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sailor · 07-15-2004, 09:59 AM

Things were much less interesting today. There werent as many climbs on the course, which helped keep most of the peloton together, enough so to even lead to something of a sprint at the end. Two riders dropped out after yesterday--Sebastian Hinault (no relation to legend Bernard Hinault) who crashed hard on a descent yesterday and lost consciousness for a while as well as injuring his back, and Jan Ullrich's teammate Matthias Kessler who had a nasty crash into a fencepost yesterday that broke a rib. He finished yesterday's stage, but could not continue today.

Again, the stage started with a flurry of attacks off the front as riders tested the peloton, trying to see if they could get away. None succeeded however until Egoi Martinez (a teammate of climber Iban Mayo) and David Moncoutie escape. They are soon joined by Juan Antonio Flecha. Flecha did what is called bridging the gap, a seriously balls-out move where a rider rides off the front of the peloton and tries to catch the breakaway--when you consider that the breakaway must be travelling faster than the peloton, and he must be going faster than them to catch them, the difficulty of such a move is apparent. The three riders work together until 10Km from the finish, when Flecha attacks. Martinez chases him down, and as soon as they have rejoined, Moncoutie counters, launching his own attack. The others cannot chase him down and he gets away as he hammers up a short but steep climb. He continues to push up the pace, escaping all his chasers and winning the stage. Flecha and Martinez come in 2:18 later, and the rest of the peloton comes in 5:58 behind Moncoutie, with a few tired sprinters managing to get to the front to grab the next five slots.

Armstrong sits 9:35 behind overall leader Thomas Voekler. This wont worry Armstrong as he knows that he can easily make up this deficit in the mountains.

An interesting note is that Tyler Hamilton, former teammate and now serious rival of Armstrong, tough SOB, and seriously nice guy, is riding wearing the tags of his dog Tugboat, who was diagnosed with cancer and put down yesterday. Tugboat is somewhat of a legend in the cycling world--an exceptionally social, nice, and lovable dog that followed his owner all over, and was well known to both the riders of the peloton and the journalists covering cycling.

Picture: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...e11/CH8981.jpg

07-15-2004, 09:59 AM	#2 (permalink)
sailor beauty in the breakdown Location: Chapel Hill, NC	Things were much less interesting today. There werent as many climbs on the course, which helped keep most of the peloton together, enough so to even lead to something of a sprint at the end. Two riders dropped out after yesterday--Sebastian Hinault (no relation to legend Bernard Hinault) who crashed hard on a descent yesterday and lost consciousness for a while as well as injuring his back, and Jan Ullrich's teammate Matthias Kessler who had a nasty crash into a fencepost yesterday that broke a rib. He finished yesterday's stage, but could not continue today. Again, the stage started with a flurry of attacks off the front as riders tested the peloton, trying to see if they could get away. None succeeded however until Egoi Martinez (a teammate of climber Iban Mayo) and David Moncoutie escape. They are soon joined by Juan Antonio Flecha. Flecha did what is called bridging the gap, a seriously balls-out move where a rider rides off the front of the peloton and tries to catch the breakaway--when you consider that the breakaway must be travelling faster than the peloton, and he must be going faster than them to catch them, the difficulty of such a move is apparent. The three riders work together until 10Km from the finish, when Flecha attacks. Martinez chases him down, and as soon as they have rejoined, Moncoutie counters, launching his own attack. The others cannot chase him down and he gets away as he hammers up a short but steep climb. He continues to push up the pace, escaping all his chasers and winning the stage. Flecha and Martinez come in 2:18 later, and the rest of the peloton comes in 5:58 behind Moncoutie, with a few tired sprinters managing to get to the front to grab the next five slots. Armstrong sits 9:35 behind overall leader Thomas Voekler. This wont worry Armstrong as he knows that he can easily make up this deficit in the mountains. An interesting note is that Tyler Hamilton, former teammate and now serious rival of Armstrong, tough SOB, and seriously nice guy, is riding wearing the tags of his dog Tugboat, who was diagnosed with cancer and put down yesterday. Tugboat is somewhat of a legend in the cycling world--an exceptionally social, nice, and lovable dog that followed his owner all over, and was well known to both the riders of the peloton and the journalists covering cycling. Picture: http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/20...e11/CH8981.jpg __________________ "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws." --Plato Last edited by sailor; 07-15-2004 at 10:47 AM..