German (and honorary Australian) Heinrich Haussler of the Cervelo Test Team is the latest stage winner in the Tour de France , taking stage 13 in yet another day which meant nothing to the overall standings.
The inevitable breakaway only took three kilometres into the 200km stage 13 from Vittel to Colmar, with Haussler, who is better known as a sprinter, attacking in conjunction with Frenchman Christophe Moreau of the Agritubel team. Those two were joined by five others soon after.
The numbers started dropping off from the leading group to the peloton over the long stage including five separate climbs, and close to the last climb the only ones who could survive anywhere near Haussler’s pace to stay in front of the peloton were Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step), Amets Txurruka (Euskatel-Euskadi) and Brice Feillu (Agritubel).
Haussler was 55 minutes behind the leaders at the start of the day and thus was no threat to Rinaldo Nocentini’s yellow jersey, as with the other members of the breakaway. He is a German national but was born and lived for many years in the Australian city of Inverell and speaks English with an Australian accent.
The most newsworthy aspect of the day was the withdrawal before a pedal was pushed of Levi Leipheimer, one of the main contenders in Team Astana, which will weaken the team of Lance Armstrong and Alberto Contador going into the major climbing stages in the second and third weeks.
During the stage, Italian Franco Pellizotti of the Liquigas team took the king of the mountains polka dot jersey away from Spaniard Egoi Martinez of the Euskaltel-Euskadi team, but his tiny three-point lead means that competition will rage on for a while yet.
