Stage 18 – Pinerolo 
Galibier Serre-Chavalier 200.5 km
Quite possibly the best race of the whole tour to date. It had everything in abundance.
With the finish at the Col du Galibier it became the tours highest finish in its long history and the centenary of the first time the finish was at the Col du Galibier in 1911. Whilst covered in snow 24 hours previously it was touch and go if the finish would be as planned. As luck would have it there was a window of opportunity when the weather warmed allowing time for the snow to melt before the riders accent to the finish line.
In an early break of 16 riders it became clear very early on that we were in for something special. By luck or by cunning EUS and LEO both had multiple riders in the breakaway. Were these riders just feeling lucky or was there something afoot?
With 60km to go we found out. Andy Schleck attacked with blistering speed with no reaction for the rest of the GC group to pull him back into the fold. By the summit of the Col d’Izoard Andy Schleck had managed to open up a 2’15″ lead over the peloton with the breakaway leaders still being 4’05 in front. As Andy Schleck’s breakaway continued we got to see why there were two LEO riders out front. They were out front to help Schleck gain time on the Voeckler to take the yellow jersey. The LEO riders helped Schleck as much as they possibly could and you could see by the end of their turns each was utterly spent as Schleck kept dancing on those peddles to propel himself ever closer to the finishing line.
As Schleck continued his one man battle for the yellow jersey it seemed that the only rider intent on catching him was Cadel Evans. Evans upped the pace to such an extent that Contador cracked and was dropped from the yellow jersey group. Voeckler hung in there for quite possibly the ride of his career and mimicking 2004 when he gave everything to stay in yellow for another day. The way Voeckler is riding you have to wonder if he is starting to believe in his own abilities and will either win this year or with better planning and preparation win next year. At the final sprint Voeckler managed to pull enough out of the bag to stay in yellow by just 15 seconds over Andy Schleck.
The other highlight of such and explosively brutal stage was Mark Cavendish coming in over 2 minutes over the race cut off period. Luckily for Cavendish there were over 80 other riders in the group. With the rules stating that if over 20% of the riders miss the cut off then they are allowed to continue the following day but there would be a 20 points deduction. This leaves Cavendish just 15 points clear at the top of the green jersey classification.
You don’t see races like that everyday.
Total distance covered: 3183 km
Steven. A. Barlow, Co founder www.spartan-warriors.co.uk , founder of Spartan Runners ” because we don`t just run” © 2011