Rage Online

the astana team is going to be fascinating to watch. i'm not sure how contador will handle having a legend supposedly racing 'for' him. i've been caught out writing armstrong off in his last two tours, and am wary of doing that again. but t-mobile's team of 'galacticos ' fell foul to in-fighting, and astana hardly have a glittering record in the teamwork department. if it's not an astana rider - bof. evans seemed to show some mental weakness to me, so maybe menchov or sastre - or even a schlek?

but i'm actually taking an interest in the sprinting weasels' green shirt competition this year - wonder why? it's all about the boy:



can there be any doubt that if he manages to reach the champs elysee, he'll be on the podium? and to think there was going to be all that fuss if a brit had made it to the wimbledon final.

It would be cruel if he misses the cut off on Ventoux on the last Saturday ... got to be hard for a sprinter to go fairly deep into the Giro and do the whole of le Tour, though.

There's a great clip of Armstrong and Pantini sprinting up Ventoux in the 2000 tour linked on the Guardian's website, btw. I thought of that as I plodded and struggled up gentle inclines in the Chilterns this afternoon.

Cavendish will do very well to make Paris. The penultimate stage is a monster!

Still Swiss in yellow and a Brit in green makes for a happy me today )

armstrong: still got it. contador must be sweating... and to think they said that you can't pull tactical moves like that in today's Sport of Professional Cycling.

cavendish wins his second stage out of three, and no one blinks.

Astana's &quottactics&quot were interesting, eh? Clearly not working for the &quotofficial&quot leader, with Popovych and Zubeldia doing big turns up front. Could be an interesting team meeting tonight. Let's hope Columbia haven't killed themselves for the TTT.

nice to see a break actually stay away today. i wondered if they'd blown it once the attacks started - and in fact the peleton made very quick time through the last few kilometres.

so with today not having much bearing on the GC, and the team time trial not teaching us much, bring on tomorrow when we might start to see the race take shape.

an interesting piece of speculation on monday's coup here.

armstrong's face post-race was fascinating. are we going to see a masterful display of tactical racing, or seeing the old man realise his day has gone? at the moment this is starting to look like astana could destroy the field and pick over the spoils themselves. convinced cadel evans has not got it, despite his willingness to attack.

heart-warming sight of the day? feillu's brother high-fiving the crowd in celebration of his sibling's victory, as he himself crawled in in the autobus.

heart-sinking sight of the day? what the hell was bradley wiggins doing up in the GC group near the summit?! i thought he only did flat bits. it's things like that in the tour that used to get me excited, but now it all seems a bit jaded. hope i'm being overly cynical.

Yep and Wiggins's post-race interview was a bit curious too - very aggressive about the work he had put in, how he knew he was a roadie etc. The team tactics seem all over the shop at the moment, I guess that the non-Astana GC contenders don't have strong enough climbing squads for there to be much organisation. Sastre has been really anonymous ...

Another great job by Columbia to lead Cav out today, although Cervelo aren't doing Hushovd any favours. He is a phenomenon - but he'll need to watch his mouth or he'll find himself nudged down a shale path on an alpine hairpin before he &quotwins on the Champs ├ëlys├®es&quot. I did ponder whether it was just that he is inarticulate and so says potentially irritating things by accident ...

well, those are the classic stages i love, and you can't hide on a mountain finish. hit verbier, swing left, dig in for 8km, and all the time the attacks come. contador's ability to pull away from the group looked unmatchable. contador and andy schleck where the only ones i noticed who didn't wince on that last corner. i was wincing on everyone else's behalf...

as for cavendish and the green jersey competition - don't know sprinting etiquette well enough to make a call, but the fact he was looking round for hushovd suggested he was using spoiling tactics.

and Wiggins ... gosh.

&quotAncient Colin&quot wrote:and Wiggins ... gosh.

mmm. still can't quite enjoy that one. but the sight of millar leading the peleton onto the climb to set up wiggins was quite something.

&quotMatt D&quot wrote: mmm. still can't quite enjoy that one. but the sight of millar leading the peleton onto the climb to set up wiggins was quite something.

Well, whatever he is on, I want some.

what a stage that 17eme was. reminiscent of the days before team tactics seemed to blunt the drama, it was a stage of move and counter-move, with a whole range of stories constantly changing. yet even within that, the team tactics (or the apparent disregard for them) provided yet more intrigue. contador clinging to the schlecks as they tried to shake him, kloden being dropped, armstrong's attack on wiggins: each time you reached another climb you expected some new twist. and then the dark mutterings of armstrong at the finish...

kudos to hushovd too: whatever cavendish may say, he's a worthy winner. and i think he'll push cavendish on the champs elysee. goodness, i can almost feel myself looking forward to next year's green jersey competition.

this is turning into quite a tour. let's hope the time trial today can keep the yellow jersey from being certain so that ventoux can be the backdrop to some more of what we saw yesterday.

vive la tour!

It certainly picked up - apart from the Hush-Cav spat/battle, the middle week was pretty ordinary, but now there are all sorts of intriguing sub-plots - not least within Astana! Disappointed that Sastre didn't have a little surprise left. I'm bloody working during the Mont Ventoux stage, how frustrating is that?