Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

The Pyrenees are next on the plate for the weekend with some very difficult stages. Saturday will offer up some cat 4 climbs and then an HC climb of Port de Pailhères which is 15.1 kms long and averages 8.1 %. The stage finishes at the top of Ax3-DOMAINES which is shorter at 7.9 km but slightly steeper at an average of 8.3 %. Armstrong on the interview after today’s stage said that he fully expects T-Mobile to attack early and that he and Discovery will try to limit their losses and try to keep the gap between 30 seconds to 1 minute.

There may be other attacks from riders such as Mikael Rasmussen and Ivan Basso. Each of these riders is not far back and they need to make a move now to challenge Lance and the Discos. Discovery will be hurting a bit from the loss of Triki Beltran. What difference that makes will be seen tomorrow, but it certainly doesnt help when you have all of the challengers ready to attack. Can the Discos launch Lance to the top of Ax3 just like they did at Courchevel? or will they crack like they did back on stage 8 into Gérardmer? It will be fun to watch and I will be heading out to the local movie theatre to watch the Tour LIVE and LOUD. I hope OLN doesn’t show the same feed as is on the TV. I don’t want to see the commercials on the big screen too. I could just go out and buy a huge plasma for that.

Today’s stage was another big win for Robbie McEwen. It brings him just a bit closer to getting the green jersey. I was really pulling for Chris Horner in the closing seconds of the stage. He and Sylvain Chavanel looked like they were about to sprint for the win as they were swarmed by the chasing field sprint.

Horner was forcing Chavanel to do the pulling for the last few hundred meters so he could be in a good position to sprint. Chris was caught in between, as starting the sprint early would mean getting beat by Chavnel. In the end Horner was able to extend his day long break to just before the finish line.

Hopefully he will not be too tired from his break today and be able to stick with the big names tomorrow. If he has the energy, Horner could get into another break that could get enought time while the GC guys battle it out. Hope Chris gets his stage win soon.