posted Jul 22, 2008

Good news for those of us on the Wim watch:

With the retirement of Sebastien "FDJ" Chavanel earlier today, Wim is again the Lanterne Rouge, at 3h 08'10" back of Schleck. He's 6 minutes behind Sprick, his nearest challenger. The autobus finished today's stage at 31'56" behind the winner.

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posted Jul 22, 2008

Did CSC do poorly today? Realistically, what time could they have taken out of Evans? Maybe 2 to 4 mins by the top of the climb? And at what effort/sacrifice, particularly with more steep climbing tomorrow? With such a long decent to the finish Evans would have made most of/all of that time back. Perhaps today was a war of attrition, with the aim of softening Evans for tomorrow’s onslaught?

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posted Jul 22, 2008

>Do you think we can get Phil S to interview Wim for us when they reach Paris?

Good idea, Alex. It will be even better if Cadel can manage to win the Tour. Here's a question for tomorrow's show: When was the last time the Maillot Jaune and the Lanterne Rouge were both on the same team?

Wim! Wim! Wim!

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posted Jul 22, 2008

>Ah, the important stuff the Im_partial. That's Wimwatch done for the day. Do you think we can get Phil S to interview Wim for us when they reach Paris?<

that would be awesome! =)
I missed the end of the stage cause it coincided with the end of my working day, but it seems I didn't miss much.
I hope we get some more fireworks tomorrow, cause this was some dull stuff.

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posted Jul 22, 2008

To enjoy-the-ride,

put is this way, I think Evans will be the msot pleased this evening, the only two GC contenders who can run him close in a TT have been distanced (In Vandevelde's case irreparably you feel, Menchov will now need at least two minutes tomorrow), he's had a relatively easy day at a pretty constant pace (always easier than with constant changes of rythm), and there's now only one mountain stage left where you feel he can still lose up to two minutes and remain in a position of strength.

I agree there were never going to be any big time gaps due to descent but Csc should have been looking to wear down the other contenders (Kohl also who will TT as well as Schleck probably), and I don't think they did that today.

BTW can't see Valverde on the podium, for me 3 of Evans, Sastre, Schleck and Menchov.

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posted Jul 22, 2008

...a pretty constant pace (always easier than with constant changes of rythm)...

Good point. Perhaps that was CSC's mistake. Should have looked to fatigue their GC rivals with a view to gaining time tommorrow.

Makes for a great final few days for us spectators.

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posted Jul 23, 2008

That's now a whole minute of time Menchov has lost for no good reason. Too scared to push himself to the front of the peloton when the wind hit, too scared to keep up with Evans when they went down the mountain at top speed. He's going to need something special on the Dutch Mountain today if he wants to win.

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posted Jul 23, 2008

CSC should have had either Sastre or Schleck attack for at least 5KM and see if Evans follows them. If he did, Sastre/Schleck could always drop the pace and wait for the rest to catch up (its not like Evans is going to ride up front to drive the pace) and then try again. I think it was a wasted day for a team that promised so much to make an impact on the GC. Lets hope today is better..

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posted Jul 23, 2008

Amazing this lungs of Stefan Schumacher. He is at it again.

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