Hincapie winning on a mountaintop? Now Guerrini taking it on the flat? This has been an odd tour to say the least. I’m changing my picks for the next two days to Robbie McEwen in the TT and Lance Armstrong on the Champs Elysees. Yesterday’s stage was equally wierd, with CSC cranking up the heat on what should have been a routine, slow, late-Tour, breakaway-won stage with no GC impact. The most pain inflicted should have been on the American viewer as they watched (at 8 in the morning) a pair of jiggling French buttcheeks belonging to a steaker on the final climb. Instead, Rassmussen and others lost a fair amount of time. Cadel Evens, on the other hand, looked pretty nasty sitting in with the big boys. Maybe he’s one to watch next year?
Speaking of next year, the battle is already for this season’s table scraps. Vino, a definate to leave T-Mobile at the end of the season, is the hot property among French sqauds at the moment, much to the chagrin of Christophe Moreau, who apparently took great pride in being the height of mediocrity. Sam Damon, on the other hand, will be pleased to learn that Fassa Bortolo is folding in 2006, sending riders like Juan Antonio Flecha and Alessandro Petacchi (complete w/leadout train) scurrying like rats from a sinking ship.