Today Lance came back to life on the slopes of Le Petit Grand. Believe me, there were some long moments before Lance finally bridged the gap – it was impressive. If he had done that from the front of the group I really think it would've been hard for anyone except Contador to follow.
Of course everything that happened today was overshadowed by the horrible crash of Jens Voigt. It was just gut wrenching to see his teeth flying across the pavement. Jens is such a good guy and such a hard worker, it's not only a real blow to Saxo, but to the whole sport. His crash is yet another reminder that there's no limit to the toughness required to finish this race and ride into Paris.
So we just sat down for some dinner and sure enough, here come the two Brits to try and horn in on our action. It was something getting here alright...these remote mountain villages teeming with French mountain trolls playing their banjos. They have 12 fingers, but only three teeth to pick at!
So there's plenty of talk about Johan leaving Astana. I gotta say it's all over for that team except for Borat's teardrops. Vino and the Kazakhs can have each other because the Tour is so tired of him. I doubt he'll ever race the Tour de France again.
Lance will announce the new team this week and probably take Levi, Zubeldia, Popo and Horner with him. Kloden might go as well, but I can tell you for sure that the new team won't have a single Kazakh on it! Taylor Phinney is still a few years away. The challenge for him will be to try and stay motivated in the sport long enough before he can jump into the Grand Tours. Taylor's in a weird place because he's so young, but so incredibly strong and talented.
I saw one of the new Yamaha V-Max bikes today. Pretty impressive, although the exhaust pipe looks a little hooptie. I used to run one of those back in '87 at the Fremont drag strip and take on the Hell's Angels with all that brute power. It was fast, but with the disc wheels and shaft drive it didn't like to turn.
Okay, dinner is here and you know how I like to spring into action when the pizza and beer arrives. Everyone can expect a diabolically hard stage tomorrow. There will be a big group on the first climb and then it will get successively smaller with each climb so that only the stars will still around at the front of the last climb.
Everyone say a prayer for Jens Voigt. |