Team Astana manager Johan Bruyneel interview at Tour de France.

Part 1

Part 2

These video’s were shot by the owners Mike Fogarty and Robert Kunz during their 10 day trip to the Tour de France.  This was a cycling trip that included many of the Tours big climbs and access to our sponsored teams Astana and Columbia.

We rode to the top of Mount Vontoux hours before Lance Armstrong and Contador proved their dominance and were welcomed with 50+ mph winds.

Big crowds during the Annecy ITT.  First Endurance takes video from the Columbia Team car following George Hincapie.

Dodi Nov, Craig Fisher, Rob Kunz and Mike Fogarty riding back to Montreux Switzerland on the rest day

Lance Armstrong coming through Col du Rommes

Our group riding back to Montreux Switzerland

Johan Bruyneel on Mount Vontoux

George Hincapie at the Annacy TT from the Team Car

Andreas Kloden talking freely about the race

96th Tour de France

Stage 18: Annecy to Annecy, ITT, 40km/25mi

By Cathy Mehl

As the 96th Tour de France wound down to the final four stages, it was a day for each rider to test his legs and race alone against the clock in the last individual time trial for this year’s July love-fest with cycling.  It was a final opportunity to gain time before the climb to Mont Ventoux on Saturday. There would be no holding back and no place to hide on the 40km/25mi course. As the race leader Alberto Contador rolled down the start ramp last, decked out completely in yellow, Saxo Bank’s Fabian Cancellara held the lead by 12-seconds to Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) with a top time of 48.33.  Contador started out fast and quite frankly never slowed down, crossing three of the four time checks in first place and nipping Cancellara on the line by three seconds with a winning time of 48.31, claiming his third stage win in this year’s Tour.  Celebrating with a single fist pump to the air, Contador expanded his overall lead to 4.11 to Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank).  With only the climb to Ventoux still to challenge the Spanish rider, the win in Paris is looking more and more solid for Alberto Contador.

While not ending up at the top on the stage, Lance Armstrong rode a strong race and moved himself into third place on the general classification.  Steady on the bike and looking relaxed the entire way, Armstrong rode within himself and clawed his way onto the podium, jumping over Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank) who slipped to 6th, and holding off Bradley Wiggins (Garmin) who now sits in 4th.  Team Astana’s Andreas Kloden produced a good ride as well, taking 9th on the day and rounds out the top five overall. With three stages to go, Astana Cycling Team have three riders in the top five, and only 13-seconds separate 3rd through 5th positions. Can you say Mont Ventoux?

Asked how he felt on today’s time trial course, Armstrong answered, “I suffered! I probably started too hard  or maybe I was just empty from yesterday, those cramps I suffered at the end.  I felt good at the beginning.  I felt smooth, aero…of course it was a tail wind and everybody felt good!  I wasn’t that strong on the climb but I guess the end result was ok as far as the GC goes.”  Armstrong also talked about needing a much better ride to jump into second-place on the overall: “Well, sixteenth in a TT is not a good result but if my ambition was to be on the podium I have to be happy with that.  I’ll try to protect it (third-place) but it will be hard to move up with Andy climbing so well.  I’ll just watch for the moves there (on Ventoux) and not let them get away.”

A total of 158 riders rolled down the ramp in to ride on course around beautiful Lake Annecy for almost an hour at full gas. While touted as a “flat” course, the reality was the flats were difficult, the hill was harder than it looked and the wind blew off the lake in the afternoon.  There were four time checks on course at 18, 25, 28.5 and 37km, including the climb of the Cote de Bluffy midway through the course. An early best time was set by Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha) but once Swiss champion Fabian Cancellara took to the course he topped the leader board with a time-to-beat of 48.33 and held the lead until Contador snatched the victory. Other good rides came from David Millar (Garmin), Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d-Epargne) as well as Wiggins who took 6th.

Day 4 & 5

On day 4 we had a truly epic day riding.   In the morning we shuttled to the start of the race where we had an opportunity to talk to some of the riders before they started their 160k route over two category 1 climbs.  The riders left Martigny up a 6,000 foot climb.  We took the ‘easier’ route up the Col du Fasque (sp?) which climbed 3,300 feet and averaged 7%.   This road then dropped down into the base of Mount Blanc through the center of the Chamonix valley.   Words and pictures cannot describe the beauty and immensity of Mount Blanc, with glaciers and jagged peaks unlike anything we have ever witnessed.  We descended through Chamonix and climbed up to the ski town of Mageve where we will spend the next three nights.

Stage 17 goes right through the center of Megeve before the riders embark on their 3rd, 4th and 5th climbs of the ‘queen stage’.    We rode out 6 hours before the riders came through Megeve on the race course where we climbed up Col du Areche and Col du Rommes.   The Areche was a hard, steady climb.  We descended across a beautiful valley and immediately went up the Col du Rommes.  Within a mile of this ascent we knew this was where the race would shatter.  Though only 9k, it was a relentless 10-12% climb that was grueling.    We arrived on top of the Col du Rommes 4 hours before the riders and proceeded to watch the race in a restaurant on top of the mountain just a few meters from the race course.   We were able to watch the attacks up the Rommes on TV until 2K from the top.  At that point we went outside and watch Contador, Kloden and the Schleck brothers fly by en route to an epic Tour de France stage.

First Endurance rider Levi Leipheimer (Astana) broke his right wrist after a crash in the 12th stage of the Tour de France and has been successfully operated on Friday, July 17th. The doctors joined the two parts of the broken scaphoid with a 22 mm titanium Herbert Screw. The operation was done in the Centre SOS Main Nancy (Hôpital Jeanne d’Arc) in Dommartin-lès-Toul.  Leipheimer will return to the United States as soon as possible to begin his recovery. Leipheimer, three-times on the podium in Grand Tours, was obviously very disappointed to not be able to take the part in the 13th stage departing from Vittel.

“My wrist hurts a lot but it doesn’t compare to the pain of watching the Tour leave me behind and not be able to ride the Tour with my teammates.  We’ve had a big battle so far and we’re the favorites and I wanted to be part of that.  For sure I wasn’t the biggest favorite, but it was a tactic that we could play. If  I went up the road, the others would have had to chase. A day like today would maybe have offered possibilities for me,” Leipheimer concluded.

About the crash he said, “The turn came upon me fast. I started to brake and slide a little bit and ran out of room and touched another wheel. I was sliding and saw the curb coming and I put my hand out…that’s where I  broke my wrist.”

“The recovery can take a while. I’m afraid I will not be able to do big races any more this year, maybe only some US events,” he replied about the remainder of his racing season.

The reaction of Johan Bruyneel came with, “He had a bad night, so we went to the hospital this morning where they saw the fracture. He is out now. For us it changes a lot. He was in fourth place. He was one of the guys who could potentially win the Tour. Strategically it will make a difference.”

Teammate Alberto Contador added, “Levi was a key person in our team. The Tour is still long and despite the fact that the team did a superb job without him today, we will miss him in the coming week. I hope he will recover soon and wish him all the best.”

And teammate and friend Lance Armstrong also commented on the loss of Levi to this year’s Tour: “It’s a serious blow for our team. We had a nice four-headed approach there.  Twenty-five percent of it is gone now. Not only does it hurt us, it helps the others. It turns their morale. They’re maybe thinking that the team is weakened. It’s unfortunate but it’s part of bike racing.”