The 2004 Tour de France was the 91st edition of Tour de France, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The Tour began in Liège, Belgium with a prologue individual time trial on 3 July and Stage 10 occurred on 14 July with a hilly stage from Limoges. The race finished on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 25 July.
Stage 10 14 July 2004 — Limoges to Saint-Flour,
This 237 km stage was the longest of the 2004 Tour and the first to feature some serious climbs. Cutting through the departments of Haute-Vienne, Corrèze, and Cantal, and so part of the Massif Central, the big climbs were the cat-1 Col du Pas de Peyrol (Le Puy Mary) and the cat-2's the Col de Néronne and the Col de Prat-de-Bouc. On Bastille Day the predominantly French crowd was willing a French stage win, a feat achieved thirteen times since 1947, the last being Laurent Jalabert in 2001. The day was calm, warm and sunny. 172 riders started the stage.
The race began with small attacks in the first few kilometres but the peloton kept control until around Linards, at 35 km. A group of four riders, including veteran climber Richard Virenque, managed to pull out a small lead, they were joined by seven other riders just before the first sprint, but their lead was just 20 seconds. After the small lead group swelled to eighteen riders US Postal came to the front of the peloton and all the escapees except Virenque and Axel Merckx (son of Eddy) were soon back in the main group. The determined duo slowly pulled away, extending their advantage to 60 seconds by the 50 km mark. Joly and Kroon tried to join them but fell short and after they returned to the peloton the pace of the main group fell slightly, USP reduced their efforts, and the two leaders pulled further ahead. After the second climb (Col de Lestards, 67 km raced, cat-3) they were almost four minutes ahead.
Virenque and Merckx pulled further ahead over the third climb and by the second intermediate sprint were 8'05" clear. At the summit of the Cote de Chalvignac (126.5 km raced) they had over nine minutes in hand. Brioches la Boulangere were doing most of the work at the front of the peloton. On the Col de Néronne the lead was 10'40", Virenque had taken maximum points on every climb.
On the ascent of the cat-1 Col du Pas de Peyrol, after 135 km together, Merckx was dropped by Virenque. His lead over the peloton was down to 9'00" and he had about half-a-minute over Merckx. On the descent there were two nasty crashes out of the peloton by Matthias Kessler and Sebastian Hinault.
Over the eighth summit (Col d'Entremont) Virenque had a minute over Merckx and had maintained his advantage over the peloton. On the final major summit, the Col de Prat de Bouc, with 31.5 km to the finish, Virenque led Merckx by over four minutes and had 7'45" over the rest. Merckx was caught by the peloton on the descent and then dropped by the peloton (he finished a minute down on the peloton).
Virenque held his lead, the peloton did not make a major effort to catch him, and he came in over five minutes ahead. He had been out in front for 202 km and raced the final 62 km alone. It was his seventh career Tour stage victory, his maximum points haul was enough to put him in the polka-dot jersey for the first time in 2004 and his win also jumped him 51 places in the classement général.
Stage 10 result Rank Rider Team Time1 Quick-Step–Davitamon 2 T-Mobile Team + 5' 19" 3 T-Mobile Team + 5' 19" 4 Illes Balears + 5' 19" 5 Brioches La Boulangère + 5' 19" 6 + 5' 19" 7 Gerolsteiner + 5' 19" 8 + 5' 19" 9 Domina Vacanze + 5' 19" 10 Alessio–Bianchi + 5' 19"General classification after stage 10 Rank Rider Team Time1 Brioches La Boulangère 2 Cofidis – Le Crédit par Téléphone + 3' 00" 3 Française des Jeux + 4' 13" 4 Quick-Step–Davitamon + 6' 52" 5 Team CSC + 7' 31" 6 + 9' 35" 7 T-Mobile Team + 9' 58" 8 + 10' 04" 9 Phonak Hearing Systems + 10' 09" 10 Illes Balears + 10' 18"
Stage 11 15 July 2004 — Saint-Flour to Figeac,
This 164 km stage remained in hilly territory but featured no climbs as severe as Stage 10. There were just five categorised climbs, the largest being the cat-2 Côte de Montsalvy at 99.5 km. The day was warm, road-side temperatures reached as high as 45 °C and there was little wind.
