The Tour left Germany today and re-entered France, ending with a photo-finish between Pieter Weening and Andreas Klöden (Weening won the stage by a hair). The overall standings changed a bit, and although Lance is still in yellow, he didn't have a super day. In fact, he told French TV's Jean-Rene Godard in a post-race interview that it was a "shitty day". After the race, Lance told the press, "Clearly the team was not really on today and I wasn't feeling really good either, and the other teams did feel good. With situations like (today), it'll be hard to win the Tour, day in and day out. So now we have to evaluate where we are and make some adjustments. I don't know. Perhaps we've been a little too active in the race, worked a little too much, maybe the guys are tired. I can't really comment without actually sitting down with them and saying 'what's wrong with you, how did you feel, what's your problem, was it your legs, was it the rhythm? It's a strange climb too; it's a long climb but not very steep, so you can keep 30, 40, 50 guys there and they can take shots at you from the back. It's hard to follow those. Definitely was isolated, definitely was suffering... I have an idea of what to do in the next week. Not a great situation to be alone on a climb like that, with a fast downhill, it's difficult for my teammates to come back. I think we had a bad day; we have to go home and evaluate where we are and where the others are. We can't cry over spilt milk. There's a long way to go, but not a good start for us today, and I think definitely a good start for some others. We held on to the jersey, but I think there's some bruised egos on our team tonight." Personally, I think it's a bluff by the entire Discovery team. Today's finish wasn't too critical, as the final climb was followed immediately by a 15km descent. But by holding back a bit on an easier finish like today's, Lance and the rest of his team created a tempting situation for Vinokourov, Ullrich and the other competitors, so it became a bit of a test for them. Who among Lance's competitors was feeling strong? Who felt like they ccould take advantage of Lance's "weakness"? As it turns out, it was Vino who tried to capitalize on the moment. Vino's efforts amounted to nothing, as Lance responded immediately, but Ullrich did nothing on his own to threaten Lance, nor did the other big GC riders. Lance was able to finish the stage with the same time as his main competitors, but he gained a little bit of insider knowledge into how they're feeling. Specifically, how Vino is feeling, as he is the only rider who really played with the opportunity today. Whether or not Lance and co. were in fact bluffing, Vinokourov told reporters after the stage, "We really tested his legs, and we saw that he is in pretty good form, but that his team is not. Even though this is hard to judge in a medium mountain, it's good for morale. It's a good sign. We wanted to attack him before the high mountains. We didn't want to wait." |
