5:10am - Damn, it's early! But this is where is gets gooooood!
Today's stage will be full of PAIN. It begins
in Pforzheim Germany,
with four CAT 3 climbs in the first quarter of
the stage, runs 231.5k
through the Vosges mountains ending with the
first CAT 2 climb of the
Tour just 15k before the finish in Gerardmer
France. The weather is
whacked, with sun beginning the tour in the low
70s, but there's
torrential rain and thunder at the finish which
could be extremely
dangerous with the decent to the line.
5:30am - There have been several attacks from
the very beginning but
threats to both the green Jersey and the King
of the Mountains, but
Discovery, CSC, Y-Mobile and Robbie McEwen's
team Lotto have all been
driving the peleton and there is only a 40" gap
to the breakaway.
Unfortunately Tom Boonen of the green jersey
is in a group of about 40
riders 5 minutes behind the peleton. This is
bad, as it's not enough to
just finish the Tour - your finish time has to
be within a certain
percentage of the majority of the riders who
cross the line. Even if
you finish the stage, you may be dropped from
the tour. George Hincapie
won one of the sprint stages and gained valuable
bonus time at the
line, putting him closer to Lance. My call is
that if Vino isn't on the
podium with Lance in Paris, it will be two other
TDC (Team Discovery
Channel) riders, and I'd love to see George there!
Issac Galvez of team Illes Balears, who was one
of the rides who
crashed right before the finish yesterday, has
abandoned the Tour, as
have Sylvain Calzati (AG2R), Steve Zampieri (PHO)
and Alessandro
Spezialetti (LAM). I also believe I heard that
Christophe Mengin (FSO),
who was the first to crash in the carnage at
the end of stage 6 did not
start the stage today. I think that leaves 180
in the race - I think.
More info on that later I hope.
It was interesting, Lance made a comment before
the stage that today
might be a good day to let the yellow jersey
go.... hmmm. I wonder if
he means it. Personally, I think he'd only let
it go to one of the TDC
guys, but who knows.
6:50am - There is a seven man breakaway that is
4'02" ahead of the
peleton with 42k to go. The chase is on.
7:05am - The breakaway has hit the CAT 2 climb,
at 30k to the finish.
Gap is 2'57".
7:15am - The peleton have hit the climb and has
splintered all to hell.
Lance and TDC are up front with no problems.
The good thing is the sun
has followed the riders so it shouldn't be too
bad on the descent into
the Black Forest.
7:30am - Vino tries to attack on the climb, but
Lance isn't letting
him. AWESOME. Ullrich is on Lance's tail. Kloden
from T-Mobile has also
attacked and is opening a gap. TDC seems to have
disappeared.
Whatthehell is up with THAT????
7:35am - Kloden has just gone first over the summit
ahead of Pieter
Weening of Rabobank with the double points on
the final climb. And now
the frenzied descent begins.
7:55am - Wild sprint at the finish and Weening
beats Kloden by a hair,
even though the photo looks like a tie. Lance
crosses 27" after that in
the first big group, so he stays in the yellow
jersey.
Some amazing things today - lots of attacks on
the last climb that
Lance answered, but never completely overtook.
It might be everyone
testing to see his form, since this is the first
year he has gone into
the Tour without another win for the season.
Also, there were no riders
from TDC who kept up with Lance on the last climb
- that is very
surprising, and disappointing. Yesterday there
were five TDC guys in
the top ten:
1. Lance Armstrong
- 23:01:56 - Total overall time
2. George Hincapie
:55 behind
3. Alexandre Vinokourov
1:02
4. Jens Voigt
1:04
5. Bobby Julich
1:07
6. Jose Luis Rubiera
1:14
7. Yaroslav Popovych
1:16 (Who has also lost the white jersey today.)
8. Benjamin Noval Gonzalez
1:26
9. Ivan Basso
1:26
10. Kurt-Asle Arvesen
1:32
George Hincapie has fallen to 8th place because
of it. ALL of the big guns are now in the top ten:
1. Lance Armstrong 28:06:17
2. Jens Voigt
1:00 behind
3. Alexandre Vinokourov 1:02
4. Bobby Julich
1:07
5. Ivan Basso
1:26
6. Jan Ullrich
1:36
7. Carlos Sastre
1:36
8. George Hincapie
1:47
9. Andreas Kloden
1:50
10. Floyd Landis
1:50
So much for my thinking it would be three TDC
guys at the finish in
Paris - but there is still two weeks to go, so
anything can happen.
Lance made some interesting comments after the
stage - that there will
be some serious discussion about what happened
today, that it was not a
good day for the team, and that even he didn't
feel all that great.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Tomorrow is going to be reeeeaally interesting.
(Beyond the fact
OLN's coverage starts at 3:30 am PACIFIC TIME!!!!
) Stage 9 is 171k
with three CAT 3s in the beginning at 6.5k, 22k,
and 32.5k marks; a CAT
2 almost halfway through the stage at 64k, a
CAT 3 just past the mid
point at 98k, and the first CAT 1 at 115k.
TDC has got to help Lance!!
Today's events were so unlike their normal riding,
I'm wondering if it
wasn't intentional to give the other riders a
false sense of hope.
Everyone had to know that everyone would attack
Lance on that final
climb - it was as predictable as the sun rising
in the east. Giving
away the white jersey lets them concentrate on
one goal - Lance. It
also gives another team more responsibility to
do some work up front.
But I think TDC has got to kick it into high
gear from here on out. If
Lance let's the yellow jersey go now, it's likely
to stay gone. Like
Lance says, "No more gifts!!"
DAMMIT!! I so want him to go out on top!
GO LANCE!