On the Tour’s queen stage, #17 from Embrun to a tough finish atop L’Alpe d’Huez, Agritubel’s French champion Nicolas Vogondy has an excellent ride to finish 15th atop the mythical climb. The rest of the Agritubel team suffered under CSC’s onslaught to L’Alpe d’Huez, with 5 riders in the grupetto at 38′, while while Jimmy Casper finished outside the time limit and was eliminated from Le Tour. Top Agritubel rider for the overall at the 2008 Tour De France is still Eduardo Gonzalo Ramirez in 40th, 1h14′51″ behind the Maillot Jaune, while Vogondy moved up 17 places on gc with his great ride on L’Alpe to 53rd overall on his SRAM RED equipped Kuota.

On Thursday’s Stage 18 a hard, hot and hilly 197km from Bourg-d?Oisans to Saint-Étienne, Agritubel were riding strong, as Freddy Bichot took the sprint in Grenoble after 43km then Romain Feillu was on the snapback counterattack, as the former Maillot Jaune got in a move with two other riders and won the sprint from his group for 3rd on the stage, his third third place on a stage of the 2008 Tour De France. Friday’s Stage 19, 163km from Roanne to Montluçon is a fast, rolling stage from famed gastronomic center Roanne, home of some of the best restaurants in the world, then Stage 19 heads across the Allier farmland to Montluçon, where opportunistic riders looking for a stage win will try to get home free, but the rolling trains of the sprinters? teams will gobble up any escapees before the finish. Time for Agritubel to go on the attack again?

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