Stage 13 : Deja vu all over again.
USPS set a pace that blew the peloton apart. Jose Azevedo finished off all of them except Ivan Basso and Lance Armstrong. Those two rode to the finish line together, putting plenty of time on their competitors. Thomas Voeckler dug deep to finish close enough to keep his yellow jersey. Sound familiar? It was stage 12, but longer, in a different city, and this time Basso let Armstrong take the stage win.
Even though it seemed like a copy of stage 12 (or even the finish at Plateau de Beille in 2002), there are plenty of stories...
1) Lance Armstrong & Ivan Basso. This is turning into a two man-race, as they are clearly much stronger than anyone else. This friendly stuff about giving each other stage wins has got to stop now. Each man should consider the other a rival. Basso has got to attack Armstrong, or else Armstrong will either bury him in the time trial, or wait until the last mountain to attack him.
2) At most, it's a five man race. Voeckler has lost huge time in the mountains. Most men would have cracked big time. After watching him be Rocky on a bike, I'm not counting him out until he loses the yellow jersey (Tuesday?). Andreas Kloden and Francisco Mancebo are both around 3 minutes behind Lance Armstrong. Kloden is now 4 minutes ahead of Ullrich after beating him on consecutive climbing stages. Is Telekom going to let him drive the bus now? Mancebo is riding his best Tour ever, and that's saying a lot. Aside from the year he won a white jersey, he's always been an unsung hero. Hopefully the Tour media will start giving him his due now.
No one else is within 6 minutes of the lead.
3) Tyler Hamilton abandoned, so half of our writers are now on suicide watch. A year ago he went 3 weeks with a broken collar bone. Today he quit because his back hurt. I don't get it. If he had been just 1 minute off the lead do you think he would have quit?
4) Iban Mayo. Did he have an awful day or what? Mayo finished almost 40 minutes behind Armstrong. He finished in the group of Thor Hushovd! Just a total wipe out. But notice that he finished. Mayo won my respect a year ago when he won Alpe d'Huez. Today he won more respect.
Every time I run a marathon I compare two groups of people...The really good athletes who run in 3 hours, and the ones who finish in 5 hours (conveniently, I usually finish exactly in the middle). Though the folks at 3 hours are better athletes and better prepared, I have a special respect for the people finishing at 5 hours because they suffer more. It's very lonely and painful to bring up the rear when you're in physical and mental agony. While Hamilton was getting a rub down at the hotel room, Mayo was torturing himself toward the finish line. At one point he was off his bike and on his way to the team car. His teammates and manager literally pushed him back on to his machine and told him he couldn't quit. You're a hard man, Iban, and you've got a lot of guts. Your hometown newspaper is going to run a story about how you crashed and burned. Clip it & save it. You'll enjoy reading it again when you're back on form and winning races again.
5) Richard Virenque is being made to earn his polka dot jersey. Previously he won it with one day of work. This year he's got to earn points almost every day because of the rule changes. He's built up a big lead, and it has been several other men splitting the points, so he'll probably win this one again.
6) Roberto Heras is now 27 minutes out. What happened? He's been in some crashes, so maybe he's hurting. For whatever reason, he's having a totally crummy Tour. It reminds me of Gilberto Simoni in 2003. Speaking of Simoni, he turned in another good ride. He's not going to win this thing, but he's got a great shot at the top 10. In fact, we might have 3 Italians in the top 10. Huh?
Back to Heras...He left USPS to be "the man" at Liberty Seguros. USPS replaced him with Jose Azevedo, now 7th, 6:43 behind Voeckler. Another good trade for Postal?
7) A lot of racing remains. The final week has many more mountains and two time trials. There is still plenty of time to change the shape of the race. Often the men who are strong in the first set of mountains are weak in the second, and vice versa, so there is hope for the men who have lost time (a little, not a lot) in the Pyrenees. And by no means has Armstrong won it. He's got just more than a minute to Basso, and everyone, even Armstrong, is susceptible to crashes and illness.
But tomorrow we'll be on a somewhat flat stage. We'll get to see if McEwen, Zabel, Hushovd, and O'Grady have any strength in their legs after the mountains.
