* Tour de France
Pau to Col du Tourmalet (174km)
Tour de France 2010: Stage 17 - live!
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* John Ashdown
* guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 July 2010 11.10 BST
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Sheep on Tour Why did the sheep cross the road? Don't know, but they might have picked a better time to do it. Photograph: Bogdan Cristel/Reuters
Preamble: After a well-earned rest day, the 172 remaining riders (25 have fallen by the wayside, while Columbia's Mark Renshaw was drop-kicked towards it by the organisers) will travel the 174 kilometres from Pau to the finish line on top of Col du Tourmalet, the famous Pyrenean peak that stands 2,115m in it's socks.
To give you an idea of just how steep this particular climb is, bear in mind that at least one rider was clocked at 95km as he descended today's climb in Tuesday afternoon's stage, won by Pierrick Fedrigo.
In his fascinating preview of today's stage, which highlights the role played by the Tourmalet in the history of the Tour since it was first included in the eighth edition of the race in 1910, Guardian chief sports writer Richard Williams points out that "before this year's riders even reach the Tourmalet they will have to tackle the Col de Marie-Blanque, barely half its big brother's stature but offering almost 10km of gradients that average a punishing 9%. And then to streth legs further and perhaps to sow further doubts, comes the 1,474m Col du Solor, with a plunging, twisting descent - particularly dangerous if the predicted rain arrives - before the riders gather themselves for the final major climb of this year's Tour, and a mountain-top finish that may have a decisive effect on the final standings in Paris on Sunday."
Richard concludes: "As Contador and Schleck soar up to play among the peaks where the birds of prey wheel on the thermals, which of them will be the eagle and which the vulture? [Andy Schleck] knows this is his last chance to claw back an eight-second deficit and open up the lead of three minutes or so that would make it hard for the Spaniard to exploit his known superiority in Saturday's 52km time trial."
11.53am: Richard's wonderful preview leaves little for me to add. Suffice to say, today's going to be a day for this:
A bit of this ...
And, because it's been in my head all day, a soupçon of this ...
11.59am: So you've had the written word, you've had some music, now see today's stage with your own eyes. Have a click on our fancy interactive guide to the Tour, click on stage 17, then click on the eye icon for a breathtaking (it says here) fly-through of today's stage. Perhaps listen to John Farnham while you're doing so. It really does bring home the challenge facing the riders today. The Tourmalet is a true monster of the Tour. On the fly-through it's like you're going up in a lift.
12.03pm: We join today at a dramatic moment – Sammy Sanchez, third in the General Classification at the start of the today, has just been involved in a crash. I've not seen a replay of what happened, but he looks in a huge amount of pain, barely moving on the concrete.
12.04pm: To everyone's huge relief Sanchez is back on his feet and, somehow, back on his bike. The Euskatel riders have all stopped to help him get back to the peloton and Contador, up at the front, has clearly heard the news and told everyone to slow down. All have, except Carlos Sastre who is riding away on his own.
12.11pm: HOW IT STANDS IN THE GC: Alberto Contador has an eight second lead over Andy Schleck, and two minutes on Sanchez in third and Denis Menchov in fourth. Short of something utterly astonishing, though, this is a two-horse race between the top two. Schleck really needs to take time out of Contador today, because the Spaniard will have the edge in the time trial on Saturday.
12.14pm: HOW IT STANDS ON THE ROAD: A group of seven – Flecha, Hagen, Koren, Kolobnev, Burghardt, Pauriol and Moreno Perez – are five minutes ahead of the peloton, with Carlos Sastre and his Cervelo team-mate Konovalovas about midway between them. Sanchez and Euskatel have finally rejoined the pack.
12.16pm: We've got two category one climbs – Col de Marie-Blanque and Col du Soulor – before the final ascent of the Tourmalet, where we are likely to see the stage – and the Tour – decided. In the meantime, you can win a copy of William Fotheringham's new book and also bag yourself a jersey signed by Thor Hushovd and the rest of the Cervelo team.
12.24pm: It's raining chats et chiens in the Pyrenees today, so much so that the TV helicopters have been grounded for the day. Could make a couple of the tricky, technical descents very dicey.
