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It comes as no shock the Cancellara won the ITT. Some may argue that the weather and shifting winds had something to do with the win. That's racing. And it's also Spartacus, so I wouldn't take anything away from the win.
The big story of the day were the rides put in by Contador, Schleck, and to a lesser extent SSanchez. Prediction ad Contador blowing the doors off of Schleck, but that wasn't the case. In fact, the 30 or seconds didn;t come close to the time he made up on Schleck when Andy dropped his chain. That may be the case, but that doesn't mean Contador couldn't have made up that time. Strategy and tactics change from stage to stage, based on placement of the riders. No doubt Astana, and Saxo Bank, would ave ridden differently. There really is no reason to play "what if" other than to elicit arguments, so let's put that behind us.
The third Sunday means the end of Le Tour. What more is there to talk about? Oh yeah. We have some photo ops, rolling champagne toasts, and some serious sprints over the cobbled streets of the Champs-Elysees. This will be Lance Armstrong's and Christophe Moreau's final race parade into Paris. Expect to see some gutter bunnies torching a few laps before it really gets serious. Rocket Robbie will be looking to win one last time, Petacchi wants to lay the sledgehammer down on his jeresy hunt, Cavendish wants another sword decal on his top tube, and Thor...well, he has been talking about just trying to finish.
Unfortunately, I don't think we will see a sprint as exciting as last year. Garmin thought they owned the city of lights, and Columbia ripped it from their hands before taking the correct line. Incredible!
(embedding disabled. I think teoteoteo had a vid of this from his hotel room)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCUD0CPKJSM&feature=relatedIf i recall, that was Hincapie making the move off of Garmin and powering through.
I will say Cavendish wins. I want Thor, but Cavs takes this one. Again. I just hope he kees his gestures away from the tour one last day.
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The big story of the day were the rides put in by Contador, Schleck, and to a lesser extent SSanchez. Prediction ad Contador blowing the doors off of Schleck, but that wasn't the case. In fact, the 30 or seconds didn;t come close to the time he made up on Schleck when Andy dropped his chain. That may be the case, but that doesn't mean Contador couldn't have made up that time. Strategy and tactics change from stage to stage, based on placement of the riders. No doubt Astana, and Saxo Bank, would ave ridden differently. There really is no reason to play "what if" other than to elicit arguments, so let's put that behind us.
The third Sunday means the end of Le Tour. What more is there to talk about? Oh yeah. We have some photo ops, rolling champagne toasts, and some serious sprints over the cobbled streets of the Champs-Elysees. This will be Lance Armstrong's and Christophe Moreau's final race parade into Paris. Expect to see some gutter bunnies torching a few laps before it really gets serious. Rocket Robbie will be looking to win one last time, Petacchi wants to lay the sledgehammer down on his jeresy hunt, Cavendish wants another sword decal on his top tube, and Thor...well, he has been talking about just trying to finish.
Unfortunately, I don't think we will see a sprint as exciting as last year. Garmin thought they owned the city of lights, and Columbia ripped it from their hands before taking the correct line. Incredible!
(embedding disabled. I think teoteoteo had a vid of this from his hotel room)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCUD0CPKJSM&feature=relatedIf i recall, that was Hincapie making the move off of Garmin and powering through.
I will say Cavendish wins. I want Thor, but Cavs takes this one. Again. I just hope he kees his gestures away from the tour one last day.