After the usual early escape attempts the peloton split on the very first climb at 6.5 km, although they were soon back together. Very quickly after the regrouping Jens Voigt and Juan Antonio Flecha broke away, they were joined by four others, but never got further than 20 seconds ahead and soon rejoined the US Postal led peloton. Minutes after that group had been swept up seven more riders tried to get away, they were soon caught and again another four riders made an attack. This group grew to seven before being caught on the second climb, the Cote de Therondels.
On the short descent, after 56 km raced, David Moncoutié and Egoi Martínez made a break, they were soon joined by Flecha and the trio managed to push their lead above 30 seconds and then further. In the 15 km to the third climb they established a 1'50" gap. Their advantage reached 7'50" at 90 km raced, fell back over the fourth climb, the Cote de Montsalvy, before rising again to over eight minutes.
The leaders took an eight-minute advantage into the final 10 km and the attacks began from within the trio. Flecha had an attempt and was caught, but then Moncoutie broke away and the remaining pair didn't chase. His lead grew by 60 seconds in the next 4 km and he cruised over the line for his first Tour victory 2'15" ahead of his two chasers, who both looked decidedly jaded. Moncoutié is a native of the region and the first régionaux winner since 1974. The peloton came in six minutes after Moncoutié and there were no changes to the top ten.
Stage 11 result Rank Rider Team Time1 Cofidis – Le Crédit par Téléphone 2 + 2' 15" 3 + 2' 17" 4 Crédit Agricole + 5' 58" 5 T-Mobile Team + 5' 58" 6 Lotto–Domo + 5' 58" 7 Quick-Step–Davitamon + 5' 58" 8 Gerolsteiner + 5' 58" 9 + 5' 58" 10 Cofidis – Le Crédit par Téléphone + 5' 58"General classification after stage 11 Rank Rider Team Time1 Brioches La Boulangère 2 Cofidis – Le Crédit par Téléphone + 3' 00" 3 Française des Jeux + 4' 13" 4 Quick-Step–Davitamon + 6' 52" 5 Team CSC + 7' 43" 6 + 9' 35" 7 T-Mobile Team + 9' 58" 8 + 10' 04" 9 Phonak Hearing Systems + 10' 09" 10 Illes Balears + 10' 18"
Stage 12 16 July 2004 — Castelsarrasin to La Mongie,
This 197.5 km stage was the first to enter the Pyrenees. The route had no categorised climbs until the 160 km mark. The two climbs were both cat-1, the Col d'Aspin was included in a stage for the 66th time and the finish was at La Mongie (third inclusion), a ski resort at the top of another cat-1 climb. There were expectations that Armstrong would make a move on this stage, as he had won a previous stage to La Mongie in 2002. It was another sunny, cloudless day at the start but as the riders approached the mountains there was heavy rain.
A break by four riders in the first two minutes was allowed to get away. Counter-attacks were swallowed up by the US Postal and Brioches la Boulangere led peloton, but the foursome built their lead over the long approach to the Col d'Aspin to a maximum of just over four minutes. With about 100 km raced the peloton started to cut into the leaders' advantage and caught them three km from the start of the ascent of the Col d'Aspin.
US Postal led the peloton up the mountain, setting a pace that dropped many non-climbers. There were several attacks on the ascent and the riders were led over the summit by Mickael Rasmussen, who had a 5" lead over Christophe Moreau, Virenque was third. Despite the wet road the descent was rapid and broke up the peloton.
