Chicken vs. Contador, Could it Come Down To Paris?
Down to Two
Barring anything crazy, the Tour de France is down to two contenders. Just two days ago there were 5-10 guys that could have contended for the title, but now there are only two. Today’s stage made me think back to some of the battles between Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich. It came down to Contador attacking Rasmussen, but unlike Ullrich, Rasmussen never cracked. Contador attacked and attacked and attacked. At one point it looked like he would be able to pull away, but the chicken pulled his way back up to his rival. The second, and final, rest day is tomorrow followed by one more day in the Pyrenees. Contador is still over 2 minutes down, so he will need to pick up some more time before the final time trial.
It’s Time to Take Everyone Seriously
I think the past two year’s Tour illustrate a point that cannot be ignored. I hope that the team directors are paying attention. Last year Oscar Pereiro was allowed to take off and gain over 30 minutes on the field. It all seemed like good tactics until the Floyd Landis cracked and forced himself to do superhuman riding to get back into the lead. This year the teams let Michael Rasmussen go, thinking he was just after the king of the mountains title. That now leaves Alberto Contador to do some superhuman riding of his own to try to steal the yellow jersey away from Rasmussen. Rasmussen is not the strongest all-around rider in the race, and it is discouraging that he is in contention just because team directors didn’t defend their place in the race. Mr. Bruyneel….you don’t have Lance Armstrong anymore. Everyone is capable of beating your guys, if you let them.
A Race in Paris?
The way it stands now, Contador is 2′23″ behind Rasmussen. Take a hypothetical trip with me for a second. Imagine that Wednesday in the Pyrynees, Contador leads Rasmussen over the finish line and picks up a few bonus seconds. that would put the time difference right around 2 minutes. Then, if Contador beats Rasmussen on the final time trial by 1 minute, there would only be a minute separating the two. We might have the first race down the Champs E’Lysee’s in a very long time. The first time in my lifetime for sure. I thought that Lemond winning in the final time trial was exiting. Just imagine a race through the streets of Paris.
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