2/3 to Paris

Now 14 stages are down and 7 remain. Of those 7 there are 3 in the Alps, one time trial, two with rolling hills, and one flat finish.

With the win in stage 14, Oscar Freire looks to have the green jersey locked up. He leads THOR! by 47 points. With that sort of lead he just needs to stay upright and beat the time cutoffs in the Alps. Freire has been on fire this week, gaining points on THOR! in each of the last 4 stages.

As I said before, the KoM jersey is wide open. Lang has 60 points and leads his teammate, Kohl, by 1. But there are a ton of points available on the next 4 stages. The Gerolsteiner team now has a purpose--these two guys need to collect as many points as possible. Kohl is within a minute of the yellow jersey, so no one is going to let him attack, but Lang is almost an hour down, so look for him to get into the all-day breakaway to rack up points.

Finally, as we go to the Alps, we can see a shake-up in the yellow jersey race. We still have 9 men within 4 minutes of the lead. There are always some people who climb well in one group of mountains and bonk in the other, so expect changes right away. Evans is passive by nature, but CSC has already shown the ability to crack the peloton and attack the race lead. Valverde and Cunego figure to attack to make up the minutes they lost in the Pyrenees. Kohl, Vande Velde, and Efimkin are had to predict because we've never seen them in this position, and it would be a mistake for the "favorites" not to mark them. And then there is Menchov. I remember two years ago saying that he looked like the winner after the first set of mountains, but he cracked badly in the second group. This time, will he have what it takes to finish?

Drugs Are Bad

I'm sick of defending cycling. I'm pissed that Ricco, who is only one of the most exciting and personable riders in the field, got caught doping. So here we are again.

Cycling's problem is not that it is dirty. Cycling is no more dirty than the NFL. In fact, it's probably far less dirty. It's just that cycling is actively trying to stop drug use, which is a public relations mistake. Cycling has probably the most rigorous testing of any sport in the world, and the stiffest penalties. They also test far more often and randomly. Add it all up, they actually catch drug cheats and do something about it. So drugs dominate the headlines.

The NFL, by contrast, has a sham of testing program which the players openly violate. The average offensive lineman has grown over 50 pounds in the last 15 years, and become quicker. We're supposed to believe there is nothing chemical to this great leap forward. Shawn Merriman gets caught doing steroids, and he's still named the NFL Defensive MVP. He serves a short suspension, and he's back doing Nike commercials. Not to pick on Merriman, because if you believe he's the only one in the NFL on steroids, I have a bridge to sell you.

So cycling actually caches drug users and does something about it. American sports, as a rule, just sweep the problem under the rug. Yet cycling is considered dirty? This defies all logic.

Cycling is actually doing something about drugs in sport. And their reward is to be universally derided. Why should any sport even attempt to clean up drugs in their sport when they can keep pretending the status quo is drug free?

We've criticized the anti-drug forces as akin to Victor Hugo's Javert, maniacally pursuing the wrongdoer to the point of absurdity. I still think there is some truth to that, but I fully support their decision to ban the entire Saunier Duval team. But the drugs don't make a guy a good cyclist. There is no injection that turns you into Eddy Merckx.

Morons--right and wrong

We can officially stop eating crow on the topic of the Saunier Duval team. Riccardo Ricco tested positive for EPO and is gone. The whole team was pulled from the Tour. Either this is the act of team management that is party to the cheating and is running scared, or this is an overreaction that punishes the clean riders on the team. So long...we have a race to enjoy.

Mark Cavendish won another stage, his third of the Tour. No, there is no need to eat crow here, at least not yet. Last week when Poseur said Cavendish was out of the green jersey, he may have been prophetic. Three stage wins later, Cavendish is still 41 points behind the leader. Even if Cavendish wins the next two stages, he'd need Freire to finish far behind him in order to make significant gains. Then again, these guys still need to make it through the Alps, so nothing is certain. If Cavendish wishes to follow the example of great sprinters of the the past (Mario Chipolini, Alessandro Petachi), he'll abandon the race after Saturday's stage.

With the departure of Ricco, Sebastian Lang inherits the polka dot jersey and Vinny Nibali inherits the white jersey.

The KoM is a wide open race. Lang, with 58 points, leads his teammate, Kohl, by a measly 2 points. There are 15 guys with 20 or more points. There are 7 more category 1 or HC climbs remaining. You don't have to have many points to have a shot at this thing.

