Things Change In The Mountains
Finally, we get to the big mountains, although the second of two cat. 1 climbs was about 25 km from the finish, and that takes a little drama out of it.
The high mountains separate the contenders from the pretenders. When Riccardo Ricco passed Sebastian Lang like he was standing still on the final climb, it was obvious who was the pretender and who would win the stage by over a minute. That's now 2 stage wins for Ricco, who would be a serious yellow jersey contender if he didn't suck at the time trial. He can contend for the white jersey, though. He's currently 4th, 37 seconds behind Andy Schleck. Thomas Lovkvist was exposed as a pretender today, finishing over 6 minutes behind and losing the white jersey.
There wasn't much of a shakeup in the yellow jersey race. Kirchen, Evans, Valverde, Cunego, Sastre, Menchov, and the Schleck brothers all finished together, so Kirchen maintains his 6 second lead over Evans. But Kirchen has reasons to be worried. After the race he admitted he didn't feel well and said if he rides that way tomorrow, he's going to be dropped. He spent most of the last climb at the back of the pack, and he had only one teammate with him. In contrast, Valverde had two Banesto guys finish with him and two others who were with him setting the pace for most of the last climb, and there were three guys from CSC together in the bunch. Columbia may have dominated the first week, but they don't have many bullets in the chamber in the high mountains. I don't know why there weren't more attacks on him while he was hanging on to the back of the peloton. Kirchen is a target that's ripe for the picking. I think he's better off giving up the jersey by a few seconds and stalking the leader until the time trial. For now, he can console himself with the fact that he picked up 4 points at the finish line to re-take the green jersey.
David De La Fuente is proving he's not a pretender in the KoM race. He stayed with the peloton over both cat. 1 climbs and picked up 27 points. Contrast that to Voeckler and Chavanel, who were nowhere to be found once the road got steep.
Questionable tactics:
I already mentioned that I'm surprised that neither Banesto nor CSC attacked Kirchen when he was hanging on to the tail end of the peloton on the last climb, but that wasn't the only odd thing I noticed. Gerolsteiner did well in terms of supporting Lang's run at climbing points by sending Kohl to take 3rd place on the last climb and limit De La Fuente's points, but they should beat Schumacker with a stick for launching an attack at the base of the climb. He got nothing out of it except tired, and it encouraged the peloton to close the gap on Lang. The other questionable move was by Euskaltel. They took over the pace for the two big mountains, and it destroyed their team. Only two of their guys could stay with the group, and their leader, Zubledia, got dropped and finished 9 minutes back. They hurt themselves...and for what...so that they could be on TV for 20 minutes.
Finally, let's eat a little crow. Poseur and I both pronounced the Saunier Duval team DOA last week. Through 9 stages they have 2 stage wins. Ricco wore the white jersey for 2 days and is still in contention. De La Fuente is wearing dots after one day in the Pyrenees, and they are 3rd in the team race. So far, so good.
The high mountains separate the contenders from the pretenders. When Riccardo Ricco passed Sebastian Lang like he was standing still on the final climb, it was obvious who was the pretender and who would win the stage by over a minute. That's now 2 stage wins for Ricco, who would be a serious yellow jersey contender if he didn't suck at the time trial. He can contend for the white jersey, though. He's currently 4th, 37 seconds behind Andy Schleck. Thomas Lovkvist was exposed as a pretender today, finishing over 6 minutes behind and losing the white jersey.
There wasn't much of a shakeup in the yellow jersey race. Kirchen, Evans, Valverde, Cunego, Sastre, Menchov, and the Schleck brothers all finished together, so Kirchen maintains his 6 second lead over Evans. But Kirchen has reasons to be worried. After the race he admitted he didn't feel well and said if he rides that way tomorrow, he's going to be dropped. He spent most of the last climb at the back of the pack, and he had only one teammate with him. In contrast, Valverde had two Banesto guys finish with him and two others who were with him setting the pace for most of the last climb, and there were three guys from CSC together in the bunch. Columbia may have dominated the first week, but they don't have many bullets in the chamber in the high mountains. I don't know why there weren't more attacks on him while he was hanging on to the back of the peloton. Kirchen is a target that's ripe for the picking. I think he's better off giving up the jersey by a few seconds and stalking the leader until the time trial. For now, he can console himself with the fact that he picked up 4 points at the finish line to re-take the green jersey.
David De La Fuente is proving he's not a pretender in the KoM race. He stayed with the peloton over both cat. 1 climbs and picked up 27 points. Contrast that to Voeckler and Chavanel, who were nowhere to be found once the road got steep.
Questionable tactics:
I already mentioned that I'm surprised that neither Banesto nor CSC attacked Kirchen when he was hanging on to the tail end of the peloton on the last climb, but that wasn't the only odd thing I noticed. Gerolsteiner did well in terms of supporting Lang's run at climbing points by sending Kohl to take 3rd place on the last climb and limit De La Fuente's points, but they should beat Schumacker with a stick for launching an attack at the base of the climb. He got nothing out of it except tired, and it encouraged the peloton to close the gap on Lang. The other questionable move was by Euskaltel. They took over the pace for the two big mountains, and it destroyed their team. Only two of their guys could stay with the group, and their leader, Zubledia, got dropped and finished 9 minutes back. They hurt themselves...and for what...so that they could be on TV for 20 minutes.
Finally, let's eat a little crow. Poseur and I both pronounced the Saunier Duval team DOA last week. Through 9 stages they have 2 stage wins. Ricco wore the white jersey for 2 days and is still in contention. De La Fuente is wearing dots after one day in the Pyrenees, and they are 3rd in the team race. So far, so good.
posted by uberschuck at 1:06 PM
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