July 14, 2006

Simoni and the boys race on

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The Saunier Duval-Prodir crew has come to the transition stages of the 2006 Tour de France. These stages, between the Pyrenees and Alps, typically suit escapes and today the escape succeeded, won by Yaroslav Popovych.

The first escape of the day contained Gilberto Simoni's teammate, David Millar. The Scot made it over the first two passes, the Col des Ares (Cat. 2 at the 27K mark) and Côte de Pujos (Cat. 4 at 47.5K), before his break fell apart due to lack of cooperation and the pull of the peloton behind. Millar wisely led over the Pujos to take maximum points, keeping the points away from any other contenders to make sure David De La Fuente has less worries.

David De La Fuente, wearing the polka-dot King of the Mountains climbing jersey today, still leads the mountains classification over Cyril Dessel. Gilberto can relax at the dinner table tonight, proud of his younger teammate's accomplishments, and focus on the mountain stages to come in the Alps.

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