Let's wait until tomorrow
Did you ever hear of Linus Gerdemann before today? Neither did I. The way he suffered over the Colombiere I wonder if he'll make it all the way to Paris. That doesn't matter for the moment since he has a stage win, a white jersey, and a yellow jersey for his trouble. When he attacked early on the climb it looked like a fool's errand, but Tour rookies are foolish enough to take such risks, and sometimes are brave/crazy enough to make them work.
The main contenders were content to ride fast enough to limit the breakaway, but slow enough so as to conserve energy for tomorrow. None of the favorites lost time. I wonder if one week from now anyone will regret not having attacked Vinokourov and Kloden as they recovered from their crashes.
De la Fuente and Rasmussen picked up some climbing points to eat into Chavanel's lead. Either one could take it tomorrow because there are three cat. 1 climbs. If de la Fuente or Chavanel try a long breakway to score points, they may get away if they leave early in the stage. Rasmussen does not have that luxury--he's too good a rider for the peloton to allow him to escape. That means Rabobank may spend a lot of energy protecting Rasmussen to chase down Chavanel or de la Fuente. That's not a problem, unless it interferes with their ability to support Denis Menchov. Still, Rabobank looked good controlling the peloton today.
After 7 stages and one day in the Alps, none of the contenders have lost the Tour, but no one has distinguished himself as the man to beat.
The main contenders were content to ride fast enough to limit the breakaway, but slow enough so as to conserve energy for tomorrow. None of the favorites lost time. I wonder if one week from now anyone will regret not having attacked Vinokourov and Kloden as they recovered from their crashes.
De la Fuente and Rasmussen picked up some climbing points to eat into Chavanel's lead. Either one could take it tomorrow because there are three cat. 1 climbs. If de la Fuente or Chavanel try a long breakway to score points, they may get away if they leave early in the stage. Rasmussen does not have that luxury--he's too good a rider for the peloton to allow him to escape. That means Rabobank may spend a lot of energy protecting Rasmussen to chase down Chavanel or de la Fuente. That's not a problem, unless it interferes with their ability to support Denis Menchov. Still, Rabobank looked good controlling the peloton today.
After 7 stages and one day in the Alps, none of the contenders have lost the Tour, but no one has distinguished himself as the man to beat.
posted by uberschuck at 11:22 AM
1 Comments:
Well, they did put some time int David Millar. That's critical.
Agree with the assessment, as today was a tactical day. the big guns stayed in the peloton and simply blew the non-contenders off the road while not bothering with some minnows who stole the day's glory. Today was not about winning the Tour, it was about narrowing the field. Hopefully, we'll some some moves tomorrow.
Post a Comment
<< Home