Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

(pic from Yahoo! News)

Another exciting Paris-Nice is in the books. This one was particularly eventful with several lead changes and a dramatic last day stage win that sealed the overall victory by the latest “Next Indurain” of the Spanish peloton. In fact Paris-Nice saw two potential “Next Indurains” with Luis Leon Sanchez getting the moniker after his stage 6 win where he duped his former teammate Contador by going on a late attack that was ordered by his team management.

Both Sanchez and Contador came from the Liberty Seguros meltdown of 2006. Manolo Saiz must be waking up in a cold “Vega Vega Vega” for not being able to manage these two up-and-coming stars. If he only had someone else carry the bags of blood we wouldn’t be in this mess and these guys would both be riding for Saiz.

(Pic from Yahoo News)

At 36 years of age Davide Rebellin is still planning on riding for another year or two. He showed great form by holding the lead for several stages. He was only a few seconds short of winning the overall. “Tin Tin’s” team was nowhere on the final stage in Nice. The difficulty of the stage made sure that the lead group consisted of the top men in the race. None of the top GC men were interested in helping Rebellin chase down the breaks of Contador or Sanchez. In the end Rebellin put up a good fight but just could not reel in the feisty Contador. Rebellin received zero help from the breakaway group that simply sucked on his wheel. Riders such as Franck Schleck kept attacking the race leader but offered no help.

Oscar Pellizotti from Yahoo! News

Osacr Pellizotti looked like he was going to take control of Paris-Nice after a brilliant late stage attack on stage 2. Liquigas guys sure know how to time late stage attacks well as Fillippo Pozzatto timed his late attack well to win Het Volk only a few weeks ago.

David Millar on Flickr

David Millar grabbed the prologue stage win and the Yellow jersey of Paris-Nice. This marks yet another great performance by the Brit who is making his comeback from a two year drug suspension. Millars big goal has to be the Tour de France prologue which winds its way through London. This win is good practice for that event.