s hard … but I think we’ll see a group of riders arrive at the finish together.” Evans led the field by a single second, a lead he had maintained since Stage Ten.
Team Columbia sprinter a four-Stage winner Mark Cavendish dropped from the Tour overnight, probably saving himself for the upcoming Olympics.
The stage started in terrible conditions, cold and rainy, making the climbing that much more unpleasant and the descent hugely more dangerous.
Ups and Downs of the Col Agnel
The first effective attack of the stage came from Egoi Martinez (Euskatel Euskadie), Jose Luis Arrieta (AG2R), and Danny Pate (Garmin Chipotle), joined after a few km by Simon Gerrans (Credit Agricole). This group opened a three-minute lead by the start of the climb proper.
The lead group of four crested the peak 13 minutes ahead of the peloton. Many riders felloff the back in the final five kilometers of the first climb. Quick Step rider Stijn Devolder dropped out of the race entirely, too exhausted to continue.
The rain stopped as the climb started, but the temperature dropped to 48 degrees F. As the peloton crested the peak, the rain started up again. The descent was very treacherous, as the pavement was new and very smooth, and with the light rain, was exceptionally slippery.
Oscar Pereiro (Caisse D’Epargne) and Robert Hunter (Barloworld) collided on the descent and hit a guardrail. Pereiro went over the guardrail and fell down to the road on the switchback below. Pereiro fractured his shoulder and leg.
Silence-Lotto and Lampre led the peloton but didn’t try to catch the leaders, who had a 17-minute lead by the 115 km mark. At the 125 km mark, Lampre was given team orders to chase down the lead group. CSC took over next, driving the pace even harder.
Fifty km out, there was a major crash at a large roundabout, or rather two crashes, as riders crashed in two distinct groups.
Riders split up circle a large island in the road, and dozens of riders went down. The a rider slid in the left hand group, taking a dozen riders with him, then on the right, possibly because riders were reacting to the crash, a chain collision occurred.
In a bit of sportsmanship, the peloton slowed to allow the downed riders to remount and rejoin, instead of taking advantage of their misfortune.
The Breakaway Succeeds
With the slowdown of the peloton, the break was guaranteed success; the gap was too great for the peloton to run down the leaders.
However, the race within the race, the competition for the yellow jersey, was still strong. CSC, Columbia, and Silence-Lotto rode at the head of the peloton, ready to battle for ther overall lead on the final climb. CSC had Frank Schleck and Carlos Sastre who could conceivably take the overall win; Columbia had Kim Kirchen, who had already worn the yellow jersey for a few stages.
All three, plus Cadel Evans, had a good chance for the overall win, and as Allejandro Valverde said before the start of the Tour, “The three Alpine stages will be very hard. The decision will be made there."
The final thirty kilometers were dry and sunny, the temperature rising in the eighties. The lead riders were looking strong; they new the stage winner would come from among their number. The peloton was still preparing for the series of attacks that were sure to come on the slope of the Prato Nevoso
The Final Climb
CSC drove the peloton hard, with five riders at the front, the four, as Cancellara dropped back after pushing the pace. Jens Voigt then moved to the lead, driving hard to wear out the other teams and give Schleck and Sastre good position.
The peloton broke up into smaller groups; the first group held all the GC competitors: Evans, Sastre, Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Vande Velde, Valverde, Menchov, Kreuziger, Sanchez and Kohl.
With five kilometers left, the rain started again. With about four km to go, Denis Menchov attacked, but hit a slick patch and crashed. Andy Schleck led the yellow-jersey group for much of the final 10 km, making an heroic effort.
Andy Schleck attacked repeatedly, trying to crack anyone he could, trying to earn his brother the second he lacked to Cadel Evans. Then Menchov attacked, almost shaking Evans off the back. Cadel Evans and Frank Schleck, one and two in the GC, were struggling to keep up with the group.
Menchov and Alejandro Valverde moved to the head of the GC group, then, unbelievably Andy Schleck attacked again. Sastre then attacked, then Valverde, but Evans didn’t respond. Then Frank Schleck moved, and Evans had to try to respond.
Menchov, the Christian Vande Velde, then Bernhard Kohl, all took their turns attacking, but Evans refused to give out, though he was visibly exhausted.
In the final kilometer, Kohl attacked again, with Sastre and Valverde on his wheel; Menchov tried to respond, but dropped back. With 250 meters left, Valverde dropped back. Kohl seemed to get stronger as he approached the finish, leading Sastre over the line.
Behind them, Evans escaped from Frank Schleck, but was dangerously far behind Bernard Kohl, who needed 46 seconds to take the yellow jersey.
Then with 500 km left, Schleck attacked, and Evans could not respond. Schleck took the yellow jersey, beating Evans across the line by seven seconds.
Meanwhile at the front, Egoi Martinez, Danny Pate, and Simon Gerrans started sparring; Jose Luis Arrieta dropped back. With 3.5 km left Pate attacked, then Martinez, but no one cracked.
Then with perhaps 500 meters to go, Gerrans attacked, catching the other two unprepared. Gerrans opened up into a full sprint, dropping Martinez and Pate to take the stage win by three seconds.
‘Better Late Than Never’
Gerrans got dropped by the breakaway at first, and then fought his way across the gap to rejoin them. In the final few kilometers, the other leaders tried to drop him, but he clung to their wheels and , eventually, beat them all to the line.
“A big mountain stage like today is not one in which I’d usually back myself to go for the win but I thought, ‘I’ve got nothing to lose, there’s a rest day tomorrow…’ and I gave it everything to get in the break,” Simon Gerrans told reporters. “Once I was there it was just a matter of racing with three other guys and not the whole peloton.”
“It was only in the last kilometer that I started believing that I could get the better of the other guys. It’s been my aim at every Tour de France to try and win a stage this is my fourth one and it’s taken until now to finally pull it off but it’s better late than never, huh?”
Stage Nine Results | ||||
| Place | Rider | Team | Time | Gap |
| 1. | Simon Gerrans | Credit Agricole | 4h 50' 44" |
|
| 2. | Egoi Martinez | Eusjaktel-Euskadie | 4h 50' 47" | + 00' 03" |
| 3. | Danny Pate | Garmin Chipotle | 4h 50' 54" | + 00' 10" |
| 4. | Jose Luis Arrieta | AG2R La Mondiale | 4h 51' 39" | + 00' 55" |
| 5. | Bernahrd Kohl | Gerolsteiner | 4h 54' 47" | + 04' 03" |
| 6. | Carlos Sastre | CSC Saxo Bank | 4h 54' 47" | + 04' 03" |
| 7. | Alejandro Valverde | Caisse D’Epargne | 4h 54' 56" | + 04' 12" |
| 8. | Denis Menchov | Rabobank | 4h 55' 07" | + 04' 23" |
| 9. | Frank Schleck | CSC Saxo Bank | 4h 55' 25" | + 04' 41" |
| 10. | Christian Vande Velde | Garmin Chipotle | 4h 55' 27" | + 04' 43" |
