Voigt Rides Strong in Germany, Cancellara Takes Denmark

Look at this headline: “leaves Levi for dead”? Granted, Jens Voigt’s performance in the last few k of today’s Tour of Germany, in which he hung tough with the leaders up an HC climb, fell off a bit toward the summit, and then battled back to win the stage with a long, agonizing sprint, was a cycling moment to make you forget about stuff like this this, but “left for dead”? C’mon, the CSC Rider only won stage by 2 seconds, and for all the tactical significance that gap has, with just a flat TT remaining, “left for dead” seems a tad bit effusive.

I suppose I can’t claim to be any better, though. My last post cites Zabel and O’Grady as being on retirment’s door; Stuey has since finished second overall to teammate Fabian Cancellara at the Tour of Denmark (after a brief stint in the lead), while Erik Zabel, despite dropping stages to a 19-year-old and a hapless veteran, is simply dominating the Deutchland Tour’s points classification (he’s got 95 to Voigt’s 63; Ciolek, the next real sprinter, has a mere 39). But at least I don’t need to make the (largely unserious) claim that our Commander in Cheif might be doping to draw readers to my page.