First off, this is awesome.
Remember earlier this week, when Lance was going to win 7 easily, and Boonen was going to walk away with the Green? Man, what a difference a week makes. Lance all alone on the final hill; there were 34 dudes in the group, and only one rode for DC. Ouch. After the stage, Lance said “We’ll have to do some talking tonight.” Remember back in the last week in June, when I said his team this year was the weakest I’d even seen? That might have been the time to do some talking. And Boonen now has a bad back, I’m told – so much for the power of Innergetic mattresses. Too bad about the Robbie relegation, because without it, we’d have a nice three-way battle for points between Boonen, McEwen and Hushovd.
As the Tour enters its second week, the Polka-Dot jersey continues its wild dance through the peleton. Tomorrow’s bearer will be Michael Rassmussen, who claims to be an actual contender. My guess is he’s not exactly pleased that his teammate gave up 20 KOM points to Kloden at the top of today’s climb. Lance is still in yellow, and Boonen still in Green, though things are beginning to seem a bit precarious for both favorites. Tomorrow’s “mountain” will most likely not be selective for either competition; the 70k of flat at the end will allow for significant regrouping, while the 5 climbs previous should shake out the speedsters.