Another wild mountainstage today where anarchy reigned from Km 0. It's not often you see a main peloton of about 15 riders after only one hour of racing. Eventually things settled down of course but by then the hectic racing had already taken it's toll on many riders, only those who are still somewhat fresh came out on top at the end of the day.
On the attack
French cycling. Are we not getting to the point where we need to Bah! the french now? Can we really suffer this endless winstreak without airing our discontent? These guys are making the race so boring with their superiority that I have to say, it's getting old. Take today for instance, the moment Fedrigo and Casar got in that break we all knew it was game over. What was left was just a long dull march to the inevitable victory interview in french that none of us frankly understand. Did he thank his team for the win? Was it a dream come true? How can we tell? And what's with all the cheering and exalted screaming by the c rowds along the route and the french commentators? Is there some special point in the home riders winning all the time in their home-race? I have only one thing to say. Bah.
Off the back
The Giro / Tour-double I think it's time to face the truth. The dream is dead. This Tour has put the last nail in the coffin for the beautiful vision that it is possible for the biggest names in the sport to race both the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France competitively. We all probably saw it last year already but we just didn't want to accept the sad and harsh reality, racing for victory in both just isn't within the limits of what is reasonable or possible. By now in this Tour we have seen Evans, Sastre and today most notably Basso fall victim to the impossible dream. Now, since we all fervently wish for the dream to live on we are tempted to dismiss the facts saying there were different circumstances, Evans crashed, Basso got sick, Sastre is old and so on but there is a bigger picture and it all points to one conclusion.
There is a positive and a negative side to all of this. The positive side is that perhaps (perhaps) we are seeing an effect of a peloton with less access to magic recovery potions that allow them to stretch the boundaries of the possible. This is of course all guesswork but it does seem like another small sign that riders are getting more terrestrial rather than extra-terrestrial. On the negative side this may all signal a return to a Giro that is exclusively for Italians and second rate stageracers while the Tour becomes ever more dominant. Let's hope not
Podi says:
"Allez alllez allez, we are the *hic* champs *hic* *hic*"