[leilani]

Ciao yall & ping for the Tour de France’s Stage 15 from Embrun to Prato-Nevoso. We’re going to Italy today!

[luv2ski]

What a stage today! WOW! I Tivo’d it fortunately b/c it went on for hours! The attacks at the end were crazy! I have to admit that when they reminded us of who is on CSC this year, I was amazed. They are like the Yankees! Both Schlecks, Sastre, Voigt, Popovich, and more! Good grief! No wonder they finally wore down Evans today.
BTW, Andy was an animal in support of his brother today. You've got to love that!
Bring on the Alps!!

[BaBaStooey]

Would someone please ‘splain me how AG2R is second in the team classification, and not only are they second, but only 3 and a half minutes down on mighty CSC?

Now, please don’t explain to me how the team classification works. I know how it works. The top 3 riders from each team, each day, count towards the time total. What boggles me is that of all the teams in the race, the one that is second behind CSC is crappy little French team AG2R. I bet that if I polled the FR cycling posse and asked them who was in second, I’d get someone to suggest Rabobank, Lotto, or perhaps even Garmin or Columbia, but no one would say AG2R.

The team classification is significant, because it determines the order of the team cars each day. So, if you are an overall contender and you blow a wheel, it would suck if your car, was say...8th in line.

So here is the list of the team classification through Stage 15.
1. TEAM CSC SAXO BANK 191h 43’ 49”
2. AG2R-LA MONDIALE 191h 47’ 21” + 03’ 32”
3. RABOBANK 192h 12’ 02” + 28’ 13”
4. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 192h 16’ 54” + 33’ 05”
5. LAMPRE 192h 19’ 28” + 35’ 39”
6. GEROLSTEINER 192h 19’ 39” + 35’ 50”
7. CREDIT AGRICOLE 192h 26’ 37” + 42’ 48”
8. SILENCE - LOTTO 192h 33’ 24” + 49’ 35”
9. CAISSE D’EPARGNE 192h 35’ 36” + 51’ 47”
10. LIQUIGAS 192h 41’ 23” + 57’ 34”
11. TEAM COLUMBIA 192h 41’ 51” + 58’ 02”
12. COFIDIS CREDIT PAR TELEPHONE 192h 52’ 32” + 1h 08’ 43”
13. GARMIN CHIPOTLE 192h 58’ 53” + 1h 15’ 04”
14. FRANCAISE DES JEUX 193h 02’ 36” + 1h 18’ 47”
15. BOUYGUES TELECOM 193h 09’ 21” + 1h 25’ 32”
16. TEAM MILRAM 193h 18’ 42” + 1h 34’ 53”
17. BARLOWORLD 193h 29’ 52” + 1h 46’ 03”
18. QUICK STEP 193h 30’ 14” + 1h 46’ 25”
19. AGRITUBEL 194h 04’ 26” + 2h 20’ 37”

So I guess it pays to have someone in the break today, but Garmin and Credit Agricole had guys in the break too, and they aren’t in the top 3 on this list..hmm.

If AG2R management had any brains at all, they would get our hero CEREAL into the break tomorrow. He is 34 minutes down, they will let him go! Hopefully in a 10+ minute breakaway with some random Agritubel guy, just like in 2006. Then Efimkin and Goubert will limit their losses behind the yellow jersey group. AG2R needs to keep flying under the radar, so they can steal the team classification away from mighty CSC! Vive le Tour!