Le. Tour. De. France.
“I still believe I can do it. It will be decided more in the head than in the legs.”
Well…
The margin is still only 8 seconds. As Contador says– “It will be an incredibly hard day, it’s not a time trial like the others, it comes after three weeks of racing. It will be more a matter of the strength you have left and Andy is strong.”
The proximate reasons most analysts toss up their hands are the prologue results where Andy finished 42 seconds behind Alberto over a mere 5 and a half miles and last year’s Time Trial in which, while shorter, Contador finished 1:45 ahead.
On the other hand at 122 Schleck finished 5 places and a full second ahead of the Manx Maniac Mark Cavendish, a pure sprinter who won yesterday’s stage (his 4th stage win this Tour) without the assistance of his head butting blocker, Mark Renshaw.
Cavendish has hopes for the Green Sprinter’s Jersey as he is only 16 points behind the leader in that category, Alessandro Petacchi, and Thor Hushovd, the second place contender, has virtually given up- “It’s over for the green jersey. It’s a disappointment but that’s life. I can’t sprint like Cavendish and Petacchi on this Tour.”
In the race for the final podium spot in the General Classification, Sanchez doesn’t seem to have been too badly hurt by yesterday’s crash. He still leads Menchov by 21 seconds.
Today’s stage, 33 miles from Bordeaux to Pauillac, is the last day of racing. By tradition tomorrow’s final stage finishing on the Champs Elysees is a victory lap except for the sprinters who have one last chance to improve their standing.
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If I needed another reason to hate Contador, yesterday he was handing out signed maillot jaune to Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.