Deep holes

Tough day for Cadel Evans in today's stage of the Tour de France. An impossibly fast Bradley Wiggins and Christopher Froome took massive chunks of time out of him over the forty odd kilometers of today's individual time trial. The odds tip massively to the favor of Sky as we approach the mountains. An attack by Froome must be countered by Evans or he loses 2nd place, but if Evans covers Froome he becomes vulnerable to an attack by Wiggins. Either way, if he plays defense, he's screwed. The only strategy for Evans at this point is to go on the attack, to force Sky to defend. This is not a moment to play it safe and just be happy with the podium. Not this early in the Tour.

Our Luna Cycles Big Deal Fantasy Tour de France presented by Uncle Chuck's New School Pregreaser Top 5 remains unchanged, but an analysis of the top 3 reveals some interesting points of weakness that may prove decisive over the coming week. Team Dottatope has a few riders that haven't gotten any results; riders like Arroyo and Fofonov. La Folie Flyers look to be running on fumes and the performance of Bradley Wiggins may be the only results they can count on in the near future.

My fortunes have brightened a bit as I am managing to sort through the ASO bureaucracy with some ingenuity and a bit of American camaraderie. To truly capture the intricacies of the LCBDFTdFpbUCNSP, I am convinced that I must be in the thick of things, in the caravan, a true participant in the spectacle. I spent a good part of the morning trying to find my in, my passport beyond the velvet rope so to speak. 

I decided to chat up some of the smaller teams like Argo-Shimano and Saunjier something or other. My lack of french and their inability to give me the time of day made this seem like a dead end. But then I noticed Garmin-Sharp directeur sportif Johnathon Vaughters clipping his mutton chops in the reflection of his team car's side mirror. I sidled up and began to give him a bit of the starry eyed american at the Tour routine and gushing about how "awesome" it would be to ride in the caravan. What I gathered from my conversation with him is that Garmin is pretty much committed to just go through the motions of the rest of this Tour and that I was more than welcome to ride along in the team car provided that I brought my own snacks, didn't fiddle with the radio or complain about the music selection, and was willing to play unlimited head to head Mario Kart with Johnathon when the race was "boring". Deal!

So now I'm decked out in a Garmin t-shirt and riding in a team car. Except not today. No way was I gonna ride behind a single rider going 30 mpg for an hour. Bor-ing! No, today was a good day to hang out in a cafe, watch the time trial on the tv and gain valuable insight on the "Race of Truth". Truth be told, Wiggins looked really fast when he zipped by the cafe at Mach 1, while Evans was surely keeping something in the tank for later. Much later, perhaps.