I am amazed that Thor still has yellow after a 4 climb race. Its gets even tougher tomorrow with 8 categorized climbs. Woot for the U.S. with Tejay Van Garderen taking the lead in the mountains competition. I now think that Philippe Gilbert has the best shot for green, as he can climb and sprint, allowing him to gain points where the other sprinters can't.
So after one week, the jersey holders are as follows:
yellow: Thor Husovd green: Philippe Gilbert polka dot: Tejay Van Garderen white: Robert Gesink
Team Garmin-Cervelo leads in the team competition.
I love mountain stages because there's so much strategy involved. Sprint stages are fun too but they go too fast. It's an intense minute or two and then it's over while Mountain ones can last a long time and we can enjoy so many attacks and kamikaze downhills.
Tomorrow should be even more exciting to watch. I think the Schleck brothers and Contador will put up a nice show.
I just got to see replays of the crashes on the stage. I think the bigger story than the Hoogerland crash is the massive crash in the peloton. Major contenders Alexander Vinkoruv and Jurgen Van Den Broeck are out of the tour, Alex with a broken leg and Jurgen with spinal injuries. Numerous other riders were involved as well, with two other riders dropping out as well. The yellow jersey changed owners for the first time since stage two today, as Thomas Voeckler of team Europcar has taken over the lead. He has a 1'49" gap to second place Luis Leon-Sanchez and a 2'26" gap to Cadel Evans. The next stage will be Tuesday after a rest day tomorrow. The stage has 4 classified climbs, but nothing worse than a category three. Hopefully the riders will calm their nerves and the crash rate will go down.
Yet another carnage but the worst was this imbecile who took down FLetcha and Hoogerland. I hope they will sue this idiot until he's homeless! I never saw such incompetence! I must say that I'm surprised that this kind of accident hasn't happened more often. I think the organizer will have to change a few rules so this mess never happens again. On a positive note, a french is finally wearing the Maillot Jaune. Now they have a rest day which I think everybody needs, me included because it's a lot of TV for me to watch since I also follow the F1 grand Prix (8 hours of TV watching)!
I heard that the man driving the car had to go away for a car that was going to hand a bidon to Voeckler. He (the driver) ignored this order and had to dodge a tree on a small piece of road.
That was a good stage! Voeckler kept his yellow jersey while the Schleck brothers played with Contador. I was surprised to see so many riders finishing so close to the best climbers. Overall a fun stage to watch. I bet that tomorrow some of the guys who managed to survive won't feel so good.
heard that the man driving the car had to go away for a car that was going to hand a bidon to Voeckler. He (the driver) ignored this order and had to dodge a tree on a small piece of road.
So... Some guy crashed a car into a rider? Or did a car cause a crash?
So... Some guy crashed a car into a rider? Or did a car cause a crash?
The French TV car was speeding to let a team car behind get to his rider when he realized there was a tree close to the road so he jerked the steering wheel to the right and by doing so he hit a Spanish rider who fell on his back and the rider behind him was pushed into a barbwire fence.
I forgot to mention that the rider, Hougerland (not sure of the spelling) got patched by the TDF doctor and finished the race in order to keep his King of the Mountain Jersey. After that the French people started cheering for him on the podium and now he has become a star of the Tour. The poor guy was bleeding like crazy and was in pain since they are not allowed to take pain pills because of the doping rules.
I am also a HUGE fan of the TDF! That car bump was ridiculous! The guy better havegotten fired! (I think he actually did.) And a funny thing was, (actually not that funny) the announcer was saying stuff like, "And those barbed wire fences go in extremely deep, and hurt quite a bit." It was funny how he said it, it was just so casual.
Personally, I want Andy Schleck to win, and Frank to be in second. If not that, at least both of them on the podium.
How the heck did Thor Hushovd manage to win a stage with an outside-classification mountain? That's amazing. No major changes in todays overall standings, as none of the leaders attacked. It appears Frank Schleck is in the best form of the major contenders, being the only one to gain significant time in yesterday's stage. Thomas Voeckler still holds the yellow jersey, for now. Jeremy Roy picks up the polka-dot jersey today after earning top points for all of the mountain passes. Garmin-Cervelo retakes the top spot in the team classification. All other jerseys remain the same. Tomorrow will be one of the toughest mountain stages on this years tour, with 1 category 3 climb, 2 category 2 climbs, 2 category 1 climbs, and an outside-classification climb. This will be the day the the major contenders really show their stuff.
Tomorrow will be one of the toughest mountain stages on this years tour, with 1 category 3 climb, 2 category 2 climbs, 2 category 1 climbs, and an outside-classification climb. This will be the day the the major contenders really show their stuff.
That's probably why not that many riders challenged Thor Hushovd but he made a good effort and I'd like him to win the green Jersey competition.
