View from the Back

In preparation for next week’s hills, I’ve been doing endurance intervals. Basically, riding in a higher gear than I would normally to replicate effort on a steeper ascent. I don’t mind these exercises as my natural inclination is to churn a higher gear, and lower cadence, as my legs are much stronger than my lungs. The weather was fabulous today with yesterday’s storm having eliminated the humidity of previous days. I enjoy riding during this time of year as the number of cyclists on the roads increases substantially, many of whom are tourists and unused to the terrain, allowing me to overtake many more riders. I can’t tell you how satisfying it is to blast past a group of cyclists when riding uphill.

With television coverage of today’s important stage starting earlier than usual, I wanted to be in my optimal viewing position on a timely basis. Having completed my prescribed exercises, I had just enough time to collect the newspapers before heading home. My beloved having been fed, watered and packed off to a business meeting in Nice. I was hoping for some clarification of form after of days of speculation.

It was widely accepted that Thomas Voeckler would lose the yellow jersey. He didn’t. The occasion combined with the support of his team mates and, of course, the magical yellow jersey allowed Monsieur Panache, Monsieur Chouchou to remain in contention to the delight of the French viewing public, despite a spill on the descent of the 1st Cat. Horquette d’Anzican 80km from the finish. They weren’t the only ones to be pleased with today’s events. The Basque fans lining the route also had cause to celebrate as one of my favourites Olympic Champion Sammy Sanchez recorded his maiden Tour win atop Stage 12′s fabled Luz-Ardiden. Sammy looked mightily relieved and close to tears on the podium. To be fair, everyone expected him to use the occasion to gain back some time. He also takes over the spotted jersey from Johnny Hoogerland. Cavendish remains in green.

The BIG news is that Alberto hasn’t been sandbagging. He lost further time today after enduring successive attacks from the brothers Schleck. Of course, it’s too soon to write him off.  Cadel Evans, the Schlecks and Ivan Basso all looked very comfortable. Also looks like Tom Danielson is finally fulfilling his promise as Garmin’s annual surprise Tour rider.

Not unnaturally a large number of riders slid out of contention and the GC now looks like this:-

Rank	Dossard	Name	Country	Team	Time	Gap
1	181	Thomas Voeckler		EUC	51h54’44”	00”
2	018	Frank Schleck		LEO	51h56’33”	1’49”
3	141	Cadel Evans		BMC	51h56’50”	2’06”
4	011	Andy Schleck		LEO	51h57’01”	2’17”
5	091	Ivan Basso		LIQ	51h58’00”	3’16”
6	161	Damiano Cunego		LAM	51h58’06”	3’22”
7	001	Alberto Contador		SBS	51h58’44”	4’00”
8	021	Samuel Sanchez		EUS	51h58’55”	4’11”
9	052	Tom Danielson		GRM	51h59’19”	4’35”
10	101	Nicolas Roche		ALM	51h59’41”	4’57”

This entry was posted on 14/07/2011 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Live Racing, Training with tags Alberto Contador, Andy Schleck, Arnold Jeannesson, Cadel Evans, Euskaltel-Euskadi, FDJ, Frank Schleck, Garmin-Cervelo, Geraint Thomas, Ivan Basso, Jeremy Roy, Johnny Hoogerland, Mark Cavendish, Sylvain Chavanel, Thomas Voeckler, Tom Danielson, Tour de France 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.