Stage 7: more drama for the Astana team bus

Stage 7 was an enigma. The bottom line is that Alberto Contador attacked the peloton with about 1.5 km remaining, picking up 21 seconds on the other contenders and jumping into second place, 6 seconds off the yellow jersey. That sounds awfully familiar to what Armstrong did in stage 3, beating the contenders by 40 seconds to climb the leader board.

But this was a mountain top finish, not a flat stage. Picking up 40 seconds on the contenders is unexpectedly high in a flat stage. Picking up 20 seconds on them in a mountain stage is a small gap.

More substantial is the politics of team Astana. After the stage, the riders and even the manager were telling the press that the plan was not for Contador to attack, but that they weren't surprised that he did. The line dividing those comments from publicly ripping him in the press is very fine. Even before Contador attacked something on the road was very telling. When Cadel Evans attacked, Contador and Lance both responded, Contador on the left and Lance on the right. A few moments later, Kloden came up on the right side and offered his wheel to Lance. I could have been wrong, but my immediate reaction was "Kloden rides for Lance." Shortly thereafter Contador attacked and none of his teammates went with him.

From a team perspective, the way the stage finished is good in that there are now two men within 10 seconds of the yellow jersey. Hooray for Astana! The good news for the team ends there. Whatever effect the distraction of team cohesion (or lack thereof) was before, it has been magnified--big time. Assuming the talk is correct that Contador didn't have the green light to attack, Bruyneel is going to be ticked off by his insubordination. Armstrong and those teammates who favor him are going to be pissed off, and there may even be other teammates upset by his do-your-own-thing attitude. The public airing of dirty laundry is going to irk Contador, and this could snowball into something even worse.

Nevertheless, Contador's actions are defensible. You don't win the Tour by refusing to use your advantages. Contador has the best uphill acceleration in the race, and no one could match him. He doesn't have to apologize to anyone for being too fast. After the race Armstrong was playing the wounded teammate card, saying he refused to chase for the good of the team, but having seen Contador sprint away from him, I won't believe Lance can match him until I see it. Only Lance knows how much he had in the tank when Contador attacked. If Contador put doubt in his mind, then that's more valuable than the 21 seconds he picked up. Hopefully it will take all month for this to play out, because it's fun to watch.

By the way, Brice Feillu of Agritubel won the stage and Rinaldo Nocentini of Ag2r took the yellow jersey by 6 seconds over Contador. Yeah, and Italian is wearing yellow for the first time in about a decade.

Stage 6

I assume Poseur hasn't posted his thoughts on Stage 6 because he hyperventilated while watching David Millar get robbed of a stage win in the last kilometer. We don't dislike Millar. On the topic of redemption, I appreciate the fact that he fessed up to his doping, did his suspension time, and returned on a team whose m.o. is robust dope testing. Still, part of his punishment is having people poke fun at him. And it is funny that he got passed in the final km. I'm not being malicious, and I know he can console himself with piles of money from his professional sports career.

The finish was a big deal beyond Millar Schadefreude because the pesky little hills in Barcelona denied Cavendish a victory on flat road. He finished 16th and only got 10 points. Thor Hushovd won the stage for 35 points, leaving him 1 point behind Cavendish (106 to 105). No one else has as much as 70, so the green jersey really is a two man race as we hit the first set of mountains. That's twice as competitive a race as it was yesterday.

Tomorrow is a big day. After Contador put his foot down in stage 1 it seemed like Lance really is a step or two behind his teammate. The next couple stages made us think otherwise. All along, though, we've known that the mountains will tell all, and tomorrow is the first look at the Pyrenees. Young Bert Contador may be trigger happy to let everyone know he's still the man, and I won't be surprised if he comes out with guns blazing tomorrow. One thing to remember though...Lance Armstrong made a career out of destroying his competition on the first day in the mountains.

Stage 6: THOR!

THOR!!!!

There are certain riders we champion here. Jens Voigt, of course, but that’s only because he’s awesome. I made fun of Voeckler in my preview, but I honestly really like the guy. But if we have an unofficial mascot on this blog, it is THOR!

In fact, we refuse to refer to the god of thunder by his common name, THOR! Hushovd, and instead will always call him by the name I yell at the TV whenever he appears: THOR! Strangely enough, today’s win was not a ride of bad-assery, but of racing smarts. Cavendish has utterly dominated the green jersey competition, so much so that we’ve sort of given up hope on it being interesting. And then THOR! comes along and attacks on an uphill finish to rocket back into the race. It’s now a one-point differential. THOR! made it a race in one friggin day.

He did it the old fashioned way. By attacking Cav’s weakness: climbing. Now, no one is going to confuse THOR! with Contador, but he doesn’t suck at climbing as much as Cav does. THOR! saw a weakness, and he exploited it, even though it’s not his strength. Oh, on the same day that he crashed. In a crash that knocked Rogers out of the race, THOR! got back up, got back in the peloton, caught David Friggin’ Millar, and almost won the green jersey. That’s why THOR! is the friggin’ man.

