July 17, Stage 13

Haussler escapes to claim Tour's 13th stage

July 17, Stage 13: Vittel - Colmar 200km

Full Results:

• 1. Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervelo Test Team 4:56:26
• 2. Amets Txurruka (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:04:11
• 3. Brice Feillu (Fra) Agritubel 0:06:13
• 4. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 0:06:31
• 5. Peter Velits (Svk) Team Milram 0:06:43
• 53. Chris Anker Sorensen (Den) Team Saxo Bank  s.t.

A big change in weather from the hot stage yesterday to a cold and damp day today made for a tough transition for some, but not all.  Heinrich Haussler who loves the cool weather showed that he has the legs to beat the best with a solid solo win in Colmar. In the final 40k of the race, Heinrich went solo for a TDF  time trial of his own.  Today's stage was in the cold and over 5 categorized mountain passes, and not an easy day.

Chris had a TSS of 321 with an intensity factor of .774, which made today one of the harder ones in the tour for him.  He was solid on the climbs and the Schluct Pass was definitely the hardest for him as he averaged 362 n((normalized) watts up the 16 minute climb.  The Platzerwasel pass was much longer at 42 minutes and almost as intense with a normalized power of 352 watts.

Chris did a very fine job today of resting in the peloton and he spent 23% of his time free wheeling and resting.  Hopefully this will pay off on Sunday's stage as he will need all the strength he can muster to complete it!

Chris Anker's Race Summary:

• Placing:  91
• Average Watts: 227w
• Normalized power: 298w
• Average heart rate: 137
• Mean Max 5-minutes: 414w
• Mean Max 20-minutes: 351w
• Kilojoules:  4212
• TSS: 321

This is a great chart to use, as it shows the Training Stress Score by week along with the average intensity factor for the week. For Chris, the first week was over 2,100 TSS points, which is equivalent to (21) back to back 1 hour long time trials! That's some serious training stress! This week is not going to be as tough, since the Monday rest day factors in. Still with Sunday being a mountain top finish, he will have over 1,500 TSS points this week.

TrainingPeaks File Viewer: Click to view interactive data, and download the WKO+ file.

Team Saxo Bank Rider Diary

Team Saxo Bank Rider Diary
Each day a Team Saxo Bank rider will give his take on the stages, the challenges he is facing and what he is going through together with the team.

Team Saxo Bank Videos of the Day

Team Saxo Bank Videos of the Day
Pictures and videos of Saxo Bank riders.

Team Saxo Bank Morning Call

Team Saxo Bank Morning Call
With the daily "Morning Call" one of Team Saxo Bank's managers will share some thoughts on the upcoming stage, the challenges and a bit on how it will be approached tactically.