Odds & ends on the eve of the race of truth
I know all 7 of our regular readers have missed my commentary over the last couple days. Fortunately, my eye surgery went fine and I can watch the Tour again.
Tomorrow is the big showdown, as we finally have a time trial to shake up the favorites. I'm curious to see how well Valverde does. I don't think he's as weak as some of the other Spaniards are (e.g. Sastre, Mancebo, Mayo), but I also don't think he's of the same class as Kloden, Vinokourov, Leipheimer, or Evans.
In the last two days Boonen suffered a goose egg on one sprint, but fortunately for him, so did Zabel. Hunter took the points at the line, getting him back in the thick of things for the green jersey race. On the next day, Boonen struck back to pad his lead. He still has some room for error, but now he has two guys within reasonable striking range rather than just one.
Also, we may have an interesting race in the KoM for the first time in...in...well, I can't remember when. I don't know why Rasmussen didn't make an effort on the cat 2 climb on stage 12, but Soler and Popovych both did, so now they are within striking distance of Rasmussen to be King of the Mountains.
On stage 11 David Zabriskie was eliminated for being too slow. This is a huge loss for CSC. He's a threat to win the time trial, and they need him for the team competition. CSC actually took the lead over Banesto and Disco a few days ago, but CSC is now at a disadvantage because of attrition. Their 5 minute lead suddenly seems a lot smaller.
Tomorrow is the big showdown, as we finally have a time trial to shake up the favorites. I'm curious to see how well Valverde does. I don't think he's as weak as some of the other Spaniards are (e.g. Sastre, Mancebo, Mayo), but I also don't think he's of the same class as Kloden, Vinokourov, Leipheimer, or Evans.
In the last two days Boonen suffered a goose egg on one sprint, but fortunately for him, so did Zabel. Hunter took the points at the line, getting him back in the thick of things for the green jersey race. On the next day, Boonen struck back to pad his lead. He still has some room for error, but now he has two guys within reasonable striking range rather than just one.
Also, we may have an interesting race in the KoM for the first time in...in...well, I can't remember when. I don't know why Rasmussen didn't make an effort on the cat 2 climb on stage 12, but Soler and Popovych both did, so now they are within striking distance of Rasmussen to be King of the Mountains.
On stage 11 David Zabriskie was eliminated for being too slow. This is a huge loss for CSC. He's a threat to win the time trial, and they need him for the team competition. CSC actually took the lead over Banesto and Disco a few days ago, but CSC is now at a disadvantage because of attrition. Their 5 minute lead suddenly seems a lot smaller.
posted by uberschuck at 7:04 PM
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