12.27pm: A couple of emails:
Here's Guy Hornsby: "The romantic in me would love to see Schleck and Saxo Bank put pressure on Contador and his Astana coven on the Marie-Blanc and Soulour then attack Contador at the base of the Tourmalet, pulling out three minutes on him by the top, and taking the tour back to Luxembourg in a ride that brings back misty-eyed memories of the Tour's classic stage victories, but I'm not sure he'll be able to take enough time out of him to stay ahead in Paris. It will be good to see Contador under some pressure at least, as few have been able to do that in past Tours. One can only imagine what the presence of two Schlecks may have meant to this year's GC. I hope they're both in form and fit for the 2011 race. That would be a classic."
And here's James Cavell: "Big cycling news of the day: Tyler Hamilton is talking to the FDA team investigating Armstrong. He rode with Lance from 98-01, and thereafter managed to get one penalty for blood doping with someone else's blood, another from the Operacion Puerto, and more recently for DHEA. Now suspended for life. Heck of a nice guy, though, really. Smart too. It looks very much like nails are now being gathered."
12.32pm: Of the breakaway riders, the highest placed is Remi Pauriol, who is a distant 36th, over 52 minutes behind the leader. Sastre is nine minutes behind Contador and currently more than four minutes ahead on the road.
12.38pm: I'd imagine most reading today's rolling report are aware of it, but for those that aren't the bike blog over on the Environment site has had plenty of Tour-related material over the past week or two. Go check it out.
12.42pm: The riders are on the slopes of Marie-Blanque now - under 10km to go.
12.44pm: Sastre, if he catches the breakaway group, could be the virtual yellow jersey at some stage today. The super soaraway seven are nearly nine minutes clear of the peloton.
12.48pm: There's strange sense of calm-before-the-storm out on the road at the moment. We know there'll be fireworks later, but for now everyone is happy just to pootle along (if you can pootle at 40kph). Pootle, by the way, is a great word. A day spent pootling is a good day. Even better than a day spent pottering. Or even mooching.
12.59pm: Apologies for that little pause. I was trying to find an answer to this email. "Why does Contador have an advantage over Schleck in the TT?" writes Mark Schow. "Schleck weighs 150lb compared to Contador's 130lb, which means that Schleck is putting out 15% more power as he climbs. With the yellow jersey on and chasing Contador, it seems he should be able to TT faster. Schleck is taller which will cause a couple of a percent loss in aerodynamics, but not 15%." It would take someone a little more technically-minded than I to say why, but he always does. Last year he took over two minutes out of Schleck on the two time trials and he took another 30 seconds on the Prologue this year.
1.02pm: "So, after all the debate as to whether Contador's behaviour on Monday was acceptable, will there be unanimity in condemning Sastre for attacking while the peloton was waiting for Sanchez?" writes Josh Robinson. "Or had he already started to go with the aim of joining his counter-attacking team-mate and catching up with the escape?" Well, TV pictures show Contador talking to him before he shot off up the road. He was certainly planning to attack anyway, but hadn't actually hit the afterburners when news of Sanchez's tumble came through. Don't think it'll have any huge impact on the race as a whole, though ...
1.04pm: The peloton have slowed to a crawl now as the they rumble through the increasing gloom at the top of Marie-Blanque – the gradient is up around 11% here, the road is narrow and winding, and there's a half-naked man with an umbrella attached to his head, waving his shirt about on the side of the road.
1.07pm: "I've just had a nosebleed after flying along the stage 17 on the Guardian Interactive Guide," writes Andy Tabberer (who fails to disclose whether his fly-through was accompanied by Survivor, Europe or John Farnham). "These cycling chaps really do have balls of steel. Speaking of which, I think Schleck will win the ball-off today with Contador. He's looking as lively as a particular athletic greyhound with a complete and balanced diet."
1.08pm: Blessed relief for the seven leaders as they crest the hill and begin dropping like stones down the other side. Blessed relief for me too – Barry Glendenning has just delivered a cup of tea.
1.10pm: The peloton leaders at last reach the top and begin what could be a pretty hairy descent.
1.12pm: "You can't blame Sastre for doing exactly what Contador did," reckons James Proto. "Do as I say and not as I do doesn't really work for most."
