This Tour de france is really so good that it breaks your heart that it will be over tomorrow. Today's windy timetrial among the wine-chateaus of the Bordeaux region was pure suffering for everyone, winners and losers alike.
On the attack
The Race. This is a race that never stops bringing the goods. Many of us have spent months speculating that the only thing that could stop Alberto Contador from running away with this race was injury or misfortune. Sure we had hopes that Andy Schleck could pose something of a challenge but the consensus has more or less been that everything he could do, Conta could do better and in the end this should be a walk in the park for him. And yet, here we are after a penultimate stage of the Tour where Schleck came within seconds of upsetting Contador. This stage, like almost every potentially decisive stage in this TdF, delivered uncertainty and excitement above and beyond what one can hope for as a fan.
Off the back
TV viewers and TT fans While we did get to see a battle of two giants today we also missed out on an equally great fight for the stagewin. Early in the day, long before TV coverage was on, the two dominant timetrialers at the moment, Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin rode a close race for what is arguably the most or second most prestigious TT of the year but no one got to see it! With the start order in stagerace TTs being what they are, situations like these are perhaps inevitable but one has to wonder if race-organizers shouldn't be thinking of some way to get around this? Perhaps there should be some timeslots near the end of the race for the TT aces regardless of their placing on GC? Probably it's not an entirely easy task to make it happen but it can't be in any ones interest when some of the best match-ups in the entire race go by unnoticed.
Podi says:
"Aaaahh Monsieur Gadret, I cried with joy when I saw you ride today. It reminded me of my beloved mémé."