Stage 16

Tyler Hamilton is god.




A 95-mile solo breakaway just does not happen in the Tour de France. That's practically impossible, one rider working on his own just can't hold off the entire peleton. Unless that rider is Tyler Hamilton. The same Tyler Hamilton who broke his collarbone in Stage 1. Stage 1, people. He not only continued when no one expected him to, he is putting forth his greatest effort ever.

Seriously, this makes Willis Reed look like a whiner. He makes Cal Ripken look like a whiner. Hamilton is riding the most grueling race on the planet without the benefit of upper-body strength. This is, without exaggeration, the toughest performance I have ever seen in a sporting event. Ever. I can't even describe just how difficult what he's doing actually is. My brother broke his collarbone once and couldn't get out of a chair without help. Hamilton just won a mountain stage in the Tour de France. This is unfreaking believable.

I hate to even mention the rest of the race out of respect for Hamilton's ridiculous performance, but there was some developments in the battle for the green jersey. I've been writing off Zabel for about two and half weeks, well, he's back. He led the peleton to the finish, getting him 18 points. Even bigger, only O'Grady managed any points in the stage. So, going into the sprinter's stages, the Points standings just got even tighter:

1 COOKE Baden AUS FDJ 156 pts
2 MC EWEN Robbie AUS LOT 148 pts
3 ZABEL Erik GER TEL 143 pts
4 HUSHOVD Thor NOR C.A 134 pts
5 O'GRADY Stuart AUS C.A 128 pts

Tommorrow is all about the sprinters. There are no mountains, hell, no hills. There are two intermediate sprints and a nice rolling finish. It's time for someone to step up and win the green jersey.

But today? Today is all about Tyler Hamilton, my hero.