On the flipside, we’ve wasted a lot of bandwidth ripping on David Millar. I like attacks, and I especially like solo breaks. So it’s gonna be hard for me to rip on Millar today, but I’ll try, because that’s how much I dislike him. Millar is now going to be unable to support his GC man (Vande Velde) tomorrow, in a selfish run for a singular stage win. Let’s face it, VV needs all the support he can get. If you’re gonna make a solo break that screws your team captain, you better win the damn stage. Whoops.

One more time: THOR!

Stage 5: Voeckler Steals One

I honestly cannot believe that Thomas Voeckler had never won a stage before. He’s long been a Tour fan favorite, primarily for his inspired yet obviously doomed defense of the maillot jaune in 2004. But rides like that earn you a lifetime pass. Voeckler has traded in on that pass by always using July as a time to launch attack after attack, in his quest to get back in the spotlight.

Mission accomplished.

His break seemed doomed from the start. The six riders never built a huge lead, and the major teams worked to reel the group in almost from the start. It was a short leash, and when the peloton split, the leash got even shorter. There was no way Cavendish or Cancellara was going to let this break survive. Besides, Voeckler is not a great sprinter, and he was clearly outgunned by his fellow breakaway riders.

So he attacked in the final 5 km, broke the lead group, and crossed the line with the peloton pursuit ominously looming in the background. It was an inspired ride, and Voeckler gets to hog the spotlight for a day. He completely deserves his day in the sun, and his day highlights what makes the Tour so great. Even the little guys get a chance to shine.

Cavendish, by the way, won the bunch sprint and further extended what already looks to be his insurmountable lead in the green jersey standings. If he finishes in Paris, he will be in green. But today belongs to Voeckler. So much so, I refuse to mention a certain Kazakh team to detract from his spotlight.

Team Time Trial

Quick notes on the TTT.

That was a wicked course. It had a lot of turns, a couple moderate inclines that pulled weak climbers off the pace, and a few roads that were dangerously narrow.

Astana was awesome on the course and most of the talk now is about how Lance Armstrong is only a fraction of a second off the lead. Yeah, that's important, but right now I'd like to applaud Fabian Cancellara. Overlook the natural tendency to be awed by Lance to realize just how good a cyclist Cancellara is. He's won stages before and worn the yellow jersey several days. He's a world champion at the time trial. While people are going nuts over Armstrong's rise to third place in stage 3 and into second after stage 4, think about what Cancellara did. He also made the jump to the lead group that held off the peloton in stage 3--just like Lance. In the TTT Saxo Bank had an off day, not a disasterous day, but not a great day like Astana. With 10 km remaining Armstrong was actually 1 second ahead of Cancellara's time. Cancellara was the guy who anchored his team to hold off the charge and keep the yellow jersey by the slim margin. Against the odds of a superior team in Astana, Cancellara picked up the slack of his own team to save his lead.

Garmin looked awesome today too. Liquigas was a nice surprise. Things keep getting worse for Menchov and Rabobank.

Stage 3: Well, well, well

I was all set to write a post about how the first stages of the Tour always lack any real drama, and how it is hard to get up for the same cycle of breakaway, pursuit, catch, and then a sprint finish. Up until the last 25 km, that’s exactly how this stage was panning out. Maybe I was gonna say a few words about Cavendish and his pursuit of green, but it was not exactly a riveting stage.

Then the last 25 km happened. A pursuit group broke off the peloton and swallowed up the breakaway. No big deal, as that sort of thing happens all the time. Except that this pursuit group had three Astana riders in it: Lance, Popovych, and Zubeldia.

Even better for Lance was the presence of THOR! and almost the entire Columbia team in the break group. Cavendish’s team then had all of the incentive to pull their weight for the break. It was just like old times, seeing Hincapie leading a break group with Lance in it, even if they were on different teams. It was a logical alliance and the break group kept the 30 second gap despite the efforts of the peloton. Cavendish beat THOR! in a sprint to the line, and further solidified his early points lead.

But that’s not the story.

Armstrong, and two Astana riders, participated in a break and put time into their team captain. Armstrong, not Contador, is now the highest placed Astana rider in the GC. The split in Astana is becoming even more clear. This is not a united team by any stretch.

So what happens now? A divided team can absolutely crush even the most talented teams. Just ask Kloden, he used to ride for T-Mobile, so he has experience with this. On the flip side, its not like Contador and Armstrong don’t share the same goals. They can tenuously ride each other’s wheels while burning up the same domestiques until they both decide to pull out the long knives on Mount Ventoux. If neither rider shows weakness until then, it will probably come down to a free for all on the penultimate day.

Boys and girls, this just got interesting.