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ysobelleWait, wait, wait—GO!
Giuseppe Guarini of T-Mobile, part of a four-man breakaway for many miles, decides just before the 1k marker that the time is right. He breaks away from the other three, and shoots for the line. Opens a huge break, and off he goes for his first ever stage win in nine years in the Tour. Sandy Casar, Franco Pellizotti, and Oscar Pereiro could pretty much do nothing but watch, their own legs worn out by maintaining a decent breakaway nearly the entire stage.
Here comes the next group, and…well, in exactly the same spot on the road—literally!— another rider, Salvatore Comesso of Lampre, breaks from the second group doing precisely the same thing, and leaving HIS group behind, to come in fifth.
The peloton is only three-plus minutes behind today, and on they come. No major shakeups, but the green points jersey is still in contention. Robbie McEwen and Thor Hushovd battle to the line for a single point in the competition—they don’t care that it’s fourteenth place in the stage. It’ll be close in these last two days.
And now I realise, as I watch the re-replay, that I can now tell maybe half the teams by their jerseys. Woo!
Lance is still 2.46 ahead of his nearest competitor, Ivan Basso. Tomorrow is a truly long, grueling, hilly time-trial, and Lance excels at time-trials. Rasmussen is right behind them, and Ullrich in fifth. Tomorrow will be interesting. Lance says he doesn’t mind that he hasn’t won a race this year (winning a stage in the Tour is also considered winning a race), but OLN seems to think it’s likely he’ll make up some time over the 55.5km circuit.
You know, I never get tired of watching these men win. The absolute ecstacy in their faces—sometimes mixed with unbelievable joy, or even just sheer disbelief—is uplifting in itself. I think perhaps watching nothing but the Tour, I sometimes forget that just one stage of this event would be a major race anywhere else. Watching the pride and happiness, grown men in tears on their bikes and/or on the podium—all that reminds me again. It’s inspiring in the extreme.
It also makes me want to get on a bike just to know what it feels like, which is a truly frightening thought.
Giuseppe Guarini of T-Mobile, part of a four-man breakaway for many miles, decides just before the 1k marker that the time is right. He breaks away from the other three, and shoots for the line. Opens a huge break, and off he goes for his first ever stage win in nine years in the Tour. Sandy Casar, Franco Pellizotti, and Oscar Pereiro could pretty much do nothing but watch, their own legs worn out by maintaining a decent breakaway nearly the entire stage.
Here comes the next group, and…well, in exactly the same spot on the road—literally!— another rider, Salvatore Comesso of Lampre, breaks from the second group doing precisely the same thing, and leaving HIS group behind, to come in fifth.
The peloton is only three-plus minutes behind today, and on they come. No major shakeups, but the green points jersey is still in contention. Robbie McEwen and Thor Hushovd battle to the line for a single point in the competition—they don’t care that it’s fourteenth place in the stage. It’ll be close in these last two days.
And now I realise, as I watch the re-replay, that I can now tell maybe half the teams by their jerseys. Woo!
Lance is still 2.46 ahead of his nearest competitor, Ivan Basso. Tomorrow is a truly long, grueling, hilly time-trial, and Lance excels at time-trials. Rasmussen is right behind them, and Ullrich in fifth. Tomorrow will be interesting. Lance says he doesn’t mind that he hasn’t won a race this year (winning a stage in the Tour is also considered winning a race), but OLN seems to think it’s likely he’ll make up some time over the 55.5km circuit.
You know, I never get tired of watching these men win. The absolute ecstacy in their faces—sometimes mixed with unbelievable joy, or even just sheer disbelief—is uplifting in itself. I think perhaps watching nothing but the Tour, I sometimes forget that just one stage of this event would be a major race anywhere else. Watching the pride and happiness, grown men in tears on their bikes and/or on the podium—all that reminds me again. It’s inspiring in the extreme.
It also makes me want to get on a bike just to know what it feels like, which is a truly frightening thought.