TdF: All Over But The Cryin'

There’s been lots of squabble on the nets about how slow this year’s Tour is, how boring.  Sure, a few years back, when the hard men had bulging eyeballs with pinner irises sunk into the sockets, stomachs churning with adrenalin, blood boiled by science, it was a faster race.  15 mph avg speed up the side of an Alpine tower today is nearly human, 23+ back then was alien.  While that might show the difference in the doping field, it’s not why this year’s race could be seen as a bit of a snore.  Tactics, wheel sitting, radio chatter and an apparent strategy by the number one contender to attempt overall victory without attempting a stage.  (Which could be known as The Levi Method)  That made the race for Yellow a chess match, rather than a hell for leather battle.  But boring?  The tallest mountain in France was not boring.  90 kph descents were not boring.  No prologue, no ‘easy’ first week – definitely not boring.  Cavendish?  Exciting for sure, but oddly the media barely commented on the absence of Tomke and Ale-jet.  We missed out on seeing the big Belgian and the upstart Briton do battle.  No Astana?  Certainly they’d have mixed it up and changed a few other team’s strategies with their presence, but note they just bounced a rider for abnormalities – would the Goose have been cooked in France, along with the other dopers?  One thing which leaving Astana out served to accomplish was limiting the number of squads with nearly matching blue kit to three.  It was a bit humorous when Phil would confuse Milram for Columbia and count 11 men from the same team leading the charge to the line.  God knows what would have happened if the azure-wearing Kazaks had contributed to the pale blue absurdity. 
What shoulda happened?  Take a trip back to Thursday.  After two days of watching wheels and listening to the radio, Evans stops throwing punches at journos long enough to gather resistance forces against CSC.  Cadel rallies Robbie and all the other Aussies to help him in a break on stage 18 or 19.  He takes his freshest men, plus Hansen, Gerrans,  Kruetzinger or Nibali, the South African’s, and Dean.  Dean and McRocket motor pace him into a strong advantage, while Liqui, Rabo and others fight CSC for control of the bunch.   With men in the break, Columbia and Credit Agricole wouldn’t work for the chase.  By forcing Riis’ boys to fight harder, and working with other teams who stand to gain (Liquigas for Kruetzinger, Rabo for Menchov, AG2R for Team…) they’d isolate the entire CSC squad and have a chance.  The break would finish with a 30 to 60 sec advantage on the field, Cadel stomps it and takes the stage, as well as precious time in the bank for the ITT.   Kruetzinger is back in the hunt for white, and AG2R has a closer race with CSC for the Team.
Rightfully, that didn’t happen.  Evans marked wheels in the Alps, his spirit broken by the brothers Schleck.  He rode a nervous time trial and spit away his chances.  The man who had the cajones to go out and win a tough mountain stage, Carlos Sastre, takes home the Golden Fleece.  Kruetziger did not gain today on Andy Schleck, who wears white for the rest of the summer.  CSC all but destroys the field, with only AG2R within minutes, the rest over one hour down.  After day 15 there wasn’t much challenge in the red beans kit, leaving it to the Austrian Kohl.  Sprinters will have their day tomorrow, unless Evans bullies it into a battle for his 65 seconds and tries a Vino tactic. Doubtful.  The old men will gun for a last shot, but more than likely Zabel, Rocket and the Norseman will be barred from victory by one of the young guns.  Green sleeves himself Oscar Freire might in fact put an unquestioning stamp on his point spread. Almost 40 men were dropped across the countryside over the past three weeks, some with serious consequences, some from exhaustion or time splits, one or two with a dubious excuse. The race for the unheralded Maillot Noir, last place, the Lantern Rouge, is a tight battle.  Vansevenant has a minute more than Eisel and Krauss.  Depending on how much champagne is passed around, this could shift dramatically tomorrow. 
Sven KRAUSS  87h52'55''      3h51'55''
Bernhard EISEL  87h54'58''     3h53'58''
Wim VANSEVENANT  87h55'51''     3h54'51''

Comments

[bigsleep]

I loved this year's Tour. It was refreshing to see actual team battles. CSC dominated and Columbia/T-Mobile was surprising. I have to say that I really like those Schleck boys. Nothing like watching brothers screw around with a bunch of hope filled stragglers. Cadel was doomed. He never really had the legs this year.