Vino is Back, Cadel Gets Stronger, and Rasmussen Keeps Lead
The big story today is the resurgence of Alexander Vinokourov. He started the day over 8 minutes behind the leader of the race but was able to make up some serious time in today’s time trial. He finished 1 minute and 14 seconds ahead of the second fastest rider. Vino is still over 5 minutes back, so he will need to launch an attack in the mountains and follow it up with another good time trial in order to win the race.
We all were expecting the time trial to sort out who the real contenders are. That is exactly what happened. Cadel Evans proved that he is in good form and ready to contend for the yellow jersey. He had the second fastest time trial and now sits in second place overall. He will need to ride hard in the mountains because the final time trail is better suited to other types of riders.
Riders that didn’t change position much were Disco boys, Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador. Both riders were strong today, but didn’t make any serious time on Cadel Evans. On the poor side of riding was Alejandro Valverde. He had a horrible time trial and now sits in 11th place, almost 6 minutes off the lead.
Michael Rasmussen was impressive by his standards in today’s time trial. He was fast enough to keep his yellow jersey as the peloton enters the Pyrenees. He didn’t even crash one time. He has been among the worst time trialers in the world, but today he rode like a real Tour contender. If he wants to win the race, he will have to attack in the mountains to build up another 3-4 minute lead. He will need a lead that big to hold off the remaining contenders in the last time trial next week.
Leave a Reply