Le. Tour. De. France.
The reason they call it a recovery day is you get to rest.
So what happened?
If you’re looking at the General Classification, not much. Contador still 8 seconds ahead of Schleck. Sanchez and Menchov about 2 minutes behind that. 11 other people you’ve never heard of (except for Leipheimer) within 10 minutes which is not an impossible margin to make up.
But time is running out.
If you’re a big Armstrong fan he made a charge. He threatens the same tomorrow on the last mountain stage, but I don’t believe it. Lance was racing hard from the get and he had about as much support from Team Radio Shack as you can expect.
He wasn’t able to break away from the break away and got outsprinted at the line. They might try that again but I’m not sure why the results would be different. If you must get your jingoism on, Radio Shack is leading the team standings by 4 and a half minutes and that’s unlikely to change for the same reasons that the other standings are- no more time.
Tomorrow is the last mountain stage, 108 miles from Pau to Col du Tourmalet. Two category 1s and then straight up. This is not as good a scenario for making up time as yesterday when you could magnify the margin over the peak on the finishing downhill.
Friday is 124 miles from Salies-de-Béarn to Bordeaux. No climbs worth mentioning, so likely our final ‘Sprinter’ finish.
Saturday is the big 33 mile Time Trial where Contador buries Schleck. Sunday is Champs day and see you next year.
So whomever you like time to get in your last licks, it will all be over soon.
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This one has been pretty dull, and not just because of Lance.
It’s that no one has really been able to mount an attack, they’re all playing it too safe.
You can construct an underdog narrative around Schleck, Saxo Bank is no competition for Astana; but he hasn’t done much to challenge Contador.