2007 Tour de France, Stage 11 to Stage 20

The 19th stage of the 2007 Tour de France on 28 July was 55.5 kilometers long and took the riders from Cognac to the east by the department of Charente in the Poitou -Charentes to Angoulême. It was the second and final time trial of the Tour.

The entire time trial parcours was, in contrast to the first individual time trial on stage 13, and a typical flat rate for Rouleure with long straights. Only on the way to the second intermediate time check at 35 kilometers race in Saint- Genis- d'Hiersac had to be overcome, a small but slight increase. The other intermediate timing points were at the race kilometers in 17.5 and 50.1 Siginge at the point Média. The aid station for the drivers followed by 26.5 kilometers driven in Rouillac.

As the first driver went at 11.20 clock Wim Vansevenant of Predictor -Lotto, at this time 141 and last in the overall standings with 3:45:01 hours behind the leader in the overall standings, Alberto Contador, at the start. After an interval of two minutes followed by all drivers except for the top 20, who went at a distance of three minutes at the start. During the day favorite, the world time trial champion Fabian Cancellara, already rolled around 12.32 clock on the track, followed Contador as the last starter of the driver's field at 16.20 clock.

The first duel of the day delivered to the Belgian Leif Hoste and Fabian Cancellara. After Hoste had set at the three measurement points and the target the first time guidelines followed Cancellara, who had done much for his weak performance in the first time trial. First, he could at the first intermediate time Hoste just under offer, fell in the sequence but still further back and finished the time trial eventually as Tageszwölfter with a time of 1:05:39 hours and thus 2:55 minutes behind the winner. Until the last driver went to the start, the American George Hincapie, the Spanish national time trial champion José Iván Gutiérrez and Russia's Vladimir Karpez had undercut Hostes time and were at the top of the standings.

With Levi Leipheimer and Cadel Evans who were judged stronger than Contador in the time trial, two drivers had a theoretical chance for their first overall win in a three-week tour of the country. Leipheimer went with a gap of 59 seconds on Evans in the race, which in turn was 1:50 minutes behind Contador. At the first measurement point Leipheimer undercutting held there best time of the Russians Karpez by 39 seconds while also Evans and Contador remained below this, but had lost on Leipheimer already time. Also at the second interim Leipheimer equaled the previous best time, where he had already made up 34 seconds of the 59 seconds - residue on Evans. Evans, in turn, had halved the gap on Contador at this time, which amounted to only 55 seconds. These trends were also at the third intermediate timing point, 5.4 km from the finish line, continued. The Leipheimer lying further in the lead was only eight seconds behind Evans and Contador's lead over Evans had dwindled to just 32 seconds. At the finish, Levi Leipheimer finally secured his first stage victory in the Tour de France by 51 seconds ahead of Cadel Evans, who had already completed the first individual time trial after the later of the doping convicted Alexander Vinokourov as Second Day. Third place went to Vladimir Karpez with 1:56 minutes behind. Alberto Contador finished fifth 2:18 minutes behind the day's winner to the finish.

In the overall standings, Alberto Contador was able to defend the yellow jersey by a margin of 23 seconds on Cadel Evans. Behind shortened Levi Leipheimer third overall the gap to 31 seconds. Contador also extended his lead in the junior standings Mauricio Soler further. In the points classification Tom Boonen remained at the top, as well as Soler in the mountains classification. The Discovery Channel team, which was able to place three riders in the top five of the daily standings, defended the lead in the team standings in the team Caisse d'Epargne took second place. Before the stage of the Basque Amets Txurruka was honored by the team Euskaltel -Euskadi as most aggressive rider throughout the Tour.

Standings

First intermediate time check in Siginge ( 17.5 km ) ( 64 m above sea level. NN )

Second intermediate timing point in Saint- Genis- d'Hiersac ( 35 km ) ( 134 m above sea level. NN )

3 intermediate time check at the point Média ( 50.1 miles )

Driver's field

Tour de France 2007

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