Stage 9: Rasmussen's Solo

Jesus Christ. What else can you say about a solo breakway that began just 4km into 171km stage? 167km solo breakaways aren't supposed to work. OK, he rode with Cioni for an hour before attacking his only companion because he wasn't riding fast enough. But this stage win was simply epic. Rasmussen just obliterated the field, and now he has a huge lead in the KoM contest.

All of the contenders sat back, which allowed Jens Voigt and Christophe Moreau to launch a fairly successful counter-attack. Both passed Armstrong in the GC, and Voigt's now in yellow. Voigt will get to wear the maillot jaune for precisely one stage, and I think even he knows it. But CSC's now had two guys in the lead, and Basso hasn't been one of them. Unfortunately, Zabriskie withdrew during the stage, so they lost the other rider who had held the lead.

All of the post-race talk centered around Voigt and Rasmussen, and rightfully so. That's the overall leader and the stage winner, the day's two big winners. But what about Moreau? He's not a chump, he actually has some chance, however remote, of winning the Tour. The ultimate disrespect to Moreau is that no one cares he's ahead of Armstrong. He's the captain of Credit Agricole, he's supposed to be a real contender, yet Armstrong lets him ride on a huge break?

Kinda tells you Lance thinks about as much of Moreau as we do.