Stage 11
A bizarre stage. In a Tour full of scitement and day-in, day-out battles, we had our second straight uneventful racing day. Stage 10, the rest day, and now Stage 11 almost gave the entire field a nice three day wait. The peleton half-heartedly chased down the breakaway group, which completely splintered as each rider persued their own agenda instead of working together. And the one guy who wanted to work with other riders, Stuart O'Grady, found no one willing to help. Why help the one guy who is actually in contention for the Green jersey?
So Pecha gets a rare flat stage win for the Spanish. O'Grady picks up a net of about 12 points on Cooke and at least gets himself on the Points leaderboard, he's now one behind Zabel. It's become a race among Aussies for the Green, with Cooke and McEwen well out in front, but Zabel, Hushovd, and O'Grady still within striking distance. But the quest for Green goes on hold for awhile, and we focus again on the quest for the maillot jaune.
Stage 15 still looms large, with a Cat-1 climb and two HC climbs. More and more, it looks like the race will be won then. Just look at the hell which the Tour will put riders through on Monday:
But tommorrow's stage is one of the biggest before then: the Time Trial. There is no place for riders to hide, they need to ride the road just as fast as Lance, with no peleton to help. Just you and your bike (and the trailing team car). Armstrong desperately needs to put his foot down and assert his authority. He needs to put some distance between himself and his closest challengers. If he doesn't, expect a lot of attacks in the Pyranees. It's do or die time for Lance.
A bizarre stage. In a Tour full of scitement and day-in, day-out battles, we had our second straight uneventful racing day. Stage 10, the rest day, and now Stage 11 almost gave the entire field a nice three day wait. The peleton half-heartedly chased down the breakaway group, which completely splintered as each rider persued their own agenda instead of working together. And the one guy who wanted to work with other riders, Stuart O'Grady, found no one willing to help. Why help the one guy who is actually in contention for the Green jersey?
So Pecha gets a rare flat stage win for the Spanish. O'Grady picks up a net of about 12 points on Cooke and at least gets himself on the Points leaderboard, he's now one behind Zabel. It's become a race among Aussies for the Green, with Cooke and McEwen well out in front, but Zabel, Hushovd, and O'Grady still within striking distance. But the quest for Green goes on hold for awhile, and we focus again on the quest for the maillot jaune.
Stage 15 still looms large, with a Cat-1 climb and two HC climbs. More and more, it looks like the race will be won then. Just look at the hell which the Tour will put riders through on Monday:
But tommorrow's stage is one of the biggest before then: the Time Trial. There is no place for riders to hide, they need to ride the road just as fast as Lance, with no peleton to help. Just you and your bike (and the trailing team car). Armstrong desperately needs to put his foot down and assert his authority. He needs to put some distance between himself and his closest challengers. If he doesn't, expect a lot of attacks in the Pyranees. It's do or die time for Lance.
posted by Poseur at 2:30 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home