Garate grabs emphatic Ventoux victory

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It was a fantastic idea; to have the penultimate stage of the Tour de France finish on one of the greatest-ever climbs. For race director Christian Prudhomme, the dream was for Mont Ventoux to be the deciding moment of the 2009 Tour.

There were two factors that prevented Prudhomme from realising that dream. One was the interminable strength of Alberto Contador (Astana), who has just 164 kilometres left to ride before he captures his second Tour de France crown Sunday in Paris. The other was the dream of another man, the night before Saturday's 20th stage of La Grande Boucle to "The Giant of Provence" - the dream of a 33-year-old Spaniard from Rabobank named Juan Manuel Garate.

Away in a 16-man break since the third kilometre, Garate bided his time until the lower slopes of the bald-headed mountain. Early on, he had just Tony Martin (Columbia-HTC) and Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) for company with less than five minutes separating the trio from the groupe maillot jaune 20 kilometres from the finish. After a short dig by Garate, the three decided to work together in search of the impossible.

Past the verdant tree line, Riblon had gone, leaving just Garate and Martin to ascend the six kilometres of lunar landscape, the last five straight uphill and over 1,400 metres. As the road twisted towards the summit, the German from Columbia-HTC doggedly hung on to the better-credentialed climber, nine years his senior. But as the line approached on this incessant, dog-of-a-climb, Garate gave it one last push, and it proved enough to grant him the best win of his career.

"I dreamt of this moment last night, and to have it come true today - it's amazing," said Garate, who crossed the line three seconds ahead of Martin to salvage an otherwise lacklustre Tour for his Rabobank team.

Nine years after Frenchman Richard Virenque last won atop Ventoux in the 2002 Tour de France, does Garate realise he's the first Spaniard to triumph on this famed hill? "That's news to me," he said, his smile revealing he was more than happy to receive the surprise honour. "I've won stages of the Vuelta, the Giro, but this is really something - the best."

Against Contador, Andy's all not nearly enough

Like they did on the 17th stage to Le Grand-Bornand, the Schleck brothers - particularly Andy - gave everything they had on the ugly duckling of mountains that stands alone in the middle of Provence.

But Contador, with a massive four-minute advantange on Andy Schleck at the start of the day, had only to defend his enviable led. Annoyingly for the Luxembourger in his final throw of the dice, the Spaniard stuck like a piece of old chewing gum on his shoe, almost but never quite getting rid of  Contador. It's been like that whenever the younger Schleck's attacked, as it was all Contador had to do. And while it wasn't the outcome fans were hoping for, the result was indicative of the past week's happenings, as Schleck and Contador finished together in third and fourth, 38 seconds adrift of stage winner Garate.

"Andy [Schleck] really made me suffer a lot. He didn't make any mistakes. I made the difference in the time trials," said Contador, who wore a far more relieved expression after Saturday's stage.

Asked about teammates Lance Armstrong's objectives versus his own, Contador said, "I had elements against me but I worked on that, I built on that, and eventually achieved my goal. It was tough to cope with because we both wanted to win the race, and that just doesn't make sense, to have two guys who want to win the overall. But I prepared for that, and I prepared a difficult Tour, and it paid off."

Still, he will be happy to have Armstrong and Andy Schleck by his side in the final presentation. "When you win in Paris, you like to have great champions by your side, and the photo in Paris will be historical," Contador said.

While the wind didn't blow as strongly as predicted, topping out with a 41 kilometre-per-hour Mistral headwind at the top, it did annul attacks to a degree, discouraging any changes of significance on the general classification. Still, within the top ten, Fränk Schleck and Andréas Klöden (Astana) swapped their fifth and sixth places; Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) moved from 12th to 9th; and Christophe Le Mevel (Française des Jeux) dropped a spot to 10th.

"I tried everything today. I've said before that I didn't want to go to Paris and say I haven't tried everything to win the race," said Andy Schleck.

