OT - Tour de France stage 7 (Saturday)
At last, the mountains. Kind of a shame this stage couldn't have happened a day earlier to separate the peloton a bit more, but oh well. This one is a beauty, with a mountaintop finish:
That finish is nasty - one of the steepest climbs in France outside of the Alps or Pyrenees. A close-up:
So after riding 193 km (120 miles), these guys get to cover 5.9 km (3.7 miles) of double-digit inclines. That should be a doozy. Will anyone attack? One hope from after the terrible crash is that maybe it will force the climbers who lost time to really throw caution into the wind from here on out.
Video preview of today's stage:
I think with the way these guys have been racing, and the huge time gaps suffered by many GC riders, somebody is going to attack. 2-3 minutes can be made up, but you have to attack at every opportunity. Schleck or Gesink possibly, but my pick for today is Samu.
about 5K to the finish someone was on the side of the road in a Michigan cycling jersey waving an American flag
Great race today. Pretty surprised none of the true climbers were able to dump Wiggins and Evans. Further confirms that this is pretty much a 2 man race imo (possibly 3 with Nibali).
Never heard of Froome before but that was an impressive kick to take the win.
Saw that guy in the M shirt (not sure it was cycling gear). We are everywhere!
It looked like a track top.
Cool stage. I'm glad they put a mountaintop finish in the first week, though I'd like one even earlier. Next year, when they start in Corsica, I wonder if they'll do that.
This could be shaping up into a nice summer for the Brits: Wiggins in yellow, Andy Murray in the Wimbledon final and then the London Olympics (where the host country usually overachieves).
No win for the breakaway. I was a little surprised to see Sanchez crack a bit. I thought Rolland would hang in there to the end but he lost a bit of time in the final portion of the climb.
It'll be interesting to see if Nibali and Taaramae can stay among the leaders in the GC.
On another note, a few riders, including Voeckler, are blaming earpieces for all the crashes. Think that's a legitimate issue?
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/voeckler-blames-radio-earpieces-for-met…