I really wanted to see Vino win this one. Oh well.
It's amazing how athletes can always seem to tell immediately who wins a photo finish (whether it's cycling, track, whatever). I never can. It looked like a tie in real time.
Random tidbit - only five countries have a stage winner this year (four if you don't count the prologue) - Switzerland, Slovakia, Great Britain, Germany and France.
I know others have brought this up before, but the route this year is a little lame. From stage 12 (yesterday) to the end of the tour, there are 9 stages, and really only 3 of them matter for the GC. The important ones are Wednesday and Thursday in the Pyrenees, and then the final time trial next Saturday.
Barring an injury, the green jersey is already decided. The GC also looks pretty safe at this point. What we do have to look forward to?
Personally I'm looking forward to seeing how the young American Tejay Van Guarderen holds up in the mountains and on the final TT. Can he finish in the top 5?
I also expect to see some fireworks on Wednesday and Thursday (especially Thursday). Hopefully one of Wiggins or Froome unhinges and opens up the race a little bit. One would expect some attacking riding from Nibali, Evans, or others.
It hasn't been the best parcours. There have been too many flat stages, and some of the mountain stages have had the climbs so early that the riders can recover and get back to the peloton by the end of the stage. And while I don't necessarily mind two time trials, I don't see why both should be flat stages. I remember the Alpe d'Huez time trial a few years ago - that was awesome.