Frank Schleck has a bunch of contenders breathing down his neck for the Tour title. Austrian Bernhard Kohl is a surprise revelation that is only seven seconds off pace and could swipe the Yellow Jersey off Schleck’s shoulders by Wednesday night. Team CSC is definitely the strongest team in the race with Jens Voight and Fabian Cancellara doing massive amounts of work at the front of the group. Add Andy Schleck who just jumped into the Best Young Riders jersey and Carlos Sastre and other contenders should worry.

Denis Menchov lost some time today, but could still gain it back. Menchov lost a good deal of time in the scary descent into Jausiers coming down from 9,000 ft. of elevation. Vande Velde also lost time after trying to chase back from getting dropped and trailing by 35 seconds. Vande Velde crashed on the descent and came in 2:30 back losing major chunks of time. Not all hope is lost since tomorrow’s queen stage to L’Alpe D’Huexz could break things open.

Schleck so far seems to be in the driver’s seat. He won on L’Alpe D’Huez before, he has the strongest team that can work over the competition in the climbs leading up to the final. Other teammates are contenders so he could have Sastre attack and force others to follow. It is Schleck’s Tour to lose.

Bernhard Kohl has nothing to lose. He looks like he is barely hanging on sometimes but still seem to be there at the end. He could stick to Schleck’s wheel like glue and maybe even grab the Yellow tomorrow. Evans can simply ride Schleck’s wheel too and wait until the TT to overhaul him and take the lead. This is not exciting racing, and Evans has shown weakness at Prato Nevoso when the pace picked up. Schleck would need some time over Evans to be safe in the Yellow.

Menchov could gain the time lost tomorrow. The Russian has had bad luck wiping out at Prato Nevoso as he launched an attack then losing time today going into Jausiers. Things have not gone the way Menchov would like. But he can attack on the climbs and gain time and then gain more time on Schleck in the TT. So Menchov is the top threat to Schleck over all others.

Don’t overlook the desparation of Vande Velde who now has a little time to make up. He could try something to gain back time or simply wait and see who gets dropped and slide into a podium spot.

Anyway it is anyone’s guess who of the top six guys will be in Yellow by Sunday Night in Paris. This is the most open Tour in recent memory and is fun to watch.

Ahh, the Vuelta is sometimes the place of redemption. A cyclist having a bad year can go to the last Grand Tour and make a season positive. Denis Menchov is trying to help Rabobank forget about Micheal Rasmussen and Roberto Heras. Menchov looks like he is bulding a healthy lead in the Vuelta and could win it and savor his podium unlike a few years ago when he received the Amarillo jersey after Heras lost it due to doping.

Now, the best part of cycling is also back. Carlos Sastre is not too happy with the cozy situation between Denis Menchov and little Italian climber leonardo Piepoli. The two used to be teammates on the Banesto team. It seems like they are still wearing the same jersey by the way they worked together in the tough mountain stage. Carlos Sastre is PO’d and is speaking out.

Sastre even pulled a “Lance” type move by acting as if he was in trouble to see what Piepoli and Menchov would do.

“I played a little theater today to see if what I was thinking was true,” Sastre continued. “Piepoli straight away attacked the group. That proves that alliances are at work here.”

Piepoli, who finished seventh in the eight-up sprint won by Menchov, calmly denied he was blatantly working for Menchov.

“The comments by Sastre are overblown and came at the heat of the moment after finishing the stage,” Piepoli said. “All I did was ride my own race. I was the only rider who attacked up until 4km from the finish.”

Piepoli’s tactics could be mistaken as working for Menchov. However, look at Piepoli’s riding style and his performance at the Giro. The man wins climbing stages because he is a climber. He won the stage and the only way he could do it was to keep a high pace and keep everyone from attacking. It seems that Piepoli’s tactics meshed well with Menchov’s but that is simply fortunate for Menchov. Piepoli is always at the front going for stage wins, what else would he do?

Cycling is getting fun again, it is refreshing to talk about team tactics and polemics rather than lost sponsorships and positive dope tests.

Velonews article

The Tour de France finally had a major shake up that revealed the top contenders for the Maiilot Jaune. The top guys included Floyd Landis who is now in Yellow, Denis Menchov and Levi Leipheimer. The first major mountain stage provided some surprises as T-Mobile collpased after a very dominant first week of good results and a spell in Yellow. Andreas Kloden let his legs do the talking, but all they could do was whisper as Klodi was shot off the back of the lead group. Cadel Evans and Carlos Sastre performed well, but could not match the accelarations of Menchov, Landis and Leipheimer.

Here are some random Larry King style comments:

So American viewers not get two for the price of one. Armstrong is retired, but we get Leipheimer and Landis as two of the three top riders.

Rabobank have lots of confidence in Menchov, so much so that Rasmussen is not going for the Polka Dots this year and being a super-domestic. His climbing form must not be that great since he did most of the flat and lower slopes pulling while Boogerd pulled on the final climb.

Boogerd is in the best form of his career as he almost latched back onto the lead group after pulling everyone up the climb.

Where is the killer instinct? Landis seemed to want to bid his time and got the Yellow jersey somewhat reluctantly. His Phonak team will have to work for the next few undulating days. They will probably be keen enough to let a break go down the road as has been the MO of the peloton in the past few days.

Landis is sitting pretty in yellow, bad hip and all, but his Phonak team was not nearly as strong as Rabobank who look very formidable. Not only did they have Flecha in a break all day, but Skeltor Rasmussen did some major pulls while “Best smile in the peloton” Boogerd was better than most of the contenders for Yellow.