|
Monday, July 11, 2005
Tour de force
In case you haven't been following it, here's a quick summary of what's been happening so far in the Tour de France:
Lance overtook Jan in the time-trial. He went really fast but some youngster went even faster and took the yellow jersey. Good for him, because a few days later this youngster fell off and had to quit the race.
They all raced about on some flat stages over the next few days. There were some interesting break-aways but they all got caught in the end. These flat stages were perfect for the sprinters: the freaks with huge thighs came to the front to bob up and down on their pedals to try and cross the line first. Robbie (the Aussie) cheated a bit and lost his 2nd place: the people in charge demoted him to 184th (ha!).
Then the mountains started, although they weren't real mountains. Even so, Lance's team were knackered and couldn't keep up, so Lance was on his own surrounded by all his rivals. These rivals challenged him by sprinting off the front of the pack to try and get away. He chased them all down, but let one less important rider go.
Yesterday, in another 'mountain' stage, some brave rider went it alone from the start and rode all the way over some really big hills to win. Awesome. But the interesting bit was that the guy who was second overall, Jens Voigt, managed to break away - and stay away - from Lance, to come in a couple of minutes in front of him. So Lance isn't in the lead any more. But that's ok: Jens isn't a great climber and there is some serious climbing to be done over the next few days in the Alps, so Lance will no doubt have been thinking ahead to that.
But on the evidence of the last couple of days, there are a few other riders who are thinking ahead to the Alps too. It looks like Lance's domination could be in doubt. It's a rest day today, so we'll have to wait till tomorrow to see who's got the legs to take him on. It's very exciting!
.....posted at 9:25 am permalink
babyatom's
old BIG BLOGS
|