1.14pm: "Have you got as far as a pootle in alphabet dating?" wonders Sean Boiling. "Where exactly are you up to?" For non-Football Weekly listeners, this is the onging saga of my attempt to go through an alphabet of dates with my other half. We started off with the play of Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall, then did something beginning with B that escapes me, for C I think we had a Chinese meal while watching La Vie En Rose with Marion C(!)otillard, D was a daredeveil weekend that was somewhat foiled by the weather, then we went to the Emirates for a Carling Cup game, and F was a Fright Night experience at Oxford Castle. Pootling remains a distant hope.
1.18pm: Spectators out on the road are fairly thin on the ground today, a few hardy souls in a variety of cagoules. They all look cold.
1.19pm: "Any chance of a Wiggins & Roche update?" writes Mark Quinn. "There may now be a showdown between these two in terms of finishing position. Nicolas said as much in his daily diary in the Irish Independent. It'll be like that infamous match at Landsdowne Road, except hopefully Wiggins wont start ripping his bicycle apart and chucking it like a big fat baby in a pram. Equally, Im sure Roche won't call in the trusty Garda to deliver baton-bruising 'justice'." I'll try my best to follow them, but unless one is very prominent then it's difficult to follow specific riders (other than the leaders), particularly with the weather the way it is. At the minute, they're both trying to keep warm in the bosom of the peloton.
1.23pm: Thanks to Chris Magee for this interview with a very chirpy, chatty Jens Voigt following his high-speed crash yesterday. "I didn't crash on my face, so things could be worse ..."
1.24pm: Is it me or does Voigt sounds a little like a camp Rainier Wolfcastle?
1.27pm: Less than 100km to the finish now for the leaders. What a 100km they are though. The final 30km are all uphill and rise from the final sprint at Adast (470m above sea level) to the the top of the Tourmalet (2114m above sea level). I reckon that's [attempts to work it out ... then ashamedly reaches for the calculator] 1644m worth of climb. Or 160-odd double-decker buses. Or just over 500,000 pound coins.
1.33pm: I've been trying to work out what makes Contador a better time-trialler than Schleck. And now I know. Because James Cavell has emailed in to tell me:
Cycling is not always about numbers and formulas.
The time trial is a totally different discipline than just riding hard on the flat, or uphill as you're forced into a very specific position and have to be able to get maximum power out of it. Also how "aero" you can get makes a difference, and how that affects how hard you can pedal. There's a couple of very fast riders who aren't monster time triallers because the TT bike doesn't "work" for them and they lack the perfect aerodynamic position. Or they can get in a good position, but aren't able to put all their power into their stroke when tucked up like that. Basically Contador has been an excellent time trialist ever since he was young so he's totally comfortable on the TT bike and can get the very best out of it. Schleck, never having excelled at it, has never expected to excel at it, and presumably has taken it less seriously and probably simply expects to be average.
Another reason might be that Schleck is nowhere near 150 pounds ... he probably weights 135 tops. Additionally, I think contador is 135-140 ... They can probably generate similar threshold wattage, but in light of what I wrote above you'll see that isn't everything. Contador can probably generate slightly more over a sustained longer duration, while Schleck can perhaps (we'll see later) "explode" better for short bursts which doesn't help with a TT.
1.35pm: The gap between breakaway and peloton is 8min 24sec, with Sastre just over two minutes behind.
1.37pm: Contador's Astana team-mates are all over the front of the peloton, with the maillot jaune sitting back maybe 20 places from his fellow sky blues.
1.40pm: Eurosport cut to some adverts, one of which is ruddy Tyler Farrar, but then the next is a shocker. A man and a woman heft rifles to their shoulders in HD slo-mo, until the viewer is staring down the barrel. Then the tagline 'Enjoy Shooting' pops up. It's from the European Shooting Confederation, so we're talking clay pigeons rather than mafioso shoot-em-ups, but still. Gave me a right shock.
1.43pm: A little more from James Cavell on the time trials:
Also some riders are more suited physically and mentally to holding a threshold pace over a (longer) given distance. Others need the competitive element of racing others to get the best from themselves. Also, a climb in a road race tends to be after a few hours of being worn down, and is always explosive jumps, then a ceasefire and looking
around, then another "spike" in tempo. It's repeating V02 max efforts from threshold, when knackered, rather than "grinding" at threshold for shorter duration when rested.
I've always thought I'd make a better time trialler than climber – I've always been much better at pootling to the shops than tearing round a BMX track with my mates. In fact, I'd back myself in the Tour de Pootle to the Shops. Although, of course, you'd need a couple of domestiques to carry any awkward items. Baguettes. Or wine boxes.
