Quick-Step did what Fassa seemed unable to do today, leading Tom Boonen pretty much unobstructed to the line. Robbie McEwen applied a little pressure, but by his own admission, jumped to soon and had some gearing troubles. Thor Hushovd was second, but no one interviewed him so it’d difficult to tell what he thought of whole situation.
Today’s action put Boonen in green, a first for the 24-year old Belgian, after a sprint battle betwixt himself and TdF no-show Alessandro Petacchi failed to materialize last year. It also marked the end of Lance’s tenure in green, which is just fine with me, since the damn thing looks so wrong on his bony little shoulders. In other Jersey news, French heartthrob Thomas Voekler’s “heroic” battle to take the first Polka Dot jersey of this year’s event by being the first man over the 100m “climb” of the Côte du lac de la Vouraie.
Congratulations, Thomas, your career has 30 more seconds of relevance.