addicted2wheels

A blog about bikes, bike racing and physiological research.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Stage 12 - Le Tour 2006 - Discovery bounce back

After yesterday's mountains the bunch needed a rest, but it didn't happen. A route of rolling hills proved tempting to the escape artists and numerous early attacks were closed down. The final, successful move really only came about when the peleton chose to slow and allow riders a 'comfort stop' beside the road - something that happens every day but today fortuitously occurred when Oscar Freire was in the break. McEwen couldn't allow Freire to get all the sprint points so he chased, drawing the ire of many. However McEwen alone couldn't bridge the gap and he succumbed to the will of the many, allowing the break to go.

As it turned out it was Popovych who took full advantage, winning the stage, gaining time back and bringing himself back to the top 10 on GC. With 20 minutes left to run Freire was either exhausted or had done a deal with Popovych or perhaps Ballan to let them have the final points and the stage win... Freire neither contesting the Discovery rider's break nor the final sprint for 2nd. Freire had picked up some intermediate points, so he may have been satisfied... or tired... in any case he clearly didn't want to help Ballan chase Popoyvych. They exchanged words and started working together but for 2nd and 3rd. Popyvych profited - deservedly so after a long break and 3 or 4 savage attacks on his companions in the break. Ballan tried to get away by countering Popovych - dropping the Disco rider at one point - but Oscar was mysteriously uninvolved when it mattered and satisfied to sit on Ballan's wheel. It was a long hot day after all.

Boonen won the bunch kick but McEwen retained green. The GC lead is unaltered bar Popovych dragging himself up to 10th. It was a big gain and gives a boost to Discovery's chances. Landis will want to limit further moves tomorrow and retain his lead into the Alps, where the mountain action will recommence. Landis and Phonak look strong but one bad day could see Menchov, Evans, Sastre, Leipheimer or even Popovych pounce and grab both a stage win and a big time gain. It's still wide open. Rabo and T-Mobile kept out of trouble today. Expect them to do the same on tomorrow's long stage before resuming the battle in the mountains.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home

blog comments powered by Disqus

-->

These posts represent my opinions only and may have little or no association with the facts as you see them. Look elsewhere, think, make up your own minds. If I quote someone else I attribute. If I recommend a web site it's because I use it myself. If an advert appears it's because I affiliate with Google and others similar in nature and usually means nothing more than that... the Internet is a wild and untamed place folks, so please tread warily. My opinions are just that and do not constitute advice or legal opinion of any sort.
All original material is copyright 2008 by myself, too, in accord with the Creative Commons licence (see below).



QuickLinks: Addicted2Wheels Autoexpo 2000 GTVeloce Automotive Gallery GTVeloce.com GTVeloce Image Library Fort Street High School Class of 75 All purpose Chatroom Userplane Chat Fortian Image Gallery 1975 Flora Gallery Miscellaneous Image Gallery Bike Racing Gallery Airliner Gallery Airline Postcard Gallery Gerry's Gallery GTVeloce rave on Alfa Romeos Alfa Gallery Automotive How-to Index Staying Alive Handling 101 Handling 102 Handling 103 Tyrepressures Camber Toe Caster Polar Moment Roll Oversteer Understeer Weight transfer Coil springs Wheels and Tyres Pitch Heel and Toe Double Declutch Offset Rollbars BMEP calculator Cornering load calculator GTVeloce Blog Offline Blog Out Out Damned Blog Addicted2Wheels Blog The Spiel on business MBA Resources HR Resources KM Reframed Bike Racing forum KlausenRussell Com-munity Chain Chatter Unofficial RBCC info Official RBCC info Unofficial CCCC info Official CCCC info Rob's Guide to Road, Crit and Track Racing Rob's Guide, part 2 Track race tips Sydney's Velodromes What do those lines mean? Automobile links Mustknow links Philosophy links Music Links Images of the Russell, Matthews, O'Brien and Brown families in Australia Rob's Amateur Art Gallery The GTVeloce GiftShop The GTVeloce Shopfront Rob Russell's images at Image Tank



Creative Commons License