1.48pm: Just 80km left now. The peloton are heading to the mid-stage refuelling point, where they'll pick up those little pouches of nourishment.
1.50pm: Sastre, by the way, is struggling to make that final leap and connect with the breakaway group. He's dropped back to almost four minutes behind.
2pm: Like the peloton, I'm also now refuelled. And we're going to continue spraying the love about the guardian.co.uk site by directing you over to Travel (lovely bronzed smiling people) who have an audio slideshow of Kevin Rushby's ride of today's stage.
2.02pm: The peloton are now on the foothills of the Col du Soulor – things are getting increasingly tense. Nothing, particularly, is actually happening yet, strictly speaking, but we're edging closer and closer to what will surely be the Tour's defining showdown.
2.07pm: "Speaking of ads on Eurosport, the dodgiest surely has to be the Sidi cycling shoes ad featuring Pozzato," writes Simon Picton. "His defence: 'Andy Schleck called me a metrosexual and I suppose the commercial confirms that I am. But I'm not scared of getting oiled up and showing myself like that. I enjoyed it and I understand lots of my female fans did too ...'" You can find it here, if you click through to cycling then latest news and video. It's the slightly knowing Carry On voiceover at the end that gets me.
2.11pm: It's not quite as gloomy on the Soulor as it was on Marie-Blanque, but it's a bigger climb and the breakaway group have slowed to a crawl.
2.13pm: No action yet on the Soulor – a few commentators were wondering if Schleck would attempt to put some distance between himself and Contador before the Tourmalet, but my hunch was that it was all going to be about the monster at the end of the stage is so far proving suprisingly accurate.
2.16pm: Castre is slowly being roped back by the peloton, like a spider slowly being flushed down the plughole.
2.18pm: The looming presence of the Tourmalet means this climb has been a touch downplayed, but it's a serious hill. Leg-sapping stuff.
2.20pm: The Sorensen boys are doing a fair bit of work on the front of the peloton, dragging them up this hill. They're getting a little stretched out now.
2.23pm: "I think Schleck will try and put some pressure on at the Soulor but there's not much to be gained from getting a minute or so over the top as he's not the descender that Contador is, and with a good 25km between its summit and the start of the Tourmalet, it'll probably be energy wasted," reckons Guy Hornsby. "The final climb is a monster, and I'm sure he'll have more than enough time on it to attack, but to gain two plus minutes you'd think he'll have to go pretty early. Maybe he'll have to go it alone, as the key will be catching Contador's domestiques off guard. If he has Vino with him on the chase, he'll be able to save a lot of energy."
2.25pm: Just over 60km and there's some serious effort being put in on the front of the peloton. By the way, if you've got nothing better to do this afternoon you can follow me on Twitter, where I'm vaguely attempting a new WORLD RECORD of MOST FOLLOWERS WITHOUT A TWEET! Join the, er, lack of fun.
2.29pm: The gap between peloton and breakaway is down below six minutes. They'll do well to stay clear now.
2.33pm: It's almost eerie out there on the Soulor – the mist, or possibly low cloud, is closing in, the sky almost white, barely a specator to be seen. The riders look increasingly gaunt and thousand-yard-staring. Each rotation looks heavy. The only sound the low hum of motorcycle engines, the odd clipped sentence of French on the Tour radios and the background swish of rasping breath.
2.36pm: "Can anybody (i.e. James Cavell) explain how it helps to have somebody to follow when climbing a brute of a mountain?" wonders Tom Brett-Young. "I'd have thought that at such slow speeds you wouldn't get the benefit of slipstreaming that you do on the flats. Is the main benefit from pacemaking?"
2.37pm: "I've driven along a bit of the Col du Tourmalet," writes Tom Watkins. "On the way down the mountain with my foot on the clutch rolling (to save fuel) I thought I would save even more fuel if I just turned the engine off. So I did. It turns out that turning your engine off has a quite marked and instant negative impact on both steering and braking. Let that be a lesson to your eco-readers who might be wondering how to save fuel."
2.38pm: Under 5km to the summit for the peloton now, and a further 55km after that.
