Stage 10
I missed all the preview junk, so I catch the race as 13 riders are away at 5:45. Let’s see if anyone interesting is involved. I would guess that Gonchar will hold the jersey today and if he really Voecklers it, he may hold on through tomorrow. He did well in the Giro, but the Giro and the Tour are two very different races – the Tour is in France – in case you didn’t know…
Here’s Leblanc defending his dead boring route this year:
Speaking to AS, Leblanc rebutted CSC team manager Bjarne Riis’s comments about the first week being boring because there had been so many sprints. “If we were to put mountains at the start of the race we would be criticized for making the race too hard, they would say it was impossible without doping. And the Tour could also be decided right at the start and then there would be no excitement. And, of course, sprinters are a key part of cycling as well,†Leblanc countered.
Yes, but sprinting isn’t the only part of cycling. I get the feeling that Leblanc just wanted to visit some old stomping grounds, and hit the cheese and wine circuit while he still has free Peugeot to pop out of. If they had gone with his original idea of finishing the race in the Bahamas, we could’ve got a nice shot of Jean-Marie in his Speedo, but, alas, Paris it is.
Here’s the Lance interview, I actually know less about the race now.
Four riders off the front, Vasseur is up there looking for another second place.
Thor SMASH grinding the climb like freshman at San Padre.
Ladies, my teammate Salvatore would like to extend an invitation…
Mayo looks like hell on this climb; will he pull over and weep again? It’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mayo, as he usually rebounds and wins the next day after a horrible performance. Not so great for GC hopes, though.
We now have the Mayo “will he quit?†camera shot going on.
This stage won’t really shake thing out too much as they aren’t finishing on the hill, they have about 30k to the finish after. So on the descent, um, heavier guys can make up time. Toto! Toto! Toto!
T-Mobile at the front of the pack, whittling away.
A lone Norwegian flag on the hill, Thor’s going to need a push soon. SMASH!
Gonchar getting dropped by T-Mobile. Do Eastern European guys just change their name’s spelling’s randomly to mess with us? I’m pretty sure Gonchar has had about 10 different spellings that I’ve seen. Today I spell it: D.R.O.P.P.E.D.
T-mobile is probably riding for Kloden, who was instrumental in getting Zabel left off of the Tour team, so they could go with their three leader plan. Needless to say, I despise him for that.
As they descend Freire is still near the front. Hmmm, Freire at the front, Mayo not.
We are just waiting until the next hill now – it’s a Cat 1.
Five leaders on the front – riding bikes. Time to hear about bull riding.
Mercado puts in an attack at the front.
Peloton 10 minutes behind. Gaining time. Long descent ahead to the finish. Toto taking on beef to gain a little “descending weight.â€
The virtual yellow jersey carrot is dangling out there.
There’s the Didi the Devil, he’s about a thousand times more well known than I am. As he should be.
A shot of Commesso slipping off the front of the race. I type that now as I can cut and paste it into my clipboard and use it in all of the upcoming mountain stages.
Gonchar getting dropped again, T-Mobile moves to the front to up the pace to get rid of him.
Razzy jumps! He looks like he’s late for tee-ball.
Levi sucking wind. Perhaps he should look into getting his hip broken?
Landaluze chasing at about 10 seconds, if he makes it up to the front, it’ll be two Spaniards and one Frenchman – insert French surrendering comment here.
There are Spaniards sprinkled all over the front of the race.
21K to go Zabel is in the front group again, looking for green jersey points. Also looking to smack Kloden.
Landaluze falling back, it’s just two at the front. Could France have another win on their hands?
Just for fun – decreased urine flow.
Gonchar gets back to the front after fighting off the T-Mobile attacks; he gives Kloden a bottle he’s urinated in.
Looks like the yellow jersey will trade hands today.
10K to go. The Agritubel DS tells Mercado to win as they don’t have enough money to pay for the hotel rooms tonight.
Dessel will get yellow today, France will pretend he can keep it, you know, not to hurt his feeings.
Mercado will sit in to get the win, he asks if Dessel plans on throwing away his bottles, and if so, he’ll take them.
A Cofidis rider getting some high fives from the crowd. French people like other French people.
Here comes the finish, um, I think I’ll bet on Mercado…
Here comes the slo-mo sprint. Mercado wins.
Feel free to nap as we wait for the rest of the field to come in.
Vasseur finishes, Toto leading the pack. NO GUNS! It’s like I don’t even know Toto anymore!
Zabel doesn’t come around Bennati for the sprint. I’m wiping a tear as I write that.
Excellent report. And congrates on the birth of your full adult daughter!
