Stage 10: Sorting Day
First off, congrats to Saunier Duval. Leonardo Piepoli took the stage, beating his teammate Juan Jose Coba Acebo to the line. Both were able to breakaway and stay ahead all day. They won't win the GC, but stage wins are still wins. Saunier Duval has been awesome. Now, just assorted comments.
... Valverde is done. He's not a great time trialist, and his way to win this Tour was to be the strongest climber and build enough of a lead to hold off Evans in the ITT. He was one of the first guys to crack and he lost nearly six minutes today. He needs a miracle to get back in this because he doesn't just need to make up the six minutes, he needs an additional three or four cushion. He's not going to leapfrog every GC contender.
... How awesome is CSC? Jens Voigt set a suicidal pace and single handedly cracked the peloton. Voigt is insane. I simply cannot say enough good things about him. Sastre couldn't quite take advantage of Voigt's ride, but Frank Schleck could and now he's the guy who looks like the GC contender. Sastre isn't done by any means, but CSC is going to have to sort itself out and decide who their GC guy is. But probably not until the Alps.
... Let's give some serious credit to Oscar Freire. He attacked early and picked up some valuable points to take the Green Jersey back. He now has 7 points on Kirchen and 26 on THOR! He even hung with the climbers much longer than he had to, showing some real strength.
... Christian Vande Velde had a great ride, and suddenly looks like a contender. He never really suffered and finished in with the Evans group of the serious contenders. He did make a tactical error and stayed with Evans-Menchov, expecting one of them to attack which of course, neither did. It wasn't a huge error, but he should have pushed the pace a little earlier. Evans and Menchov simply don't attack. That's a very small quibble with a guy who was the big surprise of the day. Is he a podium contender? Why not?
... Frank Schleck was the only contender to escape and he is one second down. Other than him, the likely winner of the Tour finished in that Evans group: Evans, Menchov, Sastre, Vande Velde, and Ricco. That's an awesome five man group, and one of them (or Schleck) is going to win the Tour. None of them won the tour today, but Cunego and Valverde probably lost it.
... Kim Kirchen cracked. Not badly, but he is out of the Yellow and the Green. He's only 1:56 down, so he's still in the GC chase, but he did look outclassed on the mountains these last two days. It's probably time to focus on the Green.
... What a great day. That was an exciting stage.
... Valverde is done. He's not a great time trialist, and his way to win this Tour was to be the strongest climber and build enough of a lead to hold off Evans in the ITT. He was one of the first guys to crack and he lost nearly six minutes today. He needs a miracle to get back in this because he doesn't just need to make up the six minutes, he needs an additional three or four cushion. He's not going to leapfrog every GC contender.
... How awesome is CSC? Jens Voigt set a suicidal pace and single handedly cracked the peloton. Voigt is insane. I simply cannot say enough good things about him. Sastre couldn't quite take advantage of Voigt's ride, but Frank Schleck could and now he's the guy who looks like the GC contender. Sastre isn't done by any means, but CSC is going to have to sort itself out and decide who their GC guy is. But probably not until the Alps.
... Let's give some serious credit to Oscar Freire. He attacked early and picked up some valuable points to take the Green Jersey back. He now has 7 points on Kirchen and 26 on THOR! He even hung with the climbers much longer than he had to, showing some real strength.
... Christian Vande Velde had a great ride, and suddenly looks like a contender. He never really suffered and finished in with the Evans group of the serious contenders. He did make a tactical error and stayed with Evans-Menchov, expecting one of them to attack which of course, neither did. It wasn't a huge error, but he should have pushed the pace a little earlier. Evans and Menchov simply don't attack. That's a very small quibble with a guy who was the big surprise of the day. Is he a podium contender? Why not?
... Frank Schleck was the only contender to escape and he is one second down. Other than him, the likely winner of the Tour finished in that Evans group: Evans, Menchov, Sastre, Vande Velde, and Ricco. That's an awesome five man group, and one of them (or Schleck) is going to win the Tour. None of them won the tour today, but Cunego and Valverde probably lost it.
... Kim Kirchen cracked. Not badly, but he is out of the Yellow and the Green. He's only 1:56 down, so he's still in the GC chase, but he did look outclassed on the mountains these last two days. It's probably time to focus on the Green.
... What a great day. That was an exciting stage.
posted by Poseur at 9:09 PM
1 Comments:
And to top it off, we saw something that we hadn't seen much of in the last couple years--crude paintings of penises on the street. Old, reliable Basque country.
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