2.39pm: Another question: "With the sprints, how do dedicated sprinters get the points?" ponders Tom Barneby. "Surely the breakaway riders will cross the sprint intermediates before anyone else, but Hushovd doesn't seem to be there or thereabouts in any breakaways, so how does he get so many points?" I think I can field this one – it's because the breakaways aren't always big enough to slurp up all the points, so being on the front of the peloton is enough to bag a few each time. That coupled with being there on the sprint finishes (and any early-stage pre-breakaway sprints). Hushovd is a fantastic all-rounder in this regard.
2.42pm: "In answer to his question about mountain stages is that, like any situation, it makes more sense to have assistance on the road," writes Guy Hornsby, pitching his tent and getting the gas stove out right in the middle of James Cavell's turf. "Whether it's on a breakaway on a flat stage, or a descent (where slipstreaming will come into it to an extent) or a climb, with someone else there the workload at the front can be shared, allowing the second rider to take a (relative) break while the other does the work. Add more riders, and the effort is shared even more. Which is why solo breaks on the big mountains are so revered when they lead to victory. Groups of three or four are a good bet, but too many and you'll risk not all pulling for the same goal and the momentum will be lost. If Schleck goes it alone, it'll be a supreme act of strength to win."
2.44pm: Carlos Sastre has being paying for his decision to ditch the peloton after Sanchez's crash – the 2008 Tour winner has had two and a half hours out on his own in the Pyrenees.
Sheep Cyclists: Beware! Photograph: Jean-Paul Pelissier/Reuters
2.47pm: SHEEP ON THE ROAD!!! The peloton almost comes to a standstill as some rather bedraggled-looking ovine interlopers fail to follow the green cross code and trot out into the road just as the peloton heads past. They're plucky little fellows, though, and seem pretty determined to get across, despite the presence of a couple of hundred cyclists bearing down on them. A few skitter uphill on the tails of the riders looking like loose horses in the Grand National.
2.51pm: Guy Hornsby – the backlash begins:
"With all due respect to Guy Hornsby, his answer lacked the eloquence of a Cavellian response; not to mention the fact it didn't seem to answer the question," writes Stephen Aldington.
"Guy Hornsby hasn't really answered the question though has he?" rages Matthew Percy. "Bring back James Cavell!"
Hey, give him a break. He brought his meat to the grill. It might not have been a prime Cavellesque bit of fillet, but I'll take a couple of Hornsby's ropey sausages any day.
2.54pm: OK, just over 50km to go now. The peloton is close to the peak. The weather is horrendous. It's grim. It's cold. It's wet. It's a day to leave the bike in the shed and get on the bus.
2.55pm: "I missed the piste invasion by the sheep," writes Les Brown. "If someone recorded it, could they upload a copy to ewe-tube?" Ho, ho, ho.
2.56pm: And there's more: "I can take no personal credit for this, it was from my twitter friend in Melbourne, Stephen Downes.," writes Sean Boiling. "Re: the sheep, 'it looked like a whole team, EWE-skaltel EWE-skadi'." Ho, ho, ho.
2.57pm: Down they go! The low cloud/mist is so bad that a rider at the head of the peloton can't see much more than 20 bike-lengths back. You can just make out the yellow jersey about four from the front.
2.59pm: The fate of Guy Hornsby, currently being whipped to all four corners of the interweb by Cavellites, hasn't put off Damian Walsh: "The biggest benefit of following someone else up is surely mental - you don't have to make any decisions apart fromp 'follow that wheel', you don't have to lift your head to see where you're going and get discouraged by seeing the sheer wall in front of you and most important of all you don't have to feel guilty about whatever energy you're conserving and are therefore not tempted to over-exert and blow up."
3.00pm: The breakaway – containing two Team Sky riders, by the way, in the shape of Hagen and Flacha – have little more than 4min 30sec on the peloton now. Sastre has under two minutes.
3.02pm: Down, down, down they go. The descents make you realise just what a bold day this has been for a breakaway. You could be sat somewhere in the middle of the peloton, barely touching the pedals on the way down these slopes, but no. You're out in front and you've got to keep the hammer down. So, while others are having a rest, you're still mashing the pedals.
3.07pm: The work that they've been doing though is paying off – the gap is creeping up again. Will one of these men – Flecha, Hagen, Koren, Kolobnev, Burghardt, Pauriol and Moreno Perez – have enough left for the final climb?
3.09pm: Look what today's forthcoming excitement has done to our chief sportswriter. Here's our very own Richard Williams emailing in from the Pyrenees: "The consensus in the press room is that those sheep they looked like MilRAM animals ..."
