Posted on 07/02/2010 11:30:15 AM PDT by Ready4Freddy
Sorry, I misunderstood; thought you were talking about this Stage in particular.
Those initial stages were never meant to be difficult, but the weather had other ideas. All those crashes have cast a pall on the first week. I suspect that there will be a few more withdrawals once riders realize that their wounds aren’t healing fast enough.
Riders are on the final climb
PIneau has attacked and shed Hondo on the lower levels of the climb. and Chevenal has attacked out of the Voeckler group - I think he smells Yellow.
Here's where they are headed:
Love your comments commish, I have dialup and don’t have cable, keep it up : )
Andy Schleck and Lance have moved to the front of the Peleton. Cadel Evans follows George Hincapie onto their wheel. Contador is a little farther back in the middle of his Astana riders.
The worse part of the Tour may be having to watch all the ads and segments of the The Daily Line. “A sports show that isn’t uptight.” Barf.
A lot of riders are cracking and falling well of the back. heat and mountains are really taking their toll.
Pineau is 19 seconds clear of Chavenal. Chavenal is almost a minute ahead of the Voeckler group, and then another 1:30 back from them to the Peleton.
Chavenal is now in “virtual” yellow as Cancellara continues to struggle.
No attacks from the Peleton yet. Schleck, Armstrong, Evans, Contador all riding side by side and watching each other.
The real GC contenders are not concerned about Chavanel, nor should they be.
16:59 - Peloton at 3’20”
The peloton 3’20” behind Pineau and is being led by Hincapie and O’Grady.
16:57 - Chavanel 35” Behind Pineau
Pineau leads the stage by 35” (to Chavanel), and then comes the group of Cunego, Lloyd et al at 50”. There are a number of riders between these groups and the peloton, including Gerdemann (MRM) and Sivtsov (THR) who attacked the bunch near the top of the fifth climb.
16:56 - Quickstep First & Second...
Chavanel has raced passed Hondo who is now waiting for Cunego. There are two Quickstep riders in first and second as they begin the final climb of stage seven.
16:55 - Chavanel Leaves His Escape Companions Behind
Chavanel is now being pursued by Cunego. Hondo, meanwhile, is waiting for Cunego.
Pineau has cracked. Slowed way down, Chevenal flys by him. Voeckler attacks out of the chase group.
Pineau is done, the chase group has blown by him now.
lol, good point, Vision. If I have to hear another RoadID ad I’m gonna puke.
So what’s a bazooka?
Kloden dropped, RSH having to leave him behind. That’s surprising.
LOL! That's why I record it now. Remember back in the day when Versus was called OLN and only had about 3 TdF sponsors? They played the same ads over and over and over. I thought if I saw that energy bar ad where the woman runs into the tree one more time, I'd scream!
Andreas Kloden has surprisingly fallen off the back. Not sure if he is struggling or if RS is having him save it for tomorrow to help Armstrong
They had to stop that ad, luvvy; the lady finally got a serious concussion. ;>)
Dunno, whatsa bazooka wit you?
I remember.
17:08 - Contador Following Armstrong
Contador is shadowing Armstrong up the final climb. The American is in the saddle while the Spaniard is dancing on the pedals. Thomas (SKY) has just been dropped by this group.
17:07 - 12km To Go
There are about 12km to go in the stage and the peloton is currently on the steepest part of the final ascent. The Astana chase has reeled in the likes of Sivstov and Gerdemann who had been on the attack. Armstrong is setting behind Van den Broeck who is following the Astana pair.
17:05 - Peloton Led By Two Astana Riders
The peloton is currently being led by two riders from the Astana team. There have been no attacks from the big favorites and Kloden has just been dropped by the main pack.
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