The headline from Stage 8

Since I don't work for Vs., I don't have to write about Lance Armstrong's tragic day. The real headline was that Andy Schleck made an attach that Contador could not answer. Last year there were a couple dozen attacks from the Schlecks, and Contador covered them all. This year he's 0 for 1.

It ended up being only a 10 second gain over Contador, et al., but the psychological impact is much greater. And while Cadel Evans picked up the yellow jersey, I don't expect him to keep it because he got dropped off the Contador group as they tried unsuccessfully to respond to Schleck (i.e. Evans is still the weakest climber of the contenders).

The gap between Schleck and Contador is by no means large--just 20 seconds, but now we've seen Schleck do something we've never seen before. For the rest of this race, even if Contador has a great day and takes a minute over Schleck, he's going to have to worry about Andy doing it again.

I made a point about Astana's domestiques working like mad on Stage 7. To my surprise they did even better on stage 8, but for what reason. They don't have a jersey to defend, but they are burning themselves up to break the peloton. If they do get the yellow jersey they may be spent and unable to defend. The only way I can figure this makes sense is if they know Contador is not on form and their acting the part of Tour boss in order to discourage attacks.

I think it's more likely that the team just has a bad game plan.