3.12pm: We knew he'd get there in the end. Here's James Cavell:
Damian is right to point out that following someone else's wheel is mentally advantageous. But you do need to be aware of what might be happening ahead of you, especially if you are not in the first 20 riders uphill or in crosswind situations, and at all times when the speed is so high that the bunch is in single file.
Focus too much on the wheel in front and you might miss someone four places ahead of you who cracks, and if the guy right behind him doesn't come around him and close the gap the peloton can split, and you can end up losing several minutes or having to absolutely destroy yourself to get back on.
Often at the start of a climb the line breaks in multiple places, and you don't want to find yourself having to bridge gaps between fragmenting groups when the strongest teams are cranking a murderous tempo at the front. To close the gaps in such circumstances you need to ride harder than the guys at the front. Mostly this is impossible.
A particularly unpleasant situation is to go deep into the red to close a gap someone else allowed to open, and just after you reconnect with the line, someone ahead cracks, and the guys behind him start looking around flicking their elbows hopefully for someone else to close it.
3.15pm: Little more than 34km to go now – we're nearing the day's final sprint in Adast at the foot of the valley between these two mountainous peaks. The official Tour time schedule has the riders arriving at the top of the Tourmalet an hour and 14 minutes after the sprint.
3.17pm: "If it wasn't clear from my answer - which I thought it was fairly well explained - having someone to follow means you can share the workload, or if you're cunning, do no work at all," writes Guy Hornsby. "Standard breakaway or attack rules really, if you have company, then the task is easier. You'll gain no benefit from slipsteaming uphill though. Clearly I'm not fit to lace James Cavell's drinks, let alone do the velcro up on his hi-tech cycling shoes. I'm donning sackcloth and ashes as we speak."
3.18pm: "Cavell didn't really answer the question either!" shrieks Matthew Percy. "For the love of jesus can someone explain why at such slow speeds you get the same benefit of slipstreaming that you do on the flats..." No. We're moving on to bigger and better things. Sheep puns and the like.
3.23pm: The Tour have figures that purport to explain how much work each rider has been putting in on the front of each group. Of the leaders Burghardt, Pauriol and Hagen have been doing the least – just 10% apparently.
France's President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) a France's president Nicolas Sarkozy takes the easy way up the Tourmalet. Photograph: Lionel Bonaventure/AFP/Getty Images
3.25pm: Nicolas Sarkozy is in one of the Tour cars today. I wonder how much you really get to see from there? I suppose you get a real sense of the inclines and the speeds, but it must be quite hard to see any big picture.
3.28pm: Under the 25km to go banner. Not far now ...
3.29pm: "Will everyone stop BLEATING on about slipstreaming and keep us updated with the breakaways and RAMping up of the suspense," offers Steve Borrell. Four minutes 52 seconds is the gap. Sastre is all but back in the pack now.
3.30pm: "I suppose it will be difficult for Sarkozy to see anything out of the Tour cars unless they're fitted with booster seats," chuckles Stephen Aldington.
3.32pm: Heart-rates are up, palms and brows are getting sweaty, feeling a little drained but the adrenaline is kicking in – and that's just me. On the road we're down to 22.2km to go. The next 60 minutes are make or break for Andy Schleck. The biggest hour of his cycling career.
3.35pm: The peloton pace has picked up, as if the unheard drum beating out their rhythm has stepped up a beat or two. It's brought the gap down to a second or so over four minutes.
3.37pm: "If ewe're still looking for sheep puns, maybe a lamb post would shed some light on it," writes Paul Szabo, picking up the horse carcass and commencing flogging.
3.38pm: Schleck looks good, head just rocking a hint from side to side. Contador, equally unflustered, takes a slurp from his bidon. They're both perfectly placed just off the front of the peloton, seperated by half a dozen other riders.
3.40pm: Sean Kelly on Eurosport reckons Schleck needs at least 1min 20sec over Contador heading into the final time trial. I have to say I can't see him doing it. But I we're about to find out ...
3.41pm: The breakaway hit the bottom of the Tourmalet. 18.6km of agony ahead.
3.44pm: Two kilometres in and Hagen has gone! That didn't take long.