"There were some objectives today. Firstly, to defend my second place and then maybe to move Fränk onto the podium, like he was before the [Annecy] time trial. Unfortunately, we didn't succeed with that second objective, but that's not a big disappointment. We said this morning that everything that comes from here on in is a bonus. We've had a fantastic Tour, and if someone had told me in Monaco that I would be standing here second overall on the Ventoux, I'd have bitten their hand off."

Last roll of the dice begins in Montélimar

The gateway to Provence and the capital of the nougat industry, 156 brave soldiers lined up in Montélimar for the most anticipated stage of the 2009 Tour, kicking off earlier than usual at 11:40 am local time.

After 25km, another three had joined including Mickael Delage (Silence Lotto), Ruben Perez Moreno (Euskaltel Euskadi) and Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Caisse d'Epargne). That made a 16-man break, with four minutes ahead of the peloton.

At the summit of the Col d'Ey (65.5km), Kuschynski led the break 9:10 ahead of the bunch, driven without haste by Saxo Bank and Astana. Then, they had no reason to chase, Martin being the best-placed rider on GC in 44th overall, 55:39 down on Contador at the start of the day. Not long thereafter, however, the situation began to change, as the Saxo Bankers took command and began a strategy we saw one year ago on the stage to L'Alpe d'Huez with Stuart O'Grady and Fabian Cancellara leading the charge.

Over the penultimate ascent of the Col des Abeilles and with 45.5km left to race, the Saxo charge kept any counterattacks at bay but had little effect in reducing their deficit to the 16 up ahead, who were still enjoying a 8:25 lead. At that point, the stage had been run at a modest average, equating to 39.4 km/h for the first three hours.

Six minutes behind the break, and shortly after the second and final intermediate sprint in Mormoiron on the outskirts of Bédoin (138.5km), the groupe maillot jaune split. It would mark the first of a handful of decisive selections.

Out of the original 16, Garate, Martin and Riblon were all that was left 17km from the line, with the groupe maillot jaune also on the Ventoux's lower slopes. With no attacks from the latter, it was looking like a day of attrition - until Andy Schleck's acceleration 13km out reduced his companions to six including his brother Frank, Contador, Armstrong, Nibali, Wiggins and early escapee Gutierrez left to hang on.

Meanwhile, Riblon had been dropped, leaving only Garate and Martin two minutes ahead of the groupe maillot jaune 10 clicks from the finish. And despite their advantage shrinking to 38 seconds by the line, Garate's last surge gave him the edge, and the situation stayed largely the same, as GC favourites Andy Schleck, Contador, Armstrong, Fränk Schleck, Kreuziger, Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) all finished within 20 seconds of each other.

For images of stage 20 click here

Results

Armstrong deserves his eighth Paris podium

His performance Saturday, finishing three seconds behind Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador, Lance Armstrong proved his worth as the third-best rider of the 96th Tour. The comeback king went into the 167-kilometre stage just 15 seconds ahead of Bradley Wiggins (Garmin-Slipstream), 17 seconds ahead of teammate Klöden and 38 seconds in front of Fränk Schleck. Apart from the elder Schleck brother who finished two seconds down on Armstrong in sixth place, Wiggins and Klöden faltered to an extent in the closing kilometres - 10th place at 1:03 and 12th at 1:42, respectively - thereby guaranteeing the Texan a spot on what will be his eighth Tour de France podium.

"I felt good. I mean, I can't complain. It was kind of simple: follow Wiggins and follow Frank Schleck, and I had the legs to do that," said Armstrong.

"It was not as windy as advertised; it feels windy here at the top, but on the way up, a little less than we thought. I have never seen so many people on the Ventoux - hell, it seems like half of America showed up and all of France! It was so packed, and when you have a lot of people, it blocks a lot of the wind.

"But hey, I can't complain. For an old fart coming in here and getting on the podium, not so bad," Armstrong said.