Tour de France Stage 18 TV Schedule – July 23, 2009
The Tour de France stage 18 TV schedule is listed below as Versus continues live coverage of the 2,149 mile event on Thursday, July 23. It was a close race for the stage 17 win yesterday as Frank Schleck, Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck fought to the finish. Frank Schleck was able to pull ahead and finish just ahead of Contador. So Contador will enter stage 18 still wearing the yellow jersey, for the third straight stage. He currently holds a 2:26 overall lead over the second place Andy Schleck, and a 3:25 lead over Frank Schleck.
Lance Armstrong lost a bunch of time on the overall lead as he finished 2:18 behind the leaders in stage 17, putting himself 3:55 behind his Astana teammate Contador for the overall lead.
Stage 18 will be an individual time trial over 24.8 miles (40 km) through Annecy.
Most cable providers now carry the Versus channel and stage 18 coverage starts at 8:30 a.m. EST with replays throughout the day.
Still think Lance can win?…poll results may change now with him 3:55 behind…
Tour de France Stage 18 TV Schedule
Versus – 8:30 a.m. EST – 12:00 p.m. EST – Live coverage of Stage 18
If you miss the live coverage Versus has some replays for you at:
12:00 p.m. EST – 2:00 p.m. EST – Replay of Stage 18
2:30 p.m. EST – 4:30 p.m. EST – Replay of Stage 18
5:00 p.m. EST – 7:00 p.m. EST – Replay of Stage 18
8:00 p.m. EST – 11:00 p.m. EST – Extended replay of Stage 18
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2009 Tour de France stage 17 results (Frank Schleck wins stage)
2009 Tour de France stage 17 results, Frank Schleck wins AP/Laurent Rebours
The taste of victory is sweet for Frank Schleck (LUX) of Saxo Bank, who won today’s brutal stage 17 of the 2009 Tour de France, finishing the climb up the five difficult mountain passes in 4 hours, 53 minutes, 54 seconds. Frank and brother Andy unfolded their grand strategy as expected; heavily assaulting the mountain passes with their superior alpine climbing skills. Alberto Contador of Astana was second and Andy Schleck was third, with the same time as Frank.
The Schlecks took time from everyone today, but could not shake Alberto Contador, who stayed right with them until the end, vigorously defending the yellow jersey. Contador has a 2:26 lead over Andy Schleck, who has displaced Lance Armstrong for 2nd place overall. Frank Schleck is now 3rd overall, 3:25 behind Contador.
Lance Armstrong protected his team, staying on Bradley Wiggins of Garmin-Slipstream for much of the climbing until finally Wiggins fell back, while Lance sped ahead, gaining back at least 30 seconds during the descent, ultimately placing 5th in the stage. Armstrong has dropped to 4th overall, 3:55 behind his teammate Contador. Wiggins has dropped to 6th overall, 4:53 behind.
Andy Schleck continues to hold onto the white jersey, while Thor Hushovd of Cervelo Test Team and Franco Pellizotti of LIquigas keep the green and polka-dot jerseys, respectively.
Today’s stage shook up the general classification as predicted. There is now a 10-minute spread in the top ten, with Mikel Astarloza in 10th place, 10:50 behind Contador.
The stage 18 individual time trial coming up on Thursday will be a test of who has recovered best from the rigorous climbing during stage 17. The 40.5 km course takes riders around the beautiful lac d’Annecy in the city of Annecy. The course is flat with one category 3 climb.
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Tour De France Stage 16 Results (win for Mikel Astarloza)
Mikel Astarloza was the winner of stage 16 of the Tour de France but the gut-busting ride by Lance Armstrong to stay in touch with yellow jersey wearer and Astana team mate Alberto Contador was the biggest of the day’s results.
The breakaway in the first ten kilometres of the 159km stage 16 from Martigny to Bourg-Saint-Maurice contained more than twenty riders, building a lead around two minutes. Italian Franco Pellizotti of Liquigas and Russian Vladimir Karpets of Team Katusha then jumped the breakaway, cresting the Great Saint Bernard Pass – the first of two huge climbs – 2:03 ahead of the rest of the leading pack and around five minutes ahead of the peloton.
Pellizotti and Karpets were caught by the breakaway group with 60km left to ride and the Little Saint Bernard Pass between them and the finish line. Pellizotti then kicked ahead again with Belgian Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Silence-Lotto, later joined by Frenchman Amael Moinard of Cofidis and Spaniard Mikel Astarloza of Euskaltel-Euskadi, and it was this foursome which eventually contested the stage win, with Astarloza coming out in front.
Meanwhile, back in the peloton the Schleck brothers, Frank and Andy, lead an attack with yellow jersey wearer Alberto Contador joining them, with Lance Armstrong and Cadel Evans among the contenders who didn’t immediately respond.
However, in the biggest move of the day, Armstrong then took it upon himself to bridge the significant gap between the main peloton and the Contador group, bringing back memories of his seven straight Tour de France wins with an impressive riding performance.
Stage 16 results
1 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi 159km in 4.14.20
2 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 6 seconds behind
3 Pierrick Fedrigo (Fra) BBOX Bouygues Telecom
4 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
5 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Silence – Lotto
6 Amaël Moinard (Fra) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne
Top 20 of general classification after stage 16
1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 67:33:15
2 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 1:37
3 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Garmin – Slipstream 1:46
4 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Astana 2:17
5 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 2:26
6 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 2:51
7 Christophe Le Mevel (Fra) Française des Jeux 3:09
8 Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 3:25
9 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Cervelo Test Team 3:52
10 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin – Slipstream 3:59
11 Mikel Astarloza Chaurreau (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi 4:38
12 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas 4:40
13 Kim Kirchen (Lux) Team Columbia – HTC 5:05
14 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale 5:26
15 Sandy Casar (Fra) Française des Jeux 5:40
16 Vladimir Karpets (Rus) Team Katusha 5:56
17 Cadel Evans (Aus) Silence – Lotto 7:23
18 Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 8:23
19 Stéphane Goubert (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 9:14
20 Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 10:00
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