3.45pm: "Can't wait to see Cancellara do a big, big turn at the front for
Schleck," writes Sean Boiling. "What kind of super-domestique would that be to call on? Come on Fabian, do your job." The Saxo Bank boys have already started. They've got a train on the front of the pack already, four riders in there.
3.46pm: The breakaway group has become a break-apart group - it's crumbling before our eyes. Flecha has gone too.
3.47pm: Stuart O'Grady is doing the hard yards on the front of the peloton, before handing over to Cancellara. They're trying to give Schleck every chance here. Contador is loitering on Schleck's rear wheel as the peloton begins ripping apart behind them, like paint peeling off an old yacht in a gale.
3.48pm: Evans and Basso have dropped off the back now, but this is no longer their race.
3.50pm: Kolobnev and Burghardt are the last remaining fragments of the breakaway group, but the gap is down to two and a half minutes. Cancellara peels off the front, utterly spent, and Chris Sorensen takes over.
3.51pm: Schleck has an Astana rider on his shoulder, just helping to keep him in his box for now, with Contador on his team-mate's rear wheel. At the front, Kolobnev has ditched Burghardt.
3.53pm: The main peloton pack is down to maybe 40 riders now. Still Saxo Bank putting the work in on the front. Still Contador sticking to Schleck, never letting the gap stretch to more than the odd inch.
3.54pm: Vinokourov's going to be no help to his team leader today – the madcap Astana rider is the latest dropping off the back of the group.
3.55pm: Van den Broeck, currently fifth in the GC, is right there near the top of the group, as is Sammy Sanchez despite his tumble earlier. The wonderfully-named Jakob Fuglsang takes on the pace for Saxo Bank. He's the last team-mate there with Schleck.
3.57pm: "Any chance you can let us know when there's about five/10 minutes to go so I can slip off to the kitchen at work to watch the finish on TV and pretend to my colleagues, apart from those that are following your commentary, that I'm making a tea?" pleads Tom Watkins. Shouldn't be a problem (as long as you leave your auto-refresher on).
3.59pm: Kolobnev has 1min 46secs of lead and 11.1km to go.
4.00pm: Just a couple of dozen riders left in the peloton now, and all the big names are there.
4.01pm: My, this is steep. The road narrows with flag-waving spectators – up, up, up, in, in, in. Meanwhile, Kolobnev seems to have hit the wall.
4.02pm: Barredo makes a move at the front of the pack. BUT HERE COMES SCHLECK!
4.03pm: AND CONTADOR FOLLOWS! A brief flurry but the the Luxembourger sits back down, Contador bobbing up and down just inches behind.
4.04pm: Sanchez is struggling to hold on, Van den Broeck is also having a tough time. Menchov can't hold on either. Yet again it's down to these two.
4.05pm: Under 10km left. Schleck v Contador. The rest of the top GC riders have regrouped 20, maybe 30 seconds behind.
4.06pm: "No mention of Wiggins since the plea earlier in the day for updates," writes Geraint Morgan. "Is he with the front group?" Not any more. Schleck goes again. Contador matches him. They are flying up this hill.
4.08pm: Kolobnev looks back and sees the two greatest riders in the world looming out of the gloom. They tear past him. Schleck tries to increase the pressure once more, but again Contador has enough.
4.09pm: Sanchez and Menchov are struggling in that chasing pack. 8km to the summit. Contador almost looks like he fancies taking Schleck on, but he's reining himself in.
4.11pm: These TV pictures are fantastic. Such is the gloom that the sky is simply a white sheet. There's nothing but the road, a few trees, some clapping spectators, and these two remarkable riders. Schleck's attacks haven't had enough bite so far. Well, at least not to sink the teeth into Contador.
4.12pm: Still 7km to go. Still Contador follows Schleck up the Tourmalet. Schleck stands up once again, the Spaniard again goes with him.
4.14pm: Schleck looks over his shoulder and it must be a dispiriting sight to see the maillot jaune dancing up and down on his pedals behind him. 6km left.
4.15pm: If Schleck is to open up the gap he needs, he'll need to produce something pretty damn special, pretty damn quick. Does he have one big kick left?
4.16pm: Nicolas Roche is struggling, but the gloom makes it hard to tell exactly whereabouts he is. I presume he was in the chasing pack behind the front two, so it's been another strong ride from the Irishman.
4.18pm: Schleck is up out of the saddle and opens up a couple of feet – probably the biggest margin he's had. Contador closes back up. 4.5km to go.
