Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

David Moncoutie made the French happy on their “Fourth of July” by winning today’s stage.
French national pride has taken a hit in cycling since Bernard Hinault half heartedly crossed the finish line of L’Alpe D’Huez hand in hand with Greg Lemond in 1986. Hinault later lost to Lemond and has since been the last French Tour winner.

Since then, there was a brief glimmer of hope with Laurent Fignon who declared victory one day too soon in 1989, and then there are the exploits of Reeechard Virenque and his 7 times in the Polka Dot jersey. Reechard excited the French housewives and other French nationals with his exploits to win the mountain climbers jersey, but was always dropped on the serious climbs. This was a marked difference to pre-1998 when Reechard would climb entire cols out of the saddle. Some performance enhancing drugs helped in that effort.

Overall, it was a day off of for the top contenders who are saving their energy for this weekend. Manuel Beltran and Tom Boonen are going home with injuries. Triki Beltran will be missed by the Disco team, but that may no hinder them much if at all. Boonen has been suffereing an inordinate amount of crashed and decided to go home for now.