Rest Day Predictions

So the picture at the Tour seems to have clarified a bit following yesterday's mountaintop finish. It looks like Contador is clearly the class of the peloton, and after Sunday he's signaled his desire to move beyond his nickname ("The Accountant") and establish himself as the strongest rider in the sport.

We also learned that Lance has lost some of the 'pop' that made him el patron for so many years: when Contador went he was simply unable to follow. Moreover, even with the help of the ever-loyal Kloden, he was only able to minimize his time loss and keep things respectable.

The Schleck brothers, on the other hand, showed both the ability and the desire to chase the big guns. While their team is in no place to challenge the dominance of Astana, they're ready to pick up the gauntlet when it's thrown down.

What else did we learn? What did you think of Contador's attack? There's a new poll, and I think Wednesday's mountain stage and Thursday's time trial still leaves the door open for some, but only a crack.

Personally, I was hoping that Ryder Hesjedal would make mountain bikers everywhere proud by pulling off the flier, but he wasn't even close in his attempt. (And I'm not sure it was ever a real attempt: Adam?) Discuss amongst yourselves.

A little WTF? from The Badger

Nobody messes with The Badger. Nobody.

That pic is from the CyclingNews story, but if you haven't gotten a chance to read Hinault's explication of the detailed strategy by which Astana will be toppled, check out the interview on VeloNews.

Or, if you don't have the time, let me summarize it for you: "Just attack." That's his answer to everything, it seems, from how to deal with podium interlopers, to how to win the Tour, to how to open stuck jars of pickles. My high school football coach would be proud. (While simultaneously deriding the entire sport as sissified.)

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That was brutal to watch.

The Tour is often analogized to a chess match, with the leading teams building up their strategies against each other. But some days, those strategies aren't being built up, they're being radically torn down. This was one of those days.



So George takes off on a flier and it looks good. Everybody is happy at the thought of seeing the veteran helper end up in yellow at the end of the day. Hooray, what a great story!

Astana wants to see him there too, but not too far in the lead, so they work to limit the gap. And they screw up -- they cut it too close. With the typical blindness of the very, very arrogant, they believe that they and their interests are the only ones on the road, so that if they leave George in the yellow by a few seconds, then that's where it will stay.

Now it's coming to the finish and there's a real conundrum in the pack. Columbia has been running all the finishes so far, but they're stuck between a rock and a hard place: if they do their usual dominant lead in, then they'll erase George's gap and he'll lose the yellow, but if they don't, then Cav might lose sprint points to Thor, who, to Columbia's surprise, managed to regain the green jersey just yesterday.

Here's where Garmin comes in. Jonathan Vaughters and Matty White are some smart dudes, and they realize that Astana has unwittingly moved Columbia into a checkmate position. If Garmin takes over the finish, then it's a triple win for them: 1) it protects Wiggo and CVV, their GC guys, since an uncontrolled finish is a danger, 2) they get to pay back Columbia for all the crap Cav and co. said about them in the Giro, and 3) by paying back Columbia, they send a message to the peloton that even though Garmin is a young team, you don't fuck with them.

And they're sick too. The don't quite erase the gap. Instead, they leave Columbia to do the last kilo, driving the knife into themselves. Columbia is in the weird position of trying to win the sprint as slowly as possible. And Cav, the rookie, blows it spectacularly. He wants to beat Thor by just a tiny bit, but either intentionally or not -- he may have just lost sight of Thor and was weaving because he was looking for him -- he illegally blocks Thor against the barriers and gets relegated.

Now Columbia has lost George's yellow and likely lost Cav's green for the duration, as the relegation leaves Cav way down.

Ka-BOOM!

Moral of the story: don't trust Astana, and don't fuck with Garmin.

Winner: Garmin
Losers: Columbia (big) and Astana

But flat stages are boring.

Can We Cancel the Mountain Stages?

Dear Tour de France,

If the climbers aren't going to race, can we just cancel the mountain stages and replace them with flat ones? All the GC differences are from flat stages anyway. The Garmin-Columbia battles are awesome right now. I think Julian Dean may punch Renshaw, he's so pissed at getting schooled in the lead out. Besides, they look good in their green sunglasses.

Thanks.

Emotion

German-Australian Heinrich Haussler won today's rainy stage at the Tour de France with panache and emotion. Like many, I have been surprised by the emergence of this rider who's had a coming-out party all year at races such as Milan-San Remo and Flanders. I recently watched some of the superb videos available on his Cervelo Test Team site where he featured prominently. Based on what I saw there, I wasn't sure what to make of his combination of laid-back Australian surfer dude and Teutonic aggression but today's show of emotion indicates that Haussler is a rider with class and a genuine commitment to win.

A little bird settled on Brian's shoulder...

And she gave him this piece of advice:

Go West young man and get a big bike:

Make it long of leg and plush in the rough

So you can see what the Rockies are like.

Don't skimp on the gears and make the wheels tough

Cause the hills are tall and the climbs are long.

Throw in some carbon to make it all stiff

And a little dual crown won't do you wrong

For when you throw your big bike on the lift.

Slap on an S and jump in the saddle

Point it down hill and head into battle.

So Brian got himself a bright new bike,

Tightened up his shoes and pulled on his gloves

Headed out west and scaled every height

And never came back, for he was in love.

Bastille Day Let Down

I was planning on riding yesterday to celebrate Bastille Day in high style, but I couldn't find my silk cravat. No ride.

Bastille Day

more rest day photography

The tour may have been painful in the 1950s, but it only got more painful in the 80s and 90s.

Rest day photos

So the Col du Tourmalet didn't mean much in yesterday's stage, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't pause a moment to think back on what a grand, majestic, painful hill it is.

Here are a couple of shots from the 1952 Tour de France:

Colorado Photo of the Day

Yes it is snow.
Yes it is summer.
Yes that is a Trek.
No it is not my Trek.
Please come ride with me.

TdF Rest Day Video- Hollywood in Lights

After bringing you a glimpse of Hollywood's outsized PRO baller lifestyle last week, we're proud to bring you the BCC debut of Hollywood's first all-mountain video for the Big S. Hollywood stars as "Matt Hunter" on this "I am Specialized" downhill run aboard the new 2010 S-works Enduro. Stay tuned: Hollywood rides the Shiv next!