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After stage 13, Pereiro is in 14th place, about 7 minutes off the pace, which means he's almost but not quite out of contention for the yellow jersey. Rasmussen was impressive today, his best ever time trial kept him in the lead by one minute. He actually overtook Valverde in the TT, which would have been unthinkable prior to today. Valverde and Mayo and Moreau were today's big losers.

Despite Vino's big win today, he is still somewhat off the pace with several big names in front of him, including two teammates. At some point will Astana have to align themselves behind Kloden rather than Vino? And will Disco have to work for Contador rather than Leipheimer?

Evans looked great, but I'm not sure he has the team around him to win. Astana and Discovery are both looking strong.

My question about Vino and Rasmussen is will they suffer in the mountains tomorrow because of their yeoman efforts today. VeloNews is also reporting doping allegations against Rasmussen from a former American cyclist who was buddies with the Chicken a few years ago. The story seemed credible to me, and was corroborated by a second man.

The good news is that the Tour is still wide open past the half-way mark. Based on how things stand now, Kloden looks to me like the man to beat - good position, veteran, strong team. Tomorrow will be very interesting.

I believe the allegations are from 2001.

I do find it funny that allegations attack the wearer of the Yellow Jersey so often. 2001 Blood doping? Why now. Missed/wrong fill in of location schedule and dropped from the national team? Again, Why now. The TdF director thought the timing on that last one was a little odd.

Last year Floyd L tests positive on one day only for something that should be in his system for a number of days. Here today, gone tomorrow?

Is a racing tiff between the European race organization (don’t remember it’s title) and the Tour de France organizers broken out into open warfare?

IMO, Vino will still be strong tomorrow. He is clawing his way back into this race and is charged up after today’s performance. Rasmussen, though is known for having a let down after a big effort. It was thought that he escaped that let down this year b/c the day after his stage win was a rest day.