Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

Although Sunday’s stage victory by George Hincapie was a popular victory, there was one man who was upset.

Oscar Perriero was upset by Hincapie sucking his wheel for a bit longer than necessary to take the victory. Hey, that’s bike racing. Oscar came back and got into the right breakway to win his stage.

The last mountain stage of the Tour says goodbye to the Pyrenees with a final climb up the Col D’Aubisque. The usual breakaway developed and the Yellow Jersey group propelled by Discovery Channel kept the gap to a reasonable limit. The main contenders all stuck together despite some attacks by Vinokourov and Ullrich. Ullrich is trying everything he can to drop Rasmussen and leap frog him to get on the podium.

Jan may have to wait for the St. Etienne Time Trial this saturday where he can gain some significant time on the lanky climber.

The Tour organizers did a great job with this past weekend’s stages but left some scraps for this week. Lance’s Discovery Team can simply let a break go and limit the time they gain and coast along. Tomorrow will probably be a sprint stage controlled by Davitamon and possible Credit Agricole and Cofidis who all have men gunning for the Green Jersey.

It would be nice if the Tour could evenly disperse the climbing and not clump everything in the middle of the Tour. It seems that Lance has the Yellow Jersey locked up as the next stages do not provide the terrain to attack Armstrong effectively.

Oh how I miss the Giro and the action packed stages. Yes, the Tour is the big daddy of them all, but it could take a cue from the Giro this year and mix things up. Let’s have a Finestre type climb on the final Saturday before Paris and not the typical Time Trial. Let’s have some rolling stages or even a mountain stage in the first week and not the typical flat stages that always go to sprinters.

Congratulations to Lance and Discovery, this is a special moment in history as Lance gets his seventh victory and rides off into the sunset. Let’s hope that the Tour organizers give us a mixed and action packed course so that riders like Valverde, Cunego, Basso, Vino and all of the new generation of riders can duke it out in a closely contested battle that lasts until the last day.