Tour de France Stage 16 Mikel Astarloza Crosses Line First

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Tour de france 2009 Stage 16 : Mikel Astraloza___Allez Allez, Vamos!!

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sourced by Barbara McPherson

Tour de France Stage 16 saw Mikel Astarloza(Euskaltel-Euskadi) cross the line first follwed by Sandy Casar(Francaise des Jeux) then Pierrick Fedrigo(Bbox).  The 159 kilometre mountainous section of the Tour saw the riders enter three countries, from a start in Switzerland in the town of Martigny.  They then rode through the first mountain pass to enter Italy and then it was back to France at Bourg-Saint-Maurice.

Alberto Contador(Astana) gets to keep the yellow jersey for another day.  The Astana team controlled the pace for much of the race. An acceleration by the Saxobank team to slingshot the Schleck brothers into the lead took a small group into a chase group just below the second peak.  The acceleration left Lance Armstrong in the following group and it looked as if the Schlecks would pass Lance Armstrong in the overall standings.  Lance Armstrong amazed everyone by biding his time and at the right moment sprinted across the gap to demoralize the Saxobank riders.  At the end of the day two minutes 26 seconds separated first from fifth place.

Overall Standings:

1.  Alberto Contador(Astana)

2.  Lance Armstrong(Astana)

3.  Bradley Wiggins(Garmin)

4.  Andreas Kloden(Astana)

5.  Andy Schleck(Saxobank)

Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) keeps the polka dot jersey for King of the Mountains for another day.

Team Astana rides as top team in the Tour.

The long, technical descent of the Petit Saint Bernard saw riders reach speeds of 75 km/hr.  Jose Gomez Marchante(Cervelo) had a crash but resumed the race.  Not so lucky was Jens Voigt(Saxobank) who had a hard crash and had to be evacuated to hospital.

 Stage 17 of the Tour is from Bourg-Saint-Maurice to Le Grand-Bornand, a distance of 169.5 km.  The riders face five mountain peaks tomorrow.