USPS set a pace that blew the peloton apart. Jose Azevedo finished off all of them except Ivan Basso and Lance Armstrong. Those two rode to the finish line together, putting plenty of time on their competitors. Thomas Voeckler dug deep to finish close enough to keep his yellow jersey. Sound familiar? It was stage 12, but longer, in a different city, and this time Basso let Armstrong take the stage win.
Even though it seemed like a copy of stage 12 (or even the finish at Plateau de Beille in 2002), there are plenty of stories...
1) Lance Armstrong & Ivan Basso. This is turning into a two man-race, as they are clearly much stronger than anyone else. This friendly stuff about giving each other stage wins has got to stop now. Each man should consider the other a rival. Basso has got to attack Armstrong, or else Armstrong will either bury him in the time trial, or wait until the last mountain to attack him.
2) At most, it's a five man race. Voeckler has lost huge time in the mountains. Most men would have cracked big time. After watching him be Rocky on a bike, I'm not counting him out until he loses the yellow jersey (Tuesday?). Andreas Kloden and Francisco Mancebo are both around 3 minutes behind Lance Armstrong. Kloden is now 4 minutes ahead of Ullrich after beating him on consecutive climbing stages. Is Telekom going to let him drive the bus now? Mancebo is riding his best Tour ever, and that's saying a lot. Aside from the year he won a white jersey, he's always been an unsung hero. Hopefully the Tour media will start giving him his due now.
No one else is within 6 minutes of the lead.
3) Tyler Hamilton abandoned, so half of our writers are now on suicide watch. A year ago he went 3 weeks with a broken collar bone. Today he quit because his back hurt. I don't get it. If he had been just 1 minute off the lead do you think he would have quit?
4) Iban Mayo. Did he have an awful day or what? Mayo finished almost 40 minutes behind Armstrong. He finished in the group of Thor Hushovd! Just a total wipe out. But notice that he finished. Mayo won my respect a year ago when he won Alpe d'Huez. Today he won more respect.
Every time I run a marathon I compare two groups of people...The really good athletes who run in 3 hours, and the ones who finish in 5 hours (conveniently, I usually finish exactly in the middle). Though the folks at 3 hours are better athletes and better prepared, I have a special respect for the people finishing at 5 hours because they suffer more. It's very lonely and painful to bring up the rear when you're in physical and mental agony. While Hamilton was getting a rub down at the hotel room, Mayo was torturing himself toward the finish line. At one point he was off his bike and on his way to the team car. His teammates and manager literally pushed him back on to his machine and told him he couldn't quit. You're a hard man, Iban, and you've got a lot of guts. Your hometown newspaper is going to run a story about how you crashed and burned. Clip it & save it. You'll enjoy reading it again when you're back on form and winning races again.
5) Richard Virenque is being made to earn his polka dot jersey. Previously he won it with one day of work. This year he's got to earn points almost every day because of the rule changes. He's built up a big lead, and it has been several other men splitting the points, so he'll probably win this one again.
6) Roberto Heras is now 27 minutes out. What happened? He's been in some crashes, so maybe he's hurting. For whatever reason, he's having a totally crummy Tour. It reminds me of Gilberto Simoni in 2003. Speaking of Simoni, he turned in another good ride. He's not going to win this thing, but he's got a great shot at the top 10. In fact, we might have 3 Italians in the top 10. Huh?
Back to Heras...He left USPS to be "the man" at Liberty Seguros. USPS replaced him with Jose Azevedo, now 7th, 6:43 behind Voeckler. Another good trade for Postal?
7) A lot of racing remains. The final week has many more mountains and two time trials. There is still plenty of time to change the shape of the race. Often the men who are strong in the first set of mountains are weak in the second, and vice versa, so there is hope for the men who have lost time (a little, not a lot) in the Pyrenees. And by no means has Armstrong won it. He's got just more than a minute to Basso, and everyone, even Armstrong, is susceptible to crashes and illness.
But tomorrow we'll be on a somewhat flat stage. We'll get to see if McEwen, Zabel, Hushovd, and O'Grady have any strength in their legs after the mountains.
posted by uberschuck at 5:32 PM
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