Columbia doesn't wear Dots
It would be nice if someone from the Columbia team led the King of the Mountains race, because they would have a compete set. They'll have to settle for holding the yellow jersey, the green jersey, the white jersey, and the team time lead all on the same day.
Two category 2 climbs made for a good stage. Naturally, the long breakaway failed, but not before Sylvain Chavanel racked up enough points to take the KoM jersey from Voeckler. They're tied in points, but since Chavanel won a cat. 2 climb, he gets to wear the dots. This was an odd mountain stage because the climb was only cat. 2, so there was a large bunch of riders together at the front for the final climb--41 finished within 1 minute of the stage winner. Yet, neither Chavanel nor Voeckler was among them. Yeah, they're not the best climbers, are they?
Back to Columbia, though. Kirchen leads the whole race in time and in points because he's finished in the top 11 in 5 of the 6 stages. Thomas Lovkvist has worn the white jersey since the time trial. George Hincapie has been finishing strong too to give them 3 high places every day. You can argue that the yellow jersey just fell into Kirchen's lap today. It looked like Schumacher would hang on, but he clipped Kirchen's wheel in the last km and fell, causing him to finish 28 seconds behind Kirchen.
Oh, by the way, Riccardo Ricco Suave won the stage by sprinting past the lead group in the finishing strait. If he didn't suck at the time trial, he might lead the whole race. Banesto took control of the pace on the last climb for Valverde. They didn't get anything for it, other than tired. This sets a precedent, though. The other teams will see them as the de facto leaders and they're obliged to set tempo even if they don't have the jersey.
Correction: I was wrong about the team time. Garmin-Chipotle retains the lead, ever so slightly. CSC is in second at +0:19, and Columbia is third at +0:20.
Two category 2 climbs made for a good stage. Naturally, the long breakaway failed, but not before Sylvain Chavanel racked up enough points to take the KoM jersey from Voeckler. They're tied in points, but since Chavanel won a cat. 2 climb, he gets to wear the dots. This was an odd mountain stage because the climb was only cat. 2, so there was a large bunch of riders together at the front for the final climb--41 finished within 1 minute of the stage winner. Yet, neither Chavanel nor Voeckler was among them. Yeah, they're not the best climbers, are they?
Back to Columbia, though. Kirchen leads the whole race in time and in points because he's finished in the top 11 in 5 of the 6 stages. Thomas Lovkvist has worn the white jersey since the time trial. George Hincapie has been finishing strong too to give them 3 high places every day. You can argue that the yellow jersey just fell into Kirchen's lap today. It looked like Schumacher would hang on, but he clipped Kirchen's wheel in the last km and fell, causing him to finish 28 seconds behind Kirchen.
Oh, by the way, Riccardo Ricco Suave won the stage by sprinting past the lead group in the finishing strait. If he didn't suck at the time trial, he might lead the whole race. Banesto took control of the pace on the last climb for Valverde. They didn't get anything for it, other than tired. This sets a precedent, though. The other teams will see them as the de facto leaders and they're obliged to set tempo even if they don't have the jersey.
Correction: I was wrong about the team time. Garmin-Chipotle retains the lead, ever so slightly. CSC is in second at +0:19, and Columbia is third at +0:20.
posted by uberschuck at 10:47 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home