For the white jersey, Nibali leads his teammate, Kreutziger, by 2:42. Monfort is just a couple seconds behind him, and Andy Schleck is at +4:16. This will probably be a war of attrition. Whoever cracks less frequently and severely in the mountains will win.

Oh, yeah...Cadel Evans still has the yellow jersey by 1 second over Frank Schleck. He didn't slap anyone today.

Cadel and the Media

VeloNews posted this youtube of Cadel Evans today, flipping out on a reporter.

Now, I'm not the biggest Evans fan in the world. In fact, I'm actively rooting against him. However, I don't actually dislike him. Videos of him overreacting don't help, but I feel like defending Cadel right now.

Dealing with the media has to suck. You ride for over 100 km, you're sore from the ride, your body is in pain from the crashes, and you have to talk to all of these people crowding your space. You have to plaster on a fake smile and answer each inane question like it was the first time you heard it. It's a tough gig. I understand that. And it's not like Cadel has ever had a real fuzzy relationship with the media anyway.

But it still doesn't excuse it, man. You can't react. You can't slap the reporter. Or else you end up on youtube looking like a jackass.

Bonus points to the bodyguard who called the reporter a douchebag.

CSC gets a stage win

CSC finally got a stage win for their trophy case in stage 11. This time it was Kurt-Asle Arvensen, who was part of an 11 man breakaway. Those guys must have been very tired at the finish line, because Arvesen won the "sprint" from the front--no one had the strength to pass him. Now all 2 Norwegians in the Tour have won a stage. Think about it--Norway and Luxembourg are dominating the Tour de France.

Koos Moerenhout was 4th. I'm glad I had an excuse to say Koos Moerenhout.

There was no action concerning the leaders' jerseys today, although THOR! did pick up 5 points on Freire's lead. The next 3 stages are flat ones, so we'll have to pay closer attention to them

Current standings:
Freire 138
Kirchen 128
THOR! 117
Zabel 99

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.

Bastille Day Fireworks

On a stage featuring the Tourmalet and Hautacam you’d figure Oscar Friere would be one of the anonymous riders, but he had the brilliant idea to start a breakaway so he could get 12 points in the intermediate sprints. That was enough to take the green jersey from Kirchen. We’ve been saying Kirchen could do damage against the sprinters by picking up a few points here and there on mountain stages, and he did get 4 pts. in stage 9. Advantage neutralized.

At first the climb up Tourmalet was chaotic, with various cyclists launching attacks out of the large peloton constantly. Finally CSC providing something this Tour has been missing—they took control of the peloton. They had 4 men at the lead and Jens Voigt set the pace for several kilometers. He cut the peloton by about 75%. With Sastre and the Schleck brothers right behind him, he forced Cunego and Valverde off the back and they never recovered. Evans, Menchov and Kirchen remained, but lost all their teammates. Voigt has always been an uber-domestique, and this was some of his finest work.

If the Tourmalet belonged to CSC, the Saunier Duval team owned Hautacam. Leo Piepoli and Jose Cobo launched an attack that only Frank Schleck could match, until they dropped him near the finish line. Kim Kirchen was dispatched, eventually leaving a chase group of Menchov, Evans, Sastre, Ricco, and VandeVelde, who is riding way over his head here. So, Piepoli won the stage and Evans finished fast enough to take the yellow jersey by 1 second over Frank Schleck.

New overall standings:
1. Evans
2. Frank Schleck +0:01
3. Vande Velde +0:38
4. Kohl +0:46
5. Menchov +0:57
6. Sastre +1:28
7. Kirchen +1:56
8. Cobo +2:10
9. Ricco +2:29
10. Efimkin +2:32
14. Valverde +4:41
16. Cunego +5:37

The last two guys are in a world of hurt now, but the top 10 are within 3 minutes of each other. Game on! Sastre may have squandered a golden opportunity today. Menchov, Schelck, and Evans have a tight race. Kirchen is damaged, but it’s not disasterous. Then there are the guys lurking under the radar like Kohl, Efimkin, and VandeValde.

And I’ll continue to eat crow on Saunier Duval. Today they picked up their 3^rd stage win, they placed 3 in the top 6 on the stage, and Ricco now wears the white jersey and the KoM jersey. All that, and they took the lead in the team competition.

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.