4.19pm: "I really don't think Andy wanted to be alone with Contador so soon," reckons James Cavell. "He must have either wanted to be totally alone, or in a smaller group with guys like VdB, Menchov and Sanchez. Then he could try and explode out the back again and try and get a gap on Contador and hope the others can't help.
"I think he's blown it now. Contador won't ride on the front, and Andy needs to keep the speed high enough to tire Contador, then attack him from the front. More likely now is Contador attacking Andy closer to the line and taking the stage and another 10-15 seconds."
4.20pm: These mountainsides are utterly packed with specators – it's a phenomenal specatacle. As I type 'phenomenal spectacle' the two finest riders in the world are chased by a man, trousers round his ankles, baring his wobbling buttocks.
4.21pm: CONTADOR ATTACKS! And attacks hard! Schleck is struggling for a couple of seconds, but he digs deep and drags himself back in, hauling himself level and fixing the Spaniard with a look of near-loathing, Luxembourgian epithets swishing round in his head.
4.22pm: Just 3km to go, Schleck tries to crank things up once more. Even if he breaks Contador now, though, has he got enough road to make it count?
4.24pm: HONK! HONK! The Tour cars are struggling to get through these exuberant fans. More butt-cheeks emerge from the gloom. The sublime and the ridiculous.
4.25pm: A giant cigarette goes charging up the mountain beside the two leaders. Le Tour, eh? Schleck still can't throw his rival off. Only 2km to go now.
4.27pm: The road winds up once more, Schleck does likewise.
4.28pm: This is astonishing climbing from these two – they've put 90 seconds between themselves and the best of the rest. 1.4km left.
4.29pm: "The idea that three weeks ago both Lance Armstrong and our own Bradley Wiggins reckoned they could stay with these guys in the mountains is looking utterly ridiculous now," writes James Cavell. "What a pair of wallies." There are plenty of wallies on this mountain – most of them not on bikes. 1km to go – Schleck still leads it out. There's barely enough space for Contador to get past, such is the crowd.
4.31pm: The road clears just a touch. Still Contador follows. 500m to go. This is surely the Spaniard's race now.
4.32pm: At this stage it'd be great to see Contador power past and put down a marker. He doesn't look interested, though. Just 200m left.
Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador cross the line at the top of the Tourmalet. Photograph: Eric Gaillard/Reuters
4.33pm: They head to the line side-by-side. SCHLECK PUNCHES THE AIR AS HE CROSSES THE LINE but he must know he's not done quite enough.
4.34pm: That was a battle. Rodriguez is the next over the line, and here comes Hesjedal out of the gloom. Sanchez is next, 1min 32sec behind, then Menchov another seven seconds back and eight seconds later it's Van den Broeck.
4.35pm: Replays show almost a wry smile on Schleck's lips even as he punched the air. The two shook hands after they clambered off their machines, a grudging respect between the pair. Nicolas Roche crosses the line 3min 26sec back. Another fine ride from him.
4.37pm: "Completely agree with James Cavell now. Some of the predictions at the start of the tour look ludicrous now," writes Guy Hornsby. "No one else has come close to this pair. Simply supreme riding today. You can only wonder what Frank Schleck would've done here, or both of them attacking Contador would've resulted in, but credit where it's due, Andy had to make all the running, and he couldn't shake the Astana man. This is surely all but over, barring a miracle on Saturday or a crash."
WELL WHAT A STAGE THAT WAS. Or, more precisely, what a hill that was. Utterly absorbing racing. We didn't get any showstopping, defining moment, but we did get an hour-long duel between the best in the business. Schleck never really looked like breaking Contador, and the Spaniard thought he'd done the job with his huge attack with about 3.5km left, but Schleck held on and fixed his rival with a memorable, defiant, is-that-all-you've-got? glare. They embraced immediately after the line, both battered but unbowed.
It looks like the Tour will be Contador's but there is still three stages left (two of which will be properly contested). It'll take something very, very special to change the GC, but you never know ...
Whatever happens, we'll have live coverage right here, so be sure to head back tomorrow. But for now, that's it from me. As ever, thanks for all your emails – apologies that I couldn't include them all. I'm off to get my bike out of the bike shed and cycle home pretending I'm called Alberto or Andy. Cheerio!
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