SALLANCHES, France, 13 June 2005 — Spaniard Inigo Landaluze of the Euskaltel team won the Dauphine Libere stage race yesterday after the seventh and final stage won here by George Hincapie of the Discovery Channel team.
Overnight race leader Landaluze held a 49-second lead on Colombia’s Santiago Botero before the start of the stage, however it was not long before the 28-year-old Spaniard found himself in trouble.
After less than an hour of racing Discovery Channel duo Hincapie and Yaroslav Popvych broke away from a peloton which had managed to control an early breakaway attempt by 35 riders as they raced down toward Sallanches.
New Yorker Hincapie, who won the prologue of the race a week ago, and Popovych forged ahead and built a steady lead on the peloton which was at first being led by the Gerolsteiner team of American Levi Leipheimer.
While Landaluze struggled to keep pace with a main bunch of pursuers, by the time the two stage leaders had completed 48 km their lead had grown to just over a minute.
However with a nine-kilometer circuit in the town to complete seven times, including the formidable 2.5km Domancy climb, they were going to have to work hard to maintain their advantage.
A few kilometers before they reached Sallanches, another breakaway behind the two Discovery men split the peloton in half and a 35-strong group which contained all the contenders for the yellow jersey began their pursuit. By the time Hincapie and Ukrainian all rounder Popovych reached the foot for the first climb of the Domancy climb — a 2.5km long third category climb whose average gradient was a testing 10 percent — their lead stood at 1:55.
The Domancy climb was once made famous by French cycling legend Bernard Hinault, who won the world championship road race title here in 1980 — although the five-time Tour de France winner had to race it 21 times.
With less than four of the seven climbs to complete four riders broke away from Landaluze’s group of pursuers but from the four Kazakh Andrey Kashechkin was the best placed in the overall standings at 4:01.
To hold on to his yellow jersey, the Spaniard just had to make sure he didn’t allow Kashechkin to forge ahead, while at the same time keeping an eye on Botero.
On the second last climb of the Domancy however Landaluze began to suffer.
Botero did everything he could on the last circuit to win the yellow jersey but despite taking a small lead on Landaluze, the Colombian had to settle for second place overall.
