Stage 14 Has A Death And A Comeback

Before it started, stage 14 of the Tour de France was expected to be a rather mundane stage with all the excitement coming in the final kilometer, as the teams set up their sprinters for the final dash to the finish. But as it turns out, the stage may well have been one of the more eventful and exciting of this year's Tour.

There was an accident 38 kilometers into the race that resulted in a death, but none of the race's competitors were involved. It happened when a 61 year-old woman suddenly tried to cross the road. She was struck by a motorcycle driven by a gendarme in the Republican Guard. The motorcycle then slid and hit two other spectators. Of the last two spectators, one suffered a broken leg and the other neck pains. But emergency medical personnel were not able to save the life of the first woman struck.

In the race, the peloton allowed a breakaway. This was a mistake for two reasons -- there were 12 riders in the breakaway and George Hincapie was one of those riders. It is fairly easy for the peloton to pull back a breakaway of 3 or 4 riders, but the more riders in the breakaway, the more difficult it is to catch them (because they can share the workload just like the peloton). This breakaway was not caught, and Russian Serguei Ivanov of the Katusha team won the stage.

But the real excitement was made by American George Hincapie (pictured) of the Columbia team. He started the day 5.25 behind the race leader, and it looked like he might actually snatch the yellow jersey as the breakaway got nearly a nine minute lead. Could the peloton make up enough time to deny him the yellow jersey? In the end they did, but just barely. Hincapie was able to make up 5.20 of time, and is now in second place by only five seconds.

There was also a little excitement when the sprinters in the peloton made their dash for the finish line. It first looked like Mark Cavendish has beaten Thor Hushovd and made up a couple of points on him. But the race officials ruled that Cavendish (or one of his teammates) had cut in front of Hushovd, denying him his established line to the finish. The officials denied Cavendish any points for the finish, so he falls even further behind Hushovd in the quest for the green jersey.

In stage 15 the race goes into the Alps, where it will remain for a few days. It is expected that the yellow jersey will be won or lost in the next three days. Stage 15 starts with three catagorey 3 climbs and then goes to a catagorey 2 climb. It finishes with a catagorey 1 climb. It is very possible that a move will be made to claim the race lead on the final climb. Here are the current standings:

YELLOW JERSEY (OVERALL LEADERS)
1. Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R)
2. George Hincapie (Columbia)..........0.05
3. Alberto Contador (Astana)..........0.06
4. Lance Armstrong (Astana)..........0.08
5. Christophe Le Mevel (Francaise)..........0.43
6. Bradley Wiggins (Garmin)..........0.46
7. Andreas Kloden (Astana)..........0.54
8. Tony Martin (Columbia)..........1.00
9. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin)..........1.24
10. Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)..........1.49

GREEN JERSEY (SPRINTERS)
1. Thor Hushovd (Cervelo)..........218 pts
2. Mark Cavendish (Columbia)..........200 pts
3. Jose Rojas (Caisse)..........126 pts
4. Gerald Ciolek (Milram)..........122 pts
5. Tyler Farrar (Garmin)..........110 pts

POLKA DOT JERSEY (CLIMBERS)
1. Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas)..........98 pts
2. Egoi Martinez (Euskadi)..........95 pts
3. Brice Feillu (Agritubel)..........64 pts
4. Christophe Kern (Cofidis)..........59 pts
5. Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step)..........53 pts

TEAM LEADERS
1. AG2R
2. Milram..........0.16
3. Columbia..........4.45
4. Saxo Bank..........4.46
5. Astana..........5.23