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Two amazing stages in the Pyrènèes! Lance and USPS have blown apart the peloton completely. Lance predicted before the tour that too many people were ignoring the significance of the Pyrènèes this year. He said it could be decisive. Considering that Jan Ullrich is now 6’39” behind Lance, Mayo is all but eliminated and Tyler Hamilton is out of the race now, I think he understated it a touch. The biggest surprise was the abandon of Tyler, especially after riding last year with a broken collarbone, but then doing hills with a bad back (from his involvement in one of the early stage crashes) would be exceedingly painful. Ivan Basso now looks like Lance’s biggest competition after matching Lance’s climbs both yesterday and today. While I am glad that Armstrong was able to put time into Ullrich, I do feel bad for Jan – especially as he will probably give up the leader position on his team now to Andrèas Klöden who is only about 3 minutes behind Lance.
To see Voeckler finish in the yellow again was amazing. He is undoubtedly the hero of French cycling and even France right now. He has earned it for sure. He will probably be able to keep it at the end of tomorrow’s stage as well. He showed a lot of heart in those mountains. My son cheered him across the line as much as we cheered for Armstrong’s win.
The Texas family contingent concurs! Watching the race after coffee at the Java Ranch is a regular morning requirement at 8 a.m. The mountains have sure changed what had otherwise been a fairly boring race, except for the huge number of crashes during the first 10 stages.
Watching the crowds this morning, I fear for Lance, as well as the other bicycle riders at the front. People seem oblivious to the safety concerns of the riders, jumping in front of them, pushing and patting them, waving flags immediately in front of them, getting out of their way at barely the last second, etc. I can only remember too well Lance going down last year after his handlebar snagged a young boys plastic sack – pictures of that occurrence being played frequently each day on OLN. I only wish the road fans had it played in front of them each day so that they would be more careful!!!!
So true! To some degree, the riders like the fans closeness, but over the past few years it seems more fans are pushing the boundry of what is tolerable on the mountains. I was glad to see a TDF motorcyle crew (I couldn’t tell if it was aphotographer/video team or one of the officials, but it didn’t look like a Gendarme) pushing a couple of fans out of the road and into the sidelines with their motorcyles.