Stage 8: High drama in the Alps
Stephen has covered most of the highlights of the day, but I'll add a few before drifting off into a rant. Iban Mayo had a great race today. He ripped up the road to Huez as fast as anyone I've ever seen. His whole team came out to shine today. Euskaltel took three of the top 9 spots at the finish line and vaulted themselves into first place in the team competition.
Richard Virenque popped on the last climb, but he racked up a lot of points on the earlier climbs and now has a lead of about 80 points in the King of the Mountains competition. Being that the man behind him is Lance Armstrong, Virenque can cruise to victory. Denis Menchov also extended his lead in the race for the white jersey, now 2:14 lead over Mikel Astarloza of AG2r
After 8 stages of racing we can now declare a few riders & teams dead. Gilberto Simoni--the Giro champ who was going to attack Lance Armstrong in the mountains--was dropped again today, leaving him 20 minutes behind Armstrong now. Santiago Botero is also in horrible form, now 48 minutes behind. Remember when I said Fassa Bortolo was taking the Tour seriously? Well, on the heels of Petacchi's departure FOUR more Fassa riders have abandoned. The whole team only has three men remaining in the race! Oh, we've yet to mention Alessio yet. Did you know they were in the Tour? Pietro Caucchioli was tenth on the stage today, thus giving Alessio it's biggest accomplishment of the race.
Now to the rant...
Several people have put forth the theory of riders from different teams combining their efforts to take out Lance Armstrong. Such luminaries as Phil Liggett and Stephen "TD" Baker have even espoused this idea. And if today's stage was that theory in action, well we have seen how wrong-headed it is. See, if several riders launch attacks repeatedly, as we saw on l'Alpe d' Huez today, it's not just an attack on Lance Armstrong, but on every other rider. So the "team" of riders against Lance had to attack enough to thin themselves down to a small group. People talk about it as though multiple attacks weaken Armstrong but not the other riders with him--ask them if they get put into difficulty too. Unless team leaders decide to work for one uber-challenger--like Ullrich, Hamilton, Mayo, and Vinokourov working for Beloki--this ain't gunna fly.
What if they do it on multiple days to wear Armstrong down? It might work to be relentless with him, but maybe not. Today Armstrong had a bad day and STILL won the yellow jersey! On a bad day he was able to match every attack from Beloki, the closest man to him, and out-sprint him for the 8 second time bonus. Would the same riders have the strength to do this on multiple days? Again, they'd knock each other out of contention in the process. OK, enough of debunking this theory for now. The challengers should hope Armstrong had an off day because he's coming down with the flu.
I hope I didn't jinx him.
Stephen has covered most of the highlights of the day, but I'll add a few before drifting off into a rant. Iban Mayo had a great race today. He ripped up the road to Huez as fast as anyone I've ever seen. His whole team came out to shine today. Euskaltel took three of the top 9 spots at the finish line and vaulted themselves into first place in the team competition.
Richard Virenque popped on the last climb, but he racked up a lot of points on the earlier climbs and now has a lead of about 80 points in the King of the Mountains competition. Being that the man behind him is Lance Armstrong, Virenque can cruise to victory. Denis Menchov also extended his lead in the race for the white jersey, now 2:14 lead over Mikel Astarloza of AG2r
After 8 stages of racing we can now declare a few riders & teams dead. Gilberto Simoni--the Giro champ who was going to attack Lance Armstrong in the mountains--was dropped again today, leaving him 20 minutes behind Armstrong now. Santiago Botero is also in horrible form, now 48 minutes behind. Remember when I said Fassa Bortolo was taking the Tour seriously? Well, on the heels of Petacchi's departure FOUR more Fassa riders have abandoned. The whole team only has three men remaining in the race! Oh, we've yet to mention Alessio yet. Did you know they were in the Tour? Pietro Caucchioli was tenth on the stage today, thus giving Alessio it's biggest accomplishment of the race.
Now to the rant...
Several people have put forth the theory of riders from different teams combining their efforts to take out Lance Armstrong. Such luminaries as Phil Liggett and Stephen "TD" Baker have even espoused this idea. And if today's stage was that theory in action, well we have seen how wrong-headed it is. See, if several riders launch attacks repeatedly, as we saw on l'Alpe d' Huez today, it's not just an attack on Lance Armstrong, but on every other rider. So the "team" of riders against Lance had to attack enough to thin themselves down to a small group. People talk about it as though multiple attacks weaken Armstrong but not the other riders with him--ask them if they get put into difficulty too. Unless team leaders decide to work for one uber-challenger--like Ullrich, Hamilton, Mayo, and Vinokourov working for Beloki--this ain't gunna fly.
What if they do it on multiple days to wear Armstrong down? It might work to be relentless with him, but maybe not. Today Armstrong had a bad day and STILL won the yellow jersey! On a bad day he was able to match every attack from Beloki, the closest man to him, and out-sprint him for the 8 second time bonus. Would the same riders have the strength to do this on multiple days? Again, they'd knock each other out of contention in the process. OK, enough of debunking this theory for now. The challengers should hope Armstrong had an off day because he's coming down with the flu.
I hope I didn't jinx him.
posted by uberschuck at 11:05 PM
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