Look. We all phoned it in today. Except for David Millar and some of the other guys in the break that took like 4 hours out of the peloton, but all the rest of us - total rest day. Let's face it. Last day in the Alps, but really more of a transition day leading into the Pyrenees. There were something like 60 miles of downhill on this stage and the peloton still toodled along without a care in the world.
I bagged the whole thing, found a nice French restaurant (they are everywhere here) and blew my per diem on a huge meal, gallons of wine, and a variety sampler of every kind of Chartreuse that this lovely region and its Carthusian monks have been producing 250 years. I woke up later to find out that I had missed Matthew Goss cutting across Peter Sagan in a two-up sprint from the field in a mano a machina battle.
Clearly, Goss fears Sagan and has to resort to deliberately blocking him to beat him in the sprint. But what would happen if Sagan did not have the presence of mind to ease up? I envision the Tourminator cleaving Goss into two neat halves in his burst to the line. What would that victory salute look like, I wonder...
Little change to our Luna Cycles Big Deal Fantasy Tour de France presented by Uncle Chuck's New School Pregreaser. No, I think we've got to see if anybody grows a pair in the Pyrenees and gets all "Death or Glory" on Wiggins and Team Sky or if they've resigned themselves to riding like little suckers hoping for third. Truly awful that Wiggins' TdF hero is Miguel Indurain, the man who served up 5 excruciatingly dull Tour victories and made the bulk of the '90s a write off for enjoying the Grand Tours. We need some Badger Hinault style riding where the attacks come frequently and relentlessly, like a prize fighter trying to punch his way out of the corner. If Evans, Nibali, and Vandenbrouke (not to mention Van Garderen and Menchov) will just lay out there over a couple of stages instead of just waiting for one moment of one penultimate stage, we may just have a race on our hands. Otherwise, it's just a parade lap from here on out.
I bagged the whole thing, found a nice French restaurant (they are everywhere here) and blew my per diem on a huge meal, gallons of wine, and a variety sampler of every kind of Chartreuse that this lovely region and its Carthusian monks have been producing 250 years. I woke up later to find out that I had missed Matthew Goss cutting across Peter Sagan in a two-up sprint from the field in a mano a machina battle.
Little change to our Luna Cycles Big Deal Fantasy Tour de France presented by Uncle Chuck's New School Pregreaser. No, I think we've got to see if anybody grows a pair in the Pyrenees and gets all "Death or Glory" on Wiggins and Team Sky or if they've resigned themselves to riding like little suckers hoping for third. Truly awful that Wiggins' TdF hero is Miguel Indurain, the man who served up 5 excruciatingly dull Tour victories and made the bulk of the '90s a write off for enjoying the Grand Tours. We need some Badger Hinault style riding where the attacks come frequently and relentlessly, like a prize fighter trying to punch his way out of the corner. If Evans, Nibali, and Vandenbrouke (not to mention Van Garderen and Menchov) will just lay out there over a couple of stages instead of just waiting for one moment of one penultimate stage, we may just have a race on our hands. Otherwise, it's just a parade lap from here on out.
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