Stage 10
Incredible racing! Lance looked over the competition and punched’em in the mouth! Talk about Mellow Johnny, “it’s the way he rides, Ice cold, he waits for you to make a mistake and then he attacks.” Michael Rasmussen (the winner of Stage 9) learned this valuable lesson at the end of yesterday’s Stage 10 to Courchevel. He thought he was doing something special by hanging with Big Lance during the final Category 1 climb, but his tour inexperience proved to be his undoing as he attacked Lance with only 700 meters to go. A half mile in a 120 mile bike race may not seem that far, but when it is almost straight up into the sky it has to be miserable. The world champion mountain bike racer turned road racer, Rasmussen, misjudged how far 700 meters really was. Lance chuckled behind cold steel eyes and then counterattacked as Rasmussen had drained his engine. Lance left Rasmussen like he was riding down hill, it was brilliant and the young Rasmussen whimpered from the sting.
I misspoke in my last email about the climb categories. Category 1 is almost the hardest, not the easiest. The only thing worse than a Category 1 climb is a Beyond Category [HC – Hors Categorie] which we have two of in today’s Stage 11.
GC Results:
1) Lance – Maillot Jaune (Mellow Johnny)
2) Michael Rasmussen – 38 seconds behind
3) Ivan Basso – 2’ 40”
4) Christophe Moreau – 2’ 42”
5) Alejandro Valverde – 3’ 16”
8) Jan Ullrich – 4’ 02”
Team Discovery rode a very cool and calculated race yesterday proving to the pack that they are for real and the poor results from Stage 8 were a fluke. And then in the final kilometers after each member of Discovery had done their work, Lance attacked at an astonishing rate which completely blew the main peloton to pieces. By far, it has been the most exciting stage of the tour and in honor of that NASA has scheduled a launch of the Team Discovery Space Shuttle a little later on today.
So the race is tight, with the rookie Rasmussen from team Rabobank only 38 seconds behind. His tour goal was to win the King of the Mountains race, the polka-dot jersey, but he’s snipping at the heels of the GC Yellow Jersey. And then we have Ivan Basso from team CSC who has always been great in the mountains. His big quote from before the start of the tour was, “I’m not racing for second place.” No problem because you’re in third! And the surprise Frenchman Christophe Moreau, from team Credit Agricole and France’s only shot a decent bicycle rider this year, holding on to 4th. Moreau was the one who accompanied Jens Voigt (CSC) on the breakaway in stage 9 which launched Voigt into the Yellow. But after Team Discovery’s handywork yesterday, Voigt is now 31 minutes out of first place, ouch! And last but not least the tough German, Jan Ullrich, from TMobil who lost two minutes and 14 seconds yesterday due to the amount of road debris Lance’s back tire was throwing in his face! Hang in there Jan you’re still Lance’s favorite.
Will Team Discovery do it again today? I don’t think they can be stopped.
I misspoke in my last email about the climb categories. Category 1 is almost the hardest, not the easiest. The only thing worse than a Category 1 climb is a Beyond Category [HC – Hors Categorie] which we have two of in today’s Stage 11.
GC Results:
1) Lance – Maillot Jaune (Mellow Johnny)
2) Michael Rasmussen – 38 seconds behind
3) Ivan Basso – 2’ 40”
4) Christophe Moreau – 2’ 42”
5) Alejandro Valverde – 3’ 16”
8) Jan Ullrich – 4’ 02”
Team Discovery rode a very cool and calculated race yesterday proving to the pack that they are for real and the poor results from Stage 8 were a fluke. And then in the final kilometers after each member of Discovery had done their work, Lance attacked at an astonishing rate which completely blew the main peloton to pieces. By far, it has been the most exciting stage of the tour and in honor of that NASA has scheduled a launch of the Team Discovery Space Shuttle a little later on today.
So the race is tight, with the rookie Rasmussen from team Rabobank only 38 seconds behind. His tour goal was to win the King of the Mountains race, the polka-dot jersey, but he’s snipping at the heels of the GC Yellow Jersey. And then we have Ivan Basso from team CSC who has always been great in the mountains. His big quote from before the start of the tour was, “I’m not racing for second place.” No problem because you’re in third! And the surprise Frenchman Christophe Moreau, from team Credit Agricole and France’s only shot a decent bicycle rider this year, holding on to 4th. Moreau was the one who accompanied Jens Voigt (CSC) on the breakaway in stage 9 which launched Voigt into the Yellow. But after Team Discovery’s handywork yesterday, Voigt is now 31 minutes out of first place, ouch! And last but not least the tough German, Jan Ullrich, from TMobil who lost two minutes and 14 seconds yesterday due to the amount of road debris Lance’s back tire was throwing in his face! Hang in there Jan you’re still Lance’s favorite.
Will Team Discovery do it again today? I don’t think they can be stopped.
posted by TexasDan at
12:01 PM
