> Changes in stage 10 compared to stage 9
That was, as they say, quite a stage...
> Biggest losers by position :
> -50 Iban Mayo
And another one bites the dust! Who predicted /that/ ?
Other surprise losers, for me, include Victor Hugo Pena, Juan Manuel
Garate, Sandy Casar and Jens Voigt, all of whom finished in the bus, 24
minutes back.
> Favourites by position :
> +15 Damiano Cunego
> +14 Levi Leipheimer
::boggle::
Those two fell out of the back of the peloton like sacks of mouldy
potatoes. And yet they /improved/ their position? Yup, they did. Even
more surprising to me was Voeckler, a rider I like to keep an eye on,
who was yo-yoing off the back all the way up the Marie-Blanque, and then
came back to contest the sprint when the yellow jersey group reached the
line.
> -2 Serguei Gonchar
How often do you see the Yellow Jersey doing water duty?
> -2 George Hincapie
> -2 Carlos Sastre
Unfortunately I'm marking Sastre down my favourites list. He, personally,
seemed relaxed and untroubled on the climbs today, but CSC as a whole
took a beating, with three riders, O'Grady, Lombardi and Voigt coming in
in the bus and only four in the 'yellow jersey' group. I still have a
wild and somewhat puerile fantasy of Sastre standing on the podium on
the Champs Elysees saying 'I dedicate my victory to my friend Ivan
Basso, who should be standing here'. Ain't going to happen, I know, but
I would really like it to.
The bus broke down as follows (number in bus/number still riding):
Saunier Duval 0/9
T-Mobile 0/7
AG2R 1/8
Discovery Channel 1/9 (Ekimov)
Milram 1/8
Rabobank 1/8
Bouygues Telecom 2/8
Gerolsteiner 2/9
Lampre-Fondital 2/9
Caisse d'Epargne 3/8
Euskaltel-Euskadi 3/9 (Mayo and two in support)
Team CSC 3/7
Davitamon-Lotto 4/8
Phonak 4/9
Agritubel 5/9
Cofidis 5/9
Crédit Agricole 5/8
Francaise Des Jeux 6/9
Liquigas 6/8
Quick-Step 6/9
That's a pretty good look at strength in depth in the mountains: those at
the top have got it, those lower down haven't. Which means the winner in
Paris is likely to be Gibo, Klöden, Moreau, Azoldepie, Zabel or
Menchmussen.
--
si...@jasmine.org.uk (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; This email may contain confidential or otherwise privileged
;; information, though, quite frankly, if you're not the intended
;; recipient and you've got nothing better to do than read other
;; folks' emails then I'm glad to have brightened up your sad little
;; life a tiny bit.
> > -2 Serguei Gonchar
>
> How often do you see the Yellow Jersey doing water duty?
>
2003, stages 5,6,7.
The race leader is Colombian Victor Hugo Pena, who by
virtue of his great prologue ride is ahead of team captain
Lance Armstrong on GC by one second. There are six more US
Postal riders occupying the first eight spots on GC, as a
result of their performance in yesterday's TTT.
Today there is a very happy Victor Hugo Pena in the bunch
- not only is he in the yellow jersey, but he also turned
29 today. Happy birthday Victor! He was presented with his
weight in champagne at the start, so hopefully he has
saved a bit for later.
--
Michael Press