The rain stopped as the riders approached the final climb. Rasmussen took a 30" lead into the ascent but he was soon caught by a group of eleven, including Armstrong and Mayo. Having dropped Ullrich, Armstrong was quick to attack himself and the group pulled away from Ullrich. Sastre was still ahead of the group and with 3 km to the finish he was chased by Armstrong, who was accompanied by Ivan Basso. Armstrong caught and dropped Sastre and led Basso under the 1 km mark. In the final metres Basso put on a spurt, Armstrong did not respond, and Basso won the stage. Mayo came in 1'09" down, Ullrich 2'30", and Tyler Hamilton 3'27". Other riders staggered in over the next 100 minutes. Thomas Voeckler finished 3'59" behind but stayed in yellow (he has now spent longer in yellow than any Frenchman since 1992), Armstrong rose to second in the classement général.
Stage 12 result Rank Rider Team Time1 Team CSC 2 s.t. 3 T-Mobile Team + 20" 4 Illes Balears + 24" 5 Team CSC + 33" 6 Phonak Hearing Systems + 50" 7 Illes Balears + 59" 8 Domina Vacanze + 1' 02" 9 + 1' 03" 10 Phonak Hearing Systems + 1' 03"General classification after stage 12 Rank Rider Team Time1 Brioches La Boulangère 2 + 5' 24" 3 Française des Jeux + 5' 50" 4 Quick-Step–Davitamon + 6' 20" 5 T-Mobile Team + 6' 33" 6 Team CSC + 6' 33" 7 Illes Balears + 6' 43" 8 Team CSC + 6' 53" 9 Phonak Hearing Systems + 7' 23" 10 Team CSC + 8' 11"
Stage 13 17 July 2004 — Lannemezan to Plateau de Beille,
This was the second day in the Pyrenees. The 205.5 km stage had five major climbs, including the 15.9 km hors categorie climb to the finish at Plateau-de-Beille, the first such climb on the 2004 Tour. The other main climbs were the Col de Portet d'Aspet, the Col de la Core, the Col de Latrape, and the Col d'Agnes. The Col d'Agnes actually has a steeper gradient than the final climb (average 8.2% to average 7.8%) but is shorter at 9.8 km. Many mountains on this stage have been included before, notably the Col du Portet d'Aspet, this is its 51st inclusion since 1910 including the tragic occasion in 1995 when Fabio Casartelli crashed on the descent and later died. On another bright and hot day 165 riders started the stage.
The usual early break, this time by fifteen riders, was quickly chased down by the US Postal team. Haimar Zubeldia was dropped early and abandoned the Tour, a short while later Denis Menchov abandoned and before the first climb Gerrit Glomser dropped out. Another smaller group quickly sprang away after the capture of the first break, and held a slim advantage for a few more kilometres before being swept up. Again there was another break, this time by Sylvain Chavanel and Jens Voigt. The pair broke away, and as the peloton slowed, built up a reasonable lead – heading the peloton by 3'06" over the first climb, with Michael Rasmussen caught in no-man's-land 70" behind the leaders.
On the second climb, the Col du Portet d'Aspet, Rasmussen caught and stayed with the two leaders and the three went over the summit with a lead of 3'50" over the peloton. A substantial group (a grupetto) were dropped on the ascent by the main peloton. As the riders passed through the feedzone Tyler Hamilton abandoned.
The trio extended their lead on the flatter part and had a 5'00" advantage over the Col de Core. On the fourth climb they pulled out a little further and the chasing peloton dropped many riders including Iban Mayo and Thomas Voeckler. On the Col d'Agnes Voigt and Rasmussen dropped Chavanel and in the twenty-strong chasing group the five US Postal riders started to push harder. At the summit the leading pair's advantage over the peloton had fallen to 3'40", Voeckler was a further minute back, with Mayo a surprising 14'05" adrift.
Over the Port de Lers Voigt stopped working and simply followed Rasmussen over the summit, 3'50" ahead. Behind them the chasers joined up, forming a thirty-strong group including Voeckler, who had fought his way back. At the start of the final climb Voigt and Rasmussen held an insufficient 3'10" lead.