Alps + rain = fun stage to watch

What’s better than having the top two guys separated by 1 second? How about the top 3 separated by 8 seconds? Even better, the top 6 are separated by only 49 seconds.

Just as in stage 10, CSC took control of the peloton and dismantled the other teams so that all the contenders were isolated from their teammates. And again, the contenders threw several attacks at each other, but most were quickly contained. For a while Carlos Sastre looked like he would be dropped, but he's the one that started the attack that actually split the group in the last 3 km. Bernie Kohl, Menchov, and Valverde followed, and gained a few seconds over Cadel Evans. Frank Schleck and VandeVelde didn't drop Evans until the last 500 m, leaving us with this leaderboard.

1. Frank Schleck
2. Kohl +0:07
3. Evans +0:08
4. Menchov +0:38
5. VandeVelde +0:39
6. Sastre +0:49

Essentially, these guys are tied, except for Sastre, who sucks at the time trial and needs about 2 minutes on all of them.

What we're waiting for in the next couple stages is for someone to take command and open a gap of minutes, not seconds. Kohl, VandeVelde, and Menchov never looked weak at any point today. Evans did, and Schleck did briefly, but recovered. Of course, past performance is not indicative of future results.

Tactics: I don't understand Lotto's decisions. Popovych is the only domestique on that team who can be relied on in the mountains, yet they wasted him chasing down the breakaway in the valley. By the time he was needed to protect Evans, he was already spent.

By the way, Andy Schleck was awesome today. At least twice he was dropped by attacks and then worked his way back to the front to set the pace for Sastre & Frank Schleck again. He's got guts!