William
Geeze, good thing you induced or she might have come out as a Cat 3! Congrats, and thanks for the entertainment for us bored cycling fans…I knew you would be psyched to see Commesso’s result today – finishing 30 min behind like the chump he is!
Armstrong is the 85% favorite to win the tour after today. Time to turn off the TV and wait til next year I guess… at least tradesports is actually making markets on all the main contenders this year, hopefully they’ll do it next year when lance is gone.
Armstrong is the 85% favorite to win the tour after today. Time to turn off the TV and wait til next year I guess… at least tradesports is actually making markets on all the main contenders this year, hopefully they’ll do it next year when lance is gone.
ooops, sorry about the double entry. And I forgot to say congrats!
Congrats Dan on your new addition, FBF is missing you.
Paul Sherwen actually said ‘I know you’re not supposed to take sides, but…’ in reference to Jens Voigt. Yeah, you guys are real neutral.
Congrat on the new addition. FBF is not the same without the weekly commentary.
You’re no Nick Bakay. Just saying.
Riis is only half right about the first week being boring – he forgets we are now in week 2.
Ah at least there is tommorrow – of course followed by 4 more stages of no consequence (sans injuries).
…apparently Dessel is hearing impaired. for real.
Leblanc made a comment about limiting the use of radios in that same interview you quoted. Sure you saw it, but thought it was interesting. Hope they follow through.
wtf is moby’s problem. off the back today, and in the post-race interview with lance’s best friend and nemesis he acted like it was all good. someone tell his hot wife to sick one of her lap dogs on his sense of urgency.
You made the call DS! Gonchar was kindly handed a sofabed on the hills. After his Giro outing it seemed like he was sittin on some good form. What the hell!! I thought that he would atleast keep it for one day. Kloden looks like the cappy for T-mo however he isnt consistant so we’ll see.
anyone notice that since operacion puerto a whole different crop of riders has been gradually looking better than ever – like the french. methinks supplies were on hand for about a month, and now these guys really are injecting vitamins. stages are finishing about 30 minutes later than they were the last few years, which is where the french teams were finishing anyway. could this be the first clean tour since pre WWII? that said, I’m sick of sprints. why hold a 23 day race if only 4 days are interesting?
Did anyone else see Kloden on the front once or twice? WTF is T-Mob doing? Oh, Yeah, T-Mob, being T-Mob, that was part of their "cunning" plan. Maybe they’re really riding for Rogers?
I agree that this might be the closest we’ve seen to a "clean" Tour in years. Which would explain why noone has any clue who’s going to win…
Just because Dr Fuentes has been caught, doesn’t mean this is clean. There have to be other folks out there providing drugs, blood, and other tools of the doping trade to riders. We may just be seeing the customers of the second tier of doping doctors coming to the fore.
"closest to clean"
it’ll never be totally clean. but I think that many of the competitors have the fear of the invisible sky being in them right now, and thus aren’t performing to thir previously dirty standards. Thus the massive inconsistancies from previous tours we’ve seen thus far in this one. To name names, Boonen, Disco, Mayo, Cunego, Levi, Voight and the rest of CSC.
On the other hand, Euskatel has been more active to this point that almost ever before, as have Ag2R and CA, so it’s either clean livin’, or a more level playing field.
To me, the big GC favourites are all riding pretty skeered, as if they aren’t sure how well they’re going to recover, and we all know what that means, don’t we?
Thus, my theory that this is the cleanest Tour in a while. However, that’s similar to saying the most honest republican in Washington- it’s all relative.
Yea it seems like a lotta guys are holdin their cards close. If this were status quo we would have seen carnage today, no question. Jens would have attacked for sure. This scandel is peeling back the skin of super crazy avg. speeds and unbelievable recovery from stage to stage. Now its all about making the one decisive attack and defending. Its no different than when Lance did this but nowadays riding this way could get you dropped the next stage. We may not see the clear winner until either the last mtn. stage or the final TT. Levi, Mayo, Jens, all these guys that hammer up the road are suddenly lacking the snap. hmmm?
Couldn’t another reason for the drop in avg speeds be due to the disorganization in the chasing, the ‘openess’ of the tour, and so on?
How do you find these links Baldwin?
Yes, mad gay.
To Lee3: My Mayista contacts (I’m being serious here) on Tourmalet tell me that Mayo is battling an infection.
Aupa.
>>Toto weeps into his meat smoothie<<
Worth the wait!
Td Schmalz fever, catch it!
“So if Menchov beats Razzy in the TT, does he get to wonder why Razzy couldn
After seeing Kloden ride so well, he’s considering having his Coccyx removed for added weight savings.
sunososuka
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