Stage 14 of the Tour de France was won by Russian Serguei Ivanov with American George Hincapie moving up to second overall, but perhaps the biggest news was the death of a spectator hit by a motorbike during the stage and reports of two riders being shot at the day before.
Following a week where nothing much had changed in the general classifications, the 199km stage 14 from Colmar to Besançon looked like it finally might shake up the overall leaderboard, with Hincapie part of a 13-man breakaway after 14 kilometers.
Hincapie, of Team Columbia High Road, became the “virtual leader” during the stage when his deficit of five minutes and 25 seconds to yellow jersey wearer Rinaldo Nocentini was less than the lead established on the peloton by the breakaway.
The peloton gradually reeled back the leading group to a less threatening time gap, lead in parts by Team Astana, which is nominally headed by Lance Armstrong, a friend and former team mate of Hincapie during his glory years with US Postal. Team Ag2r La Mondiale also did a lot of work to defend their rider Nocentini’s yellow jersey for another day, though it may not last past tomorrow.
Ivanov of Team Katusha jumped the leading group with 10km to go and built a lead of as much as 30 seconds, but slowed down to savor the victory and won by 16 seconds.
The spectator who died was a 61-year-old woman who was struck by a Republican Guardsman on a motorcycle in the town of Wittelsheim, 38km into the stage. Two others were also injured, a 37-year-old woman and a 60 year-old man.
The shooting incident happened yesterday with Spaniard Oscar Freire of the Rabobank team pulling a pellet from an air pistol out of his leg, and New Zealander Julian Dean of Team Garmin copping a pellet to a finger.
Top 10 results from stage 14 1 Serguei Ivanov (Rus) Team Katusha 4:37:46 2 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale 0:00:16 3 Hayden Roulston (NZl) Cervelo TestTeam 4 Martijn Maaskant (Ned) Garmin – Slipstream 5 Sébastien Minard (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 6 Daniele Righi (Ita) Lampre – NGC 7 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 8 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia – HTC 9 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas 10 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Team Milram 0:00:22
General classification
1 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 58:13:52 2 George Hincapie (USA) Team Columbia – HTC 0:00:05 3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:00:06 4 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 0:00:08 5 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 0:00:43 6 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin – Slipstream 0:00:46 7 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 0:00:54 8 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia – HTC 0:01:00 9 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin – Slipstream 0:01:24 10 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:49
