Actually kind of a boring stage today. I think tomorrow with Hautacam and Col de Tourmalet is the day that we'll see some serious attacks from the real contenders.
How great is the name Riccardo Ricco? If you do last, first like names are often listed you get- Ricco, Riccardo Say that a few times fast and you'll find yourself ending with "LUCY!! I'm hooooommmmmmeeeeee."
No kidding Hornius. Just beyond wow. Is there any doubt that these are the toughest athletes in the world? Hard to believe that there is only one second between first and second in the overall GC. You would have to say that Evans is probably the favorite now, but I'm glad that Christian Vandevelde is still up there.
I could feel the pain on those climbs. I have all kinds of respect for Jens Voigt. The man is a beast. I wonder if CSC can do something big this time. It is going to be tough for evans, the Lotto team is not strong enough to defend a yellow jersey. I think Frank Schleck is in an excellent position now.
SPOILER ALERT! One thing to consider: even though the TDF has only visited Hautacam three times in the past, whoever was leading at the top of Hautacam went on to win the tour. So good news for Evans.
No Superman shot up the mountains yesterday, which is probably as it should be-the race is wide open still for several contenders, any one of which might have a little more energy on the next mountainous stage. Pretty entertaining Tour, for a Tour with no superstar.
It is a strong possiblility that no one person will dominate the tour year after year as in the past with riders such as Lance.
What is unusual about this year's Tour is that there are no past winners (please correct me if I am wrong) riding in the tour this year. The past three winners are not there. One is retired, the other was kicked off for alegedly drug use and the other was not allowed for being associated with a team that had some drug users.
vandevelde looks good and is in a strong position...how does he stack up with cadel evans in the time trials???
Vande Velde can be a very good time trialist. He finished 8th in the first time trial and won the Circuit de la Sarthe TT earlier this year. He strikes me as the kind of guy who, properly motivated, could make a huge ride in the second, long time trialer. Having said that, he's probably not in Evans' or Menchov's league on most days. I think he's going to need to gain some more seconds on both of them in the Alps before that TT. Menchov looks really strong to me right now so I don't know if Vande Velde can do it.
Right you are elguapo. Oscar Pereio did won it two years ago by default. The strange thing is that he won it by only 32 seconds over the German Andres Kloden. Of course no one knew that Floyd was going to get disqualified but if Kloden had known about it I wonder if he would have made a greater effort to overcome those 32 seconds. We'll never know.
That sucks about Ricco, but I do appreciate that cycling takes this approach to doping. If you fail a test you're done - that's the way it should be in all sports.
In the competition between Craig, Bob, Paul and Phil the points after stage 12 are Craig 19, Bob 7, Paul 5 and Phil 1. Craig had first choice today and his choice (I won't give it away due to spoiler possibility) won and he now has a commanding 19 points and it will be difficult though not impossible yet to catch him. He has done well in his picking. He had first choice today and used it very wisely.
I was listening to the ITV's (British TV channel) TDF podcast the other day when Sonier Duval had 5 riders in a breakaway with no other team having more than 2. Their comment was along the lines "that many riders from one team dropping everyone else concerns me" Looks like their concern was well founded.
