Wow

Sooooo glad I watched today's stage.  The Astana stranglehold on the tour has loosened somewhat going in to tomorrow's time trial.  What I saw today, however, wasn't exactly what was reported in the cycling press.  Cyclingnews talked about how "unflappable" Contador was, but I disagree.  Unflappable riders don't make a move that drops their own teammate, then gets easily nullified by two guys who are teammates on your rival squad and then look over their shoulder for their drop compatriot for the better part of 10 minutes.  The Schleck brothers have figured out the chink in Contador's armor, it just remains to be seen if they have the strength to exploit it.  The weakness that I think they see is that Contador doesnt have much beyond an explosive acceleration.  Sure, he jumps like nobody's business and gets a huge gap with breathtaking rapidity, but how fast is he really climbing?  What I saw today was two guys who weren't blown away by the acceleration.  Two guys that saw that maybe Contador is more show than go.  Ventoux is going to be very interesting indeed...

Luna Cycles Fantasy Tour de France sponsored by Oops! General Classification after Stage 17:

Charles Bennett    Bernanke's Bumblers    11291
Peter Purcell    Team Heal With Steel    10181
Nicole Thomas    Espresso Train    10108
Ron Swenson    Team Theoretical    9974
Mellie Black    Team Limp Along    9810
Shane Norris    Team Inizio    9656
Charles Hicks    Team Buuurrnn!    9420
Grom     Team CrashWagon    9334
Eddy Winkler    Team Not Caught Yet    9321
John Hansen    Lumpy skates    9240
Chris Thomas    Dessel Engine    9238
Grant Dunstan    Lone Beer Ranger    9235
jim brown    stylin' and profilin'    8877
Jeff Welch    Pigs in Zen    8747
Trey Barnes    Steam Donkey    8721
Mary Ann Brown    Hope & A Prayer    8670
Steven Boike    RPM    8605
Lara Cassidy    Lara's team    8484
Chris Harris    Equipe Poisson    8394
Jenna King    Le Chiffre    8243
Player barrett    team player    7839
Scott Staley    JRB Racing    7583