Denis Menchov took his second Tour of Spain following his win in 2005. He put in a dominant performance throughout the race and never looked under serious pressure from his rivals, including Carlos Sastre and Cadel Evans. A particularly strong showing in the ealry mountain stages left Denis in a position from which he finally took the 2007 Vuelta title.

In addition to winning the overall General Classification, Menchov also took the Mountains title and the Combined jersey. Only a sprint inw by Bennati on the final stage of the race saw Denis lose the sprint jersey - a truly dominant performance.

Denis Menchov has today abandoned the Tour de France.  He climbed off his bike at the 90km mark and got into the team car.  We have no further information at this time.

An uneventful day for the Rabobank team, a day to conserve energy ready for tomorrow’s crucial time-trial. Here we will see how serious Michael Rasmussen’s chances are for overall victory in 2077 Tour De France. On past form it is possible that Menchov could take the 7+ minutes out of Rasmussen over the 2 Individual Time Trials. Tomorrow is one not to be missed.

Denis crossed the line in 125th place and remains 18th overall at 7′ 10″.

What should have been another quiet transitional stage for the overall contenders turned into mass panic as the Astana team decided to attack on a flat section of the course which was open to sever cross-winds. The major casualty of the day was Christophe Moreau of AG2R who got caught in the 2nd peloton. he had earlier crashed. Despite the attacks the overall standings remain the same.

Denis crossed the line in 55th place and remains 18th overall at 7′ 10″.

A quiet day for Denis with no major dramas for him or the team. Today was a day to recover from yesterdays hard stage and with no real attacking of the Yellow Jersey it was a comfortable ride into Marseille for Menchov.

Denis crossed the line in 34th place next to Rasmussen. He remains 18th, 7′ 10″ down on GC leader.

Not a good day for Menchov as he conceded over 3′ 30″ to all of his major rivals on General Classification. On a brutal day in the Alps the climbs of the Col du Telegraphe and the Col du Galibier took its toll on Denis. At the top of the Telegraph he was with the main contenders but following the descent into Valloire and the subsequent steep rise out of the town it was clear that the pace had been upped considerably. Riders were constantly being dropped and with 10km to go to the summit of the Galibier Valverde began multiple attacks. Denis had spent some time on the front assisting yellow jersey wearing teammate Rasmussen and it was here that Denis did not have the strength to hang on. He would later complain that he was not feeling well all day. Riding with Moreau for a while it was clear Denis was on a loss-limiting day and despite not being far behind the leading riders the descent of the Galibier without any help proved very difficult. He eventually rode into Briancon alone in 32nd place, some 4′ 33″ down on stage winner Soler of Barloworld.

Today saw Denis drop to 18th on GC at 7′ 10″ to teammate Michael Rasmussen.

A quiet week for Denis Menchov at the Tour de France.  The big question following the first 2 days in the Alps is how Rabobank will now alter their team strategy.  Will GC aspirations for the team now turn away from Menchov and towards Rasmussen or is his focus still on the King of the Mountains classification.  It is likely that this wil notbe known until we hit the Pyrenees.

The Tour comes alive in the Alps. Menchov’s team mate Michael Rasmussen took the stage victory and the overall lead in this years race. Rasmussen showed the rest of the field how to climb in this stage. Denis gave a controlled performance despite many of his rivals for GC attacking. Riding with Carlos Sastre, Denis lost less than 20 seconds to the main contenders. He finished 9th on the stage and is 10th overall at 3′ 39″.

First real day of climbing saw a big shake-up on General Classification. Denis finished in 17th place with team mate Rasmussen , 3 38″ down on stage winner Gerdmann from T-Mobile. Menchov looked to be riding well within his capabilities, finishing in the group with all of the main contenders. On GC, Denis is in 17th place.

Menchov on the Col de Colombiere

Photo courtesy of will_davies @ Flickr

Another sprint finish won by Tom Boonen.  A quiet day for the Rabobank team with Denis crossing the line in 108th closely guarded by team mate Niermann.  Denis remains 23rd overall at 1 minute.